I really should have done this earlier (like, at the start of the game) but I didn't, and now I'm doing it. I think it's very important for me to write a post that lets you all know how I'm feeling about the game and address some of the issues that have cropped up over the course of all the really amazing story that we've been doing - because there are a few issues, and a lot of those issues are my responsibility, and I don't often take the time out to express how I'm feeling and what I'm doing in a way that everybody can read. So, this is me doing that! Hopefully I can show over the course of this post that I'm actually doing a lot of thinking and putting a lot of effort into making this game great for everybody, and not just in it for my own selfish reasons - and hopefully I can put some people's concerns to rest. Today I met with our Grievance Officers and they brought a lot of things to my attention, so this is me trying to put into words how I plan on dealing with those things.
So, without any further ado, let's launch into it!
1) Railroading - "I don't get to do the things that I want to do!"
So this is a thing that's been an issue in the game for a while now, and it's something that I really don't like. The DMs have a plan for the storyline and sometimes we push people towards certain story elements that we've invented - and sometimes that's fine, because our story is kinda cool and people enjoy participating in it. One of the problems that we face, however, is time limitations. There are an awful lot of you, and nearly all of you have things that you want to do. Occasionally when pressed for time, I've been forced to make some snap decisions that have screwed people out of really cool plans that they've had - and sometimes that's been really unfortunate. One of my biggest regrets is the way that Senestre's death was handled in the Blood Hunt - we had to rush towards the end of that and he didn't get as much of a chance to show off his creativity as much as he should have. Another regret of mine is Marija's situation - lots of people had plans to deal with her, and in an effort to resolve that situation as quickly as possible, we skimmed over a lot of people's really creative plans to get a resolution.
That's bad. I didn't like that. If I could do it again differently, I would.
What I (and the DM team) might have lost sight of a little bit over the course of the game is that our job is not to devise stories and force people to act them out. Our job is to provide hooks into a story, and then let the players muddle their way through those stories however they like. Part of the problem is that a lot of our DMs are very heavily invested in their own personal stories right now, and they don't have the time that they had before to roll with the punches and come up with fresh ways to handle player actions. This makes you guys feel like you're on traintracks, going in a direction that you have no control over - and nobody likes that. I'm going to make an effort to be better at that, and one of the ways I'm going to do that is drop my player character entirely, so that I can devote all of my game time to rolling with your ideas and letting you play out your stories, not the DM's. Another way I'm going to fix it is that the DMs have several story elements like the trip to Sydney that we're really pushing for - and we're going to stop pushing. We're going to devise a few hooks to entice you guys into the idea of going, but if your character doesn't take the bait, then the DMs will work with whatever your characters decide to do - that's our job, not forcing you into a trip that you don't want to take.
And hey, if the world falls apart around you because you missed a hook or the Antediluvians wake up somewhere, that's fine too - you gotta roll with our punches, same as we gotta roll with yours. That's what we all want - a shifting, interesting story line that's creatively controlled by all of us, not just the DM team. So that's what we're gonna try and do more from this point on. Hopefully that'll make you guys - and us, bluntly - feel a lot more comfortable about things.
2) Language - "That was rude, get f**cked."
This is actually a personal problem of mine, not really a problem across the whole group. Remember those snap decisions I mentioned I have to make? Sometimes I'm not great at delivering those decisions. Sometimes I can be blunt, or rude, or a little bit cruel. This isn't a huge problem in actual games - that I know of - but it can be a huge, huge problem on Facebook. The problem with Facebook is that sometimes it isn't clear whether I'm talking as DM or whether I'm talking as Jason - I have two different hats to wear and it can get a bit muddled as to what hat I'm wearing. When I have my DM hat on, I should be professional at all times, and sometimes I haven't been, which is bad.
In the same vein, however, when I have my DM hat on, people have to treat me with respect too. I'm doing a very difficult job and if people are accusing me of being inconsiderate or implying that I don't know what I'm doing when I have my DM hat on, that's really not on. I need a certain amount of respect and authority to actually do my job, and that has to go both ways.
"But Jason," I hear you ask. "How do I tell if you're DM Jason or friend Jason? It's so hard to tell!" Well, the solution to that is simple. We're probably going to be moving the group off Facebook soon, because Facebook is kinda terrible. We're going to have our own website with forums and things, and when we move there it will be a lot easier to tell if I'm DM Jason or friend Jason - and hopefully things won't get so confused. Another plus is that it won't muddle up character separation for you guys, too - you'll have places on the forum where you can talk in-character, and places where you can talk as yourselves. I think that'll really help solve the language problem and everybody can treat each other with professionalism and respect where it matters, and then talk smack and casually insult one another where it doesn't. Sounds good, right? I think so, anyway.
3) Grey Areas - "Jason won't want to work with me."
This is a difficult problem for me to address, but I'll do my best. There might come a time when I'm having personal issues with somebody - we're all friends most of the time, but I fully admit that sometimes I can be a difficult person to like, and there can sometimes be tension. There might come a time when you think to yourself, "I don't want to take this to Jason, he's sick about hearing about this clan and my plans, maybe I should just shut up and not take this to him." Even worse, you might think to yourself, "I'm not going to take this to Jason, he doesn't like me, it'll never get approved." The absolute worst case scenario is me thinking "God, I wish this person would bugger off, I'm so sick of listening to them blather on about this plan!" Yes, sometimes that does happen, although very, very rarely. I love all of you quite a lot (eww) and I want this environment to be one in which we're all comfortable expressing ourselves, and sometimes I'm not the right person to talk to (hopefully not often!).
I want to fix any concerns that I'm going to shelve somebody just because I'm not feeling kindly disposed to somebody, and in an effort to do that, I'm going to be a bit more obvious about bringing in other DMs to assist me on issues that I find tricky to deal with, and I'm going to make make more of an effort to talk to our GOs if ever I think I need the extra support - that should stop me from getting snippy with anybody and make everybody feel a lot more comfortable.
In the same vein, I might have to send players to other DMs if I'm not feeling equipped to deal with a specific problem right at that moment. If I send you off to somebody else with your plans or ideas, don't panic! I'm still very interested in incorporating your ideas, I just may not have the time or be in the right head space to give you the attention you deserve.
4) Power Levels - "My character can't do anything!"
This is something that has been mentioned quite a few times from quite a few corners, and this is the one issue that I'm going to address a little bit more bluntly than all of the other ones. A few people have been unhappy with their character sheets - they don't think they have enough Strength to be of any use, for example, or they don't have enough showy disciplines. I'm going to respond to those complaints very simply. On Tuesday I launched a fresh Sabbat tabletop, and rolled up six character sheets using neonate statistics, and the absolute bare minimum of powers and abilities were handed out.
We got seven hours of play out of those baby vampires.
There is no character - no character - that does not have the tools to do awesome things. Look at our independent ghoul players, for example. The nature of the game is social, and so any character can suddenly find themselves in a very interesting position at the drop of a hat. If you're feeling powerless and feeling like you can't do anything, here's a handy checklist:
- Have you researched what exactly you can do with the character sheet you have?
- Have you sat down and talked to a DM about the long-term goals of your character?
- Have you considered presenting yourself to another player's character for training in new powers?
- Is there anything your clan or faction is doing that you could assist with?
Those four points should give you oodles of things to do, regardless of whether or not you have huge character sheets with nine dots in every discipline and Cain getting you out of trouble. We can't all be elders, and when Gehenna comes the powers of elders are going to start fading anyway. Don't get bogged down in the numbers on your sheet - play the game for fun, not for huge dice pools. We're here to help you make it interesting regardless of your statistics.
5) Tabletop Rules - "How does Celerity work again?"
To finish off, here's a very minor issue. When we run tabletops, each DM has a slightly different way of running things. Tyson runs things very by the book and uses blood pools and health levels, Zorro tends to oscillate wildly between rules-heavy and pure storytelling game play and I like to think I sit comfortably somewhere in the middle. I'm sure when James starts running tabletops, he'll have his own way of running things, as will Ollie. This can be confusing for the players, though, if everybody has a different way of approaching things.
To try and fix this issue, I'm going to be reminding DMs to tell their players before they start how they run things - how they will handle things like Celerity, blood pools, health levels, and skill rolling for that particular tabletop. They'll make sure that the way they want to run things is alright with you guys, and then you can skip merrily into the World of Darkness and destroy something fun.
Wrap-up.
So, those are five issues that were brought to my attention this morning, and I hope that I've shown you how I'm going to address them. To finish this whole spiel off, I'd just like to remind everybody that I'm not some sort of unfeeling ogre who wants to show up at Elysiums and make you all dance for his amusement - I'm heavily invested in your enjoyment of the game, and I want to create an experience that you'll all want to come back to. Hopefully me dealing with all of these issues will make you feel better about the game, and about me as head DM. I do so love this job.
Much love,
Jason.
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