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RPGs / How much is too much?

« on: July 29, 2009, 03:11:52 AM »

I'm about to run a Vampire: The Requiem game using the Requiem for Rome setting. Naturally, this means I have a whole universe of research available on Ancient Rome. What I want to know, my fellow GMs, is how much research is too much? When do you stop photocopying sections about Gallic dress styles and the Roman public education system and just wing it? On the one hand, this shit is downright fascinating, but I've done this all long enough to know that too much material just makes your head spin and most of the time the players don't give a shit either way as long as the story's interesting.

Especially those of you who've done more sandbox style games, what major points do you hit on in terms of fleshing out a place or a culture that come in most handy? Is having random factoids you can summon up at a moment's notice a good thing that both informs and enhances gameplay (oh shit, edutainment!) or in the end does it really just become too much of a pain in the ass trying to achieve authenticity that the game just falls apart under its own weight? I know a compromise between the two is best, but I was wondering if I should lean more one way or the other.

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Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Dirk Daring Appreciation Thread

« on: April 02, 2009, 01:19:26 AM »

I just want to take this opportunity to single out one of the heroes of roleplaying lore; Dirk Daring. There is a constant criticism about DMPCs stealing the spotlight from the PCs, but I find that criticism to be fueled almost completely by the petty jealousies of simple people. Whenever the PCs having trouble in an encounter, who do they turn to? Dirk Daring. When the puzzle is too hard to solve, who solves it? Dirk Daring. When an NPC refuses to give up some crucial piece of info, who gets them to finally crack? Dirk Daring. Instead of complaining that the game has 'devolved into a reading of the GM's self-fellating Gary Stu fanfic', I think it's about time to give credit where credit is due.

So, come on people, man up and give props to the man who saves every session. You should all notice that the Actual Play session ended in disaster because of ONE crucial mistake; Dirk Daring was absent. He could have dodged Azathoth, sure, but he would've mowed him down first with three tommy guns (one being attached to a codpiece and fired using his cock) and then shoved a stick of TNT down those stupid piping appendages before the gibbering mass even had a chance to react.