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By Root 391 0

example, Whisper was obsessed with dragons and found a pair of dragonskin gloves. These gloves did not seem overly valuable at first, but my character was instantly attracted to them and took them as her share of the treasure. As she gave experience points to the gloves, she was given choices such as whether she wanted them to be thicker and more protective or whether she wanted them to help her do damage. In this manner, I was able to work with Scott to create a powerful magic item for my character that would be unique and not available in any rule books. Adding these items to the game also allowed Scott to adjust the typical rules to make magic items more accessible within the method of treasure distribution decided upon by his specific gaming group; but to also make magic more special as per his philosophy for the world of Sorpraedor. Had my gloves been found at full power either in a treasure horde or a magic shop in Sorpraedor, I would likely have not been able to afford them. Because Scott was working with five players rather than an entire community, as seen in the RPGA, he was able to adjust these rules to fit our game and his vision for the storyworld.

Collaborative Storytelling

The DM works from published texts, such as modules and rule books, but must also accommodate different types of players with different styles of gaming and somehow pull together a coherent adventure. While Broadhurst explains that the author of an RPGA module “can’t make any specific assumptions about the party mix and so cannot design encounters which require a specific power/class/race/etc to overcome” (personal communication, July 1, 2009), the home DM knows exactly who his players and characters are and can allow them to influence the story more directly. As I mentioned, the dragonskin gloves were created solely with my character in mind. The DM will steer players toward things that he knows will interest them. This level of attentiveness is most common in on-going campaigns where the DM knows the players and their characters well; however, this might happen on a more general level in other gaming session, such as guiding the wizard in the party toward the magic item. In so-doing, we see the DM in the role of director and producer rather than sole author. A good DM must allow the players a chance to participate and author their own characters and parts of the world, but he must still direct these activities to fit in with the world and story he has authored.

In the world of Sorpraedor, Mary was particularly involved in authoring Maureen’s story, in part due to her gaming style and in part due to her absences from multiple gaming sessions. A player missing a gaming session can cause a hole in the coherence of the game, one that the DM must carefully mend. When Mark missed a session he left Cuthalion in the hands of other players, but when Mary missed out, she worked collaboratively with Scott, over email and in person, to devise an alternate plotline for Maureen. Maureen’s unique storyline started from her conception as a character. Mary decided that her character, a rogue, was in jail at one point and worked with Scott to come up with the specifics of the backstory. In a personal email, she expressed this idea to Scott, explaining that she hoped her character could have escaped from a prison and have evil enemies pursuing her. Scott replied with some ideas on how to work this into the already existing Sorpraedor campaign:

There is a rogue’s guild (or four) in the city of Gateway. One of them in particular is very displeased with Whisper and her party. What better place for someone on the run to go, but to people who also are hated by your nemesis? Perhaps you even used to be a part of this organization and you can only leave feet first, unless you are a resourceful rogue who manages to escape.

Thus, Scott folded in Mary’s idea for a character backstory with already existing parts of the Sorpraedor world. Adding a pre-existing relationship between Maureen and the Obsidian Brotherhood gang, added to the interest of the group