Re: The first rule of ________ RPoL games
In reply to Taurarius (msg # 43):
A good summary. I would only add this by way of clarification...
As a GM, be aware that your 'common sense' idea could COMPLETELY elude your players...(A friend of mine ran a MSH game...X-Men oriented...he was so immersively versed in the Marvel Universe that he was incredibly frustrated that we--the players--couldn't figure out ways to beat villains that he thought were pretty standard. Problem is, he'd been reading Marvel since he was old enough to read...most of the rest of us had only read about a year or two worth of X-Men comics, and that was only because he said he wanted to run an X-Men game and we all wanted at least SOME background knowledge...) Also, be aware that the direction you want to take the game may not be the same direction the players intend to go with it. At some point, either the game needs to go in those players' direction (or they'll get bored and leave), or the GM needs to assert that the game will be run his way (and run the risk of players 'jumping ship'). (I'm in a game right now with a very 'pulp fiction', early 20th Century sci-fi feel, even though it's set a few centuries in the future. Several players keep trying to turn this run-and-gun, 'the heroes are always in apparent danger but never seem to get seriously hurt' game into a gritty, tactical, simulation game, right down to a guy suggesting armaments and using Palladium stats to describe the damage effects, and another guy citing options from a GURPS sourcebook. And it's caused a lot of frustration on both sides...but the GM has yet to make a definitive, 'No, I'm not ever going to let this game go that way' statement (even though those of us who've been playing longer recognize the stance from the tone of his equivocation), and the players in question somehow figure that, maybe, even though the GM has said fifteen times already, "No, you can't build something like that with the resources available to your character," maybe if they ask ONE MORE TIME, he'll cave in and they can make the UBER-KILLER GUN that would hypothetically totally shift the balance of power in the game and win the war in five easy steps...
From the player's side, be aware that even though you may be comfortable and competent playing a specific character concept, that concept may not fit in with what the GM has in mind (like the Robotech game I'm in where the characters are all supposed to be front-line combat troops and Earth has only just barely developed robotechnology...but we had a whole series of people want to join the game as VERY experienced Veritech pilots that had an extensive background in robotech R&D. In a different game, that concept works great...in this game? If you're THAT good at design and engineering, they're going to have you BUILDING the planes, not flying them.) If you want to suggest something exotic and unlikely, go ahead...but know that doing so increases the chances that a GM is going to say, "Nah...that really doesn't fit." Not every GM is looking to build a menagerie of eccentric characters, no matter how cool the players of those characters could make them. If you suggest something exotic, and the GM says no, don't take it personally. You want to play a different game than the GM does, and it's best for both of you to get that clear from the start. There are plenty of GMs who DO like really exotic character ideas...