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Re-thinking PC death and storytelling
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<blockquote data-quote="[OMENRPG]Ben" data-source="post: 5810061" data-attributes="member: 6677983"><p>In any fantasy genre, the party should be above average at the last, and heroic as the norm. Perhaps not in grittier systems in which a player can easily die in any given combat, but the way I handled 4e was that small petty encounters never even hit the party.</p><p> </p><p>They were heroes, from day one. Some people don't like this, and I never let the party know that this was the case. But from the very first session, the things that interacted with them had a purpose and tied back in to the whole concept behind the campaign.</p><p> </p><p>Here are the things that I do that make a very "story oriented" type of game:</p><p> </p><p>1. Know/create a very rich setting. This is incredibly essential as the more in-depth the setting is, the easier the stories are created, even from unforeseen events such as a PC death.</p><p> </p><p>2. Create a metaplot. This somewhat ties in to the setting, and doesn't always have to be the cliche of the end of the world, but something large enough and wide-spread enough to be well known throughout the entire setting. Wars fit the bill nicely, or as in the case of Game of Thrones, there is a constantly shifting power struggle for the Iron Throne. I try to create metaplots that would be widely appealing to just about anybody who isn't a psychopath, but it is very easy to make this a cliche. Be subtle and simple with it, no need to go overboard. </p><p> </p><p>3. Create interesting people. People are what really define a world. A place is neat and all, especially in a fantasy setting where things that aren't possible in reality are common, but any place is empty without culture and society and personality. You need to develop personally interesting and story-wise compelling individuals and cultures to fill your world. This will automatically create desire and story-arcs in the campaign. If the king has seven younger brotherse who all want the throne, and he is secretly endorsed by the publicy-denounced Arcanum, that has built-in interesting things waiting to happen. Parties should get caught up in and then influence interesting events, not just live in hoity toity land and wait for Ol' Man Bailey's prized goat to go missing. </p><p> </p><p>4. Don't waste any time. This doesn't mean skip the conversation with the gate guard, but make everything tie back in to the meta-plot or any sub-plots (which should also tie in with the meta-plot.) Maybe the gate guard seems obviously aggressive or petulant, the party is scurious and looks into it. They find out with some prying that recently his younger brother died in the Seven Brothers Civil War, and he has to sit here and guard some stupid gate and can't even attend his funeral. This adds a lot of opportunity for the party to get involved in something small but meaningful, and it serves as a subtle backdrop of the continuing meta-plot.</p><p> </p><p>5. Involve the players' emotions. This one often goes overlooked in both stories and RPGs, as a lot of people just simply want to play a game and relax. This story-driven game isn't designed for those kinds of players, and should always be reminding them of difficult decisions or difficult obstacles in the way of simple decisions. Let's say the current king is the "rightful heir" but is an obstinate tyrant who oppresses his people. He asks for the party to serve beneath him as special-duty units engaged in the war against his brothers. The party can either openly defy the king's orders, hoping that the rebellion will assist in the future of their homeland, or work for the king as it is the lawful thing to do, and possibly go to war with their kin or see atrocities. When people are put into positions in which they can't necessarily think rationally or always see what is best, real characterization and emotion comes out. That's story-telling gold. </p><p> </p><p>6. Don't cheapen death. This touches on not having little stupid encounters, but even that is alright as long as it is relatively unreasonable for the party to die by said encounters. More importantly this relates to making the loss significant to both the players and the characters in story. Rites of passage for the dead should be observed, relatives should visit or mourn, wives should wear black, monuments should be erected in the deceased's honor, etc. If Joe the Farmer Who Decided to be an Adventurer dies and nobody cares because Joe the Farmer WDtobaA is also an orphan in which his entire village was also burned down, then we can take the angle of how somber it is for that noble and selfless individual to die to no avail. Of course, it is always easier to avoid these kind of circumstances if the party is well-devoted to one another and each member has made some form of fame or contribution to the society.</p><p> </p><p>7. Kill off people the party likes. This one sounds a little mean, and can definitely be overdone, but in all of the times that I've ever made significant people in the party's lives either die or get in some serious trouble, the game took on an entirely new flavor. For example, as I've mentioned in several other threads, one of my greatest NPCs was Balasar who helped the party from level 1 to 26 in 4e. He died once at level 9, sacrificing himself to save the party. Did I need to do that? No, I could have had a TPK. Could it have been handled poorly and felt like deux ex machina? Surely. But, just the right amount of emotion had been put into that character, the had been with him for months both in game and in real life, and had grown to love him. Not a single player, a group of relatively masculine men who enjoy football and martial arts and guns, didn't cry that night (including myself.) </p><p> </p><p>If you do those things above, and make it seem real, and make it seem that things have consequences and that the party's decisions matter, your game's story will unfold entirely on its own and it will be far more beautiful than anything you could have made staring at a laptop.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="[OMENRPG]Ben, post: 5810061, member: 6677983"] In any fantasy genre, the party should be above average at the last, and heroic as the norm. Perhaps not in grittier systems in which a player can easily die in any given combat, but the way I handled 4e was that small petty encounters never even hit the party. They were heroes, from day one. Some people don't like this, and I never let the party know that this was the case. But from the very first session, the things that interacted with them had a purpose and tied back in to the whole concept behind the campaign. Here are the things that I do that make a very "story oriented" type of game: 1. Know/create a very rich setting. This is incredibly essential as the more in-depth the setting is, the easier the stories are created, even from unforeseen events such as a PC death. 2. Create a metaplot. This somewhat ties in to the setting, and doesn't always have to be the cliche of the end of the world, but something large enough and wide-spread enough to be well known throughout the entire setting. Wars fit the bill nicely, or as in the case of Game of Thrones, there is a constantly shifting power struggle for the Iron Throne. I try to create metaplots that would be widely appealing to just about anybody who isn't a psychopath, but it is very easy to make this a cliche. Be subtle and simple with it, no need to go overboard. 3. Create interesting people. People are what really define a world. A place is neat and all, especially in a fantasy setting where things that aren't possible in reality are common, but any place is empty without culture and society and personality. You need to develop personally interesting and story-wise compelling individuals and cultures to fill your world. This will automatically create desire and story-arcs in the campaign. If the king has seven younger brotherse who all want the throne, and he is secretly endorsed by the publicy-denounced Arcanum, that has built-in interesting things waiting to happen. Parties should get caught up in and then influence interesting events, not just live in hoity toity land and wait for Ol' Man Bailey's prized goat to go missing. 4. Don't waste any time. This doesn't mean skip the conversation with the gate guard, but make everything tie back in to the meta-plot or any sub-plots (which should also tie in with the meta-plot.) Maybe the gate guard seems obviously aggressive or petulant, the party is scurious and looks into it. They find out with some prying that recently his younger brother died in the Seven Brothers Civil War, and he has to sit here and guard some stupid gate and can't even attend his funeral. This adds a lot of opportunity for the party to get involved in something small but meaningful, and it serves as a subtle backdrop of the continuing meta-plot. 5. Involve the players' emotions. This one often goes overlooked in both stories and RPGs, as a lot of people just simply want to play a game and relax. This story-driven game isn't designed for those kinds of players, and should always be reminding them of difficult decisions or difficult obstacles in the way of simple decisions. Let's say the current king is the "rightful heir" but is an obstinate tyrant who oppresses his people. He asks for the party to serve beneath him as special-duty units engaged in the war against his brothers. The party can either openly defy the king's orders, hoping that the rebellion will assist in the future of their homeland, or work for the king as it is the lawful thing to do, and possibly go to war with their kin or see atrocities. When people are put into positions in which they can't necessarily think rationally or always see what is best, real characterization and emotion comes out. That's story-telling gold. 6. Don't cheapen death. This touches on not having little stupid encounters, but even that is alright as long as it is relatively unreasonable for the party to die by said encounters. More importantly this relates to making the loss significant to both the players and the characters in story. Rites of passage for the dead should be observed, relatives should visit or mourn, wives should wear black, monuments should be erected in the deceased's honor, etc. If Joe the Farmer Who Decided to be an Adventurer dies and nobody cares because Joe the Farmer WDtobaA is also an orphan in which his entire village was also burned down, then we can take the angle of how somber it is for that noble and selfless individual to die to no avail. Of course, it is always easier to avoid these kind of circumstances if the party is well-devoted to one another and each member has made some form of fame or contribution to the society. 7. Kill off people the party likes. This one sounds a little mean, and can definitely be overdone, but in all of the times that I've ever made significant people in the party's lives either die or get in some serious trouble, the game took on an entirely new flavor. For example, as I've mentioned in several other threads, one of my greatest NPCs was Balasar who helped the party from level 1 to 26 in 4e. He died once at level 9, sacrificing himself to save the party. Did I need to do that? No, I could have had a TPK. Could it have been handled poorly and felt like deux ex machina? Surely. But, just the right amount of emotion had been put into that character, the had been with him for months both in game and in real life, and had grown to love him. Not a single player, a group of relatively masculine men who enjoy football and martial arts and guns, didn't cry that night (including myself.) If you do those things above, and make it seem real, and make it seem that things have consequences and that the party's decisions matter, your game's story will unfold entirely on its own and it will be far more beautiful than anything you could have made staring at a laptop. [/QUOTE]
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