RUNNING REAL-WORLD GAMES

In the Cypher Character Rulebook, “real world” usually means starting with something approximating the modern world as your baseline. Since all your players live in the real world, they’ll understand your setting’s background. They know the default assumptions—cities, cars, smartphones, the internet, large language models (LLMs, or as it’s often called, AI), and so on. It’s also easier for some players to get into character, because their character could be someone they might very well pass on the street. It can be easier to wrap your mind around a history professor than a thousand-year-old elf wizard. These things make it easier on the GM as well.

But for the same reason, it’s not easy. The setting is the real world we all know, so it’s easy to get facts wrong or let them bog you down. What happens when you pull the fire alarm on the thirty-fifth floor of a major hotel in a large city? How fast do the authorities arrive?

In truth, the facts aren’t as important as the story you’re creating, but some verisimilitude is nice. A bit of related guidance is provided below under Running a Real-World Game.

Creating a Real-World Setting

You don’t have to create a setting if the whole game takes place in London, Dallas, or the Outback, because those places really exist. The only time you need to do any worldbuilding is if you’re creating original places (an amusement park that you made up) or organizations (a secret spy group that the PCs belong to). Still, that doesn’t mean you have no work to do. The real world has implications to consider.

Assuming you’re not running a historical real-world game, it’s very difficult to imagine getting seriously lost, not being in communication, or not knowing the answer to a question given the aforementioned prevalence of GPS-enabled smartphones, the internet, and LLMs. Rather than constantly thwarting the PCs who rely on these modern conveniences (no cell phone reception, the internet is down, and so on), think of ways to use them to advance the scenario.

For instance, PCs with a smartphone will be able to coordinate their movements. On the other hand, so can the bad guys. If the PCs are using tracking to follow a person of interest, it’s possible that person discovers the phone (or other tracking device, such as a smart tag) and plants it in a decoy vehicle or on a random passerby to misdirect the characters.

Finally, you’ll need to decide if your campaign setting will remain in the real world or deviate from it. For instance, you might choose to use one of the subgenres in the Cypher Character Rulebook or in this book, such as espionage, crime thriller, or action, or create a game with the added twist of horror and/or magic elements.

In other words, will campaign events break from the believable world we see around us? If aliens land in Nebraska in your game, and everyone knows it, the setting is no longer the world we see outside our window. (There is no wrong choice, but you still need to decide.)

Running a Real-World Game

Preparation may not be quite as important in a real-world game as it is in genres where you must make up everything. However, your players will have a better experience if you’re prepared for basic real-world situations that arise.

Real-World Situations

In a fantasy game, you can make things up as you go along—who’s to say that the queen’s guards wouldn’t show up that quickly, or that faeries can’t see in the dark? When the world is fictional, you have freedom. But when it’s real, it’s better to know what you’re talking about.

The following situations might arise in any real-world (or real-world adjacent) game, regardless of subgenre. Each situation includes sample GM guidance that you could use in your game, assuming you don’t have something more fitting for your campaign.

Calling the Authorities

When confronted with a problem, real-world PCs might call the police rather than deal with a situation themselves. Options and potential outcomes include the following.

• Response Time: Know what the response time for a call is likely to be, especially if the PCs report something dire like a live shooter, a bomb, or something else equally dangerous (and something that’s believable). A good rule of thumb is about ten to twenty minutes in a large city, or seven to ten minutes in less dense areas. Initial response (for police) is one or two cruisers with flashing lights (each with two police officers), followed by one, two, or more cruisers five minutes or so later.
• Too Late: As above, but the authorities fail to arrive in time to deal with whatever the PCs called them for.
• Ineffective: As above, and the authorities arrive on time. However, they are outmatched, resulting in a retreat and/or dead officers, and the perpetrators get away and wrap up their operations. (If police are killed, there are many ongoing repercussions, but few are likely to resolve the situation the PCs cared about.)
• Successful Response: As above, and the timely police arrival results in a successful operation—they manage to deal with whoever or whatever the PCs called them for. Criminals are collared, thieves are caught, and so on. It all works out. However, this result probably isn’t one the PCs can expect regularly.
• Triggers Investigation: If the report isn’t of a dire, time-sensitive emergency but is still believable, the authorities assign it to a detective or other official. Over the next few days or weeks, an investigation occurs. However, this may give the perpetrators time to learn of the investigation, wrap up or cover up their unlawful activity, and move on.
• In on It: In some jurisdictions, the authorities may be compromised. Instead of dealing with the unlawful activities, they let the perpetrators know the PCs are on to the operation.
• Not Taken Seriously: If the complaint has a suggestion of a supernatural element in a real-world game where such things are not commonly believed to exist, whoever takes the report finishes the process, but a discerning PC can tell they’ve become skeptical. As soon as the call is finished or the report is concluded, it’s treated as a mental health crisis, a prank, or a waste of resources. If PCs persist, they could antagonize the authorities instead of getting help.
• Referred to Special Team: As above, except the authorities are aware that the unlikely situation the PCs called to report does sometimes occur, and they’ve formed a small special team to handle such things. That team may consist of just one or two people, and rather than deal immediately with the situation at hand, they reach out to the PCs with further questions.

Interacting with NPCs

In a real-world game, it’s important to make NPCs realistic and believable, because the players have real people to compare them to. Options include the following.

• Believable Names: To generate names for your NPCs, use an online directory, a phone book, or a similar resource.
• Simple Distinguishing Feature: If it’s a one-and-done NPC, like a police officer or an accountant the PCs will never see again, drawing attention to them with a distinguishing feature probably isn’t worth it.
  
  On the other hand, it’s easy enough to describe someone with a descriptive adjective that sets them apart. As an example, consider adding one of the following physical adjectives when describing the bank teller, the insurance adjustor, the professor, and so on. These samples are obviously only a subset of a far larger list.

• Real Personalities: Base an important NPC’s personality on a real person you know, like an old teacher, a boss, an old coworker, or maybe one of hundreds of characters you’ve seen on TV shows.
  
  Alternatively, include a strong adjective in your notes for each NPC, and use it to anchor their responses to the characters whenever they interact. An NPC who is authoritative will act differently than one who is diffident. The following examples are only part of a much larger list of adjectives describing an NPC’s personality.

Getting Arrested

What happens if the PCs are arrested? Options include the following.

• Catch and Release: There might not be enough evidence to hold the PCs for long, especially if they have a clean record or the “crime” is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In this case, they are processed, fingerprinted, and kicked out as soon as the paperwork is done, taking two to six hours in all. However, if PCs were found with weapons, near a body, or in relation to another incriminating situation, they’re held in cells overnight. Still, their lawyers or the lack of any actual evidence sees the PCs released within 24 hours.
• Confiscation: However long the authorities hold the PCs, any valuables they had (or any weird stuff if the real-world game includes magic or horror) might be kept longer. Getting that stuff back could take some work.
• Longer Term Imprisonment: Unless you want to create a scenario involving a prison break by the PCs (or they want to reach a contact who’s already in prison), consider the Catch and Release route. Otherwise, they’ll have to learn to navigate prison social structures for months or longer while they await trial—and if that goes badly, for much longer.

Going on a Trip

Anytime the PCs want to travel to another town, state, or country, consider the following tips.

• Maps: Use real-world resources to get maps, either old-fashioned paper or online maps. That includes not only city, state, and country maps, but also floor plans of churches, hospitals, condos, jails, and pretty much anyplace else the PCs are likely to travel.
• What’s That?: You can find photos of all sorts of places (real and unreal) online. If your PCs visit a place they’ve never been before, like a Vegas casino, a English fishing village, a farm, a particular museum, and so on, grab some photo references so you can improve your players’ immersion by showing the pictures to them when the time is right.
• Local Atmosphere: What’s playing on the vehicle’s radio or airport terminal screen? What billboards do the PCs see as they pull into a new town? Are there any interesting landmarks or local business they see as they arrive at a new place (or on the way there)?

Life Beyond the Adventure

If your PCs live in the real world, you can lean into that as a way to encourage character development. To this end, incorporate their lives into the game. Work with the players to generate details about some or all of the following situations—whichever ones the PCs care most about. Once you know this information, you can create related plot encounters. For instance, if a PC always goes to the gym on Tuesday, they may notice that new management has taken over, and perhaps this ties to the larger adventure. Alternatively, it might just be nice to know that a PC has a pet cat named Mr. Meowgi they can return home to after a stressful night solving crime.

• Occupation
• Family
• Friends
• Hobbies
• Homes
• Pets
• Favorite hangout
• Exercise

Real-World Optional Rules

The Cypher Character Rulebook and this book both contain a variety of optional rules.

Your most obvious choice is putting together a real-world action game, which grants a handful of optional ways to treat an action hero that are different than in a crime thriller, espionage, rescue, or a game where magic or horror exist. Taken as a whole, these options give real-world action heroes more capacity to endure wounds, quicker wound treatment, and the ability to take desperate actions when the chips are down.

Another obvious option isn’t called out as an optional rule, because it’s baked into real-world character creation—the PCs’ real-world characters are core characters without foci. Instead they have a profession, which is effectively an additional skill choice.

However, just to put it on the page, every other optional rule in this book and in the Cypher Character Rulebook is fair game. Possibly even the option to switch foci, in the sense that you might allow PCs to choose an appropriate focus if your real-world game goes in a strange direction. For instance, if PCs in your espionage game eventually discover that the government has secret interplanetary portals, the game might mutate into a sci-fi setting. In this case, appropriate foci may become available to characters as they advance.

Real-World Example Adventures

Charity Undercover (espionage): PC operatives attend a charity gala thrown by a reclusive tech billionaire. Posing as the hired musicians (or the caterers, or something else the group comes up with), the team must navigate arms dealers, celebrities, politicians, and other guests to extract a digital ledger hidden on the billionaire’s private server. Unfortunately, a rival agency has also infiltrated the party. Ideally, the PCs can complete their objective without alerting the host—or their competitors—to their true identity. Which means they might have to play a concert, serve food, or do whatever else they were meant to do. Or, of course, they could shoot their way out, though tech billionaire guards are no joke.

Cold Cases (crime thriller): The discovery of a shallow grave behind an abandoned steel mill reignites interest in a string of cold cases involving missing teenagers. The characters, maybe a true-crime podcast team (working with the local authorities, or perhaps at odds with them), must interview tight-lipped locals who have spent decades protecting their own. It all comes back to that steel mill and the dangerous contaminants leaking into the groundwater the owners were covering up.

House Fire (rescue): A two-story single-family home catches fire, and family members—not to mention Chester the dog—are trapped inside. PCs, as first responders, must come up with a plan of action, try to save as many people as they can (and the pet), and maybe put out the blaze in the process.

Train Job (action): Radicals hijack a next-generation “smart train” speeding across the Eurasian Steppe. The PCs (agents, private sector mercenaries, or similar) must execute a high-speed boarding maneuver from a moving aircraft. Their mission is to secure a kidnapped diplomat before the train reaches a fortified border crossing just ninety minutes away. Combat through luxury cars and on their roofs, hacking of the train’s automated defense turrets, and probably jumping from moving trains is sure to ensue—hopefully with a live diplomat when all is said and done.

Siege (historical): A medieval border town is suddenly cut off by an invading force of bandits. The PCs are locals—a blacksmith, a friar, a guard, a farmer, and so on. But they are heroes too. It’s up to them to organize the inhabitants to keep their walled town safe while their lord’s knights are away, scheduled to return in a few days. If the characters can keep walls free from fire, assassins, tunnelers, and other threats, glory shall certainly be theirs.