Verge Compile
From Verge
In the compile phase, you gather everyone and everything you need to play, then discuss your goals so that you're all on the same page. If you're not on the same page, then misunderstandings can make it harder to make your game rock. You want your game to rock, don't you?
Gather Friends
Find 3-5 friends. Verge rocks when you have a good group of people riffing ideas off one another. You can have a good game with just two other people but it'll lack and it's really tough to have any real game interaction with just one other person. More than six people total will slow play down but there's no real limit on how many players the game will support. It's best if you really know and like these people — that is, you hang out with them outside gaming, too. You trust them and care about them. That makes for the best gaming.
Set Up the Play Space
The last chapter talks about the materials you'll need to play. Gather those.
You'll want a table large enough for the paper you're drawing on, but not so large that you have to reach too far to write on it.
Pick a Genre
Talk about the kind of game you want to play. You need to pick a genre or high level setting. It might be enough to agree on "near future cyberpunk" or "gritty 1980's vice squad," or you might prefer to nail down some more details, like "transhumanism to the Nth degree in 2800 AD when mankind has built a Dyson sphere and every person is connected to a symbiotic AI." Less is more. If you can't agree on the genre, dial it back and nail down the parts you can agree on and leave the rest for the Load step. And even if you nail down some things, you can "un-nail" them later using the network rules.
Discuss Tone
Determine the tone you want the game to have. Is it serious or funny? Scary or light? Action-packed or focused on romance or politics? Again, less is more and don't argue about it. If you can't decide, leave it for later.
Discuss Themes
Are there any themes you want to explore? Perhaps you want the game to be about something, like how technology is replacing religion, or how big corporations are necessarily corrupt, or about privacy rights in a digital age. If you don't have anything like this in mind, don't sweat it, but when a group of players all hammer on a theme, a story will really come together. If a theme surfaces naturally, great! Don't force it.
Determine Limits
Discuss any kind of limits and special needs for the players. Many people are sensitive about role-playing certain kinds of sexuality or violence. Talk about what is too far? What lines should you never cross? When should you "draw the veil" or "fade to black" and not role-play the details? If someone doesn't like the way play is going, how should they communicate that to the other players in the least embarrassing way? Get this stuff out of the way now, before you stumble into someone's pain.
Even once you've discussed all this, expect more to come up in play. How were you to know that the game would start exploring those very scary clowns?
