Bit early today, but found I have a little more time on my hands than expected, and since I'm still positively buzzing from our Flotilla game this weekend, I thought I would share some things about when GMs get things perfectly right.
Flotilla is a game based in a waterworld where almost everyone lives on ships or floating cities. There are, on occasion, islands, but they are very few and far between - most people never even get to see real land.
Our characters live on one of the largest fleets out there, known as the Marblehead Flotilla. It's a pretty cool place with a number of captains from each ship who are part of a council that votes on the future of the fleet. Our characters were mostly just regular joes who happened to live there (or were there for some reason, in the case of one of us).
There was recently an article on good game design over on Gnome Stew, which can be read here. The important part is further down, where it says "Build the Backstory, But Build The Characters Into It". That is one of the hardest things to do as a GM, without it somehow becoming a huge mess, or not what the players wanted/expected.
Well, I can safely say that after what Eyolo pulled last night, he did a damned good job.
Here's how this works: Everyone that lives on the Flotilla has a patron, which is one of the captains. The captains vouch for people - if you don't have the blessing of a patron, you're not going to be allowed to live in the fleet. One of the PCs is a fish-man whose mother is a powerful (and devout) follower of the Path of Light, the semi-religious order in the world, which is run by a guy named Caesar. Without spoilering for other people, there's some sort of connection between the main characters - in the mechanic's case, he is related to fishman's girlfriend (a girl who is always stuck in a rubber suit due to weak immune system), and has helped her out in the past in making her life a lot more comfortable over the years. My character was just a brute, who spends most of her time throwing people out of bars or brothels who act up, and generally being a Mean Bitch. But even she had a connection in her past to everything as well, it seemed, based on the backstory I provided.
Since it was mentioned in the last session, my character's father had something to do with Caesar's seal. There's a lot more I wish I could say, but out of fear of spoilering, I'll just say that there's a lot more to this than one might think. Knowing the story (because I wrote it), I can safely say that she is well-connected to the other PCs, because it seems as though she is also the granddaughter of one of the most infamous captains in the fleet - an ex-pirate.
Because of this development, I think we can finally rope in our other character, and start tying her into things - because from the looks of how the plot is developing, my character might just be inheriting a ship. We will, of course, need someone who can fix things (mechanic), someone who can sail things (the other character mentioned, not fish-guy). We'll also need someone who can heal things (new character introduced last night, amazing doctor based off of Ema from the Ace Attourney series). We'll probably also need fish-boy.
I think that, with all of us combined, we can pretty much pull people we all know and create a small gang who can sail off into the open seas, looking for answers. And maybe vengeance. I love vengeance. It means more chances to punch things in the face.
My character's world is about to come crashing down - and I appreciate this, because at the same time, it will liberate her and force her to rise to the top, and become something more than just a mere brute who beats people.
Maybe someday, we'll be able to get our ex-pirate captain a new ship, and maybe over time, we can make our *OWN* Flotilla.
Things like this is why I can safely say, our GM got it absolutely right this time.
I'm looking forward to next session. Shit is going to go down, all melodramatic-like.
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