Everything I Ever Learned About DMing I Learned From Comic Books

el-remmen · Jan 22, 2002

The perfect campaign is one that mirrors the pacing, story arcs and heroic elements of a classic super hero comic book.

Think about it: A group of heroes fights evil often and repeatedly while taking part in a seemingly never-ending plot that leads the characters to revelations about themselves and others, and getting enroiled in the finer points of group dynamics.

A gamemaster, by mimicing the story-arcing of a comic with 2 to 3 adventure arcs, perfectly interposed with one-shot stories.

Comics are a better way than any movie or novel (save perhaps a long series of novels) to learn how to introduce a villian or rival, and weave him in and out of the plot to draw the story along.

And of course, the dark heroic allusions of most modern comics also has a part to play. . . D&D Adventurers are in many ways the "superheroes" of the worlds full of super heroes and super villians.

I was recently re-reading some old comics because I was looking thru them to sell some on eBay - and I was particularly struck by how Fantastic Four plot elements had influenced my DMing over the years - and how my ideas of PC/NPC interactiosn and what they should be like came from ensemble comics like Spider-man, with all the side characters of the Daily Bugle or High School or his apartment building and even Aunt May.

Of course, some more non-traditional "broody" comics like Gaiman's Sandman have lots of inspirational juice and Grant Morrison's "Invisibles" is a great view on the conflict between law and chaos.

Hey, Sagiro's Story Hour is a perfect example of this (whether he knows it or not). I was trying to figure out what about this story hour was so great t ome and then I realized - the heroes in his group remind me of the Avengers! They have a headquarters, a butler, a patron, they fly around the world saving people - they have characters that remind me Scartlett Witch and the Beast. It is great stuff!

Anyway, just a reminder to those looking for a place to help brush up their DMing skills: Look at comic books. . .

barsoomcore · Jan 22, 2002

Exactly right, nemmerle. I've often thought that myself, and comic have always been one of my biggest influences.

Here's another: Buffy.

I was thinking about this during a recent thread about a Buffy d20 game -- the Buffyverse itself isn't a really great theatre for rpging (who wants to play Zander, right?) -- but the way the show is structured offers great hints to DMs -- pretty much the same hints as comic books.

The thing that I love about Buffy is the way stories are woven through multiple episodes -- every episodes has bits and pieces and hints and teasers about a variety of stories involving the various characters. I've started doing this in my campaign -- one little event for this character, a moment for that one... Some turn out to be big deals and some turn out to be nothing but what they seem.

Very useful concept.

el-remmen · Jan 22, 2002

To build on that idea of little "moments" or encounters for certain characters and things building from them - you can really learn how to read your players and the story and know when to emphasize certain aspects and de-emphasize others -without ever having to get into a discussion about it.

It is a delicate balance.

I was thinking of Buffy as well as I wrote the first post, but I didn't mention it because I did not want it to prejudice anyone's response.

Zan Thrax · Jan 22, 2002

Which was probably a good thing, 'cause comic book geeks have all kinds of room to belittle Buffy geeks.

Pielorinho · Jan 22, 2002

I was watching the season premiere of Buffy awhile ago

SPOILER
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And it got to the point where Dawn ran across the quadruplegic Buffybot and it talked very obliquely about where the real Buffy was. It was a very dramatic scene, full of tension and revelation, and what was I thinking?

"Now THAT'S a good way to use an NPC to give information to the party! How could I do that with an NPC in my game?"

The sad thing was that after the episode, my brother told me he was thinking exactly the same thing.

Angel is good for a similar effect. One problem, though, with converting ensemble casts to gaming is that ensemble casts really excel when they split up and you can have several concurrent stories. It's hard as a GM to plan for these for PCs: a smart group will stick together for the most part, and so you have to plan scenes that will challenge the entire group, and then it becomes even stupider for the PCs to split up.

Daniel

el-remmen · Jan 22, 2002

Since I do like to have groups of larger than 5 (but I do have 6 right now), splitting up has never been a big problem for me and another skill I DM needs to brush up on - how to juggle for everyone and to "cut away" at moments where you have built up the dramatic tension - My first two or three sessions "Out of the Frying Pan" sessions were like that and everyone had a good time.

Of course, in a dungeon crawl situation it is much harder to do - but when people are traveling about time gathering info and such is a great time to build indvidual moments and really make the setting breath life.

(contact) · Jan 22, 2002

Yeah, you're preachin' to the choir with me.

I went to Art School, and I used to get in these arguments with pretentious muhf-- about comic books. I thought that they were a bunch of snobs who'd forgotten the first series of images that really moved and inspired them to draw-- the Four Color Heroes.

The gears that turned in my head when I read the X-Men or the Avengers set me on a life path that I wouldn't trade for the world.

I realize now that all of my PCs are either:

1) Wolverine
2) Captain America
3) Spider Man
4) Dr. Doom, or
5) Some combination of the above.

Comic books do have one thing going for them that is difficult to pull off in RPGs-- exposition. Spidey can wake up and re-hash the last 7 issues in his head before his first cup of coffee (or page 2).

eXodus · Jan 22, 2002

now just wait until godlike comes out!

then all of our playing an dming that has been influenced by years of comic book reading will come full circle.

Superman · Jan 22, 2002

Comicbooks eh.....

barsoomcore said:
Exactly right, nemmerle. I've often thought that myself, and comic have always been one of my biggest influences.

Here's another: Buffy.

I was thinking about this during a recent thread about a Buffy d20 game -- the Buffyverse itself isn't a really great theatre for rpging (who wants to play Zander, right?) -- but the way the show is structured offers great hints to DMs -- pretty much the same hints as comic books.

The thing that I love about Buffy is the way stories are woven through multiple episodes -- every episodes has bits and pieces and hints and teasers about a variety of stories involving the various characters. I've started doing this in my campaign -- one little event for this character, a moment for that one... Some turn out to be big deals and some turn out to be nothing but what they seem.

Very useful concept.

The funny thing is Buffy is now a comicbook, based on a tv show, based on a movie, based on a comicbook.
Funny the way things work out.
Now there's Angel, and pretty soon BtVS the Animated Series is going to come out (no joke)

coyote6 · Jan 22, 2002

Damn straight, Nem. Whatever I know about GMing, it probably largely comes from comics. Everything from epic stories (LSH vs. Darkseid, anyone?), to long twisted plots that plant clues years ahead of time (was it Hama's G.I. Joe that had a visual clue in the first dozen issues to a plot point that wasn't fully resolved til after issue 100?), to just about everything else.

Buffy does show similar influences, I think. Here's hoping the show stays good when Whedon is paying more attention to his new show & movies! (And here's hoping the rest of the season DVD sets come out at rapid intervals.

)