Legacy WOA30AE EN:Themes

Legacy: War Of Ages 30th Anniversary Edition / Contents

(NOTE: This is a work in progress.)

Chapter Four: Story

"Obviously I'm not getting through to you. Listen carefully: I do not care," he declared from behind his coffee mug, elbows on the table.

Rebecca leaned forward, chocolate skin honeyed in the morning light, her finger in Dominic's face. "This time it was Zailee, next time it will be you. You don't think they'll leave you alone now that they know you're here, do you?"

Dominic set his cup down slowly, green eyes sparkling hot. "You may lose your finger next time." Rebecca sat back sharply. "Zailee was a fool for all her years. It was a blatant trap. I, on the other hand, am not so easily caught, and I'm much better with a blade. Much better."

Rebecca pushed herself up from the table, tumbling her chair across the kitchen. She whirled, paced the small space, raised her voice. "Your smugness is sickening. We mortals are insignificant moths to you. Born, exist, and die before your eyes without a second thought. But you've forgotten how dangerous we can be. Suppose they cripple you with gun fire, then off with your head? I've risked drawing their attention to me, to the Covenant, just to warn you. Don't you dare ignore me!"

Dominic stood, stepped over the chair, poured himself another cup of coffee. "You said 'we mortals.' Your mortality is questionable, at best." Sipping, the steam curled in his jade eyes. He looked down into the cup. "Tell me what you know."

This section gives you information and advice on how to run an enjoyable series of Legacy games, called a "campaign." Moderating a successful campaign is distinctly different from simply running several good games in a row. As a campaign develops, the characters have an effect on the world around them, and that world, in turn, affects the characters.

Consider a typical science-fiction television show. This week, the characters on the show encounter a villain who wants to destroy the universe, or take it over, or both. The characters work together, make a few speeches about the destiny of humankind, and then go zooming into space thinking deep thoughts. Next week, the characters are at the same point they were at the beginning of the previous show. Characters who seemed to reach an understanding the previous week are again at odds, the character who wants to be human seems to have forgotten the progress she made last week, and the life-altering realizations everyone had last week have evaporated. It's as if last week's episode never happened. This is how an unconnected series of games, even good games, works. It may be fun, but sooner or later the interest of the players and the GM will wane because there is no lasting feeling of accomplishment in this type of story.

Now compare this to a movie, even a poor-quality action-adventure movie. The characters meet at the beginning, get to know and trust each other, encounter difficulties and enemies, then work together at overcoming them. Perhaps the characters are friends by the end of the film, or maybe they are enemies, but they and their world have changed since the beginning of the movie. This is how a campaign works. Not only have the characters grown and developed, becoming more complex and interesting, but they have changed their world through their actions, even if their world only extends to the next neighborhood or the next town.

Legacy has things in common with both a television series and a movie. The episodic nature of a television program can be likened to a Legacy storyline. A storyline has a beginning and an end, a conflict and a resolution. A Legacy storyline may take one game session to complete or it may take twenty, but eventually the problems presented will have been overcome and the characters can move on with their lives.

The self-contained nature of a movie can be compared to a Legacy campaign. The campaign is the overall world described by and experienced through the Legacy storylines. What differentiates a campaign from a simple series of unrelated games that simply have the same characters? There are many small things that set a true campaign apart, but one of the most important is character depth. Each character is an individual, with hopes and fears both public and private. As the game progresses, so should the personality of the characters. This takes care and not a small amount of work to accomplish, by both the players and the Game Moderator.

Crafting an enjoyable campaign is similar to creating a character. The GM must choose the personality of the games she is going to run: the themes, conflicts, and moods which will permeate the game and what happens during it. A Legacy campaign has a conception, just as a character does, describing what is important to the campaign and what the players can expect from it. The Non-Player Characters, both allies and adversaries of the PCs, must be created, with histories and motivations that will make sense and add to the depth of the game. As time goes on, the campaign will change and grow much as the characters change and grow. New allies and enemies will present themselves to the Player Characters, and new challenges will arise as old problems are resolved.

Ideally, the Game Moderator will have done a lot of work creating the campaign before the players have even started making up their characters. The feel of the game has a great deal of influence on what kind of people the players will want to portray. Just as a comic-relief Sheriff of Nottingham would detract from a moody, serious Robin Hood adaptation, a character created for a campaign should reflect and fit into the style of that campaign. It is up to the GM to make sure the players are aware of the mood and style of game she intends to run.

In this section, we are going to explore some concepts and methods for making the characters and their world more interesting. Read through it and find the ideas that reach out to you. Maybe you will find a new way of handling character growth, or run across an idea for a game that had not occurred to you. However you use this information, remember that a game is like a form of life, in that it must grow or die.

Prologue

After the players have created their characters, but before play has actually begun, the GM should take one entire game session to spend some time with each player individually. This is a chance for the GM to get to know the character, and for both the GM and the player to fill in some of the details of the character's past that may still be unclear. It also gives the player a chance to "get inside the head" of her character, doing some preliminary role-playing which will set the stage for the rest of the campaign. This prologue to the actual game can take several forms, depending on how much time everyone is willing to spend on it and on how detailed the character's history and personality already are.

Good subjects for the prologue would be incidents from the character's past, like the event that caused the character to realize that she is an Immortal, or perhaps the first time she was confronted by another Immortal who wanted to kill her (if this has happened yet). By exploring the past of the character, her present circumstances and attitudes will be put into perspective and given meaning. The character will make more sense, and the player will better be able to identify with her.

Another suitable subject for the prologue is an event which sets the stage for the character's future problems or antagonists. A brief encounter, years before, with an enigmatic mortal could foreshadow eventual conflicts with Monitors. An unexplained occurrence that smacks of the supernatural could foreshadow that a shapeless Chimera or vile Nosferatu will take an interest in the Immortal who blundered across the creature's path. Perhaps the young Immortal has even had the misfortune to witness the profane and monstrous Dwimmerlaik in one of their battles with the reality-warping Warlocks, in which case the Immortal will forever doubt the immutability of the world around her.

The prologue should also serve to introduce the player to the basic rules of the Legacy game, and any modifications or deletions the GM has made to the written instructions. This can be as formal or informal as the player and GM are comfortable with. Usually, any combat which takes place during the prologue is handled very loosely, with the player and GM making just enough dice rolls to establish the tone of the fight and the relative proficiency of the adversaries, and then the GM describes to the player how the combat progresses from that point.

It's usually a good idea for the PCs to meet each other during the prologue, if they do not already know each other. It's quite a bit easier if the Player Characters start out as friends, but it can be interesting to role-play the gradual process of learning to trust one another. Even so, it is an excellent practice for characters who do not yet know one another to run into each other during the prologue, so the characters will at least recognize each other when they meet again.

A common way for Immortals to know each other is to have them all know an older Immortal who is either a mentor or a friend to one or more of them. A similar device is to have the characters share a common enemy, whether that enemy is another Immortal, a mortal, or a supernatural being. However the characters meet, it is important for the GM to impress upon the players (through the threats presented in the game) that the Player Characters must cooperate to survive. The GM should go out of her way at the beginning of the game to cultivate a sense of common interest among the PCs. Once the PCs have faced common foes and have helped each other through common difficulties, they will cooperate naturally and the GM should not need to go to such lengths.

Prologue Questions

Mortals

• When did you learn that you are an Immortal?
• Is your family alive?
• Do they suspect that you are an Immortal?
• What is your relationship with them?
• Do you respect mortal authorities and laws?

Immortals

• How did you meet the other Player Characters?
• Have you ever had to fight another Immortal?
• Have you ever received the Rapture?
• Do you respect the tenets of Immortal etiquette?
• Do you believe the myths of the Conclave and Ragnarok?

The Supernatural

• Do you believe in the supernatural?
• Have you ever seen a supernatural creature?
• Do you believe that you are a supernatural creature?
• Do you believe in a Supreme Being?

Themes

The subject of theme, at least in Legacy, primarily concerns the various antagonists which will array themselves against the Player Characters. Most of these opponents will be physical beings who may be battled in a conventional manner, but some of the characters' adversaries will be intangible in nature. The twenty-first century bureaucracy which makes keeping an Immortal's identity secret so difficult is one opponent which must be overcome, or at least avoided. The pervasive loneliness of an Immortal's interminable existence wages a constant battle with the Immortal's will to live, and this battle must be won every time the character loses a loved one to the ravages of time.

Conflict is what makes life interesting. Conflict takes a static environment and catapults it into action. Conflict is the prime mover that propels the characters to change their surroundings and relationships. Without conflict, be it external conflict from a clash of ideologies or an internal conflict as an Immortal struggles to resolve her religious beliefs with her own existence, a setting and characters form only a flat, two-dimensional landscape. Conflict puts the characters in motion, and it breathes life into the story.

Many times the physical battles that take place in Legacy are metaphors for the philosophical struggles that Immortals and mortals alike must face. These ideological conflicts form the underlying theme of the campaign, and the tangible antagonists serve to illustrate these philosophical concepts. In this sense, the theme of the campaign describes not so much the conflict in which the characters find themselves involved, but the way the characters deal with this conflict and how it affects them.

There are usually many levels of conflict within a story, but one or two main conflicts will predominate. These primary themes can serve to combine the various storylines of a campaign into a unified whole. By having a consistent theme, the progression from storyline to storyline has continuity and a sense of purpose.

It is not necessary or advisable to beat the players over the head with the theme of the campaign. The Game Moderator might not even tell the players the theme she has in mind for the campaign, preferring to let the theme of the campaign make itself apparent through the storylines as the game progresses. In the end, it is the players who will decide what the theme of the campaign truly is, as they react to the conflicts presented by the Game Moderator and form their own solutions to their characters' problems.

This is by no means a complete list of all the themes available to you in Legacy, but it is a start to get you thinking along the direction of themes and how you can apply them in your game. You will find that by having an underlying theme, the game will take on a deeper meaning and become more enjoyable for both the GM and the players.

Stability vs. Change

Those that are happy with accepted doctrines must constantly defend them against new ideas and ways of doing things. Younger Immortals must contend against the established prejudices and philosophies of elder Immortals. The traditions of centuries have developed from hard experience, and the elders look with scorn on those Immortals who would disregard the lessons learned in the past. Younger Immortals think that times have changed, requiring different rules of behavior for a different world, and they resent the dictatorial attitude of their elders while seeking to redefine their relationships with each other and mortal humanity.

Other forces are at work to change what is stable and accepted. Chimerae are shape-changing creatures who may not have a form of their own. They seek to replace human beings and steal their lives. Dwimmerlaik are even more diabolical; they work to undermine the very structure of our universe, pulling at the spacio-temporal threads that hold our reality together.

Individual vs. Society

The history of human society has been the history of the struggle of the individual to assert herself. The individual seeks to find her own path to enlightenment, straining against the restrictions society attempts to place upon her. Society must restrict the freedom of the individual to protect the security of the whole. Immortals have rules of etiquette that may serve to protect the power of the individual at the expense of the safety of Immortals at large. The tradition of Single Combat guarantees that the strong will always conquer the weak, because the weak are prevented from uniting to defend themselves from the depredations of the strong.

Hope vs. Despair

Immortals have watched humankind progress from dwellers in caves to builders of skyscrapers, from primitives worshipping the sun to scientists creating lasers. Yet with each advance, the savage heart asserts itself and uses each achievement to prey upon its fellows. The dark heart of humankind seems only to have grown more bloodthirsty over the ages, until humanity's self-destruction in the Age of Madness appears virtually assured.

Free Will vs. Destiny

The legends of the Conclave and Ragnarok doom nearly all Immortals to the True Death, with no hope of averting the slaughter. Some Immortals struggle against these prophecies, fighting to avoid fighting, trying vainly to assert their free will by refusing to contribute to the War of Ages. Others embrace their destiny, hunting down other Immortals to increase in power before the final confrontation.

Order vs. Chaos

Humanity is pitted against enemies who would like nothing better than to tear down human institutions and governments and replace them with terror and bloodshed. These enemies may be Immortals who see mortals as inferior, and have contempt for mortal laws and morality. There are supernatural creatures, such as the shape-shifting Chimerae and the predatory Nosferatu, who prey upon humanity and would be happy to see human civilization cast into ruins. The Dwimmerlaik, vile beings from beyond our universe, have nothing less monstrous planned for humanity than the dissolution of all we consider reality.

Excellence vs. Mediocrity

The strong survive, while the weak and inferior submit or perish. There are Immortals and mortals alike who seek to impose their will on those less powerful than themselves. The masses, who greatly outnumber those with greater ability and skill, enforce laws designed to protect the greatest number of people. Persons of exceptional intellect or strength are seen as threats to the well-being of the greater good, and their power to act is restricted.

Knowledge vs. Fear

The unknown is terrifying. Darkness hides the hunter, cloaks the predator from the prey. The unknown is whatever is feared most. To mortals, Immortals are an unknown, and their existence mocks the struggles every mortal endures. Immortals are unrestrained, uncontrolled, and dangerous to humanity. Immortals fear the supernatural creatures who hunt them for unknown reasons. Chimerae can be anyone, anywhere, no one can be trusted to be what they seem. Nosferatu feed on the life of mortal beings, and lust after the essence that flows through Immortal veins. Dwimmerlaik defy the laws of reason and sanity, destroying for destruction's sake, incomprehensible. Warlocks are beings who seem human, yet have the same reality-warping powers of the Dwimmerlaik, and are locked into a never-ending battle with the abominable creatures; control of the laws of nature goes to the victor.

Reason vs. Madness

Each age, from the Immortal's perspective, has a central concept which defines it. Some Immortals call the present age the Age of Invention because of the enormous leaps humankind has made technologically. Science can do anything, it seems, making humanity the master of its world. Other Immortals see the current era as the Age of Madness; superstitions from the past have returned to power, humankind has lost all respect for the delicate balance of nature, and science is creating a new curse with every blessing. Creatures of myth and darkness, long hidden from mortal eyes, have begun to make appearances more frequently. Mortals are altering their bodies with genetics and cybernetics, sacrificing their humanity to the lunatic god of technology, for whom no achievement or sacrifice is ever enough.

Moods

The overall tone of Legacy is dark and brooding: populated by the worst of humanity, and by the darkest beings from mankind's nightmares, as well. The prophecies of Ragnarok and the Conclave hang heavy over the heads of Immortals, shadowing every moment with the knowledge that all Immortals are doomed to fight and kill each other. The tremendous advances made in the past two centuries have been accompanied by an insidious decay.

The power of Winternet, the global computer network that binds the earth into a virtual community, allows governments and megacorporations to monitor individuals as never before. The fragile environment that makes life on earth possible is being toppled from its balance by corporate scientists who seem to create three problems with every cunning solution. The machine is re-making mankind in its image: a society of drones, living according to rigid schedules, producing as instructed, consuming as instructed, lacking any compassion for the hungry, the homeless, the inefficient.

The social fabric that protects weak from strong is tearing asunder, and new crimes and perversions are being invented faster than they can be named. Corruption among the rulers and the ruled has gone from being scorned, to ignored, to admired. Immortals must hide from mortals for the old reasons, mortal fear and hatred, but new reasons have been added. Were mortals to discover the existence of Immortals, they would subject them to all manner of tests and tortures, attempting anything to discern the secret of immortality.

Into this mood of despair and decay, the Game Moderator can weave other elements. The brooding atmosphere of Legacy could even be played down, and other aspects could be accentuated. Mystery, romance, horror, and action can all replace or be combined with the dark tone of Legacy.

Mystery

Strange events, cryptic messages, and enigmatic strangers all add suspense and mystery to a Legacy game. Complicate matters whenever possible, adding plots and subplots, until nothing is what it seems. Everyone has ulterior motives, and if the Player Characters do not try to figure out a few of them they will be dancing to the conspirators' tune. Fog shrouds the city, sirens wail in the distance, and packages in plain brown wrappers are delivered without a return address. Who is behind it all, and what do they want? Are they mortal, Immortal, or possibly Warlocks bent on their own peculiar agenda? Is the government involved, or is it a lethal game played between rival corporations? Is it all some intricate plot to capture an Immortal, or is the point of disagreement a chip holding the personality construct of an illegal sixth-iteration AI? Keep the characters guessing, but leave enough clues so that they can puzzle out most of what is going on.

Romance

Immortals are deeply sensual beings, capable of sustaining passions that mortals experience only rarely. The deep, abiding love of an Immortal for a mortal, or vice versa, has been the subject of innumerable myths and legends, and the portrayal of such a doomed romance has pathos even now. The poignancy of the relationship is made even sharper by the contrast of the lovers' intensity to the grim realities around them.

Romances between two Immortals have a bitter edge that relationships among mortals lack. At the end of time, will the lovers have to choose between each other and the Legacy? The longevity of Immortals sometimes surpasses the depth of their feelings. How bitter is the love that fades for one, but not the other, as the centuries wear on. But until such a demise of their feelings, the overwhelming passion between Immortals can grant hope and joy in the most dire of circumstances.

Horror

It is difficult to sustain in players the feeling of dread so essential to a horror campaign, but a storyline with horror as its central mood can be exciting with only slightly more effort than that required by a mystery. Horror demands that terrible things happen, and that even worse events are only hinted at. The bane of horror is information: an enemy who is known, no matter how gruesome that enemy may be, is infinitely less terrifying than an enemy who is unknown. Nosferatu can be used effectively in a horror storyline, but often these creatures are too familiar to evoke the unreasoning terror necessary to keep a horror campaign from being trite. Dwimmerlaik are creatures so far beyond human experience that they may be too alien to instill more than stunned incomprehension in the Player Characters. The GM may need to use these creatures as a starting point for the horror campaign, only to shift the focus to other even more vile abominations. Imagine the impact of a creature which frightens the relentless Nosferatu into asking for help from an Immortal.

The GM should avoid hackneyed stereotypes like the typical haunted house and the Slavic Nosferatu: these figures are too well known, and they have almost become parodies of themselves. Try juxtaposing the friendly and familiar with the unknown. By combining true evil, like cannibalism or ritual murders, with the commonplace, like spring flowers or the little girl next door, horror can be evoked even in jaded players.

Action

Action is the easiest element to add to a Legacy game, but it is difficult to maintain without getting predictable. It takes more than simple combat, over and over, to sustain the pulsing exhilaration of classic action-adventure. New challenges must constantly arise, with a great variety of scenarios. Pacing is also vital; the blood-pumping action must be interspersed with suspenseful interludes and times when the characters can relax and make plans. There should be at least one big battle in every game session, with one or two minor brawls, as well. Chases are also an important element in an action-oriented storyline, and these can be combined with combat to good effect. Try adding complications of weather and terrain to a car chase combined with a running gunfight, or mixing a sword duel with a foot chase spanning rooftops as the opponents jockey for a more advantageous position. Watch a few popular action-adventure movies for ideas, and if things ever slow down too much, have someone break down the front door guns-a-blazing, and figure out the "who" and "why" later.

Historical

Every time and place throughout history has been a home to Immortals and their struggles. Before the advent of computers and the powerful bureaucracies which they made possible, it was much easier for an Immortal to keep her identity a secret. If the entire campaign takes place in the past, the theme of the game could involve whatever changes are taking place in society at the time, such as equality of the sexes, the evil of slavery, or the battle of religion against science. It is important that the Game Moderator have at least some knowledge of the period in which the game takes place, but minor inconsistencies and anachronisms are inevitable and should not be allowed to detract from the enjoyment of the game. The necessarily anachronistic (which is to say, modern) views of the Player Characters could form a stark contrast against the established assumptions common to the time period of the game.

An easy alternative to playing Legacy in the world of the twenty-first century is playing it in the present day. This has advantages for both the players and the characters. The players are certainly more familiar with the society and environment they see every day than they are with the United States of the early 2000's. The characters would have an easier time of it as well, since the Winternet that bureaucracies use to keep track of the populace has yet to be fully implemented, making Immortal anonymity easier to maintain. In fact, if some or all of the players are new to role-playing, it is an excellent idea to forgo the twenty-first century and play the game in the present. It will make their adjustment to the fictional world much easier if it closely resembles the one they know.

Historical interludes do not have to take up the entire game session to be effective or to place the current storyline into perspective. A flashback to an incident in a character's past can add meaning and depth to a current struggle. In this case, one or more of the players would portray younger versions of themselves, and the other players would play mortals or other interested parties. The scene should be brief, but include all of the elements essential to the characters' current problems.

For example, if the characters are being hunted by a fanatic religious group, the flashback could involve hiding from the Inquisition in southern France. Perhaps the characters could encounter a compassionate friar in the flashback, who helps the Immortals escape the zealous Inquisitors. This could help the present-day characters realize that not everyone who devoutly follows a religion is intolerant and filled with hatred, and that there are those who practice what they preach.

Dealing With Characters

Legacy is a game, but it is a game where the players are not usually competing against each other. This can be a relatively new concept for folks new to role-playing games, or to folks who have played other role-playing games where back-stabbing and duplicity are encouraged. As such, it will intermittently occur that a player creates a character that detracts from the other players' enjoyment of the game.

Sometimes making a character fit into the game is simply a matter of paying special attention to the things the player wants to experience in the game, or of taking a moment to allow a character to solve a certain type of problem that the player finds interesting. This can usually be done without detracting from the game as a whole, and paying special attention to the things each player wants from the game will make everyone happier.

It rests upon the Game Moderator to counsel a difficult player before things get out of hand, possibly ruining the game for all of the players and turning them away from role-playing altogether (a terrible thing). Most of the time, the player simply does not realize what she is doing wrong or how to correct it, and she will appreciate the advice. Other times, the player will be stubborn and refuse to change the way she plays. She may even get defensive, blaming the Game Moderator for making the game dull or difficult. Do not let this bother you too much, because it's inevitable, and one of the occupational hazards of being a Game Moderator: you can't please everyone.

While it is important for the GM to listen to the players and be responsive to their suggestions, it's also important for her to realize that she does not create the game in a vacuum. The players contribute just as much to the tone of the game as the GM does, perhaps more, and friction between the GM's style of playing and that of the players' needs to be ironed out for the benefit of everyone.

Most of the following advice is for GMs who do not have much experience yet, or are not sure how to deal with "problem characters." If you and your players are happy, feel free to skip this section for now and come back to it later when you have the inclination. Additionally, keep in mind that the names we have given to the following character types are not meant to be insulting, merely descriptive. "Fool," for example, is not used here in the derogatory sense, but in the Tarot sense of someone who is oblivious to danger, yet somehow manages to succeed anyway (remember Mr. Magoo?).

The Loner

The most common problem in Legacy is the player, or players, whose character is so paranoid and aloof that she won't cooperate, and would rather not get involved when other characters get in trouble: the Loner. The player will explain that the danger is too great to get involved with another Immortal's problems, and that the character dares not risk letting her guard down. Even if the Loner does lend a hand when the chips are down, she will vanish afterward instead of meeting or talking to the other Immortals (or mortals) involved. Who was that masked Immortal? We didn't even have time to thank her. . . .

The difficulty with this mindset is that it probably is more realistic than chatting with Immortals who are more likely foe than friend. It is certainly a survival characteristic, at least in the short run, to remain aloof and not become involved in the affairs of others, and many older Immortals have successfully followed this philosophy.

However, there are too many threats to Immortals for young Post-Modern Immortals to survive without cooperating. Not only do older Immortals, who may decide that Ragnarok is imminent, pose a great threat to young Immortals without allies, but other dangers have arisen as well. Supernatural creatures, such as the Chimerae, Dwimmerlaik, and Nosferatu, have become increasingly active in the past two centuries. Mortal institutions, more powerful than at any time in history, are secretly hunting Immortals down, either to destroy them or to experiment upon them and discover the mechanism of their immortality. It behooves younger Immortals to find what allies they can, because the world is too dangerous to be alone in it.

The Pest

A problem similar to that posed by the Loner is created by the Pest. The Pest is a character who seems to go out of his way to do anything and everything but go along with the story. Presented with a problem, the Pest will leave the other characters to deal with it and go off on his own. He will disagree with everything the other players want to do, and will fail to follow even the most simple directions. The Pest will pick fights with friendly NPCs, and yet he will go out of his way to avoid confronting hostile NPCs. In many ways the Pest is like the Loner, in that he will go his own way and not communicate with the other Player Characters.

Inexplicably, the behavior of the Pest is usually unintentional on the part of the player. Often, the player will not have a clue how irritating his character is to the other players. Calling a player's attention to this antisocial behavior will sometimes suffice to remedy the situation, but all too often the Pest's lack of social grace is simply beyond the player's control. In this case, dealing with the Pest may be, sadly, a choice between the putting up with the player or putting him out of the game.

The Lawyer

The Lawyer is the most onerous type of player to have in a game. The Lawyer is the kind of player who argues and quotes the rule book whenever the Game Moderator makes an unpopular decision. As if the rules of the game were given from on high, the Lawyer will recite word for word how the designer of the game intended Legacy to be played. This goes beyond simply correcting the Game Moderator's occasional mistakes (everyone makes mistakes); the Lawyer will vehemently argue that the GM is playing the game wrong by not following the written rules.

It is important for both the GM and the players to agree on what is and is not allowed in the game. For the most part, the GM should tell the players what her game philosophy is, and the players should either accept it or suggest a compromise. Once a compromise has been reached, it is counter-productive to argue over whether the GM is playing "by the rules." If all or most of the players feel that the GM is being unfair or biased, then the GM should listen to their suggestions and modify her style of play accordingly. However, if a single player consistently interrupts play to argue with the GM over the correctness of a decision, the GM should listen to the player's objections once, then continue playing. If the player continues to argue, the GM should not encourage her, and if the Lawyer continues to disrupt the game the GM should ask her to leave.

It's worth mentioning a Game Moderator counterpart to the Lawyer: the Judge. The Judge plays the game by the letter of the rules, avoiding interpretation or adaptation whenever possible. The Judge will not budge, even if a rule is patently absurd, unless an "official" update to the game corrects the mistake. Die rolls are inviolate in the Judge's game: it matters not if the entire storyline hinges on a character making that roll. If she fails the Task Roll, then it was not meant to be. You will know you are in a Judge's game if you find yourself making rolls for activities that you take for granted in real life. If you are a Judge, loosen up. The story is vastly more important than the rules. That's official.

The Monstrosity

It is only a matter of time before one of the players constructs a Monstrosity. Like Frankenstein's monster, the character will be a walking killing machine, unstoppable and impossible to reason with (incidentally, the monster in Shelley's novel was not the simple-minded victim that Karloff portrayed in the film). Fortunately, players who create these abominations will usually listen to reason if approached politely.

The GM should explain, as civilly as possible, that having one character so completely focused on combat makes it difficult to run the game: an opponent suitable to normal characters would be no match for the Monstrosity, while an opponent appropriate for the Monstrosity would eat normal characters for lunch.

Alas, sometimes reason doesn't work. The GM can, if she is willing to expend the effort, try to persuade the player of the Monstrosity of her folly by presenting situations where combat ability is not sufficient to solve the problem. Unfortunately, if the player was not inclined to listen to reason, she probably will not learn from experience, either.

The Fool

The most difficult type of player to deal with is the Fool. The Fool poses a great challenge to the GM, not because she is too powerful or because she endangers the game the way the Lawyer does, but because she endangers herself. The Fool will blindly go where angels fear to tread, with little or no preparation. She will ignore vital clues dropped into her lap, wandering around a story's plot until the answer to a riddle is given to her. If questioned about a crime, she will openly admit her guilt to the authorities. The GM will find herself twisting the story around and warping the laws of physics just to keep the Fool from killing herself.

This is an enormous test of a GM's ability, because the Fool's self-destructive behavior almost always stems from inexperience. If the GM ignores the Fool's inexperience, expecting her learn by the school of "hard knocks," the GM is risking frustrating the player and making her resent the GM's harshness. Such insensitivity could even drive the player away from role-playing games altogether, and rightfully so.

However, if the GM coddles the character, allowing her to stumble through lethal situations unscathed like Inspector Clouseau, she will inevitably get bored. A game without challenges, risks, or penalties rapidly ceases to be interesting to even the most vapid player. Even before that happens, the GM will probably lose interest in the game, because the vital input from the player which makes moderating a game exciting will be lacking.

The GM has to slowly impress upon the Fool that carelessness can be lethal. Instead of ruthlessly enforcing "realism," or pampering the character, the GM should gradually increase the dangerous consequences of the Fool's self-destructive behavior. The player will learn how to deal with danger rationally, learning caution and attentiveness at a natural pace, without diminishing the enjoyment of the game for anyone.