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Contrivance in story dynamics
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8830571" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Seems odd to me, like you've authored a story and the players are just going to supply some color almost. I mean, you seem to have an agenda for this story of the 4 crystals to happen. It doesn't even involve the players at all (the PCs are part of your plot, but since the players don't even know the story exists they're not even along for the ride at this point!). In terms of contrivance though, which is more to the OP's point, how does this not qualify as a tremendous contrivance? Of all the possible characters who could dig these things up, its the PCs! </p><p></p><p>Now, I have an explanation for this, in say DW terms, the PCs are the big damned heroes! They are THE Wizard, THE Fighter, THE Cleric, and THE Thief. Maybe they will or won't dig up the fabled 4 crystals, but their players probably decided that was a thing to begin with! (I mean, the GM in DW could generate this story element as a part of a Front, or maybe even as a soft move/doom but IMHO that would generally only be a good move if something the players had decided at some point thematically signaled that as a story direction that would be in keeping with the course of play). </p><p></p><p>So, for instance, I might invent something like that if maybe the thief was gunning for a big treasure and bit when offered a fantastic gemstone. Later this gemstone leads things into a whole complex plot surrounding the necessity to get 3 more and avert the final evolution of a campaign front (the exact nature of which will certainly riff off of the choices of PC background, answers to questions asked of players, etc.). Note that DW Fronts "just are" once they are established, if the players send their characters off in some other direction, well the front does its thing and so be it. If some of them die, or even if the party gets wiped and there's a restart, things can go on, no one PC need be cast as THE FATED ONE, although it may turn out to be so when the time comes! </p><p></p><p>In my first 4e campaign, after it matured a bit past the early set piece stuff, one of the PCs became a sort of 'fated champion' character. The player had given her a background that included having a prophesy, and an unusual upbringing where her family origins were unknown. The monks who raised her CALLED her the 'Chosen One' (or something like that, I forget exactly) but it was only when the PCs got to Paragon that this really started to play out seriously. It was never a given that it would, although clearly since the player created those background elements it would have been kind of a let down not to go forward with it. </p><p></p><p>IIRC a few times at lower levels the players remarked that some bad guys seemed to want to take out the cleric (this character) pretty badly, but it could be attributed to smart tactics. Finally around 8th level the party got themselves wrapped up in some weird Eladrin (Eldar) politics due to one of the PCs being a runaway Eldar Princess. So they ended up looting an ancient Eldar fortress and found an artifact that triggered off the rest of that story arc (being the savior of the land, basically). Now, if said PC had died, or the player had just ignored the plot hooks that would be fine too. The players could have invented a bunch of different paths to go down, I'm sure. I only invented the Shield of Kinnis plot arc/artifact because it matched up with some lore and fit the character conception really well.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8830571, member: 82106"] Seems odd to me, like you've authored a story and the players are just going to supply some color almost. I mean, you seem to have an agenda for this story of the 4 crystals to happen. It doesn't even involve the players at all (the PCs are part of your plot, but since the players don't even know the story exists they're not even along for the ride at this point!). In terms of contrivance though, which is more to the OP's point, how does this not qualify as a tremendous contrivance? Of all the possible characters who could dig these things up, its the PCs! Now, I have an explanation for this, in say DW terms, the PCs are the big damned heroes! They are THE Wizard, THE Fighter, THE Cleric, and THE Thief. Maybe they will or won't dig up the fabled 4 crystals, but their players probably decided that was a thing to begin with! (I mean, the GM in DW could generate this story element as a part of a Front, or maybe even as a soft move/doom but IMHO that would generally only be a good move if something the players had decided at some point thematically signaled that as a story direction that would be in keeping with the course of play). So, for instance, I might invent something like that if maybe the thief was gunning for a big treasure and bit when offered a fantastic gemstone. Later this gemstone leads things into a whole complex plot surrounding the necessity to get 3 more and avert the final evolution of a campaign front (the exact nature of which will certainly riff off of the choices of PC background, answers to questions asked of players, etc.). Note that DW Fronts "just are" once they are established, if the players send their characters off in some other direction, well the front does its thing and so be it. If some of them die, or even if the party gets wiped and there's a restart, things can go on, no one PC need be cast as THE FATED ONE, although it may turn out to be so when the time comes! In my first 4e campaign, after it matured a bit past the early set piece stuff, one of the PCs became a sort of 'fated champion' character. The player had given her a background that included having a prophesy, and an unusual upbringing where her family origins were unknown. The monks who raised her CALLED her the 'Chosen One' (or something like that, I forget exactly) but it was only when the PCs got to Paragon that this really started to play out seriously. It was never a given that it would, although clearly since the player created those background elements it would have been kind of a let down not to go forward with it. IIRC a few times at lower levels the players remarked that some bad guys seemed to want to take out the cleric (this character) pretty badly, but it could be attributed to smart tactics. Finally around 8th level the party got themselves wrapped up in some weird Eladrin (Eldar) politics due to one of the PCs being a runaway Eldar Princess. So they ended up looting an ancient Eldar fortress and found an artifact that triggered off the rest of that story arc (being the savior of the land, basically). Now, if said PC had died, or the player had just ignored the plot hooks that would be fine too. The players could have invented a bunch of different paths to go down, I'm sure. I only invented the Shield of Kinnis plot arc/artifact because it matched up with some lore and fit the character conception really well. [/QUOTE]
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