In this, the first episode of our second session, I discover the what happens when I, as the Game Master, don’t have a strict railroad for the players to follow. I had no adventure plan going into this session. I did have about half-a-dozen ideas for bringing Danny’s character (later named Professor Mora) into contact with the others, but none of them were very fleshed-out. I floated even briefer descriptions of those options before the group, and got a feel for which direction the group would have the most fun with. The rest I completely ad-libbed. Seriously, I came up with each scene, each NPC, on-the-fly. Some call this “reactive” GM’ing. Some call it “winging it.” Some call it lazy. I call it a lot of fun! Beyond the meet-and-greet, and bringing Danny up to speed on the rules and the game-so-far, I had no goals, no real “tasks” for the group to accomplish. Any and all of that was provided by the players. I’m not bragging. If anything, I’m trying to place the blame on them.
I really love Silvervine’s emphasis on “shared story telling.” And I greatly enjoy working with the players to build the world together. Silvervine’s Cyrus setting leaves a lot of room for GM’s and players to create – It gives enough background, history and structure, with a lot of openness for each group to make the game their own. So come back next week for our next episode and experience just how little control I maintain. And I’ve got to say, I am really impressed with everyone’s role-playing skills. Mike, Danny, and Matt are all veterans, but it had been quite a while since any of us had really been around a table like this – especially for Danny who couldn’t make it to the first session. It’s just amazing how well each of them really expressed their characters (especially if you knew how little they put into their backgrounds).
Oh! And don’t forget. Please place your vote for your favorite phrase of the campaign so far. In the comments just tell us which you prefer – “Cabbage-Banana-Hammock” or “Retarded Etch-a-Sketch.”
Castle Dash
