Chapter 7: First Session
Once the player characters (PCs) are complete and the gamemaster (GM) has established the basics for the story (or scenario) you will be playing, the players get comfortable with their new roles while the GM gets a feel for the setting. This is done during the first session, which begins the PCs’ story.
Preparations
The entire gaming group would be wise to make the following practical preparations:
Time Planning
Plan to start playing at a certain time and potentially also decide on a fixed time when the game session will end. For the first time you play, it’s recommended to plan to meet roughly an hour before you start playing, play for about three hours, and then take one additional hour at the end to discuss what transpired during the session and address any thoughts about the game.
Pencils & Erasers
Everyone should have access to pencils and erasers to make notes and update their character sheets.
Dice
You should have at least two ten-sided dice; it helps if there’s one pair per player. The GM doesn’t need any, as they never need to roll dice during the game.
Location
Use a space where you won’t be disturbed by noise and other people. If you’re able to keep the lights dim and use mood lighting, it will help the players immerse in the game.
Breaks
It’s not unusual for a game session to continue several hours, so plan for snack- and coffee breaks. Maybe take an intermission walk/stretch to regain energy. In particular, the GM might benefit from breaks, as she has to be present and acting in every scene, which can become mentally exhausting.
Player Preparations
The players should consider the following before the first session:
Consider Their Character
Who are they? How do they behave in different situations? What important events happened in the character’s past? How do they perceive the world around them? The players don’t need to know the answers to these questions before the first session, but imagining their character’s personality and outlook makes adopting the role during the game easier.
Consider the Setting
Where is your game set? Are you in Harlem, New York City’s Harlem, circa 1981? When you close your eyes, can you imagine the dilapidated, concrete tenements? The graffiti-streaked walls and trains? The insistent police sirens screaming a few blocks in the distance? To reinforce the player’s shared image of the setting, the group might watch movies set there and discuss their ideas of it with each other.
ASTAROTH
The gamemaster should prepare as follows:
Read the Rules
It is particularly important the GM has read through 01 - World in Darkness, 04 - The Player Character, 05 - The Gamemaster, and 08 - Influences prior to the first game session. These chapters provide insight into what role the rules should play in the game, how to handle player Moves and GM Moves, and how the PCs interact with non-player characters. The GM should also read through the Archetypes the players have selected and ensure they are familiar with the Advantages and Disadvantages the players have chosen.
Get Accustomed with KULT’s Cosmology
Reading 01 - World in Darkness and skimming through the chapters in Book III: The Truth will provide the GM a feel for how the KULT universe differs from our own, and the nature of the horrors players may experience while playing. The GM doesn’t have to memorize these chapters, but can use them for inspiration and information about the setting’s underlying logic, Higher Powers, dimensions, and creatures.
Consider the Story Setting
What aspects of the setting should be fleshed out and emphasized? If the story takes place in an expedition into the Amazon jungles the GM might want to paint a picture of hot, sweaty moisture, sticky plants, thick undergrowth, creepy-crawlies and slithering reptiles, the cacophony of birds, shrieking monkeys, and the distant growls of predators. The GM can write down any of the setting’s most important aspects, ensuring she remembers to bring them out during play.
Consider the Supernatural
The GM should think about the PCs’ Dark Secrets, Disadvantages, and Advantages and based on them determine what Higher Powers, supernatural dimensions, and entities the story should focus on. What is Haunting the PC? What caused the Curse the PC is afflicted by? The boundaries between Elysium - the plane where humans live - and the other dimensions can be thin or nonexistent in some locations or at certain times. In these places in Time and Space, the characters can influence our world and entities from the other dimensions may cross over. In Book III: The Truth, you will find inspirations for locations, atmosphere, and events in these dimensions bordering ours. Limbo addresses the dream world, Inferno the realm of death, Metropolis covers the Eternal City and the Citadels of the Archons, the Underground are those dimensions bordering sewers, caves, tunnels, and catacombs, and Gaia describes the original wilderness.
Music
Using suitable background music during the session can help increase the players’ immersion into the environment or atmosphere. The GM can make use of several different playlists for the story’s various locations and situations. With the Internet, the GM has access to numerous movie/video game soundtracks and dark-ambient artists to use for their game sessions, and can switch tunes depending on the story’s mood be it calm, tense, action-packed, or scary.
Make an Intrigue Map
06 - Setting up a Story covers how to develop an Intrigue Map, based on the characters and their Dark Secrets, Disadvantages, and Relations. The Intrigue Map is a useful tool to get a quick overview of the story’s important elements, and can be utilized even if the GM has developed all the characters on her own, e.g., for a specific scenario. During the course of the game, the GM should note down important events and new NPCs on the Intrigue Map, keeping track of how the PCs’ actions affect their surroundings and the story’s progression.
Bombs
To kick the story off with an exciting and formative challenge, it can be useful to put the PCs through a kind of trial-by-fire situation, known as a bomb. The GM prepares a few bombs prior to the first session. They never have predetermined endings - their outcomes are always based on how the PCs react to them. The best bombs put the PCs in the position of making difficult choices between two or more decisions, and have a personal connection to the characters. For the first session, the GM may have to put extra thought into crafting good bombs. However, as she becomes accustomed to the GM Moves, it becomes easier to improvise bombs during play. Here are some examples of bombs:
- A cowardly and physically weak PC and their beloved are assaulted by robbers. The PC is put in the position of either making a pain-free and safe escape or staying behind to help their lover.
- A PC awakens with no memories, after being possessed by the entity currently haunting them. They discover an innocent person tied up and tortured in their bed. What do they do?
- The Avenger is behind the wheel of their car when they spot one of the targets of their oath of revenge. They step out into the pedestrian crossing up the street offering the perfect opportunity for vengeance - only to be immediately followed by a parent pushing a baby stroller. What do they do?
- The PC is watching a live-feed of their best friend, body parts strapped to two machines - moments from being torn asunder, piece by piece. They receive a text-message reading, “Draw your pistol and shoot [another PC] immediately… or your friend will be torn apart!” What do they do?
Ask the Players to Roll for Their Disadvantages
Before beginning the session, the GM should get the players to roll for the Disadvantages that should be rolled prior to game start. If the players get (10–14) or (–9), the GM gets Hold for that Disadvantage to be activated anytime during the session (should she wish to). When the GM gets Hold, the player knows the Disadvantage can come into play at anytime, which creates a sense of insecurity and tension right from the start. Hold for Disadvantages are noted down and saved until the GM spends them.
To Consider During Play
Once the game has started, the GM can use the following guidelines for running the first session:
Present the World to the Players
Begin by giving an overview of the current setting to the players. Tell them what date and time it is, and what is going on in the world around them.
For example: “It’s Tuesday, Octoher 7th, 2014. New York is cold and rainy, and it’s approaching 7am.”
In each scene, the GM is responsible for describing any important aspects of the character’s situation. She doesn’t have to lay everything out at once, but can work a few notable aspects into her descriptions over time.
For example: “As you enter the alley from the street, you notice this side of the house is dilapidated, nearly lost and forgotten in the shadows cast by the surrounding skyscrapers. A few unlit windows face the alley, and in the middle of the lone house is a boarded-up door. The building on the other side of the alley is just a dirty, grey wall with no windows or doors, rising five stories up. A group of tattered figures huddles by a set of stairs at the end of the alleyway. They glance over at you anxiously, and begin whispering to each other.”
Introduce the Player Characters into the Story
During the first session, the players get to portray their characters for the first time, revealing how they behave and act in the game-world. In longer stories, the players generally decide where their characters are and what they do. In this case, the GM should ensure the spotlight is shared equally between the players, scene by scene. If you’re playing a pre-written scenario, the GM may have the first few scenes prepared in advance to introduce the PCs to the players or set up important story elements.
For example:
- The first PC is working late in her office on the 86th floor of a financial district tower.
- The second PC, a police officer, and his partner are in their patrol car, sirens blaring, en route to a reported break-in in Buschwick.
- The third PC sits in a bar in NoHo with a half empty bottle of whiskey, listening to a hoarse jazz singer while waiting for her friend to arrive.