Hello Veeky Forums, I feel like this place could be full of great ressources. I have no problem keeping a game entertaining, setting the right pace for the events and generally ensuring that the players are having a good time.
However, as I am preparing a Scion game for three newbies, I was wondering if you could share some "scenario recipe", some ways you like to use to build a story that is lively and easily pulls a group toward an objective. I would hate to do an over-simple "go kill da BBEG" or "bring back the MacGuffin" still of quest, I want my player to feel something.
I was thinking of giving the first session a sensation of accomplishment, with a story that could still go for half a dozen more. I know that fun comes from the right amount of constraint, and I want to push them to play creatively and be generally proud of their characters.
Bump, because while I'm late for work, you deserve an answer, OP
Brandon Williams
Build from the bottom up, not the top down. Set an end goal but don't then think in terms of 'steps which must be completed before they can reach it'. Instead think what the players can do next session that would be interesting to do and then think of how to tie that in to the overall goal of the game. The basic point here is to make sure that priority one is that this session is enjoyable and has some sense of progress, which should be you thought when at the table. Eventually it will feel like putting off the final conflict for any longer would feel akward, which is where you switch your focus to bringing things to a conclusion.
Isaiah Reyes
>BBEG
*disgust noises*
Tyler Jenkins
>I would hate to which means that it's exactly what I am going to avoid.
Carson Perez
Make it personal. Get one or all of the PCs mad at the problem. Don't have to send them on missions, don't have to try and sell a plot hook. Just get them pissed and they'll railroad themselves.
Wyatt Peterson
Scion? You don't mean that game where you play as the children of gods, do you? Because unless the second edition came out recently that game is broken as fuck and I suggest you strongly reconsider your game choice.
Noah Taylor
...
Brody Jenkins
You deserve the finer things.
Nathan Morales
Wow. Having the rogue get murdered by his enemies when they had an opportunity is cool, but doing it as punishment for some completely unrelated thing that isn't even a fucking problem is insane. What shitty game did that excerpt come from?
Andrew Wright
Legend of the 5 rings ;
It lets out the best part of the text though : he made the universe to be and to act as the PCs are and do.
He told us that if the PCs were noblebright then most of the setting would be fair, honourable and sympathetic. However, the PCs (and this PC in particular) were kind of a murderhobo party, which moral degeneracy applied to the setting, causing said riots ; ultimately every PCs were killed y criminality and general moral bankruptcy of said society.
It's not about punishing one player especially, its punishing a way of playing : the carefree consequences free murderhobo, that expect that society will stay the same as their bloodtrail keeps going into the distance.
Benjamin Kelly
No, he's just a petty prick.
Jason Gray
I agree. It would have been a lot more interesting for the guards to kill him as revenge. This just seems like two unrelated incidents.
Evan Gutierrez
Well, yes, but still a part of his message is correct in my opinion.
The players should not expect the universe to act as a monolithic rock that won't change no matter how many time they fooled it. As they want to shape the story, they too shall shape the universe. It's their damn fault if the universe they shaped has the same ugly face that they're wearing.
Hudson Long
Yeah but a better GM would have the guards do it. This just seems random, rather than tied to the earlier event. The GM is "That Guy". Killing PCs off screen is a super risky move because it robs the players of control. It's nothing to be taken lightly, and if you think that's a good GM than you're an autistic That Guy. And I pity anyone who plays with you.
John Hernandez
>Killing PCs off screen is a super risky move because it robs the players of control. No, it's not "risky", it's being a That GM.
William Flores
I'm not saying he is a good GM ; for this event he was kind of a dick. I just read all the article and went "Well okay, even if your example is faulty, some of your thoughts are convincing." There is sometime good and bad in an idea, user ; and this picture just show the bad, while I presented the good, omitted by the pic.
Joshua Sanchez
That's probably true.
Levi Harris
The idea of "karma" and "moral punishments" in tabletop RPGs instead of sensible and logical consequences is retarded and serves only to betray the presence of a terrible GM.
Justin Jackson
"The good" is having an edge lord setting? Jeez, you need to play with some better players/Gms man.
Kayden Sanders
I.. I think I love you user. Because that type of moral system screams "THE GM IS EDGY". To me.
Samuel Parker
The good, is showing consequences. Always.
Where did I mentions "karma" ? The moral punishment is the society being corrupted so far that the PCs aren't safe and the setting changed to something they don't know ; something that can be a sensible and logical consequence to a murderspree
Jose Watson
People aren't a hive mind. Humanity's behavior doesn't change because five people out there are scumbags.
Jace Gray
It is good to show consequences, when they make sense. It doesn't make sense for this article to somehow link killing a guard with being shanked in a back alley by randos. I also agree with the other user, this system makes no sense.
Grayson Bennett
People aren't a hive mind but they can be quick to change, especially when confronted with violence. Terrorism changed America didn't it ? The French Terror changed a lot of minds about revolution ; The immolation of a man in Libya sprang off the arab spring, some years ago.
You don't think that endemic crime and powerless policemen wouldn't change the mind of the people ?
Matthew Miller
There again, it's because only half of the story is presented in the pic, as he told that the rest of the party was murderhobbyist
Joseph Long
Terrorism was 3000 people dying in a day, getting tons of media coverage, and kicking off a war. This is one guy getting stabbed. You're autistic and don't understand why these games are fun.
Sebastian Martinez
Those are consequences of specific actions, not some people's general behavior.
Zachary Taylor
It makes sense for a murder hobo to kill a guard. It makes sense for them to have enemies. It doesn't make sense when an article tries to connect the two. If the other guards had been the ones killing him it would instantly be 100x better in terms of story. And if he had a chance to fight back it would be 100x better than that.
Jackson Diaz
How would the guards even find out that it was those specific people?
John Jones
How would the actions of 5 people completely change the way a world works?
Adrian Rodriguez
None of those are even remotely comparable to five people murderhoboing around.
Josiah Butler
It wouldn't. It's all nonsense.
Gavin Lopez
It makes sense to have the World change if the players are high power movers and shakers. If you have 5 super villainesque people constantly fucking over the Police and the state you can bet Anarchy and crime is going to flood the Region.
BUT just killing a PC is dickish. You have to do it more subtle. Merchants not having the stuff PCs want because bandits block the trade routes. NPCs fucking the players over, stuff the players rely on just doesn't Work (taverns, Banks etc.)
Luke Cooper
>If you have 5 super villainesque people constantly fucking over the Police and the state you can bet Anarchy and crime is going to flood the Region. This is not the same thing as what is presented in the relevant text.
Aiden Scott
True. Thats one of the reasons why i said what the gm in the Text did is a dick Move. Not a very interesting discussion though. Thats Why i proposed a better scenario.
I would agree with you on a micro scale; that is that singular towns, hamlets, maybe even cities could change morality based on player actions but the whole universal order of morality hinging on the players is pretty ridiculous. The only way you can reasonably pull that off to at least some degree is to have players face immediate consequences for their actions instead of months later otherwise the players won't realize it's due to their own actions that such an event occurred. It's like grounding a kid for breaking something two weeks ago; they won't understand why they're being punished because the events feel arbitrarily connected instead of naturally following one another.
Joseph Peterson
>>>/tumblr/
Oliver Cooper
Here we see the Bitchy Autist in its natural habitat.
Aiden Morris
I had great fun as a player. What do you mean by broken ?
I am sure that I can balance it for a fun adventure
Of course
Kevin Jenkins
Where would I go to get feedback for some rules of a small game I'm working on? I was trying on another thread but it archived.
Owen Collins
There's generally a game design general around.
Easton Watson
Ok, thank you
David Ward
Session 0?
Sebastian Williams
Hang out, ask the players what they want out of the campaign, what tone, how lethal, etc. Actually ask what your group wants to do, instead of just forcing them to walk through a book you wrote.
Rolling up characters can also be part of a session 0.
Mason Johnson
When you're describing a scene, location, person etc don't fall into the trap of doing so in a purely functional way. "There are two doors and a table with three chairs in the room" for example is boring, try being more descriptive and thematic. Describe other senses like the sounds they hear, the smells, the taste (obviosuly they aren't licking the walls but smells are linked with taste), the temperature, the amount of light, the wind/air flow etc. Don't go through a checklist describing every single thing, focus on what's important to the scene. Compare "You are standing at the edge of a sea cliff, you are 80m above the sea" to "You are standing at the edge of a sea cliff and can smell the salt water below, the strong buffeting winds strike you unrelenting and threaten to push you back from the edge. As you brave the winds to gaze below the cliff you can see the jagged rocks are about 80m below you, waves are quickly one after another breaking against these rocks and you can hear them crashing even up here. It would be dangerous for boats to try to approach this part of the shoreline." The second one, while not perfect, would definitely engage me more as a player than the first one. And that's the trick to GMing, you have to engage the players and activate their imagination.
Also feel free to describe the feeling of the scene. Are the players scared, relaxed, on edge, feeling victorious etc. Don't say "you are scared" say something like "you feel the hairs at the back of your neck stand up" or "the room feels unnaturally cold to you". The players will fill in the blanks and the scene will be more engaging. NPCs can achieve this too, don't say "the guard looks scared" say instead "the guards looks around apprehensively, 'somethings wrong, I don't like this' he whispers under his breath".
Jonathan Davis
Don't toss a challenge rating 5 enemy into the bar and have him challenge a level 1 player character and be surprised that the player takes the fight.
