Social Games Trails of Breadcrumbs

Social games depend upon the interactions of players’ char- One fun and robust structure you can use is the “trail of
acters with a supporting cast of NPCs. The villains, allies, breadcrumbs” model, which works particularly well for
and neutral parties the protagonists encounter all want some- stories that concentrate on detection or espionage. You
thing. The heroes either help the other characters get what leave clues for your protagonists. When they find a clue,
they want, or thwart them. NPCs react, the players respond, they can work out where to go next, or who to talk to.
other supporting cast members weigh in, and so on. In the next destination or conversation, you leave more
This works best when you have a reasonable number of NPCs clues. If you leave multiple clues in one setting, it means
prepared, and their desires clash in interesting ways, so that that there are more options about where to go. If a group
the protagonists’ actions trigger what they do, creating events of agents are tracking down an enemy, the matchbook
for heroes to deal with. they found leads to the hotel, and in the hotel room
where the spy stayed, the protagonists find a bug and a
Social games are about more than manipulating or defeating letter. The letter leads to one place and the bug leads to
NPCs. A good social game allows the protagonists to make another, and so on. This way, you can create a branching
friends and allies as well, to develop obligations and even structure to your story, and the story can be as linear or
friendships. When a recurring NPC appears and both the as complex as you and—equally as crucial—as much as
players and characters are pleased to see them, that’s when your players want.
you know that you’re getting it right.
Modern AGE’s investigation systems are perfect for
Character Relationships and Memberships give you imme- creating breadcrumb trails in your game (see Chapter
diate suggestions about who to incorporate into the NPC cast: 2: Basic Rules for those) but you don’t necessarily need
a relative, friend, loved one, or fellow member of an organiza- them to make this structure work.
tion described by these game traits.
The map-flowchart method described earlier can be used
for social games as well. Instead of mapping locations, you dice in a way that keeps their immersion intact. The best way
draw lines indicating Relationships between NPCs and to support this is to make the experience as rich as you can.
PCs, along with notes describing the nature of the connec- Bring up NPCs for them to talk to. Answer questions about
tion, whether it’s friendly, hostile, or something else. As the the game world. Help them fill in the blanks so they can act
campaign progresses, you can update the Relationship map naturally in their other persona. Immersion-focused players
to take story events into account. This Relationship map don’t always follow the “rules” of a story and seek out adven-
creates something you can keep around across multiple ture, so you need to give them strong motivations, connected
adventures. to their characters’ personal stories.

Playing the Problem solving

Game Together Some people “play to win.” They want to overcome chal-
lenges using the rules and their ingenuity. They look at tactical
When you play Modern AGE, like any roleplaying game, it’s options and optimize their characters to perform certain tasks.
a collaborative venture, and as the GM, you’re often the glue They are at their best when given complex and varied situa-
that holds the game together. It’s up to you to judge the rules tions to work their way through. To motivate them, provide
fairly, striking a balance between moving adventures forward challenges that test how well they’ve planned for actions that
and allowing PCs to explore their world. fit within their character’s niche. Connect their investigative
characters to structured mysteries using the full rules, and
give their combatants powerful enemies to challenge, all in
Play Styles interesting environments.

No two roleplaying sessions are the same, even when the Dramatic
players are the same. Some people like to organize players
into categories based on how they play, or what their goals You may have players who are most interested in thinking
are, but given enough time, all players evolve their objec- of the adventure as a story with a clear dramatic structure.
tives and approaches to gaming—and that’s fantastic. Players To them, authenticity is less important than getting a sense
should be encouraged to try different strategies. Neverthe- that the events of an adventure add up to something that
less, we can identify some common play styles, even while we supports a theme. These players often crave control over
acknowledge that virtually nobody sticks with a single style elements traditionally reserved for the GM. Using the
forever, and some combine styles. optional Conviction rules (see Chapter 1) provides a way for
them to influence events for dramatic reasons. Relationship
Immersion bonds also provide cues as to what would be meaningful.
Stories with strong traditional motifs satisfy these players.
Some players want to be immersed in the game world. The A groaning, decrepit mansion signals a Gothic element, for
idea that they would want to have control over what happens example, and can be matched with the other touchstones of
in the world is alien; they want to play their role and roll the the genre.

Chapter 7: The Game Master 113