How I Set Up A Game

This is an updated version of an old Cohost post

I haven’t done it much, but I do have a few things I have done previously. The biggest thing I do is just sit with what the game’s vibes are and try to align what I want to make with them. The vibes also inspire me on where I want to start building.

Also “I’m doing this because I think it’s funny” drives a not-insignificant part of my process.

The biggest roadblock I face is at the end of this rambly, potentially incoherent post.

For Numenera, I got sold on the weirdness of the world and wanted to lean into that. It felt like a sandbox where I could just throw my favorite stuff in, so I was imagining weird science fantasy and what I would like to see. I had a high-speed train system through the world that stops were still being fixed up, based off different eons’ technologies. Knowing what the game is allowed me to blend tropes and things.

So I built a map. I used Wonderdraft to get a rough outline, and then I just sorta feel around in my head land features. “Oh the capital is going to be the nexus of the rail system, and it’s going to be in the middle of a huge lake” With Numenera, I really started Landscape First.

This is different from the never-run Blades in the Dark game I had planned. I started that Faction First, after doing a quick read of the book. “Oh wouldn’t it be cool if there was a really strong union here? What else would they be involved in that would involve them in criminal underworld… oh they have a fighting pit outside city walls, which takes them into direct conflict with the Asian Mafia Inspired crime family who handles other sorts of entertainment. I love the idea of the artisans, bureaucrats, and bookkeepers sharing a faction.” From there, I started to plot out what I think the players would find interesting. Adding landmarks to a blank city map, adding smaller factions that were closer to the starting Tier, but didn’t get to the “Making NPCs” section.

Dungeon World I wanted to make a race between three major groups: A kingdom, the players, and a Lich, to find something called The Gate of Shangra La, which would grant a wish, but to make said wish come true, it paved over reality and remade it, with whatever you wished being now true. Never got past the Idea phase.

LANCER is a bit of a change though. After running Shadowrun for 10 months, I came to realize the shortcomings in my style of prep on a week-to-week basis. I’m starting this by taking in more things in the genre, to try to find the Vibes that I like from the mech genre. Normally I just go based off whatever notions I have, whatever I pick up from glancing through the book’s fluff, or whatever stuff I’ve taken in previously. Now? I want to actively take in more things as prep, so I have more ideas to pull from, more feelings, more themes, aesthetics. At the end of the day, most of the prep is still going to happen in my head as I take a shower, or do dishes, or take a walk, or lie waiting to fall asleep. Turning my brain into a cauldron should hopefully help.

I already have AN idea for the game’s premise (Players are part of a coalition forces looking to explore an uncharted planet. They are each one of many troops sent by the various factions and have their loyalties [or not] they need to maintain as they work with the other groups), but I am open to changing it if something more interesting comes along.

From there, I plan on making the factions, defining the world’s qualities in broad strokes, and then making some key NPCs. I want to make NPCs that the players will deal with for more than 1 or 2 sessions.

So about that roadblock. I have played in or run some form of D&D game off and on for 20 years. Shadowrun I started in 2007, actually playing it, ran World of Darkness in ‘09. But even WOD was poisoned by D&D brain. It’s a very bad habit I’m in to design all my sessions like “OK , we need to just get To Combat, because that’s where players have fun” and it’s been Bad. It undermined the Numenera stuff I prepped, it completely flatlined my Dungeon World prep because I Could Not Not Do D&D Prep, and it was starting to creep into Blades. With LANCER, I know some of that design is Necessary, but also, I’m making a way more active effort in the non-mech parts to try to make those interesting as well.

So I guess the bulletpoints for my process

• Skim the book once or twice before digging into the rules to get a feel for the Vibes:™️ This helps my brain find a vine to swing to to get the ball rolling. From there, I can start to build a framework from one starting point.
• From there, I use menial tasks, shower time, and it staves off the existential dread if I think about this stuff before bed. Also doubles as a sleep aid, because after thinking about stuff for 10ish minutes I can start to feel tired enough to sleep.
• Focus on the zoomed out, large view, because getting bogged down in the details is something that has happened before, and it led to a game never even starting.
• I keep my PDF reader open at all times on my computer so I can just click to it when I need to shift my attention or if I run out of Sites to Visit.
• Same goes for mapmaking software when the time comes to start making things.

I also keep a written or mental outline of the campaign in my head. This is like, The Guiding Principle of how I prep. I ask myself questions like…

• What drives the main Problem of the game?
• How do they accomplish this?
• Where will the players start the adventure?
• What are the major Beats that will show the effects of the main Problem or be moments of a specific Player Highlight, such as granting relics or some other boon?

The last one there has me thinking about like, 3-5 Major Events that I think will happen in the game. Everything else is filler. Goku fighting Vegeta, I don’t care about the specifics of how the Sayians get to Earth. Goku unlocking Super Sayian, I only care that I need to set up Frieza to be a bad enough dude to force this. By anchoring how I think about the game to these thresholds, I can be really flexible with everything else.

But I’m also not married to the pillars. Should something happen in play that gives me a new idea, I can quickly construct a new pillar, or move an old one to a new spot.

This is a very long way of saying “My process is kind of slapdash and I have no clue how I managed to get the shadowrun game off the ground”

Having the book on hand at all times really is the secret for me. Like right now, I have a couple minutes before I need to make dinner, so I’m flipping through a few sections for inspiration Then while making dinner my brain can simmer on those things and ideas. It’s Neat.