Sometimes the plot you had for your game just doesn’t have enough to it to get you through an evening or the requisite number of evenings you planned for.  (This inevitably happens when you’re too busy to be working on new stuff for the game…)  Sometimes the plot just isn’t juicy enough to keep everyone’s attention, or you’re not on your game — so to speak — fully.  What do you do?

There one sure fire way to heat up a game — throw an action sequence in.  It works — just look at most Hollywood action pics.  When the story is fluff, or there’s a lull they toss a car chase, a fight, or some other conflict into the mix.  Most veteran gamemasters know this, as well.  But it doesn’t always require ninjas to jump through the window, or miscellaneous bad guys to pop up out of nowhere with the intent of using your characters nipples as target practice.

In the latest episode of our Battlestar Galactica game, it was a night without fights, space combat, or any of that…and it ran well.  The main conflicts were interpersonal.  There’s the issues of grief over the loss of their friends and families (the game has only covered 45 days since the war), there’s the issues of people having to blow off steam that led to a few characters hooking up (it’s an adult group…everyone can handle this like adults…), and the attendant interpersonal strains that come with competition for that girl/guy you were interested in.

Conflict doesn’t have to involve 9mms or a kick to the brovaries…  Sometimes it’s just about dealing with the situation around you.