Playing the Adversary

When the GM plays an NPC who is
an enemy of the PCs, he should try to
limit his knowledge to those things that
the NPC would really be aware of. The
GM knows all about the party’s
strengths and weaknesses – but their
enemies don’t. One good way to solve
this problem is to have another person
play the adversary characters.
The GM should tell the Adversary as
much as possible about the characters
he is to play. But the Adversary should
know no more than is “realistic” about
the overall situation. In particular, he
should know very little about the PCs
and their abilities – especially at the
beginning of an adventure! For total
realism, you might even want two
Adversary players – one for knowledge-
able enemies who are familiar with the
party, and one for stupid cannon fodder.
The Adversary is like an “assistant
GM.” His job is to roleplay the foes as
well as possible. He should not play
them as mindless killing machines
(unless they really are). If the “appro-
priate” thing for those particular ene-
mies to do is to attack, they should
attack. But they might also throw rocks
from ambush, shout insults, or even
run away immediately!
In any disagreement between the
Adversary and the GM, the GM’s word
is law. But a good GM gives the
Adversary as much leeway as possible,
and takes any disagreement into anoth-
er room to avoid distracting the players.
Playing the Adversary is a good
way to build up experience if you
would like to be a GM someday.
If you don’t have a gaming group in your area, or
you still want to game with college buddies who are
scattered all over the country (or the world!), you may
want to try roleplaying online. There are a number of
ways to go about it:
Play by e-mail (PBEM). In this style of play, the GM
describes the scene for everyone. Each player then
sends his next “move” to the GM, who compiles every-
one’s moves, figures out what the NPCs are doing dur-
ing that time, resolves all the actions, and sends out the
next installment.
Advantages: no one is forced into hasty action; just
about everyone with any sort of net access has e-mail,
and it works just as well on a 10-year-old computer as
it does on the newest model; the GM can attach files to
the messages if he wants to show the players something
their characters would see; games aren’t held up wait-
ing on the perpetually late player to arrive; and no one
can steal your munchies.
Disadvantages: it is a lot more work for the GM,
especially if he is a poor typist; a single encounter can
take weeks to complete if the players are slow about
replying; and it’s just about impossible to run any
detailed combats – in fact, many PBEMs actively avoid
combat.
Play by real-time chat (IRC, M*, instant message,
etc.). A compromise between e-mail and face-to-face
gaming is using an online chat room or instant mes-
saging service. This has many of the good and bad fea-
tures of both approaches – games have to be scheduled,
but the players don’t have to be in the same physical
location; it’s possible to have real-time interaction
among the players, but if someone is a slow typist, he
bogs the game down (or gets left behind); no one steals
someone else’s munchies, but no one buys the GM
pizza, either. Some chat sites do have dice rollers, how-
ever, which makes gaming easier.
Massively multiplayer online RPGs. These are com-
puter games that allow the players and GMs to interact
online. Some let you use any game system you like; oth-
ers come with built-in rules.
We have made some efforts along this line, but so
far nothing has come of them. It definitely seems that
MMPORGs are the future of online gaming for many