Rick Jones (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} rickj) wrote,@ 2003-07-03 14:30:00 |
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WISH 54: Background Hooks
WISH 54
I think the key to background hooks are to make sure that either
a: the player doesn't care how the hook turns out
b: the player works with the GM as to how the hook turns out.
I've had a few experiences where I've left hooks on a character, and then had the GM go in a totally different direction that frustrated me. (And I've done it to players too as a GM, frustrating them.)
Example where it went badly: In an oft-mentioned on WISHes Champions game, I played a Reed Richards/Tony Stark super-genius inventor who owned a Silicon Valley high-tech research company (and bought it as a DNPC). I figured it would be like in Fantastic Four, where Reed would be working on some McGuffin that would lead to wild adventures in the Negative Zone or whatever. The GM had other plans, with foreign co-owners who were secretly the Yakuza, which led to some extortion on their part and my business partner getting attacked by ninja when I tried to buy them out. It got so frustrating that Nick ended up shutting down the company. The GM was thinking of the bad times Tony Stark had with Stane International - I was thinking of the place just being ground zero for strangeness. Both directions were valid, but we had different expectations and didn't talk about them ahead of time.
On the other hand, in a D&D (2nd ed) game with the same GM, he said we could all start with some minor magical item, since we were starting at 4th level or so. I couldn't think of anything that fit, so I just told him to make something up. I had a magic ring that my character had gotten off a dead wizard, and it wouldn't come off. The story behind the ring (turned out to be the Ring of Gax, actually) was a great arc and we had a fun time.
Last case, I was running Champions, and one of the players had a Hunted, where we discussed ahead of time what the Hunter's role would be. The guy was designed to be an annoyance, someone who would show up at the worst possible time and make life worse for Hector (the PC). Achilles (the Hunter) became a running joke. Achilles had two powers - he was next to impossible to hurt and he could teleport once a day to his "secret lair." (This was to keep him from going to jail.) He didn't have any offensive powers, so he'd show up with bigger and bigger guns each time he reappeared. The point of it was that, even though he made things more difficult for the characters - the player (in fact, the whole group) was happy when Achilles showed up because he livened up the game.
WISH 54
Do you like to have bits and pieces from your characters’ backgrounds appear in the game? Do you write hooks into your character background for the GM to use in the campaign for your character? Do you like it when the GM gives you a background hook into an adventure or scenario with a previously unknown hook, such as creating an old friend of your character’s who is somehow involved? What are some examples of cases where hooks have worked or not worked for you?
I think the key to background hooks are to make sure that either
a: the player doesn't care how the hook turns out
b: the player works with the GM as to how the hook turns out.
I've had a few experiences where I've left hooks on a character, and then had the GM go in a totally different direction that frustrated me. (And I've done it to players too as a GM, frustrating them.)
Example where it went badly: In an oft-mentioned on WISHes Champions game, I played a Reed Richards/Tony Stark super-genius inventor who owned a Silicon Valley high-tech research company (and bought it as a DNPC). I figured it would be like in Fantastic Four, where Reed would be working on some McGuffin that would lead to wild adventures in the Negative Zone or whatever. The GM had other plans, with foreign co-owners who were secretly the Yakuza, which led to some extortion on their part and my business partner getting attacked by ninja when I tried to buy them out. It got so frustrating that Nick ended up shutting down the company. The GM was thinking of the bad times Tony Stark had with Stane International - I was thinking of the place just being ground zero for strangeness. Both directions were valid, but we had different expectations and didn't talk about them ahead of time.
On the other hand, in a D&D (2nd ed) game with the same GM, he said we could all start with some minor magical item, since we were starting at 4th level or so. I couldn't think of anything that fit, so I just told him to make something up. I had a magic ring that my character had gotten off a dead wizard, and it wouldn't come off. The story behind the ring (turned out to be the Ring of Gax, actually) was a great arc and we had a fun time.
Last case, I was running Champions, and one of the players had a Hunted, where we discussed ahead of time what the Hunter's role would be. The guy was designed to be an annoyance, someone who would show up at the worst possible time and make life worse for Hector (the PC). Achilles (the Hunter) became a running joke. Achilles had two powers - he was next to impossible to hurt and he could teleport once a day to his "secret lair." (This was to keep him from going to jail.) He didn't have any offensive powers, so he'd show up with bigger and bigger guns each time he reappeared. The point of it was that, even though he made things more difficult for the characters - the player (in fact, the whole group) was happy when Achilles showed up because he livened up the game.
