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To edit or not to edit, that is the question
When designing a campaign we all look for very different things based on personal desire and the needs of our gamers. My games tend to run as a mix of Epic Story, Splatterpunk, High Romance, and Cthulhu Horror - all set in a Sci Fi setting.
* The biggest problem I run into is that some of my players, while great players, are terrible writers or worse lazy writers. I am curious to hear how other Narrators deal with poor writing ability of their team. Do you edit their work? Perhaps paraphrase it? something else? I would love to know.
* The second problem we have had over the years is that our campaigns are always a huge sandbox with very official adventures. What do you do when running a sandbox and the Alphas of your team fail to show for a game session? You are left with a couple of players that do not know how to take charge and push the story forward. I hate to always have to create something for them to do. I would love it if they had goals or desire to see the universe on their own. Any suggestions?
-Steve
"Star Trek Late Night":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/star-trek-late-night
* The biggest problem I run into is that some of my players, while great players, are terrible writers or worse lazy writers. I am curious to hear how other Narrators deal with poor writing ability of their team. Do you edit their work? Perhaps paraphrase it? something else? I would love to know.
* The second problem we have had over the years is that our campaigns are always a huge sandbox with very official adventures. What do you do when running a sandbox and the Alphas of your team fail to show for a game session? You are left with a couple of players that do not know how to take charge and push the story forward. I hate to always have to create something for them to do. I would love it if they had goals or desire to see the universe on their own. Any suggestions?
-Steve
"Star Trek Late Night":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/star-trek-late-night
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I'm playing on a Skype-based game on here, and for the first few sessions I posted the log of the chat as an 'adventure log', only edited so that it didn't look like a chat log any more. For example, "Enter the Incomers.":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/gurps-the-town/adventure-log/log-1 That was the first adventure log for the entire campaign.
Now, when I post chat logs I only edit the first few sentences, to make the 'Adventure Logs' page not look all silly. For example, "Non-Euclidean Geometries,":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/gurps-the-town/adventure-log/log-8 one of our first battles with a Mythos beast.
I don't edit other player's interludes (except when it's a coding error or something like that), and neither does the actual GM of the game.
For the second:
I think you're stuck forcing your players to react, unfortunately.
As far as the second question, thats a real stickler ive run into a couple of times. If it is a sudden development, there rly is only the option of either handing them an adventure, or making them aware of something crazy enough they wont ignore it. Or have a NPC instigated encounter (and old enemy finds them and they must drop their plans to desperately try and escape or defeat their foe, who maybe manages to capture the absent players character or something, tumbling events forward)
If however you want to prepare for this ahead of time, i try to make custom tailored content based on my players and their characters, like a couple encounters that shine the spotlight and them and thrusts them into the world and makes them enemies and whatnot, something that gives their character a stake in it. Whether that be a threat to their own well-being or to something they hold dear, or perhaps just something they can't ignore, gives them some more clear goals and ambitions and helps define their character at the same time.
hope that helped ^^
--- Dan
"Avatar: Conquest of the Imperial Order":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/avatar_adventures
DM, Current Campaign: The Godlands: Rise of the Blood Moon Kings
DM, Previous Campaign: Avatar: Conquest of the Imperial Order - CotM: November 2011
For your second problem, I devised "this":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/system/wikis/what-is-the-system
Unless I know for a fact that the primary plot drivers of my game will be absent for a two-or-more week period, I would rather play another game altogether than try to monkey around with things in the ongoing campaign and potentially let one-or-more cats out of their respective bags, so to speak.
The logs: We rotate who does the "official" log among the 6 players. I have yet to have only one log written for a session. I do edit each log for spelling & grammar (unless the player wants the grammar to bad, like my Wolfen character). I also code most of them, although 2 players do their own (with an extra xp award). Usually logs count for approx 1/4 the total avg xp, so players want to do it. Here is the latest example of a "log":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/a-god-rebuilt/adventure-log/the-waking-nightmare
The second problem I have dealt with 2 ways- 1 is an attendance "requirement":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/a-god-rebuilt/wikis/attendance and the 2nd is also part of the attendance- an absent player has another player take over the character, getting 1/2 the xp from the "taken over" pc plus their own. It has worked wonders! Some of the epic encounters, such as 2 PC's chasing away a dragon! has occurred when 1 player was playing 2.
I also run a skype game, and we all love it.
killervp
"A God...Rebuilt":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/a-god-rebuilt
Duskreign's "COTM for November":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/wyrmshadow/wiki_pages/112011
Just trying to help out.
Also, id like to note i recently added Duskreign, Killervp, and StephenWollet to my acknowledgments. You three have all inspired me with your amazing campaigns to continue working on my own!
And i think i can speak for most people on OP when i say i agree with Duskreign in supporting A God... Rebuilt for CotM. Nobody deserves it more! (including myself ;D although i hope to get the nod soon after you) and regardless of the official title, the community has shown their massive support for you and your campaign and are behind you all the way!
DM, Current Campaign: The Godlands: Rise of the Blood Moon Kings
DM, Previous Campaign: Avatar: Conquest of the Imperial Order - CotM: November 2011
As for the Acknowledgements, thank-you. You and this list of people you say inspired you are the very same people that have inspired me to work so hard getting this campaign up on OP. I wish I had OP years ago when I got started. We have had dozens of killer campaigns that I would have loved to share.
If A God Rebuilt doesnt get COM soon, I will be very dissapointed. KillerVP was the first campaign I became enamored with on OP and I have been following since the day I joined.
I think, personally, that TW's campaign is more deserving than my own, but thanks! I am honored by the number of fans, the comments, and Duskreign naming me his COTM for November. That honor truly touched me.
I have a group that is literally all across the nation, and even into Canada. Many of us have never met, and some are more active than others, but taking over a PC when the player is gone has another benefit- it helps the players get to know the other PCs better, and encourages more team play. You learn that the mage has this spell and combined with my attack it does x... I really encourage it. I have 1 PC out for tomorrow's session, and the players are excited about it...
killervp
"A God...Rebuilt":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/a-god-rebuilt
Duskreign's "COTM for November":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/wyrmshadow/wiki_pages/112011
Just trying to help out.
* If you're desperately trying to make your OP look good for the community and the person in question's character isn't supposed to be writing like a stupid I say edit it. If they're actively reading your OP, though, you may want to simply ask them if it's okay if you edit their contributions. Some people get grumpy if you edit too much of their work. Most people won't complain about fixing spelling and grammatical errors, though.
* For me, personally, I don't play if we're already rolling hard and there aren't at least three people to show up (this weekend, for instance, I'm losing two players out of five). When it comes to a leadership role missing, it can be good to say before you play "Okay all. We're missing our leader so I need someone to step up to the plate and make decisions in a timely manner." If the people involved simply cannot accomplish this, it's probably best to cancel the game for that week unless you're really good at coming up with meaningless shit for your characters to do. Playing a card game or pub game is a good way to accomplish this. If you're running a Star Trek campaign, come up with some rules for in-game Dabo or something else from "here":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_in_Star_Trek.
Example: The hyperdrive breaks down and you're stuck at impulse until you can get a part that can't be replicated. You send out a general distress call and the closest ship is a few hours away, giving you enough time to say "Well, we're stuck. Let's play some Dom-jot."
Of course this may only work a handfull of times, but you get the general idea.
If you are going to continue the game without players present, it's also a good idea to decide how XP will work. Will the absent players receive XP if they're missing? Is this fair for the players who showed up? I usually run a middle ground and weigh their reason of absence against whether or not they get XP. If they have to work late, kid is sick, death in the family, something of that nature: I'll usually let them receive XP. If they called off simply because they "didn't feel like it" or "wanted to go drinking" they don't. While it may be "just a game," there is still a certain obligation to be present for the good of the rest of the party.
Tonight, one person will get XP because he's starting a new job at 6am tomorrow, the other will only get partial XP because he's having a birthday dinner with is dad, but would have the time to come join in half way if he so desired. He won't because he's a dick like that ;)