The seven rules are important enough that I will take the time to give some extra advice on how to use them in your game. Remember that the seven rules are designed for the "standard" sort of role-playing. A group of characters working together in the face of some challenge. They also are focused on role-playing, not maximizing the numerical effectiveness of your character. Here are the seven rules again:

Section 1: Getting along with people

Rule 1: The character must work in a group
Rule 2: The character must be fun for the player and the rest of the party
Rule 3: The character must be good at heart

Section 2: Character Composition

Rule 4: The character must have a reason to go adventuring
Rule 5: The character must fit the campaign style
Rule 6: The character must have long term goals

Section 3: Final Gut Check

Rule 7: The player must be able to actually play the character

Essentially, these seven rules are a contract between the player and the GM. The GM is saying that in order for the player to play in the campaign, the character must fit the rules. And the player is agreeing to play their character by these rules. In this sense, they are like a checklist that is brought out at the beginning of character creation, a list of requirements for the character creation process. They should also be run through at the end of character creation to make sure that nothing was missed, like a agreement between player and GM that everything is ready for play.

And if all that is done, the character should be fun to play in the campaign. And if every character has a fun character, then the campaign should be mighty indeed. That is, after all, the goal of having the rules – to maximize the amount of fun possible for everyone to have. Sometimes, having fun is hard work. Just ask game designers.

Four final things to think about:

1. Don't constrain creativity – redirect it

It would seem very easy to view the seven rules as being overly restrictive to the kinds of characters players want to play. A common reaction is for the players to think – darn, I can't play a drow. Or that demon concept is right out the window. Or the ancient godling reincarnated as an indestructible dragonfly is never going to fit into the GM's little box of reality. (Maybe people would say that regardless of the seven rules. . .) But yet most people would agree that playing a demon could be fun. The key point for the GM to realize is that these rules actually expand the possibilities of available characters by allowing the GM to say "okay, if you can fit your demon into these seven rules, it is good to go." In fact, the seven rules are at their most useful when dealing with these types of concepts.

Some concepts (see NENAD below) still will be very hard to fit into the seven rules. But then again, some concepts don't make very good characters.

2. If you are uncomfortable with it, don't allow it.

Simply put – if a concept is straddling the line on one of the rules, and you think it might be okay even though you have your doubts, change it. It is unlikely that something that you are worrying about in character creation is likely to get better during play. Worse is a much more likely descriptor.

In these situations, the concept should be amended slightly to conform more with the seven rules. Or the GM can add a small caveat to the concept, such as "that's okay as long as you never use it on a party member." These caveats need to be noted down and specifically agreed upon between GM and player. They also have a very good chance of impeding believability in the character, so be careful when giving them out. Usually changing the concept is better.

3. Keep them in mind during play as well as character creation

Once play starts, the players don't have a license to change their characters to break the rules. "But my character developed!" the player might say to the GM as he stands over the lifeless corpse of his former comrade. And character development is a great thing, but we really don't want to see characters developing into evil villains – it usually messes with party loyalty and trust in an irreversible fashion. And that's okay – as long as the character is on its way to being out of the group. And that is really the key – whenever one of the rules does get broken due to in game events, it is usually time for that character to retire. This may be good (they ran out of things to do and actually do retire) or bad (they have become a blood sucking vampire). Perhaps even bad (they ran out of things to do and actually retire) or good (they have become a blood sucking vampire.)

The easiest of the rules to break is the long-term goals, especially if it wasn't set up all that well to start with. But it also is the easiest to modify and to add to in game play. And the GM even has a bunch of control over the goals of the players, so it can usually be addressed easily if the GM sees it coming. Those darn magical curses are always useful. Those bunny ears may be adorable to the girls down at the tavern, but I bet there is some incentive to get rid of them before the audience with the Queen. . .

4. The NENAD (Neutral Evil Ninja Assasin Drow) breaks all of the rules.

I am returning to the acronym I coined in the first column, the NENAD. While I derived the acronym from an specific character example, I really do mean the term to refer to a character concept that breaks all the rules, but is often attempted because it is very fun for the player playing it. Players who play NENADs also tend to get addicted to them, playing them over and over again and often get their fun from removing the fun of other players through unconstructive inter-party strife and violence.

These players aren't really even playing their character most of the time (Rule 7). They are mostly playing the numbers on their character sheet. GMs should be very wary of these players. I like to think that getting them a good solid character that even "Cares about people" (Rule 3) will let them see the fun of real role-playing and cooperative play and think about making more characters that work in groups (Rule 1). But gamers are hard to change, especially the ones that really feel that the game is an entertaining outlet for their darker sociopathic impulses instead of a group of people trying to have fun. But enough with the social commentary.

Conclusion

That is it for the seven rules. Next month I will take a more in-depth look into character goals and motivations. You can get a sneak peek by checking out the Character Creation Worksheet at www.blackshieldgaming.com.

Until next time.