Role-playing Rants: Looking for that elusive thing called "Inspiration"

You've all been there. First game's only a couple days ahead and the campaign that everyone is anxious to play is still a work in progress. Why? Because you can't quite finish that very important plot point, that's being flying around your head for the last month or so.

Inspiration's a bitch. Yeah you've heard me. When you're a Gamemaster, sooner or later you'll be facing the prospect, nay the nescessity of writing your own adventure or even a whole campaign. Running on a ready-to-play supllements can only get you so far. But what happens when you finally sit before your keyboard or a blank page and... nothing happens? You feel that your head is empty and that you can't, for the love of life, create anything that will even resemble an adventure for your players to enjoy. And the clock is ticking...

Tick Tock

I'm currently running a Hunter: The Reckoning chronicle, which I'm writing myself. It began in 2011 as a simple conversion of a buddy's own adventure, and later it turned into a full-fledged camapign of its own. Those of you who know the classic WoD line, also know that there never have been any official chronicles released by White Wolf, only ideas in various game books. This automatically makes any Storyteller's job harder, as he/she not only needs to run a game, but also to WRITE said game. And this often turns out much, much harder than it looks...

Allow me to give a fairly new example. After our stint with WFRP haven't worked out (apparently there is such thing as too much Warhammer) we've decided to return to the old World of Darkness and once again pick up HtR, which so far turned out to be a wise idea. Even better, one of my players, who was very sceptic about the whole game, wants to replace me for a time as the Storyteller. I like this idea a lot, since the last time that I've actually played as a PC was back in 2013, but there's just one problem: my mate has trouble with finding inspiration for his chronicle.

I know that pain very well. There was a reason why I've decided to use my former GM's chronicle for my first Hunter game. I just couldn't think about anything original myslef, much to my eternal shame. Only later, when I knew that I simply had to write something original, was I able to come up with something new and fresh. Something of my own. It wasn't easy tough. Mainly becasue of the source material. For those of you who don't know: the Hunters, or Imbued as they are officially known, don't have any idea about who is who in the World of Darkness. They are the youngest group to emerge into the Final Nights, and the only resemblance of order and unity at their disposal is the hunter.net, a website which unites them in their purpose to rid the world of the supernatural taint. This makes any chronicle-building automatically more challenging for a peep who knows hiw oWoD lore, and I do.

"What type of enemy should they be facing?"

"Should I go for the epic scale of things or keeping it more down-to-earth?"

"I don't like the everyday-man angle. I want my players to start of as a kind of elite guys"

Maybe not THAT elite, but still...

And so on, and so on. From the begining I knew that my players would not be shopkeepers, teachers, garbage collectors or taxi drivers, even tough Hunter: The Reckoning is supposed to be about these kind of people. So I went for the goverment agents. I've decided that the pressure of them having such responsible and lofty positions coupled with the stress that comes from the hunt, will create interesting results. As a bonus, during the entirety of the first story, my players were normal humans who only recieved glimpses of what would happen in the future. It's hard to imagine that a man you're spying on is actually a vampire. This kind of tension worked really well and their growing paranoia and diseblief made the game really interesting.

That was only the first part tough. I also should've mentioned that the entire game takes place in Poland. Classic World of Darkness is rather US-centric and most splat books that came out for it, concentrate around cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. There is very little information about what actually is going on in Poland. Now I could look upon this in two ways. On one hand it sucks that I don't know anything about supernatural powerplays in Warsaw, where is the biggest Mage Chantry or which Werewolf tribes are most numerous here. On the other I had a lot of freedom in creating my own stories and plots. I could place anyone I like as a head honcho of Warsaw's Cainites or decide that the Sabbat controls half the country. I could tell my players that they are actually one of the few Imbued present in here and that the communication between Hunters is poor at best. That's what I like about poorly developed parts of an established setting: it gives you the opportunity to really spread your wings and work miracles as a Storyteller or Gamemaster. You only need to use your imagination.

Which brings us to the final advice of mine. When running any game that is based in a modern, real-life setting, use your enviroment as an inspiration for your stories. I often take long walks across the city, and often find myself wondering things such as: "this old building would be perfect for a zombie nest" or "this city block can be used to stage a final showdown with a Warlock". Sky's the limit here. You don't really need to spend sleepless nights, pondering on the location of your BBEG's Doom Fortress, when the bloody thing can be housed under that fancy restaurant that you've visited with your girl the other day. Trust me, sometimes simple, everyday solutions can work better than super convoluted, over-the-top ideas that you've got after watching one too many Michael Bay movie.

Pictured: a den of pure evil

Now obviously this method would not usually apply to game settings that are fictional, such as WFRP... or would it? You wake up and go to work, walking by the same, old butcher's shop that is run by the same, old guy for 20+ years now and you may begin to wonder: "what if I'd made a butcher's shop in that Warhammer game that I'm running, and its owner would be a cultist of Nurgle that has been making human sacrifices to his God for the last 20 years?".

It's cool. I didn't plan on sleeping anyway...

That's what it means to use the power of your imagination and let's face it: every RPG is about imagination, first and foremost.

I hope that you've found this little rant both fun and useful. Coming right up: the Elves will make a grand entrance as next week I'll begin my sort-of review of "End Times: Khaine". Stay tuned and stay frosty.

Until next time

Xathrodox86