[UA] Reactive vs Proactive Players

[Niall]

A big stick? By that I mean you set the characters up and give them a clear
motivation to address a problem. This would give the reactive players
something to focus on and develop. One thing I have used very successfully
in a Cyberpunk game was telling the players they were putting together a
criminal group and then providing them with a back story where they had
recently been ripped off in a deal and lost virutally all of the money they
had invested. Not only were their creditors circling but other gangs now
perceived them as weak and were looking to take down their sources of income
(these were pretty well developed pre-game) - they had about 14 days they
reckoned (i.e I told them) to try and turn things around. This was done with
3 gamers 2 of whom were fairly reactive but who got with the idea very
quickly. Because the characters had to act quickly and brutally to
demonstrate they were 'still in the game' it provided lots of hooks to get
them involved in other plots - they took revenge on the guy who screwed
them, he went to a larger local gang for help so they went to the gang's
major enemies for support and it all escalated from there. Fairly obviously
influenced by Hardwired by Walter John Williams but should be easy enough to
port over.

I suppose you also need to distinguish between reactive players and bad
players. The former I think want enough detail and obvious plot hooks to get
going but are willing to get into the spirit of the game. The latter are
just not engaging with the game at any level and nothing you do in-game is
going to address that.

Niall



On 14/09/06, Chris Cooper <insectking at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I've come to the understanding that UA is a game that
> relies on proactive players - players that take
> initiative and get into the game.
>
> I've always run games for proactive players. I suppose
> I'm just hardwired that way. I create a setting with
> the plot partly established and the opening scene is
> the characters getting involved one way or another.
>
> How do I make games for reactive characters. Y'know
> the ones that have to be prodded and handed evidence
> on platters. Particularly in UA games.
>
> Thanks.
>
> C.
>
> I have a damn blog. Happy now?
>
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