Game Within a Game
As roleplayers who take on the responsibility of creating vast worlds not only are we leaving a gigantic hole in our setting’s construction if we leave out sports, we’re also missing one of the easiest ways to define places and people as a whole.
What up athletes, ninjas, knights and other assorted archetypes!
Athletes?
Well, when you think of people who dabble in the dark arts of nerd-dom, your first mental images probably aren’t populated by tennis players, football jocks, or even… golfers. Whether your initial thoughts ordinarily organize geeks into an Olympic procession or not, I’m here to champion the addition of sports to your gaming sessions. You don’t have to let Rowling (with her Quidditch) or Squaresoft (with its Blitzball) have all the fun!
Every culture comes with an array of athletic pursuits attached to it that enrich the tapestry of its peoples’ collective experiences. These pastimes are sometimes so intrinsic to the society (or just plain interesting) that they become irrepressibly identified with them. Think of ancient Rome with its gladiators or Spaniards with bullfighting. As roleplayers who take on the responsibility of creating vast worlds not only are we leaving a gigantic hole in our setting’s construction if we leave out sports, we’re also missing one of the easiest ways to define places and people as a whole.
PLAYERS PLAYS – DRAFTING BETTER PCS WITH SPORTS
PC Short Pass Plays
If you want to rake in a couple more yards of plot, you can easily do so by deciding your character’s predisposition towards sports as a whole. Do they prefer playing games or watching them? Do they seek out certain sports or avoid sports altogether? Are there any teams which they follow? What about the community they grew up in – are there games unique to the PC’s origin society? By defining these details you’ll add special flavor to how your PC interacts with the environment around them (listening for news in the bar about the latest Taquerat games back home, prioritizing finding the best bookies as soon as they hit a new city, etc.). You’ll also provide the GM with some extra fuel to work with when kindling your world to life! At the least, if you do nothing else, when playing a game in a future or fantasy setting, make up a random word for a game associated with your society. Leave it undefined and watch your GM turn the minutia into ammunition for some explosive setting exposition!
PC Long Pass Plays
Spending time on developing a sport for the gaming environment can be very rewarding (not to mention it might earn some extra points with the GM). If you aren’t satisfied with merely introducing a concept for a game, feel free to go the extra mile and create an ENTIRE game. As a general rule, games contain the following elements: equipment, field, players, goals, and rules. If you want to build a game, start by defining the equipment it uses, this will provide a thematic direction in which to take your design. After choosing equipment, decide where the game is played. Once you know the game’s implements and environment, you’ll be able to pretty easily isolate what types of people would be strong athletes for a game of its type (short or tall, deft or strong, agile or durable, etc.). Next determine what represents ‘winning’ the game and, surprisingly last, the rules that bind together using the equipment on the chosen field to accomplish the specified goal with said stereotypical player. Finally, if you really want to make the Hail Mary of characters, build your PC to be an athlete geared towards your newly designed gaming tradition!
THE MASTER’S MANUAL – IMPROVING YOUR TEAM’S GAME
GM Short Pass Plays
Going for the short pass is pretty easy: all you have to do is encourage your players towards using their own plays! Refer to the “Players Plays” tips above. Ask the players questions that get them thinking about their PC’s opinions regarding sports. If any of them show particular enthusiasm for using sporting concepts for character development, suggest they design a game and mention some of the tips above. Most importantly – MAKE USE OF WHAT THEY GIVE YOU! Anything your players provide is worth examining for reuse as an extra means for making your scenes fuller or for generating plot points from. If you do this, you’ll distinguish yourself as a GM and be moving down the field in the right direction!
GM Long Pass Plays
How does a GM commit to the long pass? Let’s say it again – MAKE USE OF WHAT THE PLAYER’S GAVE YOU! As the GM, you control the field (ie. the gaming world) which means you can allow something as seemingly minor as a sport to occasionally be expressed in a dominant manner within your sessions. Doing that tactfully is your ticket to throwing the long pass that turns your players’ gaming experiences from a lackluster drive towards a goal into the victory of a lifetime! Some of the best ways to incorporate sports-inspired content into your games include creating new NPCs, character-building events, and entire game sessions keyed into those themes. Here’s a couple of quick examples of what you could derive from your sports cannon to grant the game a great chance at deserving a showcase on the highlights reel –
NPC: The Rival – Whether this Rival is derived from a player’s sports interest directly or is just a person with whom they feel competitive, adding someone that the PC must strive against for dominance without the threat of death (as you find with a major villain) can add an incredible dimension to a player’s gaming. Just think of how it felt to beat (or be beaten by) Gary Oak and you’ll instantly realize how transformative a rival NPC can be for your players.
Character-Building Events: The Flashback – Flashbacks to a PC’s memories from games (especially in their youth) are extremely potent devices for character development. This springs from it filling in details about the character’s past and because it represents a microcosm of the character’s current struggles, mirroring how they react or learned to react in the way they do as more aged PCs. When possible, use these experiences to make an impact on a current adventure or explain the origin of certain aspects to a PC’s personality.
Game Session: Mistaken Celebrity – Looking like another person can be a good thing or a bad thing (take it from me, I look like Elijah Wood… good for LOTR premieres, sometimes bad for romance). That said, if you choose to start a game off with one of your PCs being mistaken for a celebrated athlete, you’ve got a ton of directions you can take plot! Maybe they welched out on throwing a game and now a crime lord wants their (the PC’s) hide. Or perhaps the celebrity is a team owners slave and the PC is caught in his place to be forced into an unfamiliar arena to fight in a blood sport. However you use it, once you establish this as part of a PC’s identity, you can reuse it for establishing plot hooks again and again.
Alright, my friends, enough training for today. Hit the showers, drink a protein shake, and get some rest – you’ve got a big game tomorrow. I hope you found these ideas helpful and that they make gaming all the more exciting!
Peace out athletes, ninjas, knights, and other assorted archetypes! I wish you a plethora of twenties!
