…Well, fifteen minutes of roleplaying fun, for each player at the table. This is something our group’s M&M GM is doing that we are really enjoying because it maximizes the roleplaying for all of us. And it isn’t system-specific! Our various FFG SW GMs have been doing this too. Of course, if your group is really into combat, this might not be their cup of tea, or mug of genre-appropriate ale. But if your group favors roleplay, or wants to try something different between arcs, read on.
What the GM has done for a couple sessions is ask the traditional GM opening question, “Where are you and what are you doing?” Then, instead of plunging us into the action, he does a one-on-one roleplay scene for each player. These last about 10-15 minutes for each PC. This is enough time to have a long talk with an NPC (or another PC), do a bit of research or something similar. Depending on what the vignettes involve, what else he has planned and how much we are enjoying these he may do more than one “RP round.” If he does multiple go-rounds, he is likely to go to the next PC at a key point, like when the NPC team doctor finally told my PC he had been wondering if she and his girlfriend were one and the same. Each player has the GM’s undivided attention for their bit while everyone else listens. Since it is only a few minutes, no one has time to get bored, distracted, or–worse–feel like their character is being given short shrift. As a matter of fact, we get a kick out of hearing everyone else’s scenes, as much as we do roleplaying our own.
If the game is M&M, this lets us play with the superhero trope started by Silver Age Spiderman–all those real-life troubles. In our campaign, this is often romantic. My PC isn’t the only one in this game who has “Complication: Romantic relationship(s)” on the character sheet! But not all involve romance. They range from amusing to serious. Emerald City University Medical Center staffers go all fan-girl and fan-boy over a popular local hero, all but shoving aside his new teammate when they stop by to check on people hurt during a superbattle. Meanwhile, a few floors up…an NPC, upset because his wife was one of those victims, berates the PC nephew they raised for interning at the corporation that sponsors the local superteam–unaware the young man’s real job title at the company is Superhero.
This can also be a way for PCs who invested XP, Power Points, etc., in abilities that normally won’t see much use in sessions to show them off. (Yes, there are folks who stat their PCs with a few skills or abilities just because the character would have them, not because it would “optimize the build.”) This also allows the PCs a chance to use their main powers in a different way, for something other than foiling supervillains. When the team visited the Lor refugees on Star Island, several team members used super strength, speed and other powers to get more permanent housing finished. Lacking any skills or powers useful for that, my PC decided to go talk to refugees, since the trip was for information-gathering, as well as humanitarian, purposes. Being a professional musician in her secret ID, she ended up in a jam session with some of them, using her Expertise: Music to learn the basics of playing a Lor instrument. I had a great time with that–and the GM has hinted there might be something more in it for her.
This has been going well enough, the GM is going to do a few roleplay sessions. Most would be a regular session, conducted like the usual opening 10-15 minute “rounds” for each character. Of course, this would require more pre-planning by the GM, to have several minor plots complex enough to fill a larger part of a game session, rather than the off-the-cuff bits we open with. Some will be one-on-ones, arranged for other times, with the rest of the players “listening in,” and possibly controlling some NPCs. The first one-on-one proposed was met with enthusiasm by all of us, as it will take place in a part of the campaign world most of our PCs are unlikely to visit.
See if your group would like to add a little more RP to the campaign. It works, as my examples show, just as well in a “Crunchy” d20 system like M&M as in the narrative Star Wars, where it takes that narrative beyond “tell what happens with this dice roll.”
Linda Whitson
Latest posts by Linda Whitson (see all)
- Astral Projections – The Ripperdoc Is In - May 8, 2023
