Good news & NPC tips

I've started testing Sunburn. It's going well so far, but there's a whole slew of issues I need to address, mostly combat. I haven't decided how I want people to be able to position themselves, so I'm doing it final fantasy style- everyone lines up (with any available cover, loose approximation), then dukes it out. Not the most realistic rules ever, but it works for a functional test.

So far, everything's falling into place, but it's too easy. I'm planning on slashing the beginning XP to make it challenging enough to be worth anything.

Also, here's a tip for other GM's out there- NPC posture is important.

The GM's posture means a lot. Either sitting back and not blinking ("Come on, take the bait..."), leaning forward and smiling dervishly ("They've fallen into place, perfect!"), or remaining still and silent ("Oh shit, they figured it out too soon"). But, posture is also important for NPCs.

In an earlier post, I pitched an idea for listing notable behaviors of the NPC in question. One thing I should add is posture- otherwise, the GM is exactly the same, save for accent and content. Have a distinguishable "post" for each character, and keep it simple. A few I've come up with are:

• Lean as far back as possible (The Slacker)
• Keep your right hand next to your head at all times (The Merchant)
• Get more manic in speech and lean forward. Then, deflate your voice, and lean all the way back. Rinse, repeat. (The Psycho)
• Look down, sag your shoulders, and leave your mouth hanging open slightly (The Brain Damage)

Obviously, there's only so many of these postures possible, so use them only on important characters (anyone with a name and significant plot purpose).

Just a clever idea. Speaking of which, Sunburn 2 got much more interesting. Instead of being a dark, dreary crawl through an underground complex, there will be ninjas, robots, and ninja robots. Also some message about honor and duty. Until then, I'm going to keep testing SB1, and post a couple field reports.