Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 ClayTrotter Apr 17, 2010 11:39:52	Hello!    I have been playing Star Wars Saga for about a year after hearing about D&D from my best man for two and a half decades and being a forum lurker for several years.  It's my first pen and paper experience and I love it.  The guys I play with at my FLGS are lots of fun and very helpful when I don't know what's going on.  I've done well with my character development and the role-playing side of things I think, but something that fascinates me is the way I see tv shows and movies now.  It's an unexpected way to enjoy these things on another level, much like music theory knowledge reveals layers at an orchestra concert.  My enjoyment of stories seems to be finding another level.  I've always been pretty analytical when it comes things I find entertaining and why, but I keep finding myself thinking, "I'd love to play in that story!"   One such show is "Human Target" on Fox.  I've been noticing some similarities between the core characters and those on "Magnum, P.I.", one of my childhood favorites.  If you haven't seen it, it may be one of the best guy shows ever, but time will tell.  I just keep thinking what fun it would be to play in that world.  Would D20 Modern be good for that setting?  And how would you start?  As someone new to pen and paper games how do you begin writing a campaign?  Without forcing players into certain roles, how do you make sure certain needed roles are filled?  I suppose "guest-star" NPCs might be a way, but the core trio of characters who work as a team and know each other better than the viewer (because their stories didn't start with the series) seem important to the feel of the world itself.    I suppose my questions aren't specific to "Human Target" as much as general campaign building.  If you have thoughts on the subject, especially if you remember what it was like to write your first campaign, I'd love to hear them.  If you've had the same thoughts about this particular show, I'd love to hear those thoughts as well.    Yours in fellowship,     Stephen "Trotter"
#2 TheRealOrion Apr 17, 2010 13:10:50	If you're really interested in Human Target, you can also get your hands on the comics. The character has been around since the 70s, and there's a highly critically successful run from the 90s that was published by Vertigo, a division of DC Comics. Anyway... First, yes, d20M woul be great for that setting. d20M is designed to be an all-around "modern" game with a great deal of generic flexibility, and Human Target is a show that does the action/adventure thing, but has a different case every week. So that's a good fit. Now, creating variety in a group is a delicate thing, but it's not impossible to do. First, give your players some idea of where you want to go with the game. Tell them if it's combat-heavy, for example, or if technical skills will be as useful as I Punch Your Face skills. I like to think of it as giving them the teaser trailer for a movie. When you watch a trailer, you know what kind of movie you're signing up for and you buy your tickets accordingly. Give the players a similar idea of what kind of game you want to play, but without giving up all your secrets. Second, listen to your players. Ask them what they want to play. Do they want a game with lots and lots of combat, or would they rather play Talkers & Techies? Mould your idea around their desires. They'll feel like their preferences are being taken into account, and you'll have an idea if what you can give them that they'll enjoy. It's a win/win. The subtext, here, is that a lot of GMs don't think to just talk to their players about what they want, what kind of game they prefer. Have that conversation before the game starts. It solves a lot of problems before they even appear. Okay, all of this helps to create the right balance of classes because people will have some idea of what the game requires, but by the same token, you should also (third) encourage them to talk to each other about their players while they're creating them. It'll encourage them to think like a team, it'll also prevent too much overlap, although that's bound to happen a little, and it might even give them the chance to create relationships between their characters that are a part of their backstory, the "our PCs are twins separated at birth" gag can be fun, or ex-lovers, or whatever. Finally, I think you're instinct is right that if they're truly missing a skill that they need to get a certain job done, then an NPC is a good way to go, but you can build that in in such a way that it doesn't violate your sense of verisimilitude. You can start encouraging them to get "extra help" on jobs where they need it. If safe-cracking is going to be a big part of the mission, then they'd better reach out to a safe-cracker, and this is where Gather Info and other people skills are important. Having someone on your crew who always "knows a guy who knows a guy" is really useful. So now, you have an NPC that not only entered the game at the PC's request, instead of barging in, but they also have to protect that NPC from harm or else they can't get the job done. That's how I'd do it, anyway, if I could actually scrape together a d20M game and had time to run it. Le sigh...
#3 ClayTrotter Sep 09, 2010 8:49:14	Orion, Please accept my apology for not writing back and thanking you for your thoughtful reply.  I had surgery shortly after posting my question and didn't even remember writing it.  Imagine my surprise when I searched for "Human Target" and found this! At any rate, I've been thinking about this a little more and my GM told me about a series of Star Wars books called "Coruscant Nights" which sounds like an attempt at Star Wars Film Noir.  Since hearing about it I'm trying to incorporate the "Human Target" idea into a Star Wars setting.  My big problem is information regarding backstory held by (and shared by some of) the characters, but not the audience.  In a game there is no audience unless you're doing a podcast, so the big reveal would need to be something else.  You could do a flashback encounter (like the season finale), I suppose. I've never GMed anything, let alone made a campaign, so I'll learn everything the hard way. Thanks again.  Hope this finds you doing well! Stephen