Play your favorite dungeon by candle-light, accompannied by adventurous background music has no doubt occurred to nearly all of us at one time or another. For many, the ideas flowed further: we can increase the suspense - the sense of reality - I even more by playing in costume. Get that old replica sword down off the fireplace and hang it at your hip, put on dad's big, bathrobe or mom's shawl, we'll serve the drinks and snacks only in "period" containers, and on and on. Well, it may have been fun once or twice. But after awhile, I'll bet, the novelty wore off and the effort of putting together all those props became more than it's worth just for a friendly game of table-top roleplaying. Not to mention awkward and dangerous with candles dripping, cloaks and arms flailing, and swords gouging the furniture. So was it a worthless idea? Absolutely not! Props can be and still are a very fun aspect to role-playing. Think of the maps and player handouts provided in most published adventure modules. Think of the lead figures and plastic-coated map grids upon which you've drawn the characters' surroundings. Think of the Conan or Star Wars soundtracks you play in the background. All of these are props: multi-media devices for enhancing the drama of your gaming experience. There are many more possibilities. Personally, I love to use props - just so long as they don't dominate the game. As a player, props help me to "get in character." I'm not a trained actor, so I'm not the best role-player in the world. Props help me to feel as if I'm actually a different person. Some people criticize them as a crutch, but who cares? If it works, and you have fun in the game, go for it. As a Game Master or Storyteller, properties help me increase suspense and drama in the scenes I present to my players. I've found many and diverse ways to integrate props into a game, yet keep them simple and easy. Player Props - Aids to Getting In-Character Costume: Not a full-blown getup, but merely accessory-type things to wear. jewelry, rings or a necklace are easy to come by and even easier to wear. Use them to represent the holy symbol of your cleric, emblem of your clan, scepter of authority, and so forth. Perhaps clothing accessories like a vest, belt or hat (especially appropriate if you're playing Indiana Jones) of the style your character might wear can help you feel more in touch with your character. Similarly, wearing boots or sandals instead of your usual loafers will make you feel like a different person. I've found that dressing in a shirt of the particular color my character frequently wears is a way of feeling "in touch" with my character. If your character wears a uniform of some sort, collect a few pins or patches of the sort that decorate his or her uniform. If you're playing a scientist or medic, get a white lab coat from a second-hand clothing store. Gadgets: My favorite category because it consists mostly of toys! In this age of electronic toys and merchandising tie-ins to major (or not-so-major) movies and TV shows, there's an abundance of toys replicating the gadgets found in the show. If you're playing a game based upon that particular media event, then you've got plenty of opportunities. However, there are many non-specific toys that can simulate the types of gadgets your fantasy and science fiction characters tote around. The possibilities are virtually endless: devices such as communicators or wristradios. Medical instruments like a stethoscope or tricorder. Small (fake) weapons like a blaster, pistol or dagger. Robots and creatures who accompany your group. Jewelry and badges the characters might wear. Models of vehicles and space- ships they find themselves using. For some reason, vehicular toys seem to encourage our inborn tendency to fly them around and make sound-effects with our mouths! Not to mention these toys frequently come equipped with realistic sound-effects and flashing lights. You might never touch these props while gaming, but I've found that just having them laying around the game table or clipped to our belts is enough to stimulate our imaginations. Plus, they help us feel as if we're truly participating in the world of our gaming story. just the feel of the phaser and tricorder on my hip, and communicator badge upon my breast, is enough to transport me to the universe in which my character lives. Sound Effects: As I mentioned ' many toys and gadgets have built-in sound-effects chips and speakers, or even flashing lights. Besides being fun to fiddle and play with, I've found these SFX can even serve a functional purpose in the mechanics of gaming. For instance, a player can trigger the soundeffect of her communicator signal to alert the GM that she's calling someone, instead of announcing to the GM "I'm going to call the ship now." If the players on the ship were distracted, the sound effect would probably catch their attention, alerting them that a message is incoming - just as it would for their characters! However, the possibilities with sound effects are greater for the Storyteller, which I'll discuss later. The key to using props as a player is to use several items consistently. Pick out only those items which help you get in- character, and bring them to every gaming session. In time, even the act of not using a certain prop can become meaningful. For example, not wearing your clan,symbol pin Will serve as a constant reminder that your character has been ostracized. Selecting different items for each game or genre you play will help make the flavor of each game a little different; perhaps even help you mold the personalities of your various characters in different directions. But in any case, don't encumber yourself with too much stuff. Props really are a crutch of sorts; you don't want them to interfere with your role-playing, but rather enhance it. GM Props -- Enhancing the Drama To heighten the dramatic impact of your game scenes, amplify the atmosphere. Of course you can do this (and have been for years) with merely the situation of the story, and the words you speak to convey it. Properties can be used to "punch-up" many suspenseful moments, making them even more dramatic and memorable. But you can definitely go overboard with atmospheric props. You probably don't want to go to the trouble every week of recreating the environment of your game world, so try to keep it simple. Lighting, background music, source music and sound effects can generally be set up easily beforehand and left alone for the rest of the evening. Lighting: As the movie-makers know, lighting is probably the single most effective way to change a place into someplace else. For a medieval or low-tech atmosphere, rather than using candles (which could be hazardous if they tip over), use oil lamps with glass chimneys, and keep them off the gaming table. Or better yet, just dim the regular household lights. For many hightech settings, you may want to have the lighting very bright. Horror and suspense games ought to have just a few lights illuminating the gaming table (from above if possible), leaving the rest of the room in near-total. darkness. For an instant dramatic effect, try dousing the lights completely at specific moment, or switching them on brightly. For example, the characters are infiltrating a top- security facility, avoiding traps and alarms by increasingly narrow margins. You keep the lights dim to simulate the building's night- time corridors and inactivity. Then suddenly, the alarm is tripped - but before announcing it, you turn on the lights full blast. Watch the players jump! Background Music: Soundtracks from favorite movies of a similar genre are easy to come by and frequently they're just the sort of mood- setting music you want in the background. Yet sometimes they'll evoke the wrong images - those of the movie . instead of your story. Look into the huge library of classical music. Symphonies, operas and ballets are works written to convey a story with mood and atmosphere, which makes them well-suited for gaming. Music from a foreign culture, with or without lyrics, can sometimes sound very alien or intriguing. Some examples: Japanese or Chinese; eastern European such as Bulgarian, Turkish or Greek; and middle-eastern cultures such as Arabian or Indian; all these employ sounds, instruments and tonal qualities that sound odd to the average American's ear. You could leave such music running all evening long, if you have enough of it to keep from repeating the same pieces too many times. However, it might be more effective to cue this music at the beginning of play to set the mood but don't continue to play it all evening long. Cue the same or similar piece when you resume play after a break. Also, save some key pieces for the dramatic scenes. For example, cue the martial war music when the characters enter battle; the chase theme when pursuit of the villain begins in earnest; the romantic melody when the characters meet an important NPC or love-interest. Theme Music: Have your gaming group select a certain piece of music to serve as their theme song. Then play it as an overture at the beginning of every gaming session. After you've done this a few times, the overture will become like the opening credits music for a movie or TV show, and this will definitely increase the sense that you're playing out a drama. If you sometimes have difficulty getting everyone to "settle down" and begin playing the game, the overture is an excellent way to signal that "mundane concerns end now -- let the adventure begin!" Select a few pieces to serve as leitmotifs for certain important NPCs. Playing the song at the first introduction of that character is an excellent way to illustrate their personality. When played at later times, when the NPC is deeply involved with the story, will serve to remind the players of who they are dealing with. It might remind them that so and so is trustworthy, or that he's frivolous and silly, or she's cunning and suspicious, or whatever. Juxtaposition Music: Finally, if you feel thoroughly confident in your ability to sustain a scene through conventional roleplaying techniques, you might try playing juxtaposition Music. This is music opposite to what one might expect to accompany a particular scene. For example: a beautiful operatic aria during a bloodbath battle. Or a religious chant during an atheistic villain's monologue wherein he describes all his plans for world conquest. Or a precise waltz underscoring a long-in-coming duel between disagreeable personalities. Whereas most gaming music attempts to have an emotional effect upon the players, juxtaposition aims to be artistic, illustrating a notion or promoting a theme in the story. If done improperly, it will leave the players with a sense of fakery and silliness. But if you can pull it off with just the right piece of music behind a really intense scene, it can be quite powerful. Source Music It is a film-makers' term for music that is actually heard by the characters, from a source within the story. This should be easy to come up with. If the characters will be patronizing a tavern or cantina, use some party music of the appropriate genre. Visiting a weird alien landscape, cue some eerie atonal or electronic music. In a monastery or temple, play some Gregorian chants or hymns. If any character is a musician, have him or her pick out a few songs they might play around the campfire. Play some sea-chanteys while the characters are aboard ship. The possibilities are endless, especially if you're playing within a realearth historical genre. Obviously, sourcemusic should be cued only when the players encounter it in-game. Sound Effects: Plenty of Halloween sound-effects records are available these days, although they may be hard to find outside the month of October. Look in your local library; they may have some, plus other recorded collections of SFX for movies/TV/radio. Furthermore, many toys today come with sound-effect chips built in, which you can trigger whenever appropriate. As mentioned earlier, such toys and their sound-effects are excellent props for gaming. Remember those keychains that make various weapon-sounds for "blowing away" idiots on the freeway? They're great for generating chaos and confusion during a battle scene, with the sounds of machineguns or lasers blasting away between the players' actions, or punctuating good shots by your villains. Of course the cheapest sound effects are those you can make with your hands, mouth or household items. Raid your kitchen for metal, plastic and glass items that clink- and-clank, scrape-and-scratch, or bonk-and- clunk together interestingly. Start a kitchen timer ticking when the players aide defusing a bomb, or any other intense, "time is running out" activity. Tap off the unseen footsteps of a stalker. Rattle some nails and screws in a jar for the sound of machinery. Tune a radio to static or "ghost signals" for the ambience of an abandoned ship. The key to using sound effects as a GM is to avoid overdoing them. You don't want to reproduce every sound the players might hear, nor even the ones that are easy for you to make. Rather, employ the effects only at particularly suspenseful moments, or if they convey a message stronger than your words. For example: roll a marble in a metal pot for the sound of a space-station's blast doors closing, and increase the speed of the roll for the slow, inexorable narrowing of the gap. This is much more dramatic than merely saying: "the blast doors are closing and you have moments to make it." They'll hear by the frequency of your sound-effect exactly what's happening and they'll even be able to judge how long they've got to get through the door' And watch them jump or sigh with relief when you bang the pot with a spoon to signal the doors klanging into place. Choices: With this method, the prop becomes an integral part of the mechanics of your game. You provide a small prop for the players to examine or fiddle with, and then you watch carefully to see exactly what they do with it, and how. You and they discover what choices their characters will make. For example: lay out several treasure items and see who touches what. If one was cursed or trapped, you don't have to roll random to see who gets it. You've made it a matter of their own choice, so they can't complain. Or give them a map and watch as they discover secrets and puzzle over the map-maker's illegible scrawlings. Lay out a coded message, and watch the players study it to decipher the code. If they just can't figure it out, you can give them hints when they make successful Intelligence rolls. Present them with a bizarre alien weapon and hope they point the muzzle in the right direction when they finger the trigger. The key to using props effectively as a GM is to keep them to a minimum, reserved for only the dramatic situations, maybe only three or four per gaming session. You aren't trying to completely recreate the world of your story; that's the forte of live-action role-playing and historicalrecreation groups. Used judiciously, properties can enhance the drama and suspense of any table-top role-playing game. Back to Shadis #22 Table of Contents Back to Shadis List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines © Copyright 1995 by Alderac Entertainment Group This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com