God-moding: The good, the bad, the ugly.

Okay, this is an issue that is dear to my heart, and one which other people have covered ad-nauseum, I'm sure, but given that someone has recently hit me with a pretty serious god-mod, I wanted to put down some thoughts about it.

What is God-moding?

At its simplest level, god-moding is defined as follows: Deciding what happens to another player's character, without the player's consent. It is sometimes subtle, but essentially, any time one player unavoidably affects another player's character, that's god-moding.

In a GMd game, the GM is the ruler of reality, and as such is theoretically incapable of god-moding, though I'd personally consider it good practice for GMs to allow players a way out.

But in a shared-world RP situation, such as you get in MMOs, or most online RP, then there is rarely one person "running" the game - there are just a large number of people who are playing it, and etiquette demands that they avoid annoying each other. Failure to do so tends to dissolve a game or scenario into "my e-peen is bigger than yours!" contests, which are laughable. But, and this comes from personal experience, when it's your character getting pissed on from a great height, it's really annoying.

Here's a little background for what happened recently: In City of Heroes right now, there's a character who rather severely needs their head seeing to. She's gone utterly off the rails, as far as several people (other characters) are concerned, and the number one suggestion for helping her has so far been for a psychic to take a gander inside her head and try to repair what's broken.

Now, one of my characters is psychic. Samantha Huntington, who has been known to brag that she is the fifth most powerful psychic in the world (she's not, but she's no slouch), whose skills are all based around memory alteration and mind control. I'm quite prepared to RP out a psychic repair session. I'm not very good at it, but I'll do it. Sam is rather arrogant, too, and confident in her own capabilities, and has strong feelings about right and wrong.

Now, Sam was engaged in a conversation with this character, and put across her feelings about the character's actions in a... rather blunt fashion. Sam also attempted a psychic probe of the character, which failed (because said player refused to let it work, which is fine). Said character got massively insulted and left. Sam really didn't think anything more of it.

Then I got a private message on the Official Game Forum:

(( sorry to disturb you...))

---

...but it seems that Samantha Huntington is now under subtle surveillance. She may, or may not have noticed white rental vans with darkened windows parked near her whereabouts. Vans appear empty if scanned with psychic powers. And they're only seen from a distance.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but that seems like something I can't control about my character. I wasn't asked if it was okay to put my character under surveillance, I wasn't given the opportunity to point out all of the HUGE flaws in trying to do so (which I'll cover in a moment), and it really does stink to high heaven of someone trying to muscle my character.

Now, I'm not averse to my characters being put under observation but I'd like to be involved in it. If I'd been approached first, I'd probably have agreed, because I'd have understood the reasons why it's happening. But right now this looks like someone who's in a mood with me (because of my character's attitude and actions) trying to "put one over" on me. Which is awful.

Now for the cathartic bit: Reasons why such observation is essentially impossible.

1) The Helena factor. Samantha Huntington built an Artificial Intelligence unit several years ago, called Helena. Helena constantly scans and observes the local area around Sam and her brother Richard (my main character), and warns of potential threats. The probability of such observation occuring for more than about five minutes is essentially nil.

2) Sam can teleport. Now, this includes the in-game teleportation travel power, which has a range of 100 yards (more than enough to break Line-of-Sight in most circumstances), as well as access to two Super Group bases with complete teleport beacon sets (meaning she can teleport to pretty much any part of the city, from any part of the city), so walking is something she does because she enjoys it. Good luck tracking her when she doesn't want to be followed.

3) Sam has a room in Huntington Manor. She hasn't been living there for a while, but she has a room inside a manor house with extensive grounds (walled grounds) that are constantly patrolled by a small cadre of ex-Knives of Artemis trainees (yes, they kept the stealth gear), as well as 100% coverage by a continuously active AI, extensive shielding and sound-proofing, and enough concealed firepower to hold off a small army - the manor is still standing after the second Rikti invasion for a reason.

4) Sam has a very protective brother. My main character, Richard, is what I tend to refer to as a "cosmic-level" character. He's one of those unbelievably awesome, Superman/Green Lantern/Dr Strange level people who tend not to get involved with the petty, but deals with threats from beyond. Let's take a look at some of his known (and easily represented in-game) abilities. A) He can move really fast. In-game, he's at the speed cap of 92.5 mph. For RP purposes, that's just the speed he sets himself inside the city limits - he can go a LOT faster. More than fast enough to reach a stationary van on a city street. B) He can walk through walls. Not represented in-game, unfortunately, but he does have the phasing power as a stand-in. Unless said van has some sort of weird multi-dimensional blocking technology, then he can get inside it. C) He doesn't need to rest. He can keep this up for days. I need sleep, but he doesn't need anywhere near as much as I do. D) There's a black hole in his head. Don't ask, the backstory is very complex, convoluted and comicy, but instead of a brain, he (sort of) has a black hole the size of a golf ball in his noggin, and he can control how much it affects the world, and if he wants to destroy a van that's spying on his baby sister, then he sure as hell can. (Yes, there are limits. I have no desire to destroy the game world, so I've set very stringent limits on the amount of control he actually has - when his choices jump suddenly from "energy blasts of serious pain" to "eat the world in less than a second", he's not about to go further than the energy blasts.) E) He can turn invisible. Yes, that's right, folks, he can fade completely from view and become undetectable to the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

The point is that all of these things have been established since before this player came along. I'm not suddenly making stuff up to be awkward. These things are all part of my characters' backstories/experiences, and a large number of my fellow roleplayers in the game are aware of them. So when someone tells me "Sam's under surveillance" without finding out how likely it actually is for her to be under surveillance, it winds me up.

Part of me wants to run with it, but I get the impression that if I try, I'll be trapped by whatever this other player wants to acheive, and effectively unable to play my own characters because "that doesn't work. Nor does that. Nor that." So I'm probably just going to write a short story explaining why it won't work, and put the kybosh on the whole deal straight away.

Weekly Games: M&M

This will probably be my last post on this for a little while, due to some significant changes happening in my life (as well as a lot of holiday) in the near future.

Now, that doesn't mean that my games will suffer, just that I'm unlikely to have the time to post on this blog.

Last night's session was really rather good: A fair chunk of characterisation, a plot-twist, and a lot of fun.

There are currently two threads of investigation: Joanne Blake, student at Claremont Academy; and Aiden O'Hara, assistant groundskeeper at the same establishment.

The ladies (Liberty Belle and Rapscallion) followed and found Joanne, and Raps had a nice conversation with her, while the men (Axelerator and Procyon) headed off to investigate the gardener. Scrub's player was unavailable, through no fault of his own, so he was relegated to the background - I had enough to handle as it was!

Split party adventuring is always tricky, but since it was all talky stuff, no combat, I felt confident that I would be able to handle it... and I believe I managed it with aplomb.

Joanne revealed herself to be a young student feeling the pressure of her teachers, struggling with the complexity of her learning (who said magic was easy?). It was discovered that she had, in the middle of the night, performed a magical ritual, intended to summon an imp to help tidy her room. According to Joanne, though, nothing happened, and the following day it was discovered that all of the teachers and adult support staff had vanished from the grounds. Joanne, feeling guilty and frustrated, came to the conclusion that it might be her fault, so kept quiet about it. She can't see how she could be to blame, but is afraid that she is.

The pair heading to see Aiden, the gardener, found his residence, and discovered evidence of a pretty wild party - beer, babes and bongs would be a pretty fair description. As events unfolded, though, it seems that there is something decidedly more sinister at work, here, as Aiden himself, along with an as-yet-unnamed girl, was crucified in his own bathroom, mystic symbols inscribed in their flesh.

No, I'm not above introducing some slightly dark themes to my games.

Now, I've said before that it takes a lot out of me to run this game, and it really does. But it's at times like this that I just love it! Up to now, everyone has been assuming the situation at Claremont is due to either Joanne or Aiden. Now the seed of doubt is thrown in, because it looks like it could be both.

I'm going to try to avoid spoiling my intended plotline with reveals about my thinking process, but I will offer my players a little teaser by pointing out that one of these events was not planned by me until the very last minute. The other was intended all along.

This brings me on to my preferred GMing style - winging it so much that I might as well be flying. Okay, let me clarify that a little. I don't just make stuff up as I go along, really, but I'm pretty well practiced at allowing events to pan out along a very loose plotline, and then suddenly bringing in details that match previous observations, but cast them in a completely new light.

I'm not very good at using red herrings, though. I like to interweave and combine all my plotlines into a single tapestry that, when viewed after the fact, looks stunning... but I can guarantee that I didn't actually plan it that way.

There are advantages and disadvantages to this style. The biggest disadvantage is that the plots can sometimes have little direction while I'm waiting for a flash of inspiration that will allow me to link it to what else is going on. In those situations, I tend to resort to events and encounters that don't require me to think all that much, and that can make a campaign stagnate. On the other side of the coin, though, when my mind is working the way it usually does, I am able to adapt events and encounters to the changing world in a coherent and sensible fashion, and the coolest thing it means is that player actions matter. If the PCs have a moment of insight, and come up with a brilliant plan, I'm not going to force events unless it will ruin the rest of the story. I'd much rather the players felt a sense of accomplishment, than my carefully crafted plotline flow out the way I've planned.

Let's take a quick look at the current situation in this game, as an example. What follows are pretty much my notes for this adventure, not counting NPC statistics, and this may contain spoilers (though I've removed huge chunks of them), so be warned:

The Scenario: The adult staff from Claremont Academy has vanished, and the heroes are drafted in to help find them.

1) Get the players involved. Use Serena Vervain (Seven) from Freedom City. Asking for help from heroes as trying to avoid the public eye.

2) Suspicious events. Gardener Aiden O'Hara not missing (under age 20), lives off-campus, hasn't been in to work since the first morning, though. Joanne Blake tried a summoning ritual that failed.

3) [Deleted due to spoilers] has resulted in the teachers being transported to [Deleted due to spoilers]. PCs must find a way to get there (piggy-back off previous event?).

4) Staff have been captured by [Deleted due to spoilers], and handed over to [Deleted due to spoilers], who consist of [Deleted due to spoilers].

Yes, that is an entire adventure, so far. Everything else that happens is completely off the cuff.

Essentially, it's a flagrant acknowledgement of my number one rule: No plot survives contact with the players. I know what's happened, I know why it's happened, and I know what's going to be happening right up until the PCs arrive on the scene... but after that, all bets are off. NPCs have to react to changes just as much as anyone else, and they only know what they know - though super-smart ones might be able to guess and have put contingencies in place that I will simply invent on the fly.

Many people might ask why I do it this way, and the simple answer is: Because otherwise I'll just be writing a story.

I like writing stories. I enjoy it a lot, and I get a kick out of it. But I like shared stories better. I like being surprised by what players come up with. I like stealing player ideas to improve my plots. And allowing the players to directly affect the outcome of the story is the best way I know of to ensure that they feel involved and a real part of the world we're building together.

City of Heroes: Internet Drama

Time to relate a couple of my personal experiences recently while RPing in City of Heroes. All the usual disclaimers regarding personal bias and so forth.

There has recently been a plotline going on involving a "possibly rogue hero", who has essentially wrecked almost every level of trust she has with other heroes. My character knows this hero (for ease of use, let's call her "R"), likes her, and hoped that she was actually trying to trick the villain.

R is now pregnant with the villains's child (whoah, that's some trick she's trying to pull!), but was instrumental in his (illegal) arrest.

Now, my main plays the perception game. A lot. By that, I mean that he thinks it's better for people to believe he knows more than he does, and is more dangerous than he really is. As a civilian, he's generally friendly, cheerful, cheeky and (I hope) likeable. As a hero, he's a serious, cold-hearted, ruthless bastard. The heroic persona is a complete fabrication. He believes that people who actually know him will recognise that he puts on an act as soon as he puts on the spandex. Obviously, this disparity is designed to cause potential in-character conflict as people try to work out what's the truth.

During the investigation to find and deal with the villain and his plot to kill a lot of people, my character got into a very loud and very public argument with R. The reason? The villain, despite knowing that R cannot lie, did not entirely believe that she was not working against him. Probably a sensible move. So, in the interests of convincing the villain (I'm going to call him "S") that R was on the level, my character made it very publicly known that he no longer trusted R, and thought she was roughly on the level of pond scum.

Now, when he's not actively acting out a role, my character is very honest. He doesn't lie very well, and tends to broadcast his feelings in the things he says. So it became clear to a number of other heroes that my character was hiding something. Well, yes, he was - his real intentions. However, they decided to interpret this as him hiding some useful knowledge that would help with the investigation of the villain.

Due to this, after things got settled, one of those heroes decided to call down the full weight of the law on my character, because of his (to paraphrase) "suspicious behaviour that may constitute obstruction of justice".

Fair enough, and that's a completely reasonable response, given the suspicions flying around. But in-character the response I gave was one of anger. My character thinks he should have been trusted to help people. He's been an active hero in Paragon City for over three years solid, has saved the world a number of times, knows most of the more powerful heroes on a first-name basis, and believes that he deserves the benefit of the doubt. So when someone he considers a friend states quite clearly that she believes he's pulling a fast one, he gets angry.

Result: If she decides to pursue calling the feds down on him, he will sue for harrassment and defamation of character.

To be honest, I really didn't think much more of it. It's one of those fun little character conflicts that makes RPing so enjoyable to me.

Which now brings us to last night. I'm still decidedly unsure how I feel about what happened. I think I'm a bit peeved, to be completely honest.

Anyway, the villain had put in motion a plot that involved the kidnapping and unlawful incarceration of an 8-year old girl. Or at least that's what was claimed. I still don't know if it was "true".

Here's what happened from my perspective:

A number of heroes are chilling out at the local RP hangout, chatting, enjoying themselves, discussing recent events and so forth.

Suddenly, out of the blue, someone mentions a kidnapping. No preamble, no set-up. Just "There's been a kidnapping!" On querying this, my character hears that there has been an announcement over the police radio. I go and check all of my chatlogs, including the channels I don't keep open when I'm RPing, but there's nothing. Nada.

Now, given that I had no interest in getting involved in another plot so soon after dealing with the whole situation involving R and S, and given that the only source from which this alleged kidnapping has come is the same character who thinks my character is guilty of obstruction of justice, I decided not to get involved. Wasn't in the mood, was enjoying the casual chat RP going on, didn't want to get involved in the plot.

At which point this same character (I'm going to call her "P"), starts harranguing my character for not taking action. Not any of the other half-dozen characters who were still hanging around chatting - mine, and mine alone.

Now, since my character only had P's word that there was even anything going on, and given that he's less than happy with P at the moment, he pointed out that for all he knew, there was a mass delusion going on, because the so-called police announcement had not happened.

P then spends an absolute age moaning and whining at my character for not helping. Other people observe that P could have spent the time looking for the kidnap victim, which would have been productive.

Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but eventually P left to help with the rescue attempt, which was apparently successful, and P's player said on an out-of-game multi-user chatroom of which I am also a member, words to the effect of "now to confront someone about this 'delusional' kidnapping".

WHOAH, THERE!

Taking a step backward in time, now, I figured out what happened. The kidnapping was announced on an in-game Out Of Character chat channel of which I am not a member. Which is why I knew nothing about it. And if I know nothing about it, my character sure as hell knows less. Which is why my character responded in the way he did. If it had been a public announcement, I'm sure my character's response would have been different. But it wasn't. It was on a chat channel that I am not on, and have no interest in being on. Since I was not party to the announcement (which could VERY easily have been made in local or broadcast chat), and since I didn't want to get involved anyway, I am reacting very badly to someone who a) tried to bully me into taking part and b) has come across, OOC, as wanting to gloat that my character was "wrong" about the veracity of the kidnapping report.

Some things to remember when running a plot in an MMO:

1) Every player has the right to decide if they want to be involved. Forcing plots down the throats of players who do not want to be involved is only going to piss them off.

2) When announcing an open plot that anyone can get involved in, ensure that the announcing event is available to everyone. If you don't, don't be surprised when people who weren't party to the announcement don't get involved in the plot.

3) Deciding what is real for characters that aren't your own is god-moding. God-moding is wrong. Deciding to gloat about it, and mentioning your intention to do so, OOC, is just petty and silly, and makes you look foolish.

Weekly Games: M&M

Well, last night was the (eventual) continuation of my "weekly" Mutants & Masterminds game. It got put off last week thanks to a last-minute change of plans on my part, involving my wife and I, both our cars, and my mother-in-law.

Thankfully the two weeks have given me the opportunity to think a little about the current plotline.

It was originally planned to be a brief side-step from the core campaign plot involving the sinister Zodiac Group, but, as ever, the GM took an idea and ran with it. This now has the potential to turn into a full-blown adventure, rather than a brief aside. Not that I intend to be at all bothered, though if my players complain, I'll have to take steps.

Last night was a wonderful talky session, no action at all, but a few conflict resolution rolls were needed (mostly Notice Checks) to see if things would be easy or hard.

As a recap, the teaching and support staff of Claremont Academy (in fact, every adult working there who is over the age of 20) have vanished! The pupils have called in outside help, because they want to keep things quiet and out of the press ( and that's because they don't really want it publicly known that they're all super-powered). So, they got in touch with the PCs who have gone over to see what they can learn.

From the OOC comments made, my plans are working quite well. There are a couple of suspicious characters at the school, and so far everyone is managing to treat the information they've been given the right way. Heck, they even managed to make one of the suspects cry. (I would say "like a girl", but she is a girl, so that would be a little pointless.)

The session was characterised by a few things I love about the online gameplay: Clear and concise communication between players, the ability of the GM to pass secret information to specific players, and a very clear demarcation between IC info and OOC info.

Problems that occured were pretty minimal, from my end - there was a small hiccough when I misread my map of the Academy's layout and described the wrong building as the PCs destination, and I misread the intent of one of the players who arrived after everyone else and mildly messed it up - neither of those were insurmountable issues, and neither actually caused any problems for anyone.

The party is starting to settle down into their personalities and roles, and it's a lot of fun to see certain people acting brashly, others being reconciliatory, others taking the lead - that sort of thing only comes to the fore in "talky" sessions, and it's truly wonderful to see.

I'm looking forward to this plotline (short or long), for a number of reasons - firstly is that it's my first attempt at a significant plot-twist in my M&M game (significant isn't the same thing as important). Secondly, I'm hoping to instill a sense of achievement - I can't say with what, because it will give away a major plot point. Thirdly because one part of it actually falls under the "moral ambiguity" issue, and I'm curious as to how the players choose to deal with that.

More on that as the plot develops.

That's it from me, for now - more coming after Wednesday (I hope), when I've had my D&D game.