7: SMALL
Small run series, small press games, small size games, small settings, small groups, and small characters - and small-time characters in the Vampire blog for seven small things.
Small run series: I often aim for an academic year with student players, with jumping on and off points around every turn. Lately GEAS offers switching every half term. I also go for three months or so for summer games. When doing The Watch House I kept the season structure, partially to reflect Buffy and partially because I wasn’t expecting it to run for more than that first season.
Small press games: There are thousands these days, some using licenced systems, some with familiar-feeling engines, some with various clever takes on mechanics, and some with interesting tricks like the Jenga-based horror game Dread or the storytelling game Ten Candles where the world ends when the last candle goes out.
Small size and word count games: These can go all the way to one-page games designed to be used only for one-shots. Some one-shot-only games come at adventure size with characters ready to use, designed to be played as soon as someone has read it.
Small settings: I run a lot of games set in cities where a lot can happen and the monster of the week can come with NPCs of the week as well, but a smaller and more cohesive setting can be interesting too. The Darkness family of games often do this inside a city setting with a fifty vampires for a city of five million and so on. Keeping track of a smallish but consistent cast can be tricky. And I tend to add more groups than I need to have more options.
Small groups: My first GMing experience was for one player. I’ve rarely run for one person since, but will note that you can really explore personal characterisation and also that a single engaged player will speed their way through plot due to the lack of table talk, discussion, and resolving actions for others. More personal games work well with smaller groups, but a good-sized group can build a fun inter-player dynamic.
Small characters: Some are small by default - miniature people like the Borrowers, small fairy types, the Puppetland toys, or the intelligent animals in Pugmire, Mouse Guard and InBetween, although I would have a hard time being mean to cute fuzzy PCs. Other PCs could become small in Incredible Shrinking Player Character adventures if the game has a suitable Weird Level. Either option lets you use toys and miniatures for handy representation, with the room you’re playing in potentially showing how big the obstacles now are.
Small-time characters can also be a thing, not the movers and shakers in a setting. I’ll talk about that for Vampire.
Bonus round:
Inspiration - My best advice for inspiration is to take in a lot of relevant media, and some relevant-ish stuff as well. My games in the Darkness family take a lot from crime movies as well as horror, for example. The more you familiarise yourself with, the more things you can pull from knit into something interesting.
Better - Avoiding many controversial options, how do PCs better themselves? Some games tie Experience Points to using specific abilities, which may be fairer than letting you take XP and apply them to anything, but also leads to PCs switching out weapons mid fight to check multiple boxes.
Engage - A prompt used in 2019, so read it here!
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