First time with Over The Edge

Games Discussion Over the Edge/WaRP System (OGL)
1

I will start my first adventures as a Game Moderator and this great game OTE.

But I have a lot of question related my group and how to run a series in Al Amarja.

First: My current group is divided by new players which not have too much experience in role games and a few ones with a lot of experience playing.
And the first issue is to play as SandBox style or Railroad. But sandboxing scares me when the new players will keep asking "what", "when" and "why" instead of giving ideas. And the railroad is too much work for me and my older players get bored.

Second: in Al Amarja is so "be and do whatever you want" that the group will split in smaller groups and the stories will be broken at the end.

I played the first adventure from the core book: "Contact in Al Amarja" and it was fun, but quite frustrating for everyone, all the time we feel the game can give a lot more, and now we started with the second history "The Badashtiva" or something like that... but the begging of the history was so opened that it looks like a : "ok, we're here... and we have to play our characters are eating????" Both histories are for two sessions.

But I'm still scare with OTE...

So I'll be glad to ear your advices.

2
3

¡Holas!

I've found it best to group everyone together in some fashion. A "tourist survey" of The Edge (visiting places & rating them) for the Tourist Service, maybe as an exchange for a way to not be deported off AA; or a special team working for one of the factions, or all friends visiting together for someone's wedding i[/i] or a bizarre family-unit, all these work.

Then, most noobs could be gently pushed towards creating more "mainstream" (ie, realistic characters - like a scientist that has a special power/device, or a occultist touristing, or a reporter/jaded author who kicks ass whilst drunk). Evil reincarnated atlantean priests or ETs that wanna steal the isle from Kergillian hands could be allowed for more experienced players. This way, most noobs will be expected to be asking "the usual" noob/burger questions. Maybe a noob can play him/herself?

Remember the "tone." Best to make a "contract" that everyone signs & knows what to generally expect. OTE can be anything from a Dalí painting to the Eureka tv show (& all movie ratings in between - some parts of it are quite disturbing & some are downright silly!).

I'd say "sandbox" style works best, with minimum railroading (let the adventures gently & organically grow, or make it subtle for published stuff to be introduced) - the PCs will (at first have a lot on their plate - one hopes! - & will be checking stuff out. But remember, if you look closely, each barrio/area has some percentage of "stoppage/peril" that can help you detain them until you fill you can better control the situation, if you believe your outta your depth, that is...).

Also, check the PC sheets: check for interesting motivations & stuff that you know will engage the player &, deal with those. Maybe a tourist would be interested in visiting landmarks - so they will probably go to check the various monuments in different barrios... Then, you could roll on the tables or check for NPCs in those different locales & pick up their story ideas... Then you can take it from there...

The OTE books is pretty GM-friendly. Most of the info is quite visible &, if you fuck-up, then you can always let it stand & just keep rollin'. If the PCs catch your mistake, & you let the mistake stand, there's a new adventure right there. This is all from the advice in the GM's section.

I'd just wing it, usually. OTE should be tailored to your own point of view in every sense.

I was like you at first but once I started running the series I found out that OTE is pretty smooth.

HtH
T

4

Today I'll go for the second session of the second adventure...

I will try to enjoy more instead of work a lot around the history and players.

I think I need to be more confident in this game if I wanna be a GM.

Thanks for your advices!

5

[i]¡Holas!

¿Cómo le fué?[/i] :wink:

T

6

:slight_smile: ¡Genial!

The last session with the plot called "The Bodhisattva" was great.
At the beginning of the history, my players were bored due the "just eat and enjoy of the view", until the menace was presented and they start to confront it.

I leave the end of the history very opened, wired and I gave a few clues related with the Throckomorton Device.

So it was better, as my point of view.

One of my players told me that the adventure "Contact in Al Amarja" was better for him, because the end was not opened.

Then I told them that my intention with this two adventures was to introduce the mechanics and the tone of the games.

But at the next day I discuss with one of the older players and he told me that my OTE game was like David Lynch film instead a game of conspiracies.
So, then again I'm asking to myself, what kind of game is OTE?

I'm reading again everything in the core book (and I'm thinking to buy a few source books soon), and instead of conspiracies I'm seeing a "David Lynch universe" and the Naked Lunch (the book and the movie) instead of mafia, corporations or government conspiracies.

Waiting for your comments!

7

Apparently he was involved with Dune and Twin Peaks which could both work with OTE. Im not familar with his other works listed. But both have conspiracies and power plots which is what OTE is about. My biggest point is it comes down to you whether it stays that way or gets darker, deeper, lighter, more evil, more mysterious or what ever you want.
Ray

8

If you bring in The Glorious lords and Throckmorten it will get dark. If you bring in Glugs and Pharohs the game changes completely. If the game is about Otto's men and Aries Gang it becomes more like the movie The Warriors. If you bring in the Peace Force and De'Aubains it can move to an X-Files, Millenium type game. Heck if you want there could be a group fanatics who are starting a cult worshiping the beast called Xenomorfic alien. Which was stolen from the govt which was stolen from Russia by Dr Nusbum and his group of covert spies. Meaning he wanted it for his secret medical testing.
Ray

9

All the last comments are one of the biggest problem with one of my players who ask for the X-File kind conspiracies.

I'm moving more in the dark and surreal dangers. And I want to "work" with Kergillians and the low-life people in my next sessions.

Al Amarja could be a small island, but it's so f*cking big which you can put Conan trying to be a office man searching for a normal life.

For the moment I will take notes about some NPC and the relationships between them what will be there motivations to give to my players more weirdness in each game.

Do you recommend any sourcebook in particular?

10

Hi:

David Lynch films which are really incomprehensible/absurd/nightmarish:

Eraserhead (don't watch on full stomach)
Lost Highway
Mullholland Drive
Blue Velvet
Wild at Heart
Inland Empire
...& of course
Twin Peaks (but that's not a film - it's a tv series, which changed the way the USA does tv)

If you want the game "darker" you should really read most of Naked Lunch & I highly recomment the mind-bending Cronenberg film, of the same name*.

Specific sourcebooks:
House Call
Wildest Dreams (warning - very mature themes; the adventure is a classic)
Cloaks
Friend or Foe's an excellent GMC compilation... Let's your imagination run wild!

...

*Now, David Cronenberg has some pretty disturbing stuff himself, mind you!:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cronenberg

The Brood
Naked Lunch (get the unrated version for more full-on impact to you fragile mind)
eXistance
Rabid
Videodrome (one of the recommended films for OTE)
The Fly
Dead Ringers
Spider
Scanners (don't watch in a full meal)
...Come to mind.

HtH
T

11

Hi:

Blending X-Files with David Lynch:
Kergillians
the Sandmen
Throckmortons
the Cut-Ups
Vornites
Nusbaum
Compton

...come to the fore.

HtH
T

12

"...he told me that my OTE game was like David Lynch film instead a game of conspiracies. So, then again I'm asking to myself, what kind of game is OTE?"

Hi:

All of it ...& what you & your players make of it. Pick & choose, invent, transmute, transliterate! That's the beauty of OTE: You only truly need one book & your imagination!

HtH
T

13

Shame you dont live in northern Florida I could use a good game to wrap my mind around.
Ray :cry: