Atmosphere
By
Matthew McFarland
Without atmosphere, we suffocate. With too much, the same. Ironically enough, this is about what happens in a game, too.
An example of too little atmosphere: You get to the game and get started. The GM makes no effort to differentiate between what is said in or out of character, which means that you can get long, detailed explanations of characters motivations (that your character has no way of knowing) and are then told, “But that’s all OOC.” Great, you think, so why tell me? The room is brightly lit, there’s no music being played, a lot of idle chatter, and really no dialogue. The GM says, “OK, the cop comes up and asks for your license.” Great, you think, but why couldn’t you have said that in the cop’s voice, or at least in first person? You leave feeling like you could have been playing a board game for all the “role-playing” that went on.
An example of too much atmosphere: You arrive at the game and find the whole place lit by candles. It’s hard to see, and hard to breathe, because the GM’s been burning incense. The game begins at a club, so the GM plays loud industrial music and you have to shout to be heard. All the players are dressed “in character” — apparently, their characters wish to advertise that they’re freaks, because the players look ready to go to a Renaissance fair (this would be okay for a fantasy settings, but then the industrial music wouldn’t be fitting). You ask about a rule at one point and everyone stares at you. The GM gives a smirk that you’d love to hit with a tire iron and asks, “Why does your character ask about die rolls?” You leave feeling you’ve joined a weird cult, your lungs hurt from the incense, and you’ve got a headache from the music.
Atmospheric tricks can be great helps to your game. The biggest trick, though, is to use them in moderation. Here’s a list of some good ideas to bring some verisimilitude into your game.
• Music. If the characters bum a ride with a creepy-looking hillbilly who rides with a shotgun in between his legs, why not play some country on the stereo? “Bad Moon Rising” (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is a good choice; it’s harmless enough in tone, but the lyrics are anything but friendly. If you’re running a fantasy game, dig up some Monteverdi for scenes at court — and then put on “O Fortuna” from Carmina Burrana for the big battle scene. A big street brawl in a modern-day game? Great — try Marilyn Manson, Stabbing Westward, or Rage Against the Machine. (The soundtrack from The Matrix, in particular, is guaranteed to get people’s blood pumping). You could even burn your own CD, if you’ve got the means, and create a soundtrack to your game.
There’s other ways to use music, though, than just setting mood. For example, what if every time a certain NPC shows up, you put Enya’s “Hope Has A Place” on? Very soon, the characters will learn to associate the character with that song. When you play it, they’ll know she’s about to show up — or maybe they’ll just think about her, which means you can use the song to give them a hint (“Hey, guys, I’ll bet Vivianne could help us!” “Yeah, why didn’t I think of that?”).
A few caveats about music: First of all, watch the volume. A lot of people have trouble concentrating over loud music, and yelling kills your vocal expression. Second, be careful of using a player’s favorite songs or bands, because they tend to sing along. That’s distracting for everybody. A good thing to do is use instrumental music only (as opposed to music with lyrics). Movie scores (not soundtracks) are superb for this. (For creepy scary music, try The Silence of the Lambs). Finally, beware of using music everybody knows well. The Jaws theme is creepy, yeah, but it’s also cliché.
• Sound Effects. If the characters are going to be trekking through the woods during a storm, see if you can find a CD with thunderstorm noises. Animal sounds (like wolves howling), ocean surf, and so forth are available on CD and are usually fairly cheap. WARNING: A lot of them have crappy music in the background. Make sure to read the label. Another way to get sound effects is to record them from movies — explosions, gunshots, swordplay, screams, and so forth (you could probably find web sites for that sort of thing, too).
• Incense. This can be a nice touch, but be careful not to overdo it. People with allergies can get very uncomfortable around incense. Find out if anybody reacts badly before you use it, and then just burn a stick for a while before the players arrive. That way the scent will linger in the air, not overpower them.
• Food. Not pizza and snacks, but real food. If the characters are invited to dinner by an NPC, why not cook and eat dinner in character? Or, perhaps the characters meet at a cocktail party — why not give them drinks to use as props? (Alcohol is optional, dictated by whether or not everybody there can legally drink and wishes to do so. I, personally, strongly recommend against drinking during gaming, as it damages the memory and dulls the senses.) Again, the food-and-beverage tactic is not something to overdo, partially because it gets expensive, but it can be a great change of pace.
• Props. If the game involves finding a missing girl, why not dig up the senior picture of a classmate you haven’t seen in years and hand it to the characters as the girl’s distraught mother? Or, if the characters find a stained copy of the Necronomicon at a crime-scene (this book, by the way, was created by H. P. Lovecraft and has no occult significance whatsoever), why not spend six dollars, buy a copy, and splatter it with red paint or egg yolks? Doing too much of this will make your players feel bogged down and the idea will lose its shine, but having a real object to hand the characters is a good way to make it feel more real. I’ve been known to type up letters and diary entries, to record weird mixes of music and voices, and even had a player handcuffed and led from the room by an assistant once (his character was a ghost, and had been “summoned” by a necromancer. Don’t try this sort of thing, by the way, unless you and your players trust each other).
• Lighting. Some games (like Vampire: The Masquerade) were made to be played by candlelight. Some, like Paranoia require more direct, harsh lighting. It’s even neat if you can cut the lights suddenly. The two biggest problems with mood lighting are a)making sure there’s enough light to see one’s character sheet by and b)making sure that the players don’t fiddle with the candles during play.
Oh, and one other thing. Don’t put a t-shirt or something similar over a lamp to dim the light. You run the risk of starting a fire. (My brother did this once and burnt a hole in the lampshade.)
• Voices. OK, not everybody can be Richard Little (he was a famous impersonator. Just pretend you knew that, and I won’t feel so old). But even if you can’t tell the difference between a New Zealand accent and an Australian accent, you can probably manage a rasp to your voice when you play the old man in the corner of the tavern, ranting and raving about hideous shadow-folk. You can raise the pitch slightly to show you’re playing a woman (if you don’t happen to be one already), or slur your speech to act drunk. If you can do accents, terrific. If you want to learn to do them, there are dialect tapes available; check with the Theater department at a local university on how to get them. If you can’t do accents, for God’s sake, don’t try. You’ll sound ridiculous.
One big warning about voices: Avoid stereotypes. Not every homosexual male speaks in a high-pitched lisp (never met one that did, actually). Not every African-American speaks in gansta-rap dialect. If you play to a stereotype, the players will be hard-pressed to regard the character you’re portraying as a person.
• IC vs. OOC. As you probably know, IC stands for In Character, while OOC stands for Out Of Character. It’s best if you have some way to tell if someone is speaking OOC. A player in my group, for example, would place a hand on his/her head to indicate that the player, not the character, is speaking. If things are going smoothly and people are staying in-character well, I don’t worry about it too much, and I’ll ask if a certain comment was in or out of character if I’m not sure. If people are screwing around and we’re not getting anywhere, I’ll announce that anything the players will be taken in character unless their hand is on their head. Don’t be a jerk about this — if a question was clearly meant for the GM, answer it.
• Dialogue. Speak as the character. Don’t say, “My character asks you about your mother.” Instead say, “How’s your mother?” The idea here is have conversation as the characters. The more you speak in third person, the more the group is thrown out of the moment.
This does not mean you should act out what your character does. Some groups do play this way. It’s called LARPing (Live Action Role Playing). I don’t care for it, personally, but not for any reason I could legitimately defend. I have run Live-Action scenes for various games, and it can allow you to demonstrate things like posture and body language that you don’t usually get to show. If you choose to LARP, remember not to touch other players (pats on the back are probably OK, but respect people’s space) and have some system to resolve combat (other than actually fighting!). And please, do it some place where other folks can’t see you. This does tend to freak them out.
• Assistants. You might bring in a friend as a “guest star”, someone who isn’t going to play in the game over the long term, but plays for one or two sessions. You can use them as a plant — tell them what you want them to accomplish, and let them get creative about how to do it. This frees you from playing one important NPC all the time, and lets your buddy showcase his skills. Plus, it gives the character a unique look and voice in the players’ minds. Make sure your assistant takes direction well — it’s still your story, after all, and you don’t want to have to interrupt the game to reign him back in.
• Other ideas? Get creative. There are plenty of ways to enhance the mood, to make the game feel more real for a while. In general, be careful of any tactic that requires you touch other players (when in doubt, don’t) and beware of mixing too many of these ideas in the same session. The idea is to enhance, not overwhelm.
One other important note: Make sure there’s a stopping point. When the game ends for the evening, before you discuss what happened and assign experience points, turn the lights on, the music off, stand up and stretch, and thoroughly break character. When the game is over, it’s over, and the atmosphere needs to return to normal breathing space.
© 2000 Matthew McFarland. No reproduction is allowed
without the author’s express permission.