Sample prospectus

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by GoodGame

Whispers kind of just sounds like an expanded Blade Runner (more variety of targets). Cool but already read the books and seen the movie much. Care to elaborate?

I've been running it for a year and a half now. It's not at all like Bladerunner; for one thing, there's been almost no violence. It's much more about espionage and covert ops. And it's also very much a soap opera about the personal relationships of the characters who make up Ares Nakamura Investigations.

Cases examined so far:

A private club in Montreal that meets once a month for a banquet of real animal flesh is being coerced into supporting political causes its members don't favor (such as joining the European Union, which would make those banquets illegal rather than just disapproved of) by the threat of exposure of their hobby.

An emergent AI who is the star of a digital kingdom has learned that she has been illegally copied, and is afraid that the theft will lead to her existence as a sapient being being revealed, which would lead to her being erased.

A married couple bought the telepresence circuitry and software to inhabit each other's bodies; then the husband, in the wife's body, went out for a walk, and didn't come back—she knows her body is okay, because her brain is still working, but the protocols won't let the swap be undone without mutual approval, and he's out of touch.

One of the partners in the firm is worried about her brother back home in Singapore; she hasn't seen him in years, since she accused him of arranging their father's death, but she recently wanted to talk with him again and couldn't find contact info.

—Currently we're in downtime, as the partners deal with personal issues. One of the PCs has arranged for "team building" training for the firm; we're probably going to spend time on that next session.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

It went over very badly, I think my players got together to screw with me. I had five gamers and had a running total of 15 in each campaign.

You know, I really just don't get that. What's the payoff to players in pulling that crap? If they don't want you to run anything, they can just not take the prospectus; if they want you to run something, they're better off if you run something they like, and the prospectus helps you do that. I can't figure what they're getting out of it. Unless they're just trying to coerce you into doing something that's not GURPS.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by kestrel8

I pulled this format together recently, mostly by just using info from the campaign chapters of different GURPS books. Haven't used it yet...(maybe in Sept.).

To my mind, you're missing one vital thing: The mission statement. Such as, "Player characters will be superpowered agents of a highly secret British agency whose mission is to protect the monarchy, the British Empire, and humanity itself from supernatural and paranormal threats, and not get found out."

[Rupert]

That does sound a bit suspicious, yes.

[cadia134]

My supers game is dying a slow death, Inspired by y'all, I have started to work on a prospectus of my own. I will try and post it here when I am done

[Paul]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

It went over very badly, I think my players got together to screw with me. I had five gamers and had a running total of 15 in each campaign.

Were there any patterns? I've had several campaigns rated equally, but when I looked at the actual numbers, I saw that one was rated "average" by all, but the other would have made one player extremely unhappy.

I'd also suggest scheduling a group session where you do nothing but discuss the campaigns. Sometimes players rate something because they didn't completely understand what you were going for, or because they thought "it'll be just like game X" which they didn't like.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by whswhs

You know, I really just don't get that. What's the payoff to players in pulling that crap? If they don't want you to run anything, they can just not take the prospectus; if they want you to run something, they're better off if you run something they like, and the prospectus helps you do that. I can't figure what they're getting out of it. Unless they're just trying to coerce you into doing something that's not GURPS.

It may just have been a joke, but none of them really owned up to it. Pretty much our options are usually GURPS or Hero. I'm not comfortable running Hero and my players know that. Of the six of us, four (including me) despise D20 with a flaming passion. And I'm not going to inflict Silhouette on anyone I actually like.

Originally Posted by Paul

Were there any patterns? I've had several campaigns rated equally, but when I looked at the actual numbers, I saw that one was rated "average" by all, but the other would have made one player extremely unhappy.

Um, it was either a conspiracy, or the most random situation in the universe. Pretty much, they staggered their numbers so that each person used 1-5 and when I tallied the values up, each person put a 1-5 in each option without duplicating. One person rated the first one 1, the second one 2, etc, and the second person rated the first one 2, and the second one 3, etc. You get the picture? Of them all, one of the hard-core-Hero gamers actually turned in a prospectus that made sense (according to his personality). Pretty much, I used his to decide what we were doing.

Originally Posted by Paul

I'd also suggest scheduling a group session where you do nothing but discuss the campaigns. Sometimes players rate something because they didn't completely understand what you were going for, or because they thought "it'll be just like game X" which they didn't like.

I've found that to be very effective. One of my favorite sci-fi campaigns was created that way. I was just trying whswhs' prospectus idea. I like sitting down with my players and finding out what they want out of a game. It gives me more ideas and ensures that they enjoy playing it.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

I was just trying whswhs' prospectus idea. I like sitting down with my players and finding out what they want out of a game. It gives me more ideas and ensures that they enjoy playing it.

I use the Stoddard system as a starting point, a way to direct the conversation towards two or three ideas.

But nothing can replace a good FTF session for campaign design.

[Rotwang]

Originally Posted by whswhs

To my mind, you're missing one vital thing: The mission statement. Such as, "Player characters will be superpowered agents of a highly secret British agency whose mission is to protect the monarchy, the British Empire, and humanity itself from supernatural and paranormal threats, and not get found out."

That's in that "intro paragraph" at the top. I was thinking of maybe doing it 1/2 flavor text (like a mini vignette or a pull quote or something) and 1/2
straight explanation (like your example).

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Paul

But nothing can replace a good FTF session for campaign design.

For the most part, I'm a total auteur type about game design, in much the sense in which the term is used in film theory
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auteur_Theory),
and thus I don't normally have any use for player collaboration in campaign design. A large part of what I'm offering my players is the chance to be surprised by the world I've created.

That said, I'm currently running a campaign where a large part of the backstory was made up by the players. I started out by having each of them play a respected adult member of a noble house of spell-wielding aristocrats. Then I invited them to make up stuff about their houses—how the head of the house was chosen, marriage customs, style of clothing, magical specialization, characteristic physical appearance, and so on. I even had them draw family trees. I added a fifth house, with a magical specialization that complemented the other four. As a result, during play, I often pause for a moment and ask one of the players, "Okay, how do you think your house deals with this?" It's been a lot of fun, partly because I recruited my four hardest core storytellers into the campaign.