Do you use C.A.TS. in your game?

[Eyes of Nine]

This is an example of what I give to some of my groups when it's time to start a new campaign. And then a bunch of images from the game and the web.

It's not CATS exactly, but inspired by.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

Sergeant major eats sugar cookies.

This would be a bad-ass way of re-phrasing CATS for a rpg wartime game!

love it!

 

[aramis erak]

Right. -1 comes before 0, if I'm reading aramis correctly.

You are.

 

[MGibster]

Ok, so lots of talk on here about this or that game not working well with players. Or games failing because GM set up X and players ended doing Y and never caring about X.

I use it though I've never heard of CATS until recently. When pitching a campaign, I tell them the setting, what their characters will be doing, and the general tone of the campaign. For the most part this seems to work rather well but stories about when things worked out well aren't any fun. But, yes, I think it's absolutely necessary for everyone to understand what the game is all about.

I still remember my Delta Green game where an FBI agent was going into a basement and decided to pull out a set of bolas to fight a shadowy creature. When the player told me he pulled out some bolas I burst out in laughter because I thought he was kidding. Nope. He was dead serious. I just shook my head and said, "Okay. You're on the stairwell going into the basement. How do you propose to swing your bolas? For that matter, how the hell do you walk around with concealed bolas?" He got a little upset with me saying he was just trying to do something interesting and said I could just play his character for him.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

I use it though I've never heard of CATS until recently. When pitching a campaign, I tell them the setting, what their characters will be doing, and the general tone of the campaign. For the most part this seems to work rather well but stories about when things worked out well aren't any fun. But, yes, I think it's absolutely necessary for everyone to understand what the game is all about.

I still remember my Delta Green game where an FBI agent was going into a basement and decided to pull out a set of bolas to fight a shadowy creature. When the player told me he pulled out some bolas I burst out in laughter because I thought he was kidding. Nope. He was dead serious. I just shook my head and said, "Okay. You're on the stairwell going into the basement. How do you propose to swing your bolas? For that matter, how the hell do you walk around with concealed bolas?" He got a little upset with me saying he was just trying to do something interesting and said I could just play his character for him.

That sounds more like embarrassment from not really knowing how bolas work or what FBI agents might make use of. As well some folks just don't care about minor things of "space to swing a sword/bola in a hallway."

We had a event in one of my games where a monster was chasing a PC, and it was a nasty bad they didn't want to stand and fight. So he decided to "mosey" away from it. After everyone grilled him about why he was so lazy about getting away from the monster - we found out he just didn't know what mosey meant. He was embarrassed. He didn't whine about 'just play my character for me", but he did just back off roleplay actions in the scene for a bit...

Embarrassment can bring up frustration and some folks lash out, others turtle up, etc.

It can also help to say "You are in a fairly narrow stairway going down to an area you just can't see anything but black into, you can't even see the bottom step, and the hallway is too narrow to even pass by another PC." can help players better "select" their shenanigans. Maybe you did this, and maybe that player was still just flippant or ignorant, it happens.

...

"Tone", to me, is also about everyone being on the same page about what the characters can do, and what the fiction suggests they lean into. If you are doing hard-true FBI then the players owe it to the GM to at least familiarize themselves with what FBI do, and how FBI work.

There is some subtext to CATS here = that everyone does some amount of due-diligence to understand the agreements as well, and research if needed (if only a little).

 

[MGibster]

"Tone", to me, is also about everyone being on the same page about what the characters can do, and what the fiction suggests they lean into. If you are doing hard-true FBI then the players owe it to the GM to at least familiarize themselves with what FBI do, and how FBI work.

I don't think anyone here in the United States thinks the FBI uses bolas. And before anyone points to some less-than-lethal device that fires something like a bola, we're talking honest-to-God bolas like a gaucho might use. In this particular case, the player has been a frequent problem when it comes to the tone and expectations of campaigns whether I run them or someone else does.

It's still a good idea to talk to players about expectations before the game starts. Odds are it'll work most of the time too. But sometimes it won't.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I still remember my Delta Green game where an FBI agent was going into a basement and decided to pull out a set of bolas to fight a shadowy creature. When the player told me he pulled out some bolas I burst out in laughter because I thought he was kidding. Nope. He was dead serious. I just shook my head and said, "Okay. You're on the stairwell going into the basement. How do you propose to swing your bolas? For that matter, how the hell do you walk around with concealed bolas?" He got a little upset with me saying he was just trying to do something interesting and said I could just play his character for him.

Yeah, those kind of gamers do not last long at my table.