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Advice for new "story now" GMs
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<blockquote data-quote="FrozenNorth" data-source="post: 9057610" data-attributes="member: 7020832"><p>I have a question for story now GMs about the intersection between safety tools and setting stakes for player actions.</p><p></p><p>My example is from 5e, but I believe it trandlates to story now games.</p><p></p><p>In an Arabian Nights inspired game, a player established both that he came from a very wealthy merchant family, and that one of his sisters was soon to be married to a wealthy African (-inspired) prince.</p><p></p><p>I figured that the wedding was an excellent setting for the adventure. The adventure kicked off with a member of the city guard advising the character’s father that they had raided the office of a criminal broker, where they had discovered that “someone” had paid an assassin a large sum of money to assassinate someone at the wedding. The father beamed at his adventurer son and charged him with foiling the attempt and identifying who had hired the assassin. The guard also insisted on having his own men present.</p><p></p><p>What followed was roleplaying at its finest, with the characters’ actions leading to consequences that drew on each of the characters backgrounds. There were characters from the past complicating the mission, one character disguising himself as another and inadvertently getting him into trouble, etc.</p><p></p><p>Things built to the climax. The characters had captured the assassin’s accomplice, and the wedding banquet was about to start.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly, a twist. A minor character introduced previously was found murdered, suggesting that the main assassin was still on the loose. Two players went to investigate the murder, the other two remained to guard the wedding banquet.</p><p></p><p>Some unfortunate investigative rolls later, and a cake filled with gunpowder was headed to the happy couple and the character’s father. Those guarding the couple likewise failed to detect danger, and the cake exploded, killing half of the character’s family.</p><p></p><p>I later found out that the player was extremely upset. He had created the character’s family as a counterpoint to the many ictional characters with broken home lives.*</p><p></p><p>My question is this: by its nature, story now encourages the DM to stake things that matter to the PCs, including friends and family. The conventional safety tools I am aware of are good for phobias or other elements that bother the player in any context, but it seems unlikely that it would have caught the fact that the player wanted his family’s death to be off-limits.</p><p></p><p>*We resolved the situation adequately and in a manner consistent with the fiction. In his father’s study, he found a jar with a sealed top. The jar revealed a genie, and after an extended role-playing session with established stakes, the genie agreed to send the character one hour into the past to foil the assassination.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FrozenNorth, post: 9057610, member: 7020832"] I have a question for story now GMs about the intersection between safety tools and setting stakes for player actions. My example is from 5e, but I believe it trandlates to story now games. In an Arabian Nights inspired game, a player established both that he came from a very wealthy merchant family, and that one of his sisters was soon to be married to a wealthy African (-inspired) prince. I figured that the wedding was an excellent setting for the adventure. The adventure kicked off with a member of the city guard advising the character’s father that they had raided the office of a criminal broker, where they had discovered that “someone” had paid an assassin a large sum of money to assassinate someone at the wedding. The father beamed at his adventurer son and charged him with foiling the attempt and identifying who had hired the assassin. The guard also insisted on having his own men present. What followed was roleplaying at its finest, with the characters’ actions leading to consequences that drew on each of the characters backgrounds. There were characters from the past complicating the mission, one character disguising himself as another and inadvertently getting him into trouble, etc. Things built to the climax. The characters had captured the assassin’s accomplice, and the wedding banquet was about to start. Suddenly, a twist. A minor character introduced previously was found murdered, suggesting that the main assassin was still on the loose. Two players went to investigate the murder, the other two remained to guard the wedding banquet. Some unfortunate investigative rolls later, and a cake filled with gunpowder was headed to the happy couple and the character’s father. Those guarding the couple likewise failed to detect danger, and the cake exploded, killing half of the character’s family. I later found out that the player was extremely upset. He had created the character’s family as a counterpoint to the many ictional characters with broken home lives.* My question is this: by its nature, story now encourages the DM to stake things that matter to the PCs, including friends and family. The conventional safety tools I am aware of are good for phobias or other elements that bother the player in any context, but it seems unlikely that it would have caught the fact that the player wanted his family’s death to be off-limits. *We resolved the situation adequately and in a manner consistent with the fiction. In his father’s study, he found a jar with a sealed top. The jar revealed a genie, and after an extended role-playing session with established stakes, the genie agreed to send the character one hour into the past to foil the assassination. [/QUOTE]
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