GMing an unorthodox setting the players know NOTHING about

Question

Just a while back, there has been a question concerning GMing a setting the players know better than the GM. Now, let me ask you sort of an inverse of that question. I.e. how to introduce and integrate the players into a setting they have no clue about?

Let me be more specific here: the setting is pretty much otherworldly. There are no humans, no elves, no dwarves, no orcs, etc. Furthermore, there are no common trees, herbs, animals, etc. And let's not forget, no gods, no middle-age-ish inspired theme, but an original history, specific to this unique world. To rephrase that, it's an alien world on an alien planet with its own alien ecosystems, inhabited by both animal-ish and sentient aliens. The sentient aliens have their own, unique histories and cultures.

The thing I've noticed while GMing or playing in the generic fantasy settings is that these standard settings have certain "hooks", or stereotypes, if you will. Everyone knows that elves are unpractical snobs, gods grant magic powers, humans are all greedy merchants living in corrupt kingdoms and orcs are filthy, malicious beasts. This set of stereotypes is a "standard" the players expect; it is also usually enough of a starting point for the players to orientate themselves in the setting.

I could go on and on about how I despise these stereotypes (since I've heard them soooo many times before, since they're naive and unrealistic, etc.), but that's not a very productive stance on its own. So I dislike the stereotypes and want to get rid of them by playing in a different, otherworldly setting. The idea seems fair enough, but a hypothetical problem with the players arises: the players would be stepping into the unknown and there would be no stereotypical "hooks" for them to hang on to. They'd get intimidated by the complexity of an unknown world ... and as a result, they wouldn't want to play in such a setting ... much.

There must be some successful, humane way of introducing the players to a setting they have no clue about. It's all about making that kind of translation a smooth and gentle.

I'm open to your suggestions .

Answer 1

I like to work like this: I give the basic information to the players. One single page of 8.5 x 11 with all the info they certainly know. I tell them everything that is outstanding. How many moons, color of the sky, name of the main constellations if they are relevant. Any info about the basic religion, main genesis myth everything relevant for the first adventure and their basic character creation. This page is info that even a farmer knows.

Then I let them create their characters and ask me all the questions they want. I keep note of my answers in a form of a Q&A by email (or my own private website for my group).

This method works for both Homebrew settings and really odd settings.

I make sure the first adventures are introductory to the tone of the setting and the campaign so they know what's going on. I once started a campaign by a paladin executing a child in public for stealing food from the Temple. I wanted the players to understand that in my setting, the Gods don't interact with mortals directly.

Another good way is to give them a mentor who can answer questions in game.

Answer 2

There is no smooth, gentle way to introduce players to a truly alien setting. You have three choices as a GM who wants to successfully run an alien setting:

1. make the players aliens to the setting, and let them explore it. (gentle means of introduction)
2. make them study up prior to play. (smooth play, but heavy handed)
3. Play with people who already know the setting (beyond the scope of the question)

Anything else is going to be failing to be smooth or gentle, perhaps both.

Making them study can be shorthand, or it can be "here, read this book"... but getting players willing to do so can be a problem. Even some who are willing won't retain enough to make it happen.

There are some nifty games that try this - Skyrealms of Jorune, Mechanical Dream, and to a lesser extent, Rhand, FFG's 40K RPGs, and Chronicles of Talislanta.

Their very alienness makes Jorune and Mechanical Dream both hell to find players willing to do the homework and hard to run and play in. Neither is particularly amenable to extraplanetary aliens, either. Rhand, Dark Heresy, and Talislanta all have human cultures that can be latched onto, and the minimal alienness explained briefly. Better still, Dark Heresy has some cultures that are close enough to modern that PC's can be just mildly ignorant members of allowing for easy start. The more alien the setting, the harder it is on the players.

The easiest study option is to severely limit the PC knowledge base needed - usually by picking a single area and culture, and prepping the players for just that area. Then, as they explore and become familiar with that, and start to expand their play area, expand the cultural knowledge. This is, however, very slow, and for those wanting epic stories, not good.

I'll note further - even something as non-alien as Pendragon can be a major learning curve for players.

A non-smooth, but highly effective, means exists for only mildly alien settings: Implementing a system of belief structures with mechanics that provides a saving throw against bad (setting-wise) decisions. Sooner or later, players start to learn the setting-appropriate responses. Some will quit in frustration at the loss of agency in such games. The best example of this is Pendragon, tho' both Ars Magica and Fading Suns have similar mechanics.

Answer 3

It really depends on what your goal with this is, I think.

As I understand it, the joy in playing a tabletop game is twofold. First, you get to be "anything you want to be". If you've always dreamed about being a Necromancer or a Super-Saiyan, you can explore that and pretend for a while that you are. But secondly, and perhaps even more importantly, it is to explore universal human themes and be a part of a story that does so. I think the first question you need to ask yourself is, in what way is this completely alien world going to be fun for my players? After all, if we have any job as GMs, it's to ensure that our players are having a good time.

If they really want something so completely different that it doesn't even connect to their psychology, perhaps you can try doing a prologue for each of the characters which essentially glosses over their character's "childhood" (or whatever the equivalent of that would be for this particular organism). This would allow the player to learn about "the world" at the same time the character is -- thus, the learning process would actually occur in-game, and the character would start out just as ignorant as the player.

Think of the intro to Fallout 3 as an example, where you start as a baby and get led through a key series of events in order to familiarize yourself with the setting as well as your own character.

Answer 4

Always wanted to do this and never done it - mainly because it's a huge amount of work, and my GMing days are pretty much over. Random bits of advice:

• Make sure the players are OK with this approach. It might end up being more talky than a typical adventure. You'' probably end up doing a lot of explaining.
• Start the characters young, so they haven't learned much, and somewhere simple.
• Give them someone who can answer questions. e.g. make their first mission to escort some wizened old guy to the Bard's Festival equivalent (or, since you hate stereotypes, a golden-haired muscular guy who happens to have really poor fighting skills but lots of knowledge)

Answer 5

Have the players create the setting with you. Microscope can help with this. Once the setting is established you can play in it.

Answer 6

There are a bunch of good answers here. Two more things I've seen done (addressing the general question, though I suspect neither one would work with your particular situation):

1. A friend played a game in college in which all the players started out by reading a novel that the GM had written set in the game world. That required heavy commitment from the players (and the GM), so it's not appropriate for players who can't cope with even reading a page of notes; but it was very effective, in that it meant all the characters knew a lot about the world going into it.

2. Kind of at the other end of the spectrum, a friend of mine used to use famous real-world names for major NPCs that filled certain roles. For example, if there's a character named King Hitler, then the players will have some idea of what role that character fills in the game world. This isn't so great for immersion in the game world (so it's not a technique I would use myself), but it's a very handy shortcut for quick information-conveying.

I guess I would add one other thing: if the players and the GM have different ideas about what they're there for, it may be tough to have a cohesive game. If your goal is to present them with a world that doesn't rely on any standard genre conventions, and their goal is to kick back and relax with a comfortable and familiar setting, then it may not be possible to bridge that gap and keep everyone happy. Even the techniques that others have suggested may only make things a little less painful, rather than actually enjoyable. So before you go too much further in this direction, consider whether your players and your game world are a good match for each other.

Answer 7

You had really good answers and I agree with them all - it's difficult to add anything meaningful to them.

First of all, like every venture in life, you need to know (roughly) what your objectives are for setting this stage and you also need to know (or have a very educated guess) that the players are on board with you.

In general, whatever the scenario, I like starting the characters as young and inexperienced, possibly plain ignorant, and then let them learn from the story (maybe with the help of masters or mentors) rather than from written information, Q&A or similar kind of communication, that risks to quickly become a ready made book, rather than an invitation to explore the surprising world by trial and failure.

I also like to start from some situation that can be close to their experience and move from there to the weirdest possible immagination step by step, untill they outwit you. In this particular setting I'd consider, as first characters, to provide the players with young humans abducted by aliens, so that you can describe them the new "world" as it would look on their eyes if they were there, and then you can allow them to chose plain aliens when they'll start a second (third, fourth, etc.) character in your campaign setting (I always encouraged the players to have a number of characters for plenty of good reasons, and this is just one of them). This could be a more "gentle" welcome to your alien world.

Be prepared to "help" your players a lot in the beginning (i.e. prepare yourself really well and make your best effort to keep the game entertaining without dropping too much detailed information on them...), until your world starts to come together and enthuse them, because the first sessions will be difficult for your players to understand and enjoy properly if you don't put your best effort then.

Answer 8

Another approach would be to have the characters be in the same boat as the players. They could be strangers or aliens to the campaign setting. Conceivably they could just have no memories for some reason.

This has significant consequences for the campaign so it often won't make sense, but it does make it much easier for the players to role play their characters.

Also, since you really don't like generic fantasy stereotypes, it might be fun to play with those once or twice. The characters see what appear to be classic fantasy high elves frolicking in a glade and talking to each other in a language with lots of "L"s in it, but when the greet them the "L'vs" curl up into spheres with teeth and begin rolling towards them, hunting as a pack. (You can probably come up with something a lot better).