Today was Session #3 of Ariadne’s Thread – our SF game powered by Cypher – and once again the player-directed goals and relationships established during character creation have yielded an excellent experience at the table.

For those who’ve not been listening to RPR, I’ve focused on trialling Jamison’s methodology outlined in his book, “Gamemastering” (2011). While I have found the shift to his style of GMing a little challenging, I can’t deny the impact has been very positive.

Three elements stand forth clearly:

1. Players created characters who are embedded in the Otherworld; each one has connections to both friends and foes.
2. Player characters have defined personal goals which have allowed the players to direct attention where they want to take the story.
3. The consequences of the player’s choices in-character are yielding complications that are easy to apply (as GM) and entertaining for everyone.

Taken together, each session is taking me (as GM) less time to prep. The sessions are unpredictable (for all) and surprisingly entertaining. The simple tools that Jamison recommends are keeping everything ticking along well.

The added benefit of using Cypher, which prides itself as a system that makes GMing as easy as possible, has been that there are fewer system-focused questions to answer. The game is surprisingly robust and provides further unexpected events at each session.

There are a number of elements to the Cypher system that, on reading, are not apparent. For example, I didn’t think that Difficulty 1 tasks which need a roll of 3+ on 1d20 would be at all worthwhile. I’ve lost count of the number of 1’s and 2’s rolled over three sessions.

The GM Intrusion mechanism is genius too! For example, when the PCs were attacking two cops on the ramp at the edge of a concave starport bay and I wasn’t sure if there were bystanders who witnessed the fight. Intrusion! there might be witnesses. The player chose to deny that by spending 1 XP. Either way, it added to the interesting tale unfolding.

But most of all, I’ve noticed the way in which the players are all highly engaged throughout the whole session. They are becoming more adept with their in-character as-character roleplay even if, as they make rolls, they slip out to be players making Effort decisions.

There’s a powerful dynamic that I believe is largely fuelled by the overall uncertainty on what might happen in any given circumstance. None of us really knows what’s going to happen and it’s fun to find out.

The player characters have their goals and objectives. There’s an Otherworld filled with people with their own agendas. The dice add spice. The GM can intrude when it seems interesting or to ratchet the pressure. And consequences are stacking up.

Oh boy, are the consequences stacking up. Those supposed “heroes” are rapidly starting to look like desperate fugitives on Cradle Down. They’ve fought off a bounty hunter’s team, held the man himself hostage, but found themselves the target of a police missing person investigation. When it looked like Captain Hector was being arrested, well, shots were fired.

They are on the run with a starship that can barely fly. Four of them are (it turns out) fugitives and the fifth is an outsider with no legal identity within the now-hostile Corporate Alliance. There’s an Alliance destroyer in orbit and there are too many bodies to dispose of easily.

But here’s my point: the players are calling the shots.

They chose the characters and decided why they were all on Cradle Down. The players gave me the bounty hunters as foes. The players accepted Ariadne’s Thread needed repair and are trying to procure parts. But they chose to fight back (twice). They hauled the bodies onto the ship and dumped them in the Low Berths. You catch my drift?

My job is to put obstacles in the path of their goals and to keep asking, “Who might gain from this and who might lose? How do those people react?”

It’s been a lot of fun so far.

Game on!