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Characters are too vanilla! Let's spice them up!
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<blockquote data-quote="amerigoV" data-source="post: 5654534"><p>One thing I came up with prior to discovering Savage Worlds are what I called Roleplaying Scenes. Here is a <a href="http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/lab/wikis/roleplaying-scenes" target="_blank"> link to a writeup</a>. The basic idea is to give a PCs 5 minutes of pure RP that has nothing to do with the current plot or in a threatening situation. Something that can be used for the player to develop the PC's views on the world and a chance for the DM to show off their world.</p><p></p><p>Another thing in Savage Worlds are Interludes. There is an older version that is much more involved, but the new one from the Savage Worlds Deluxe is cleaner - basically there are 4 events (victory, love, tradegy, and desire) that a PC gets to tell a short story about. Of course, you get a bennie for your story. I used the Interludes recently to great effect running a modern horror "movie" - much like in horror movies, there are quiet moments that the the character talk and you get to know more about them (then they get eaten by a zombie). Here is a <a href="http://www.peginc.com/Downloads/SWD/SWDUpdates_Interludes.pdf" target="_blank"> link to their new version </a></p><p></p><p>On D&D - I have always perceived D&D to be "heroic", even if am running an anti-hero type. There seemed to be an unwritten and unvoiced opinion that you should try to "do the right thing" in the adventure. Make sure you have a decent PC build, select the right spells, kill the thief if he steals from the party, etc. For me, this always constrained roleplay. A scoundrel could be a scoundrel only to the point it did not "hurt" the party. The Hindrance/Bennie reward system, in my mind anyway, "gives the player permission" to do what the PC really would do. A sample of great Hindrances in the system that lead to very interesting RP:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Big Mouth - The old Loose Lips Sinks Ships</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Curious - Great for Olde Skoole campaigns. Just create a pool of glowing water and you have an instant "ok, I'll touch it" PC</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Pacifist - one of the PreGens is a pacificist barbarian - he hates that rage the lies within (kinda Hulk-like - "you won't like me when I am angry...")</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Overconfident - "Yeah, I can do that!"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Quirk - a nice catch all to give your PC something distinctive</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> I do not recall the name, but it pops up in a couple of settings. Basically, you know you are awesome and you spend the first round of combat telling everyone that fact. You have to spend a Bennie if you want/have to do anything else in that first round.</li> </ul><p></p><p></p><p>I'll give an example from a one-shot introducing SW to a group. The setup is the group is exploring a catacombs as one of the PCs thinks there is a necromancer looking to become a lich. At one point, the group hears something coming and hides. It is a skeleton that is shambling along and appears focused on where it is going. I threw in a bit of description about there being a gold necklace on the skeleton. The player running the Greedy thief starts to think about pick pocketing the skeleton. In 99% of D&D groups that I have played in (YMMV, of course), reason would have set in - everyone knows they will get to kill the skeleton later in the session and can retrieve the necklace then - thus no reason to give away their position. So I hold up a Bennie and the player, now with "permission" goes for it. I know there are people that would say "yeah, I would have done that in D&D", but the difference is no one in the group challenged the action from a metagaming perspective. They thought it was cool the player earned a bennie for the action.</p><p></p><p>Anyway. Lots of SW sidetracking. I would suggested adopting the Interludes/Roleplaying scenes. I found my players really look forward to them as it give them the spotlight without worrying about the dice trying to betray them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="amerigoV, post: 5654534"] One thing I came up with prior to discovering Savage Worlds are what I called Roleplaying Scenes. Here is a [url=http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/lab/wikis/roleplaying-scenes] link to a writeup[/url]. The basic idea is to give a PCs 5 minutes of pure RP that has nothing to do with the current plot or in a threatening situation. Something that can be used for the player to develop the PC's views on the world and a chance for the DM to show off their world. Another thing in Savage Worlds are Interludes. There is an older version that is much more involved, but the new one from the Savage Worlds Deluxe is cleaner - basically there are 4 events (victory, love, tradegy, and desire) that a PC gets to tell a short story about. Of course, you get a bennie for your story. I used the Interludes recently to great effect running a modern horror "movie" - much like in horror movies, there are quiet moments that the the character talk and you get to know more about them (then they get eaten by a zombie). Here is a [url=http://www.peginc.com/Downloads/SWD/SWDUpdates_Interludes.pdf] link to their new version [/url] On D&D - I have always perceived D&D to be "heroic", even if am running an anti-hero type. There seemed to be an unwritten and unvoiced opinion that you should try to "do the right thing" in the adventure. Make sure you have a decent PC build, select the right spells, kill the thief if he steals from the party, etc. For me, this always constrained roleplay. A scoundrel could be a scoundrel only to the point it did not "hurt" the party. The Hindrance/Bennie reward system, in my mind anyway, "gives the player permission" to do what the PC really would do. A sample of great Hindrances in the system that lead to very interesting RP: [list] [*] Big Mouth - The old Loose Lips Sinks Ships [*] Curious - Great for Olde Skoole campaigns. Just create a pool of glowing water and you have an instant "ok, I'll touch it" PC [*] Pacifist - one of the PreGens is a pacificist barbarian - he hates that rage the lies within (kinda Hulk-like - "you won't like me when I am angry...") [*] Overconfident - "Yeah, I can do that!" [*] Quirk - a nice catch all to give your PC something distinctive [*] I do not recall the name, but it pops up in a couple of settings. Basically, you know you are awesome and you spend the first round of combat telling everyone that fact. You have to spend a Bennie if you want/have to do anything else in that first round. [/list] I'll give an example from a one-shot introducing SW to a group. The setup is the group is exploring a catacombs as one of the PCs thinks there is a necromancer looking to become a lich. At one point, the group hears something coming and hides. It is a skeleton that is shambling along and appears focused on where it is going. I threw in a bit of description about there being a gold necklace on the skeleton. The player running the Greedy thief starts to think about pick pocketing the skeleton. In 99% of D&D groups that I have played in (YMMV, of course), reason would have set in - everyone knows they will get to kill the skeleton later in the session and can retrieve the necklace then - thus no reason to give away their position. So I hold up a Bennie and the player, now with "permission" goes for it. I know there are people that would say "yeah, I would have done that in D&D", but the difference is no one in the group challenged the action from a metagaming perspective. They thought it was cool the player earned a bennie for the action. Anyway. Lots of SW sidetracking. I would suggested adopting the Interludes/Roleplaying scenes. I found my players really look forward to them as it give them the spotlight without worrying about the dice trying to betray them. [/QUOTE]
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