The second element to selling a game campaign to your players is setting. Sometimes this can be as simple as everyone likes the show Supernatural…let’s play something like that. you know what flavor you’re going for — monster of the week, humor mixed with horror. No problem.

Maybe you have one person that likes Star Trek, and it just so happens you like the rules set for the setting enough to want to run a short campaign. But most of the players find Trek kind of bland (as utopias should be), and the shows ruled by technobabble-inspired deus ex machina (literally.) So you sell the universe as an RPG campaign to your other players by changing the flavor of the universe. I changed the way technology worked. you couldn’t rewire the deflector dish into a microwave oven or a spiraling quantum whatsinator. Complex machines don’t “reconfigure” too easily. And it didn’t always work. And while the core worlds of the Federation were utopian, it got a bit more gritty and morally ambiguous on the frontier. What you did mattered — there was none of this reset button-style storytelling, where interstellar politics was static, save for 42 minutes a week. I also added the idea of accelerating returns on technology — that all the cool stuff they discovered didn’t go away. How many android races were discovered in the old show and the movie series? And Data’s the best (and only) working android they had? Nope!

Tailoring the setting flavor to your group means getting to know your group. Maybe you’re lucky enough to have played together before and have an idea of what would inspire play in them. I know all my players like sci-fi, two are big into post-apocalyptic settings, and our sense of humor is such that no matter how serious the setting, it’s rarely going to get too heavy. I know the tenor of the game setting I’ll need to make it fun.

But if you’re just getting together for the first time, this will be more difficult. It’s one of the reasons I like to meet gamers outside of the gaming venue first and chat about other things. Get to know them, what their interests RPG and otherwise are. Maybe they all like the Firefly setting, but a few were interested in more anime/manga-style sci-fi. I had this happen…my Serenity game, as a result, had a lot of focus on gangs in the docks, kawaii girl thieves and killers, and a more cyberpunk than Western flavor to the game.

The setting should be be just roughed out enough to give the players areas of interest, hints of bad guys and allies, and maybe an overarching story arc. But really, you should plan the pilot session as a one-off. the background should be enough to entice, but not overwhelm. In other words, don’t create a game world with a 28-page history document for the players to read before they play, so that they can experience the depth of your Tolkein-esque genius. (This particular GM made me want to force feed him his head!)

Think about movies and TV shows — don’t explain the tech, the monsters, the setting too much…just keep it consistent enough to make sense, create a bit of verisimilitude, and most of all give spectacle. Case in point: Blade Runner didn’t answer many questions about why the world looked like it did; you inferred it. But the “description” of the setting was rich. Similarly, Star Trek: The Next Generation was stunningly bland…here we’re on a ship that’s almost 2/3rds of a kilometer long with 30+ decks. But Enterprise D never felt BIG. The new Galactica and the Cylon basestars felt BIG. Babylon 5‘s ships, the events were BIG! Star Wars‘ prequels exist solely on spectacle — BIG, FAST, GLOSSY visual effects. (Enough spectacle moving quickly enough, you might miss the big plot holes that you missed while putting together your pilot!) Even something like Miami Vice had a certain spectacle — flashy cars and clothes set in a sexy locale where big money is moving. It’s very much the style of James Bond movies.

Find the “look”, the description, that your players will enjoy.

And, as with the character created for the game, don’t be afraid to change it up if it doesn’t work. Look at CSI: New York — the gritty, rather dour color palate and cinema verite –style died off pretty quickly. It just wasn’t drawing the viewers. If your medieval world is just a bit too dirty, ugly, and real for the players, Tolkein it up a bit for the main campaign. If your cop game is a bit too down and dirty, with the players blocked in by the law, go a bit more Miami Vice…or The Shield, if they’re into moral ambiguity. Maybe your galactic-spanning sci-fi campaign needs a kick in the pants…maybe it’s time to blown up a planet. It worked for George Lucas. Or make the Borg actually dangerous.

Next up: That First Storyline…