Most role-playing game adventures depend on the player characters going out into the world seeking adventure. They leave their homes or bases of operation and travel to a dungeon, a wizard's tower or a newly discovered planet. But sometimes an adventure designer wants to take the story to the players' doorstep.
Maybe your party built a permanent stronghold or all the characters live in the same village. Maybe they attend the same arcane university or work on a space station. Entire campaigns can revolve around a single static location. In those situations, adventure sometimes must find the players rather than the reverse.
Adventure designers and game masters trying to hit their players a little closer to home can find a wealth of solid advice in the Narrator's Toolkit for the Star Trek Deep Space Nine Roleplaying Game, published by Last Unicorn Games in 1999 and authored by Steven S. Long. The book features a chapter on how to build adventures in which a "visitor" – someone or something traveling to the player characters from an external location – ignites the story. While the product was written for starbases and outposts in the Star Trek universe, the advice can apply to virtually any static location in any game since so many stories, reduced to their essence, unfold when a stranger comes to town.
"Large or small, kind or cruel, helpless or aggressive, friendly or hostile, all visitors have stories to tell," according to the Narrator's Toolkit.
Designing adventures for static locations often has the automatic benefit of raising the stakes for the players. When the drama unfolds in their backyard, as opposed to some distant tomb, the action has a greater probability of affecting the party's friends, family and immediate surroundings. The player characters have more to lose in these scenarios.
The toolkit notes that the two most important considerations for "visitor stories" are the visitor's identity and intent. Who is this visitor, and what does he, she or it want? Basic stuff, right? But a deeper consideration of those questions can help to strengthen the adventure the visitor will initiate. Does the visitor have an existing relationship with the player characters, or is the visitor a blank slate? Does the visitor's plan involve the player characters directly or indirectly?
The game master may wish to defy the expectations of the players to provoke a response. For instance, perhaps the visitor is an accomplished warrior who arrives with a severe injury or a brilliant scholar in a fragile emotional state. The key lies in introducing a visitor designed to shake up the player characters' status quo and demand their response.
The toolkit urges game masters to consider how the visitor arrives in the player character's presence. The party is sure to respond differently to a new NPC who talks his way through the city gate than to one who strides through a magic gateway that suddenly ripples in a player character's living room. As the saying goes, you only get once chance to make a first impression, and designers should put some thought into how that introduction sets up events that follow.
These considerations may seem basic to experienced game masters and designers, but, with some careful thought, these elements can add up to a memorable experience that teaches players to expect a thrilling adventure whenever a stranger comes to town. What are some of your favorite adventures built around static locations, and who or what was the visitor that drove the story?
contributed by Fred Love
Maybe your party built a permanent stronghold or all the characters live in the same village. Maybe they attend the same arcane university or work on a space station. Entire campaigns can revolve around a single static location. In those situations, adventure sometimes must find the players rather than the reverse.
Adventure designers and game masters trying to hit their players a little closer to home can find a wealth of solid advice in the Narrator's Toolkit for the Star Trek Deep Space Nine Roleplaying Game, published by Last Unicorn Games in 1999 and authored by Steven S. Long. The book features a chapter on how to build adventures in which a "visitor" – someone or something traveling to the player characters from an external location – ignites the story. While the product was written for starbases and outposts in the Star Trek universe, the advice can apply to virtually any static location in any game since so many stories, reduced to their essence, unfold when a stranger comes to town.
"Large or small, kind or cruel, helpless or aggressive, friendly or hostile, all visitors have stories to tell," according to the Narrator's Toolkit.
Designing adventures for static locations often has the automatic benefit of raising the stakes for the players. When the drama unfolds in their backyard, as opposed to some distant tomb, the action has a greater probability of affecting the party's friends, family and immediate surroundings. The player characters have more to lose in these scenarios.
The toolkit notes that the two most important considerations for "visitor stories" are the visitor's identity and intent. Who is this visitor, and what does he, she or it want? Basic stuff, right? But a deeper consideration of those questions can help to strengthen the adventure the visitor will initiate. Does the visitor have an existing relationship with the player characters, or is the visitor a blank slate? Does the visitor's plan involve the player characters directly or indirectly?
The game master may wish to defy the expectations of the players to provoke a response. For instance, perhaps the visitor is an accomplished warrior who arrives with a severe injury or a brilliant scholar in a fragile emotional state. The key lies in introducing a visitor designed to shake up the player characters' status quo and demand their response.
The toolkit urges game masters to consider how the visitor arrives in the player character's presence. The party is sure to respond differently to a new NPC who talks his way through the city gate than to one who strides through a magic gateway that suddenly ripples in a player character's living room. As the saying goes, you only get once chance to make a first impression, and designers should put some thought into how that introduction sets up events that follow.
These considerations may seem basic to experienced game masters and designers, but, with some careful thought, these elements can add up to a memorable experience that teaches players to expect a thrilling adventure whenever a stranger comes to town. What are some of your favorite adventures built around static locations, and who or what was the visitor that drove the story?
contributed by Fred Love