The Play of the Game...

[Ieqo]

We all know that TMP isn't the right game for every player. Finding the right group can be a challenge--but a rewarding one once the group is found. The wrong group--or even the right group with the wrong expectations--can give you the kind of experiences that only years later can you look back upon and laugh.

Back in the 80s, I struggled to find the group that was right. It took some experimentation, exasperation, and more patience than I thought I had. As a public service to GMs beginning TMP for the first time, and the nostalgic nodding-of-the-head of the other grognards, I offer a list of pitfalls to watch for. From speaking to other TMP players of the same vintage, these are common enough to be considered almost universal.

1. YOU'RE NOT AUDIE MURPHY! Explain the purpose of the project until you're blue in the face. Tell them over and over what they'll be in a Recon team and what a Recon team does. Stress that the Project recruited normal folks. And yet if you give them a choice of their character backstory you'll still get something like, "Dissatisfied after ten years in SEAL Team Six, and another five years doing unspecified BlackOps dirty work for the CIA, Joe Schmuckberger was recruited by the Project." Sigh. Related to (and usually found in the same place as) this phenomenon is the Sniper. This is the guy who insists that the Project should issue a Barret, and furthermore having a sniper (the real-world employment and limitations of which you'll never convince him of) makes perfect sense. "Yes, I get that we're supposed to make peaceful contact with the indigs. You can stop repeating over and over that we're really only armed for self-defense. The ability to assassinate a target a half-mile away is completely consistent with both of those directives!"

2. GET THEM OUT OF THEIR DAMN HOLE! For whatever reason, given the typical wakeup (no radio contact, subtle clues that they slept way too long, etc), players will NOT leave their bolthole until you inform them that their air is going bad (now SOP for my games, by the way). They'll wail and gnash their teeth when you tell them that their bolthole isn't reusable and thus unsuitable for use as their secret underground lair.

3. HOARDERS IN THE TWENTY-SECOND CENTURY! Give them a mission, give them a radio contact...hell, put a burning orphanage right outside their bolthole and the first thing they will decide they must do is proceed to the nearest cache and open it up. A reenactment:
PLAYER: We go to the supply cache.
ME: Why? You're fully-supplied.
PLAYER: Do we know what's in it?
ME: You've got a general idea.
PLAYER: So what's in it?
ME: Supplies.
PLAYER: What kind of supplies?
ME: The kind that you are currently fully-loaded with, to the point of not being able to move around in your vehicles because you're so fully-supplied!
PLAYER: We need to see what is in there.
ME: Caches aren't resealable. Once you dig it up, it is exposed to the elements and anyone else can find it.
PLAYER: That's okay. We'll take the stuff with us.
ME: Were you listening about the whole 'vehicles are overloaded' thing?
PLAYER: Not our fault you didn't give us a reusable base.

Repeat for any remaining caches the team may have.

4. TRADE WITH LOCALS? YOU'RE KIDDING RIGHT? When your players complain that the Project doesn't issue enough ration packs, you're probably into this one.

5. ANY SURVIVING TECH BELONGS TO US! Doesn't matter if the locals are using that tractor engine as a water pump to supply their town. Or the old airport hangars have been pressed into service as an ad hoc refugee center. Get out. We might need it. For something.

There are a couple more that I've seen more than once, but these seem to be the Big Five that happen all the time. Are there any others that I (mercifully) have not encountered?

[RandyT0001]

6. Cavalry Charge!
After hearing a noise in the distance the team approaches the source of the noise. Once they have a clear line of sight they see one person holding a weapon at the back of another person walking in front of him. He might be pointing at the other person .............
"We charge in all guns blazing......"
......or he may be simple carrying the weapon as he walks,.....
".......at the man carrying the rifle!"
it is too far for a clear determination.
[The noise of mutiple dice rolls]
"I hit him."
"So did I."
"Aww, crap, I think I hit the other guy with this roll."
The woman walking in front of the man is merely grazed but she falls to the ground screaming as she sees her husband's head blow apart causing him to drop the rifle and his game meat.

[Ieqo]

Originally Posted by RandyT0001

6. Cavalry Charge!

I did this on purpose knowing damn well what the players would do, so I guess you could say it is my own fault:

Following the sound of the rhythmic metallic noises you crest a low rise to see a line of men. They appear to be bound to one another with a long length of heavy chain, as they swing pickaxes down into what looks like a disused railroad grade. Observing from the back of a wagon nearby are four men who lounge about drinking from tin cups, each of them with some type of longarm within easy reach. Another wagon next to this one holds a huge iron cage (currently empty)

Players ask for clarification of relative positions of the "slaves" and their "overseers", make a hasty assault plan (which naturally calls for heavy use of their Ma Deuce--if you give them something, they will really really really want to use it) and proceed to execute the first successful jailbreak of the 22nd Century. These "slaves" of course being convicts working a legitimate chain gang.

[stormlion1]

The last game we played I actually showed them how much room they had. I took them out to my jeep Liberty, told them all to sit down and get comfortable. Then I proceeded to load the vehicle with shipping crates, ammo boxes, Rifle Cases, Box's of MRE's, and backpacks. No I did not own all of them, lots of borrowing went on. And when I was done I had them sitting in there seats barely able to move other than a very tiny space down the middle. I told them they would have exactly that much room in there vehicle left over and probably would have rifles in between there knees and gear strapped to the sides and the roof.
They understood how overloaded they were at that point....which made them look for a place to bunker down the next game so they could get all that gear out and give them a place to fortify. They took over a lighthouse. Seriously.

[ArmySGT.]

In game rules terms........... give them movement penalties for more equipment than the vehicle packing list authorizes....

Manning the .50 would normally be two actions for one already in the pintle. One to stand up in the turret ring, and another to remove the travel pin and get the weapon ready.

Overloaded make it 4-5-6 actions to clear gear or make room..... and make a reload from 2 to 6 actions too.

Then add penalties like -10% for aiming because the gunner has gear under their feet. A skill check to dismount. Getting in requires three actions.... (2 to move things, 1 to enter). You can coax them out of their shell.

Lastly, stop being the "Monty Haul" GM.... Stuff is cool but, limit what you give players and take it away often.

[Ieqo]

Originally Posted by ArmySGT.

Lastly, stop being the "Monty Haul" GM.... Stuff is cool but, limit what you give players and take it away often.

Negative, good buddy. That's just the plain vanilla Vehicular Basic Load.

[ArmySGT.]

Originally Posted by Ieqo

Negative, good buddy. That's just the plain vanilla Vehicular Basic Load.

I am talking about the "gimmee gimmees" that come up in the game. Like the secret government bunk with a fleet of fusion powered planes. The village with the M1 tank the just needs a tune up. The elaborate super bunker with a friendly Jarvis AI that can build anything.......

That Monty Haul GMing....... Make them earn it.....When you give them a tank, give them a tank because the next big bad is not going down easy.

[stormlion1]

Its actually more fun I find to truly show them how much time has passed. Back when I ran the games I let them hear stories about "The armored beast at Newtown!" Then let them go and see it. Its a rusted hulk with kids playing on it, it might have been a Abrams back in the day. But after a 150 years the engines seized up or been stripped, rust has eaten away at it, the tree sap from nearby pines has eaten away at it some more and its sunk a few feet into the ground. Then I point out the town HAS been trying to take care of it. But its a long lost battle.