I want to share pieces of table tech that help bring characters closer together, ground them in the world, and encourage a depth of, well, character that can sometimes disappear.
The Circle
Put simply, the circle is just a way of establishing relationships between characters. Many games formalize this (I’m thinking of Masks), and many GMs will either delve into this during session 0, or at least open with “So, uh, how do you all know each other?”
But if you’re playing a game that doesn’t have a ritual for this kind of thing, here’s a simple one you can adopt: each player establishes a relationship to the person on their left. Bob is my roommate. I owe Alice $800 dollars. Carol and I are siblings! Dan knew my brother. Eve and I used to work together.
You can take it a step further and establish a positive relationship with the person on your left, and a negative on with the person on your right (or, better yet, to randomize it, so each one isn’t strictly doubled). The key is to make sure you have a web of relationships. It doesn’t need to be fully fleshed out, but no one should be an island either.
State of the world
I mentioned masks earlier. It has every character answering questions about the group. Many games formalize pointed questions: Why don’t you trust [character you choose / charater on your left]? When did you first become afraid of XXX? What secret are you afraid of YYY revealing?
These questions are great for certain types of game, and they seed tensions, but don’t forget to relish the mundane sorts of relationships that tie us together. Looking at my friends in real life:
- We used to work together
- We went to school together
- Former roommates
- Met at a party
- Married to someone I used to work with
- Lived in the same town and kept running into each other at the rental store / mall / etc.
- Friend of a friend
- Sibling of a friend
- Shared hobby (internet friends)
It doesn’t have to be grand.
The Breakdown
This is a bit of tech that I stole form my Outgunned GM, who stole it from his Cthulhu GM, who stole it from Prometheus, who in turn stole it from some gods that were much chiller than the ones with the fire.
At the end of each session, ask each character what else is going on in their lives outside of this. The background stuff that creeps into their mind in moments of silence (or around the campfire).
Then, they roll a d6. On a 6, it’s the best possible news. On a 1, the worst possible. A 2-3 is bad news, and a 4-5 is good news.
What’s the news? How do they find out, who do they tell?
In Outgunned, I play an almost illiterate man of action1. It seemed natural that he was mostly divorced, and so when the opportunity came to get a letter from his wife — the ONLY document he read (most of) the entire game, I jumped on it. The 6 I rolled meant that she had heard of my exploits, and said that if I found myself back home, there’s a chance my key would still work.
And so I told my cousin.2
This hack lends itself best to games where you have something going on apart from the “real world”, whether you are traveling, or where we’re only seeing part of the character’s lives. But it adds a richness similar to the Unscene, but for characters.
-
I made this character almost entirely as a reaction to a Lancer game I was in, there the other players refused to get off the pot, so to speak. I left the group after 4 sessions, several of which I was the only one actually advancing the game. If your group isn’t a good match, hit da bricks! They still play without me, and have a grand ol’ time with the players they recruited to replace me. ↩
-
This particular group doubled down on it, with other characters mirroring their stories to mine once I introduced this. With my consent, another character wanted to be having an affair with my wife, and that thread ran in the background. My “cousin” tied his to it as well, and this first session ended up centering my drama a little more than I think the GM hoped, but he employed the #1 rule (talk to your playes), and sessions since then have been more dynamic. ↩