The Referee's Role - Your Spin Please

[Merxiless]

I'm wondering what the Old Timers who played Classic Traveller when it came out feel their role is vis a vis the Rules, vs. the guys who have only gotten into Traveller in the last 10 years or so.

My Spin:

I just don't use a lot of the rules as written, trust my experience, and I try tell it like a story, figuring calculations way ahead of time, by myself, minimum dice rolls in game, maximum story and roleplaying of NPCs.

Sure, I'll calculate the planet's temperature and axial tilt, and albedo, and all of that physics / planetology stuff beforehand, but that's the creativity / discovery / generation fun for me.

When I am playing, it's fast and loose, with a sci fi soundtrack, and lots of arm-waving.

I think that's what the initial intention was, whan Marc wrote:

"...a group of friends gather in a living room or around a kitchen table, and are led on an imaginary mission by their referee. The refereee presents the situation while the players are themselves the characters in this unfolding novel of the moment. Working togehter as a team, the players solve the riddles set before them and play out the situation. All action takes place in the imagination of the players as as they sit around the table and discuss the fictional events swirling around them."

How many of you out there play like this, I mean Really try to Keep In the Spirit of the Rules, rather than the Letter?

It's a good way to play, and in the intervening years, it is apparent to me that in most RPGs, Gaming-as-Rules-System has become the focus, to the detriment of the storytelling.

Does anyone else feel this way?

I'm not opposed to better rules, but there's a point where The Official Rules (for whatever edition of whatever RPG) are inadequate, and seeking more accuracy in them leads to diminishing returns, vs. time spent.

All it takes is a decision by the Referee, as Creator and Arbiter of it all, rules be hanged, to be used as a guide only.

As the Referee, as I understand it, it is my position to remain neutral and use my judgement to determine whatever happens, based on the player's actions, with the rules as a guide, plus my own real world, and game referee experience.

I don't root for the players, or the NPCs, I root for a good, exciting story, as much like a film or TV show / radio play as I can make it, given the limitations of verbal skills, plus some props at a table, a few d6, and some minis.

How do you deal with problem players?

If the players have scenario matrix storyline choices to go to planets A, B, and C, (because that's what I have mapped) and they look at this and meta-game it and say,

"Oh, look 3 planets, hm. Well, let's misjump, since we aren't gonna follow the ref's guidelines, let's see what he does."

How do you handle it?

I try and work with my notes, and setting, and try to get it back on track.

Failing that, make stuff up as I go, which sometimes leads to an unusual story, or sometimes leads to huge story problems in the overall campaign arc.

I have had players tell me, they play to "Outsmart the GM," and Expressly State That Phrase or very similar while doing it.

Has this happened to anyone else out there?

It's happened to me on three seperate occassions in 29 years.

I feel that I am more than within my power to realize these people do not want to cooperate in a shared storytelling experience, they are just there to win some kind of personal victory, and thus, privately ask them to not return.

Also, my campaigns are deadly to characters. I have players generate 2 characters, But I DON'T set up situations where people are getting torched, in minute 1, or 10, or right off the bat.

If they have to take on 10 thugs, they can walk right up head on, or counter-ambush, or parley, or call the cops, or nuke 'em from orbit.

But most times, they walk right up, and get beaten down, and then complain that the module or scenario is flawed, because a few PC got killed, and they think Traveller is D&D in space.

Or they think that Characters can and should have script immunity, because the Characters are the focus, not the plot, and thus the players pretty much demand cake-walk scenarios, where there is little to ne real challenge.

How many Referees have run into this?

Players testing, "Will the GM kill off my Character?":

There are players that play to the wall, and beyond, assuming they have script immunity, testing the game system, testing the GM.

Sure, if the task is Impossible and a lucky player rolls it, they just changed the course of the story. Bully for them.

But, once being told the task is Impossible, Hazardous, Fateful, and Player is saying "I Try Anyway," I am never going to soft-coat it, if death is pre-determined to be a result, and expressly stated before-hand, "If this fails, your character will die." Yet some will still risk it, take up the dice with their "I feel lucky mojo," then whine or complain when the PC fails the roll.

To the player that says, "I put my pistol in my mouth, and kill myself." I don't make 'em roll, just to be featured in a Steve Jackson Murphy's Rules Cartoon. Invariably, someone digs out a rules book, and tries to play Murphy, to get attention, while everyone else tells him to shut his hole, that's he's been dead 5 minutes, and dead characters don't talk.


If the character, against referee advice, sets themselves up to be a spy, to join a band of 10 pirates, to either join them,and the pirates uncover his identity, (either through roleplay slip-up, interrogation, or somesuch, and say,

"Okay, matey, arr, arr, we know ye be a spy working for the Patrol. Give the location of yer ship (or something else significant) or we space ye!" and the player says, "Pfft, to hell with you all!" then what?

Task: Eat hard vacuum with no suit, and no 02 for an hour.

How many Dice? What Skills apply? I don't think any are needed, and I think it's a case of giving a chance to survive for playing in this manner should not be rewarded with PC survival.

What do you all do with the above?

Should I unbend my concept of Traveller, and as a ref just say, "Oh, okay! I see! He was supposed to live, since he's a PC Hero, so a pirate fumbles and drops his gun, it just so happens that the ropes are loose, and at that exact second the lights go out, Flash! Boom! Boom! Boom! Bang! Pow! Lights back on, all 10 pirates are dead, because after running out of the 7 rounds for the 7 autopistol head shots, The PC had to pistol-whip the other three.

I mean, come on.

I have had players Demand that I game it out, and when I do, the PC gets beat down, and suggests, "Hey, why don't they tie me up for ransom?"

Or should the Pirates say, "Ah, let's just kill him, he's a dirty spy." and just do it.

Has anyone ever ran into a player that seeks to "Crack the Scenario" / "He [Referee] doesn't obviously want us to do that, so we should try it anyway since it will Short-cut to the chase."

Mind you, this is not my plot, this is the players acting with freedom within it, coming up with Bad Plan, then feeding it to Traveller Ref, thinking it is D&D's "Let's Wade In."

That being said, doing Impossible Task things is never an adventure requirement. But players often come up with such things.

Okay, I realize, it's not a novel.

The players decide what they want to attempt, and the ref makes the call as to if it works or not, based on as many factors as he can figure apply, roll the dice if you feel like it's necessary.

This is why CT is still around. Ref's call. Real Simple.

And players will argue, but it is the Ref's game.

I'm interested to hear how other Referees do things, and handle the above or similar.

-Merxiless

 

[aramis]

Me, I run MT, off the cuff, with limited prep work, and when in the spinward main, my coppy of TTA handy.

I use the task system to streamline and make consistent my games' mechanics.

Having run both small scale and large scale games (Last one was PC's as Cadre of a Marine Regiment during the 5FW... take then hold until relieved... on a reeducation center...), MT's systems made it simple to run. We had a semi-detailed NPC for EVERY marine in the regiment... UPP, Skills, Terms, and Rank. We were able to play out both the PC scale snipe and skirmish, and the big battle for the Center, in one consistent mechanic.

For me, it is using the rules as a tool to ensure a shared story-telling, and to prevent "all endings are happy."

A sad situation can be really good play, and quite dramatic. Good drama requires a sense of risk; MT provides that best for me.

 

[Darium]

Oh wow, so much of what I feel about RPGs is on that post Merxiless. When I first started role-playing in '79 (plucks at graying hair) it was simple. The rules fed the action and charcters were fleshed out by the players imaginations. Character sheets could be 3x5 index cards. But as the novelty of RPGs wore off many GMs and players looked for more realism. Games expanded in scope and detail and character sheets got longer. But after more than ten years of this I got turned off of it. In '89 Shadowrun was released. It was different, it was simpler and I loved it. I started running the game in a style that was heavy on action and story and light on details. When T4 came out in '96 I decided that was a good way to get back into Traveller. It wasn't exactly what I was looking for but got the ball rolling. The release of the 3rd edition of D&D was a dissapiontment. The direction of the game (and of rolepaying in general) was the opposite of what I was looking for so I gave it up. The darkness on the horizon was only temporary. The Classic Traveller reprints. It still strikes me as funny how a game I played more than 20 yrs ago is my favourite.

Years ago, in the early days of roleplaying the DM or GM was often referred to as a judge. This aspect of the job of running games seems to have been lost under the mass of rules in todays games.To many games try to use rules to regulate everything in a game. It my opinon that your job is to interpret what the results of the die rolls mean. An example; when rolling up a CT character I failed a survival roll. Instaid of killing him off th GM took the characters arm. The character's bionic prostesis became an ineresting quirk. No charts no rules no die rolling, he just made it up.

 

[Spud]

My early experiences with CT were mostly based in the game store I worked at. Mondays and Thursdays we had Traveller running. This was '79,'80. The manager required us to allow drop-in players and that led to some very interesting dust-ups.

A core of regulars kept things sane, as a rule. One of our players opined that the job of the "ref" as we called it, was "to screw the PC's as hard as he could, but they still want to play." Keep hope alive, but don't be generous. In this era, the expression "Monty-Hall dungeon" came into being. I have always found hungry players are more interesting. As player, I find hungry people aren't bored.

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Originally posted by Merxiless:
I just don't use a lot of the rules as written, trust my experience, and I try tell it like a story, figuring calculations way ahead of time, by myself, minimum dice rolls in game, maximum story and roleplaying of NPCs.

Sure, I'll calculate the planet's temperature and axial tilt, and albedo, and all of that physics / planetology stuff beforehand, but that's the creativity / discovery / generation fun for me.

When I am playing, it's fast and loose, with a sci fi soundtrack, and lots of arm-waving.

Well, Back when I started playing and GM’ing Traveller (1978-82), the only other role playing game we did often was D & D.
Our games were usually run like that (D&D) but as an alternative to “Another dungeon crawl”.
We set up our characters, learned enough to resolve problems using our characters skills vs. difficulty levels and role played everything else (cargo finding, recruiting people, hiring on with a patron, etc.)

Originally posted by Merxiless:
As the Referee, as I understand it, it is my position to remain neutral and use my judgement to determine whatever happens, based on the player's actions, with the rules as a guide, plus my own real world, and game referee experience.

Exactly.
As the GM, your supposed to be neutral and simply “Present” or “Role play” all the parts not played by the characters.
The rules are more like what Captain Barbosa said in “Pirates of the Caribbean”; “are more like guidelines…”
When the situation warrants intervention to make the story flow smoothly (or even to keep it going rather than stalling while you check the rules), intervene.

Originally posted by Merxiless:
How do you deal with problem players?

If the players have scenario matrix storyline choices to go to planets A, B, and C, (because that's what I have mapped) and they look at this and meta-game it and say,

"Oh, look 3 planets, hm. Well, let's misjump, since we aren't gonna follow the ref's guidelines, let's see what he does."

How do you handle it?

Ah, my friend…
When the players “Actively” try to interfere with all your hard work; remember the lessons we learned in D&D.
“Blue lightning bolts out of the sky HURT!”

If the players own (or are purchasing) their own ship; damage it if they try a deliberate misjump.
(And send them where you want them to go anyways!). Have people hired to chase them back on course. Have a big underworld operator make them “An offer they can’t refuse”.

Originally posted by Merxiless:
If they have to take on 10 thugs, they can walk right up head on, or counter-ambush, or parley, or call the cops, or nuke 'em from orbit.

But most times, they walk right up, and get beaten down, and then complain that the module or scenario is flawed, because a few PC got killed, and they think Traveller is D&D in space.

Or they think that Characters can and should have script immunity, because the Characters are the focus, not the plot, and thus the players pretty much demand cake-walk scenarios, where there is little to ne real challenge.

Man; now this is harder for people to realize but, needs to be understood by the players…”Characters are not gods.” They must act like real, everyday, people would act. You would only walk right up to the thugs “if” you have some form of power to deal with them (back up troops, superior weapons/armor, a bargaining chip/hostage).
Like my grandpa used to tell me;
“If you pull the tigers tail, expect to have to deal with his claws.”
The whole purpose of playing is not “To Win” exactly.
It is to Have fun, tell a story and perhaps gain something for your character (fame, money, etc.) in this order.

Originally posted by Merxiless:
"Okay, matey, arr, arr, we know ye be a spy working for the Patrol. Give the location of yer ship (or something else significant) or we space ye!" and the player says, "Pfft, to hell with you all!" then what?

Task: Eat hard vacuum with no suit, and no 02 for an hour.

How many Dice? What Skills apply? I don't think any are needed, and I think it's a case of giving a chance to survive for playing in this manner should not be rewarded with PC survival.

Ah!
But what a great opportunity for this PC to do some Role Playing…
He can try to give that act of his life (litteraly) and either
1) “Play the part of the guy just caught and try to convince the pirates not to space him and beg for his life” or
2) “Roll on the task table to do the same”.
Optimally, the player will go for option 1. If he fails either option; bye, bye matey… (Roll a new character).

Originally posted by Merxiless:
The players decide what they want to attempt, and the ref makes the call as to if it works or not, based on as many factors as he can figure apply, roll the dice if you feel like it's necessary.

This is why CT is still around. Ref's call. Real Simple.

And players will argue, but it is the Ref's game.

Here it is in a nut shell.
The Ref is the Final arbiter of all decisions concerning the game.
You don’t like his decisions?
Ref your own game or find another Ref to play with.

We are playing this game to have fun, tell a story and perhaps, if we are lucky, gain something for our characters.

Great questions. Thanks for letting me share my answers. I hope you find something useful in here somewhere.
Chuck W.

 

[parmasson]

Story, story, story. That is the guiding principle. Rule systems, dice, stats are all just items that assist in the co-operative story telling process.

If anyone ever dared to mess up the other players good time they would just be dropped from the next game and forever, quietly. I have not had that problem since we started back up. In the old days spontaneous human combustion was the threat. Never had to fully realize it-
everybody got the hint and understood.

 

[mike wightman]

I set the scene, and know the big background secrets.

The players do what they want to. Many sub-plots have evolved over the years because of the stuff the players make up at the table. If they go off at a tangent, I make stuff up.

If their characters do stupid things, their characters die.

These days we all prefer rules light - too many combats in the past requiring three hours to resolve a ten minute combat scene.

The best sessions are usually the ones where the dice rolls are at a minimum.

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

As Shakespeare said, "...the play's the thing."

When I ref a game, I am presenting to the players my vision. Sure, I have this idealized version of what this adventure should look like, but it's not cast in stone.

If the players attempt to depart from my vision, I don't panic. Just reach to the old notebook/cardfile of plot twisters ready for just such an emergency...

As long as the players don't suspect that it is a 'deus ex machina' that is forced on them, you can usually get away with it.

As has been stated before, it is your game. Don't let a few D6 spots spoil your fun!

 

[JAFARR]

I was one of the players who forced the ref to play by the seat of his pants. It his story line had 10 possible directions it go from the current point, I discovered # 11. Not on purpose, not to provoke him, but because no two people think out things the same way. The best ref I player with was very good at this sort of thing and we all had fun - usually. I sort of have this 1 on 1 game going right now with a guy who has been gming D&D a lot. He took a minor npc who was just there for local color and made sure the one who caused his death paid for his crime. Upshot of the whole thing was I became the one who was dancing all over the place trying to recover my story line. It didn't work, so we now have an entirely new storyline. We are both having fun so that is what matters.