Think of this as the story behind the story - comparable to the director's narrative to his work in the DVD.
"Escaped Gorilla" may not be one of the more original stories or plot that people may come upon, and its not really meant to be... See the idea can be found in the Marvel Super Heroes Role Playing Game. It happens to be one of several introductory plots that the Games Master (a.k.a. Watcher - named after Uatu naturally, a Watcher in the Marvel Universe) can use to set the games up.
The premise of SI was supposed to be a low-key adventure... street level, not really cosmic (as in Avengers or X-men level) in nature. Its meant to be more mundane. There are two reasons for this... A) its easier to control an adventure that does not have to go traipsing in other universes - and for a beginner Watcher, as I was then, it was a logical move; B) it was also an introductory adventure for a new set of players - people who did not know each other's playing style so well yet. Well, it so happens that the players in this situation were two friends of mine - Johhny Alegre and Ditto Amador.
Between the two, Ditto had more playing time experience in RPGs - in fact I would say that he introduced me to the concept and brought me to meet some players - and try the game out. Johnny on the other hand was a newbie to RPG - but listening to how high we praised the experience, he naturally became curious, and was willing to go give the game a try. So we agreed to a date and time, met at my place and started playing a Marvel game that would eventually be called Shadow's Inc. Of course, this little get together was likewise an excuse to meet and drink as well - and rather than run out of conversation items, a game could easily keep us busy from late night until dawn (we normally started after dinner).
One thing I liked about RPGs was its non-predictability by way of how some characters (players) would act - or react... but that is what kept the game going well. The randomness, the characters interacting, solving problems, analyzing clues - and of course, your usual fights - within game rules that is.
Wanting to find out how things would resolve... be it a murder mystery, a case of mistaken identity, stopping a killer or tackling mystically enhanced mortals - the stories got us to interact, and react to situations beyond what normally happens... and as GM (or Watcher), I would prepare a loose plot and see where things went, having a few milestone events that the characters would have to go through, but waiting for the right time to dish out the scenario to them. I also looked for a way to later introduce a few comic book characters - strictly as non-players, but with the intent to keep the spirit of the shared universe.
For Shadow's Inc., it was important to concentrate on seeing how my players would react to given scenarios and make them meet up. To be sure, some character actions may seem out-of-the-box from a first look standpoint, but they all seemed to work in the end. Take for example, Johnny's character rushing off to get a bunch of bananas (as dictated by him, of course). This was a classic not your typical hero's action perhaps - but definitely human, and therefore more believable and original. Ditto, of course, worked and built on Johnny's initiative.
Back then, I thought to use Shadow's Inc. as a test run for us all - considering it to just being a simple run of the mill generic story. A get your feet wet and go on thing... but my players were able to make a great entertaining story... and as any gamer would tell you, the post-mortems are equally great conversation pieces. We definitely had a great time. No wonder the adventures lasted as long as they did.
"Escaped Gorilla" may not be one of the more original stories or plot that people may come upon, and its not really meant to be... See the idea can be found in the Marvel Super Heroes Role Playing Game. It happens to be one of several introductory plots that the Games Master (a.k.a. Watcher - named after Uatu naturally, a Watcher in the Marvel Universe) can use to set the games up.
The premise of SI was supposed to be a low-key adventure... street level, not really cosmic (as in Avengers or X-men level) in nature. Its meant to be more mundane. There are two reasons for this... A) its easier to control an adventure that does not have to go traipsing in other universes - and for a beginner Watcher, as I was then, it was a logical move; B) it was also an introductory adventure for a new set of players - people who did not know each other's playing style so well yet. Well, it so happens that the players in this situation were two friends of mine - Johhny Alegre and Ditto Amador.
Between the two, Ditto had more playing time experience in RPGs - in fact I would say that he introduced me to the concept and brought me to meet some players - and try the game out. Johnny on the other hand was a newbie to RPG - but listening to how high we praised the experience, he naturally became curious, and was willing to go give the game a try. So we agreed to a date and time, met at my place and started playing a Marvel game that would eventually be called Shadow's Inc. Of course, this little get together was likewise an excuse to meet and drink as well - and rather than run out of conversation items, a game could easily keep us busy from late night until dawn (we normally started after dinner).
One thing I liked about RPGs was its non-predictability by way of how some characters (players) would act - or react... but that is what kept the game going well. The randomness, the characters interacting, solving problems, analyzing clues - and of course, your usual fights - within game rules that is.
Wanting to find out how things would resolve... be it a murder mystery, a case of mistaken identity, stopping a killer or tackling mystically enhanced mortals - the stories got us to interact, and react to situations beyond what normally happens... and as GM (or Watcher), I would prepare a loose plot and see where things went, having a few milestone events that the characters would have to go through, but waiting for the right time to dish out the scenario to them. I also looked for a way to later introduce a few comic book characters - strictly as non-players, but with the intent to keep the spirit of the shared universe.
For Shadow's Inc., it was important to concentrate on seeing how my players would react to given scenarios and make them meet up. To be sure, some character actions may seem out-of-the-box from a first look standpoint, but they all seemed to work in the end. Take for example, Johnny's character rushing off to get a bunch of bananas (as dictated by him, of course). This was a classic not your typical hero's action perhaps - but definitely human, and therefore more believable and original. Ditto, of course, worked and built on Johnny's initiative.
Back then, I thought to use Shadow's Inc. as a test run for us all - considering it to just being a simple run of the mill generic story. A get your feet wet and go on thing... but my players were able to make a great entertaining story... and as any gamer would tell you, the post-mortems are equally great conversation pieces. We definitely had a great time. No wonder the adventures lasted as long as they did.
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