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Legend
Making Failure Fun
In a previous thread the question of how to make failure fun for the players came up. I wanted to outline some ways a GM could make small changes in how failure is handled to help encourage their players to shift their thinking about failure.
This article is based on the player types described by Robin D. Laws in Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering pages 4-5. They can be found on-line here.
Power Gamer
Failure for the power gamer is a weak character or lack of opportunities to gain power. There are several tricks to making failure fun for the power gamer. First, make no successes or failures absolute. Second, have the power gamer makes tough choices between two attractive options where succeeding at one necessitates failing at another. Third, as a consequence of failure allow characters to gain some perk (perhaps extra experience/hero points). Fourth, consider adopting a rules system which defines “power” as “interesting and fully conceptualized.”
Example: A player runs Sir Kay, a brutal knight seeking to carve out his own fiefdom in a world where power is found in alliance and betrayal even more than at the point of a sword. Sir Kay is faced with accepting support from one of two petty nobles: Lady Constantina or Duc Wyden. However, these nobles are enemies – if Kay allies with one he gains the other as an enemy. Kay decides to ally with Wyden, and soon finds several spies and assassins have long been planted in his household by Lady Constantina. These spies lead a coup against him; as the battle rages on in his keep, Kay and his guards are pressed into the underground ruins on which his keep was built. There he finds the crypt of one of his ancestors…and a magical blade with great power…and a curse.
The Butt-Kicker
Failure for the butt-kicker is getting un-dramatically defeated in battle, dull unchallenging combat or, even worse, a lack of combat scenes altogether. It’s easy to make failure fun for the butt-kicker: Simply throw in a grand battle when the failure occurs that tests the limits of the character’s combat abilities and may result in some of the characters getting captured, cursed, severely wounded, their followers dying, etc.
Example: A player runs Iggy-san, a troll street samurai seeking revenge against an employer who betrayed him. While doing legwork to track down the vice president who ordered the betrayal, Iggy-san tries to get a meeting with a tough yakuza boss named Electric Butterfly. The talk goes sour, and Electric Butterfly challenges Iggy-san to a duel – her with her plasma katana and him with his monofilament diamond-edged katana. Iggy-san is soundly defeated, and while he is escorted out of the club he hears Electric Butterfly get subdued by agents of the corporation that betrayed him. As she is kidnapped, Iggy-san mounts his assault motorcycle and speeds after the armored helicopter Electric Butterfly is being taken to – it’s fight time, and whoever could take down Electric Butterfly has got to be tough.
The Tactician
Failure for the tactician is the lack of complex realistic problems, a plan spiraling out of control with little or no recourse to minimize damage, or even worse no tactical opportunities in the game. To make failure fun for the tactician, provide smaller tactical challenges when the larger problem isn’t readily solvable. Also, emphasize what’s unique about that particular failure and how it relates to the larger issue or setting.
Example: A player runs Minearis, an Amazonian cavalry captain making hasty preparations for a barbarian siege on the hilltop Temple of Artemis. Her first recourse is to order her followers to set up spikes around the perimeter by felling sycamore trees, and to pour the sacred grain alcohol in a circle around the temple – to be lit on fire by her expert archers. When the barbarians break through this spiked flaming barrier, Minearis sounds a retreat, but it’s obvious they’re outnumbered twenty to one (the odds worse if you don’t count the non-combatant priestesses she’s defending). Minearis knows that the temple will be sacked and the priestesses violated, so surrender isn’t an option. An unusual looking barbarian steps forward to demand the release of his sister from the temple, and he promises to take lead his company from the battlefield (greatly improving the odds). However, the priestesses won’t let the barbarian in, and no one is saying who his sister is. Now Minearis is faced with a new tactical challenge: How to identify the barbarian’s sister and convince her to surrender herself?
The Specialist
Failure for the specialist is looking stupid at their character’s specialty, or even worse not having the opportunity to exercise the specialty. To make failure fun for the specialist, make sure they look competent when things don’t go their way. Also, make the failure lead into a scene where their specialty is greatly challenged.
Example: A player runs a sneaky romantic thief (this one happens to be named August) who has been framed for a robbery he didn’t commit. To escape the authorities he has created an alternate identity and is faced with the task of seducing his latest romantic interest, the fetching but stubborn jeweler Selene (who he intends to use). On the look-out for the real thief, August decides to set up an elaborate ruse, having positioned himself as the security contractor for a bank, involving the Queen’s scepter. Despite his best laid plans, the scepter is stolen with little clue left as to the identity of the thief. August is furious and is in danger of losing the job (which was to help him with his own theft down the line) unless he can find the thief in 24 hours. He is shocked when he finds out that Selene is the thief who framed him and stole the scepter! To further complicate matters, August finds himself actually falling for Selene! Can he sneak into her French chateaux and steal the scepter back before the bank manager acts on his information and publicly humiliates Selene?
In a previous thread the question of how to make failure fun for the players came up. I wanted to outline some ways a GM could make small changes in how failure is handled to help encourage their players to shift their thinking about failure.
This article is based on the player types described by Robin D. Laws in Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering pages 4-5. They can be found on-line here.
00Machado said:
Power Gamer
Failure for the power gamer is a weak character or lack of opportunities to gain power. There are several tricks to making failure fun for the power gamer. First, make no successes or failures absolute. Second, have the power gamer makes tough choices between two attractive options where succeeding at one necessitates failing at another. Third, as a consequence of failure allow characters to gain some perk (perhaps extra experience/hero points). Fourth, consider adopting a rules system which defines “power” as “interesting and fully conceptualized.”
Example: A player runs Sir Kay, a brutal knight seeking to carve out his own fiefdom in a world where power is found in alliance and betrayal even more than at the point of a sword. Sir Kay is faced with accepting support from one of two petty nobles: Lady Constantina or Duc Wyden. However, these nobles are enemies – if Kay allies with one he gains the other as an enemy. Kay decides to ally with Wyden, and soon finds several spies and assassins have long been planted in his household by Lady Constantina. These spies lead a coup against him; as the battle rages on in his keep, Kay and his guards are pressed into the underground ruins on which his keep was built. There he finds the crypt of one of his ancestors…and a magical blade with great power…and a curse.
The Butt-Kicker
Failure for the butt-kicker is getting un-dramatically defeated in battle, dull unchallenging combat or, even worse, a lack of combat scenes altogether. It’s easy to make failure fun for the butt-kicker: Simply throw in a grand battle when the failure occurs that tests the limits of the character’s combat abilities and may result in some of the characters getting captured, cursed, severely wounded, their followers dying, etc.
Example: A player runs Iggy-san, a troll street samurai seeking revenge against an employer who betrayed him. While doing legwork to track down the vice president who ordered the betrayal, Iggy-san tries to get a meeting with a tough yakuza boss named Electric Butterfly. The talk goes sour, and Electric Butterfly challenges Iggy-san to a duel – her with her plasma katana and him with his monofilament diamond-edged katana. Iggy-san is soundly defeated, and while he is escorted out of the club he hears Electric Butterfly get subdued by agents of the corporation that betrayed him. As she is kidnapped, Iggy-san mounts his assault motorcycle and speeds after the armored helicopter Electric Butterfly is being taken to – it’s fight time, and whoever could take down Electric Butterfly has got to be tough.
The Tactician
Failure for the tactician is the lack of complex realistic problems, a plan spiraling out of control with little or no recourse to minimize damage, or even worse no tactical opportunities in the game. To make failure fun for the tactician, provide smaller tactical challenges when the larger problem isn’t readily solvable. Also, emphasize what’s unique about that particular failure and how it relates to the larger issue or setting.
Example: A player runs Minearis, an Amazonian cavalry captain making hasty preparations for a barbarian siege on the hilltop Temple of Artemis. Her first recourse is to order her followers to set up spikes around the perimeter by felling sycamore trees, and to pour the sacred grain alcohol in a circle around the temple – to be lit on fire by her expert archers. When the barbarians break through this spiked flaming barrier, Minearis sounds a retreat, but it’s obvious they’re outnumbered twenty to one (the odds worse if you don’t count the non-combatant priestesses she’s defending). Minearis knows that the temple will be sacked and the priestesses violated, so surrender isn’t an option. An unusual looking barbarian steps forward to demand the release of his sister from the temple, and he promises to take lead his company from the battlefield (greatly improving the odds). However, the priestesses won’t let the barbarian in, and no one is saying who his sister is. Now Minearis is faced with a new tactical challenge: How to identify the barbarian’s sister and convince her to surrender herself?
The Specialist
Failure for the specialist is looking stupid at their character’s specialty, or even worse not having the opportunity to exercise the specialty. To make failure fun for the specialist, make sure they look competent when things don’t go their way. Also, make the failure lead into a scene where their specialty is greatly challenged.
Example: A player runs a sneaky romantic thief (this one happens to be named August) who has been framed for a robbery he didn’t commit. To escape the authorities he has created an alternate identity and is faced with the task of seducing his latest romantic interest, the fetching but stubborn jeweler Selene (who he intends to use). On the look-out for the real thief, August decides to set up an elaborate ruse, having positioned himself as the security contractor for a bank, involving the Queen’s scepter. Despite his best laid plans, the scepter is stolen with little clue left as to the identity of the thief. August is furious and is in danger of losing the job (which was to help him with his own theft down the line) unless he can find the thief in 24 hours. He is shocked when he finds out that Selene is the thief who framed him and stole the scepter! To further complicate matters, August finds himself actually falling for Selene! Can he sneak into her French chateaux and steal the scepter back before the bank manager acts on his information and publicly humiliates Selene?
