See Page XX: Take the Ball

A column about roleplaying

By Robin D. Laws

When asked what one can do to be a better player, the first thing I always say is: the mere fact that you’re concerned about this suggests that you’re probably already most of the way there.

The second thing I say is: see where the ball is, and move the ball forward.

I’ve used this metaphor on Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, and in some detail, recently, in an episode of the Claim to Game Podcast. It’s also a Thing I Always Say at panels. For easier reference and linkage, here it is in written form.

Any game session revolves around a player character activity. A well designed game bakes this in for you. In GUMSHOE, you’re either solving a mystery, or figuring out what to do now that you have. F20 games like 13^th Age have you finding a problem that can be solved through fantastical combat and then playing that out. Pretty much any other RPG also provides a stock answer to the question, “What are we doing?”, which the GM then supplies straight up, riffs on, or deviates from for a change of pace.

To work out specifically how to be a collaborative player in any game, visualize a ball. Throughout the session you, the GM, and the other players, will be passing the ball around, keeping it in motion to move the story in a mutually satisfying direction. When you pick up the ball, you can see that it has a phrase on it. The message says, “What are we doing?”

In a mission driven game, the GM starts a scenario with a scene that gives you the ball. The characters receive a distressing letter from a missing uncle last seen conducting anthropological research in the bayou country. Mr. Verity assembles the team to look into reports of nephilim at a Florida mall. Survivors of an attack on a hinterland village tell the roving adventurers that the elven liches have once again raided the surface world.

Whatever the details, the GM has handed you the ball. You then take the ball and do something with it.

In a sandbox game, the GM describes an open-ended situation rife with story hooks. Each of these is a potential ball. The one you and the other players seize on becomes the ball. As a group you then take the ball and do something with it.

In this early stage the job is not to reject the ball, or to look through all of the available balls and then put them back into the bin. It’s to take the ball and put a spin on it, to bring your character into the story.

When you see that you have been offered the ball, the active, collaborative player fills in the rest by supplying the motivation to pick it up and move with it. Again, the premise of the game may supply a ready answer for that—I’m doing X because it’s my job, or my vocation, or otherwise my purpose in life, to do X. When it doesn’t seem clear to other players why you would accept a mission, meet the ball halfway, in the process personalizing it to your character.

“I’ve been worried about my uncle. Another bayou foray, at his age?”

“This is my chance to redeem myself after my last Florida mission went awry.”

“Elven liches? They’re the ones who gave me this scar!”

When you take the ball, you are not just accepting the premise, but amplifying it, giving it specific detail, and adding emotional stakes.

If you have trouble accepting the premise because it doesn’t speak to you or your hopes for the character, this is the step where you adjust it so that it does. An attentive GM will see that you have taken the ball and look for ways to refer back to what you’ve done, with the uncle relationship, the redemption arc, or the enduring grudge.

A sandbox setup gives you the additional responsibility of bringing the ball and presenting it to the rest of the group, including the GM.

“It’s about time we looked into the uncanny lights we saw in the bayou.”

“I had a weird dream about that abandoned mall out by the highway, except I’m not sure it was a regular dream. I think we might pick up the trail of the Xorax there.”

“Remember how elven liches gave me this scar? Well it’s been tingling lately. Let’s go to the archive to look for a map to their lair.”

Ideally you have given some thought to the ball you’ll be bringing to the game beforehand, so you’re not caught flatfooted when the GM asks what you want to do at the top of the session. (As Ken points out, the GM can help avoid this by asking what you want to do next at the end of a session when everyone is still engaged, rather than hitting the group cold the next time you meet.)

Often you take the ball not from the GM but from a fellow player. The process is the same. Identify the ball, take the ball, and put your spin on it.

“I’ve been running a video analysis of those weird lights. Maybe it will tell us something.”

“I got lost in that mall when I was a kid. I think I might have a blocked memory about it.”

“Since our last adventure I’ve been spending my downtime cozying up to the map room librarian.”

In each of those examples you’re spinning the ball, reacting to what another player has put in play, and adding something new for the GM to build on when the ball returns to her.

Often the real momentum problems in a game session happen in the middle. When players bog down and don’t know what to do, ask where the ball is. What does the GM probably expect you to do? That’s the ball. How do you pick up the ball and get it moving again? If you invent and throw in a new detail to get the ball rolling again, any halfway collaborative GM will seize on that to resume the story flow.

“We’re lost in this trackless swamp. What if I pull out my copy of Long Lost Friend and open it to a random page?

“This is a small town where we all know each other. What do I know about that overly alert security guard?”

For extra points, look for an answer that picks up a spin another player has already put on the ball.

“Enough back and forth. Charadin, what does your itching lich scar tell you about this?”

The object is not to grab the ball and hog it, and especially not to replace the ball currently in motion with a completely different one you like better. Instead you’re taking the ball and spinning it on to someone else. That spinning can bring in the story points you came to the table for, or even hint at an advantage your character might gain for maintaining the flow. That’s more than acceptable: you’re taking charge of how you are rewarded, and showing other players the benefit of doing the same.

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GUMSHOE is the groundbreaking investigative roleplaying system by Robin D. Laws that shifts the focus of play away from finding clues (or worse, not finding them), and toward interpreting clues, solving mysteries and moving the action forward. GUMSHOE powers many Pelgrane Press games, including The Yellow King Roleplaying Game, Trail of Cthulhu, Night’s Black Agents, Esoterrorists, Ashen Stars, and Mutant City Blues. Learn more about how to run GUMSHOE games, and download the GUMSHOE System Reference Document to make your own GUMSHOE products under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution Unported License.