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ooking at the two versions of Madame Ling from yesterday, it’s notable that both contain the same amount of detail. Does this mean we can’t (or shouldn’t) add any prep to Madame Ling?
Not necessarily. But we need to look for where we can execute value-added prep that isn’t wastefully redundant or needlessly limiting within the scenario structure of Technoir. Specifically, we want to avoid pre-linking any of the nodes together: The plot map mechanics will do that for us during play.
But beyond that, there are a lots of way in which we could theoretically enhance Technoir transmissions.
For example, consider Club Neo. Off the top of my head, we could potentially prep:
- A detailed floorplan of the club.
- Throw together a couple paragraphs describing the “overlapping reality” club scene, in which people deliberately share a common physical space with contrasting audio- and visual-inputs pumped through their AR rigs.
- Detail the “seven layers of reality” on Club Neo’s experiential menu.
- Provide a stat block for the club’s bouncer.
- Prep a drink menu for the club that could be given to the players as a handout.
- Set up a random table of ten colorful NPCs who could be used to provide the club with some instant flavor as needed.
How much of that should you actually prep? I dunno. How much of it actually looks useful to you? How much of it do you think would enhance the game for you and your players? How much time are you willing to spend in prep?
For myself, I’ve so far confined my Technoir runs to the minimalist approach of the default transmissions, with one exception: For each city that I’ve run, I’ve googled up a neighborhood map of the city as it currently exists and printed it off. Although the cities have changed dramatically in Technoir’s dark future, these maps have given me just enough of the local geography for a firm foundation.
SOME FINAL QUALIFIERS
In closing, I want to just clear up a couple minor semantic points which are likely to throw some people off the scent if they get too hung up on them.
To be perfectly clear: Every bit of detail you prep is, in some sense, going to lock down options. That’s why I made it a point to specifically identify the principles of smart prep as guidelines. If you try to pursue them as hard rules you’re going to be disappointed.
For example, what if I decide to prep Club Neo in more detail and, as part of that, say that it’s owned and operated by former twee-disco star Big Purple? I have now effectively locked out the option of making Madame Ling the owner of Club Neo. How is that any different than locking Madame Ling into actually being the owner of Club Neo? Haven’t I still restricted her relationship with the club?
Well, it’s largely a matter of degree. By making someone else the owner of Club Neo, I have locked out one option for Madame Ling among a nearly infinite multitude. But if I make Madame Ling the owner of the club, I have locked out a multitude of options in favor of a single choice.
Then am I saying that you should never make an NPC the owner of a restaurant? Well, as Big Purple demonstrates, obviously not. This is something particular to the fact that Madame Ling and Club Neo are both nodes in Technoir’s scenario structure: There’s nothing particularly heinous about making Madame Ling the owner of a sex salon or giving Club Neo a particular owner; it is rather the particular act of pre-linking two nodes which is substantially problematic within this specific scenario structure.
The point is that you want to maximize the utility and flexibility of your prep while avoiding prep which serves little or no function except to limit the flexibility of your material. Pre-linking nodes in Technoir is a particularly clear-cut example of how you can limit your flexibility without adding utility; prepping plots instead of situations is a slightly more complicated one.
But there are plenty of other examples (both large and small). For example, you might write, “The giants are automatically hostile and will not listen to negotiations of any kind.” It’s just one sentence, but unless I’ve got a really good reason for introducing that type of limitation, I’m not going to do it. I’m certainly not going to elaborate upon it. What’s the point of wasting time on something which provides a strictly negative value at the actual game table?
Smart prep. It’s what all the cool kids are doing.
I like your articles in general but this one and the previous one have lost me. I loved don’t prep plots and have used it to great effect in my games. I am not sure why locking out options is bad. I like to use the locked down detail to open other options.
For example: Why does Ling own the club? Does it have facilities useful to her motivations and work? Did she take it from someone by nefarious means i.e. murder? Is anyone seeking revenge for that murder? Does she distribute drugs from the club or use it to launder money…or both.
You lock down one option and open up a lot of possibilities. Don’t Prep Plots seemed to encourage that method as setting up a world with connections (at least 3) so that I did not need to push the players down certain paths. If I create a world with no connections and no reason for them then how does that work?
I think the idea here is that you want to defer committing to any PARTICULAR connection as long as possible. By doing this you leave time for the players to surprise you, or for you to think of something better, or for the whole connection to become moot because the players don’t care or do something else.
My impression is that Technoir appears to be well suited to “seat-of-the-pants” GMing where you defer these kinds of decisions until they become immediately relevant.
If it helps you as a GM to commit to some connections/details early, that’s fine; but you do you run the risk of developing things that will never see play (or alternatively you will have to put on your train conductor’s hat to ensure that the players see it).
@Joe: That’s the exact misinterpretation that I knew someone would make and, therefore, wrote an entire extra section of the essay to specifically dispel.
As I say in the essay itself, there is nothing wrong with saying that X is the owner of Y… except if they’re both nodes in the very specific case of Technoir‘s plot maps where pre-connecting two nodes interferes with the plot-mapping mechanics.
If you’re looking for general principles, here are two:
1. When you prep something which specifically limits your in-play options (and all prep does), make sure that the value you’re deriving from that prep outweighs the value lost by limiting your in-play options.
2. The value added by the prep should justify the amount of time you spend prepping it.
There’s no universal way to make these determinations. It will depend on your strengths and weaknesses as a GM, the things your players enjoy, the game structure you’re using, and the game that you’re playing.
That is the thing though. Prep can never really limit your in play options. Any extra prep can also be used in future games.
If I say Ling owns the club but decide during the game that will not be a good option for where the players are headed I can choose to sever that connection before it ever comes up.
Some of this is going to be a style difference like Leland said. I like to develop a sense of realism in the game world.
Knowing that Ling is owner of the club would let me develop handouts that enforce this connection. I like using a one sheet newspaper every week. Physical handouts are fun. I like the newspaper because I can give it out at the start of the game. It avoids the whole “he made a handout so it must be important” bit. Then I hide a bunch of game world and connection information in it. The players love it when they find a game relevant piece of information in the paper. Sometimes they never notice it and it just serves as atmosphere.
I know people swear that they can run whole campaigns by the seat of their pants but I just can’t do that. I love to DM and I actually love to prep background crap.
If I say Ling owns the club but decide during the game that will not be a good option for where the players are headed I can choose to sever that connection before it ever comes up.
Sure. But now it’s wasted prep, which is also not smart prep.
Knowing that Ling is owner of the club would let me develop handouts that enforce this connection.
I’m not sure you’re actually reading what I’m writing. That would be an excellent example of value-added prep and doesn’t contradict anything that I said.
Until I play the game I don’t really know what prep is wasted or not. I get the idea of minimizing prep but I guess the sticking point for me is before I run the game how would I know when I do too much prep? (assuming I am not going overboard on prep)
@Joe: You seem to have missed something kind of system-specific here. The problem with locking Ling in as the owner of the club, as far as I can tell, is NOT that the matter of the club’s owner should be left hanging as long as possible.
It’s that both Ling and the club are on a chart. The game has specific mechanics for using the chart to create connections between the PCs, their allies and enemies, and other in-game entities. Locking one of the connections in that chart to another essentially collapses two points of the grid, making the chart smaller and less versatile. If you want to decide that Random Lady is the club’s owner, that has the same effect of “deciding something” but doesn’t forcibly reduce the utility of one of the game’s primary mechanics.
If you think about it in system-neutral terms, it’s a way to avoid the “for some reason all these guys know each other” effect. As a DM when you’ve created something for the setting, it can be awfully tempting to tack the new things you create onto it; it’s very comfortable fitting new elements neatly into the pre-existing framework. The problem with that is, if it goes unchecked, it sort of Flanderizes the setting. Instead, the thinking is, create a bunch of interesting and useful elements, fill in the detail on them to the level of prep that works for you while preserving your freedoms, and then you can use them wherever, whenever, and however you want or need.
It’s like the piece of advice that you keep a list of NPC names on hand so that, if you bring in a random shopkeep or street urchin and the players ask their name, you can whip one out without flailing or making it “Bob #32.” If every time you come up with an NPC name you feel compelled to give them a full stat block and position in the game world in relation to pre-existing elements, then chances are good you’ve just wasted some of your prep time. Nu?