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Tension, Threats And Progression In RPGs
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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 7730917" data-attributes="member: 22779"><p>I wonder if this isn't the heart of the issue. It's pretty easy to play an RPG as just a tactical exercise wargame where you have your party, you have your objective, and off you go. A lot of early play D&D was this sort of thing. Moldvay Basic, for example, pretty much defines this as how the game is supposed to be played. You have dungeon where the adventure is, you have a town where you go back, resupply and then head back to the adventure. </p><p></p><p>But, really, haven't we moved a fair ways beyond this? Many campaigns no longer even have a "dungeon" as in some site away from civilization, where you are expected to repeatedly foray into and adventure. Now, play typically starts and maybe even focuses in civilization, where the interaction of the characters with whatever concepts that DM is laying out along with (hopefully) ideas that the players themselves are pushing, makes the campaign. </p><p></p><p>My players, right now, are pushing to start a thieves guild in the city they have been in the most often. Now, I've kinda screwed the pooch on this, because I didn't actually follow up on what they were pushing for, but, if I was a better DM, the campaign would have spend the next several sessions with them dealing with stuff in the city instead of the quest I had prepped. I'm discovering that I'm really not a very good sandbox DM when the sandbox is too big. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite3" alt=":(" title="Frown :(" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":(" /> Lessons learned for next time.</p><p></p><p>But, right there, there's a win/loss condition that the players have set for themselves. Do they create this thieves guild and how successful are they at it? The tension is all right there in the basic concept. Put up achievable goals, play through and see what happens. What I think I need to do is come up with a series of scenarios with victory conditions for each scenario, where doing one thing closes off other options, and at the end, that's how successful they are.</p><p></p><p>However, at no point in what I have in mind is death or loss of equipment really an issue. Granted, if they die, that's a definite loss, but, still, that's not really what that scenario is about.</p><p></p><p>Hrm... ideas are starting to percolate....</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 7730917, member: 22779"] I wonder if this isn't the heart of the issue. It's pretty easy to play an RPG as just a tactical exercise wargame where you have your party, you have your objective, and off you go. A lot of early play D&D was this sort of thing. Moldvay Basic, for example, pretty much defines this as how the game is supposed to be played. You have dungeon where the adventure is, you have a town where you go back, resupply and then head back to the adventure. But, really, haven't we moved a fair ways beyond this? Many campaigns no longer even have a "dungeon" as in some site away from civilization, where you are expected to repeatedly foray into and adventure. Now, play typically starts and maybe even focuses in civilization, where the interaction of the characters with whatever concepts that DM is laying out along with (hopefully) ideas that the players themselves are pushing, makes the campaign. My players, right now, are pushing to start a thieves guild in the city they have been in the most often. Now, I've kinda screwed the pooch on this, because I didn't actually follow up on what they were pushing for, but, if I was a better DM, the campaign would have spend the next several sessions with them dealing with stuff in the city instead of the quest I had prepped. I'm discovering that I'm really not a very good sandbox DM when the sandbox is too big. :( Lessons learned for next time. But, right there, there's a win/loss condition that the players have set for themselves. Do they create this thieves guild and how successful are they at it? The tension is all right there in the basic concept. Put up achievable goals, play through and see what happens. What I think I need to do is come up with a series of scenarios with victory conditions for each scenario, where doing one thing closes off other options, and at the end, that's how successful they are. However, at no point in what I have in mind is death or loss of equipment really an issue. Granted, if they die, that's a definite loss, but, still, that's not really what that scenario is about. Hrm... ideas are starting to percolate.... [/QUOTE]
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