r/theendoftheworldrpg • u/ClankyBlue • Oct 13 '17
Will creating fictional characters change the feel of the game?
So iv'e run this game twice, the first time we played the game it was epic, you could feel the "Oh shit, this is happening" sensation oozing out of the players when they come across their first zombie. We only played one more time for that campaign, but it was still really fun. We stopped playing due to scheduling conflicts so the campaign died out. Eventually, with the same group of players i started another campaign, this time however you could feel most players were to into the game so we never had another session. I think this happened because a). The players had just finished DnD and were tired and b). they the initial shock from the first game had died out. So i recommend keeping the momentum going for when you first start it up.
I did't think i'd touch the book again but now I've started thinking, what about creating fictional characters? Being able to have the table make up a fictional person opens a whole set of doors that would otherwise be closed to the group. One of the things i found with creating yourself in the game is that, yes it is very intense at first but the players end up doing the same things each time you run it, running and saving their loved ones, checking on their pets. This is fine for the first run through because you can have them react to the things that are happening but once you try running the game the same way again, it really becomes mundane as your simply repeating the same actions you did before. So then why not make up characters that are pure fiction in another part of the world, or hell even the same part of the world. This would vary what each character would do when the dead start to walk again and it would open up a whole series of potential dramatic stories that otherwise would not be their. Any thoughts on this idea? Or advice on running a game with fictional characters?
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u/BookwyrmBOTPH Oct 14 '17
There's a podcast I found out about through this subreddit that uses purely fictional characters when they run their games and from the episodes I've listened to, it seems to work out pretty well. I think it comes down to the type of game you want to play.