Appropriate Material for Younger Players

[TheAuldGrump]

I try to keep the violence one step down from prime time TV. And try to have it at a climactic point in the action rather than randomly spread through the session. When violence occurs it should mean something!

This summer I will be using the Savage World system, converting an adventure that I created for the Iron Kingdoms, where the PCs are an agency rather than an adventuring band. Simple investigation rather than combat is going to be the rule. They are hired by the foreman to investigate problems on a railroad being built between Corvis and Caspia.

Planned points:

A chase between a switcher engine and a handcart on the tracks, with the sitcher engine chasing the PCs on the handcart. (Best way of handling it? Jumping off the cart at some relatively safe point rather than try to stay ahead of the switcher.)

Investigating what is going on between 'jack 13 and one of the handlers. (Little things like the jack handler smashing a fly with his fist at the same time the 'jack crushes a gremlin...)

Find out who is sabotaging the railroad.

Negotiating with the rail gangs.

Negotiating with the rail company.

Find out who is politically blocking the rail line from being completed. (They are unlikely to get to this point, it ties in with the events of The Witchfire Trilogy...)


Good guys:

The foreman

Steam engine company representative.

Some (not all ) of the members of the rail gang.


Bad guys

Rail company representative

'Jack 13

'Jack 13's handler

Wyrm Cult

Politician in Corvis (Unlikely to matter)

'Troubleshooter'

Rail company goons

A few (by no means all) of the rail gang


Morally Ambiguous:

Most of the rail gang

Most of the 'jack handlers


Planned combats:

Rail gang busting up the office.

Rail company goons trying to bust up the gangs

'Troubleshooter' (assassin)

'Jack 13 and the handler

Wyrm Cult

About 2 combats a week, some will occur even if the PCs are not there, in which case they will simply find out what happened.

The scenario is planned to take 3 weeks, playing an hour and a half a day.

The Auld Grump

 

[woodelf]

Avoid complicated moral dilemmas. If you're gonna have bad guys, make them obvious bad guys. Hordes of blood thirsty orcs, or legions of faceless storm troopers. Non-anthropomorphic foes work well too.

Hmmm...
13+yr-olds are fairly aware of the world. IMHO, you do them (and society) a disservice going with black-and-white morality. IMHO, RPing is an opportunity for exploring things, as well as escapism. And i think you're shirking your responsibility any time you're in a leadership role for middleschoolers/highschoolers, and promote a view of easy or absolute morality. We've got entirely too much of that in vogue right now.

I know, you're probably gonna say i'm taking all this too seriously. Perhaps. But, IMHO, better to assume the kids will learn something, and have them miss the point, than to assume they won't and have them learn something you hadn't intended. It's pretty much the same rationale, IMHO, for toning down violence a bit and making violence secondary to thinking/socializing forproblem solving.

 

[S'mon]

I agree that avoiding "easy certainties" can be beneficial - OTOH _sometimes_ it's ok to shoot the bad guys, right? I think the Star Wars model is a fairly good one for fantasy adventure - bad guys are shot in service to a greater good, OTOH there are moral questions (though you may not agree with Star Wars' answers) - Luke senses the redeemability of Vader when older & wiser heads are convinced otherwise - and the good guys do take prisoners when possible, eg on Endor. Of course Star Wars morality is pretty harsh, being reminiscent of WW2 total war - Star Trek offers a kinder, gentler approach, though Next Gen Trek doesn't really leave adequarte room for conflict IMO. A setting similar to TOS Trek where violence is the last resort - but still a resort - could work well, or 4-colour superheroes would also be good, you can have moral dilemmas and action without mass slaughter.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm...
13+yr-olds are fairly aware of the world. IMHO, you do them (and society) a disservice going with black-and-white morality. IMHO, RPing is an opportunity for exploring things, as well as escapism. And i think you're shirking your responsibility any time you're in a leadership role for middleschoolers/highschoolers, and promote a view of easy or absolute morality. We've got entirely too much of that in vogue right now.

I know, you're probably gonna say i'm taking all this too seriously. Perhaps. But, IMHO, better to assume the kids will learn something, and have them miss the point, than to assume they won't and have them learn something you hadn't intended. It's pretty much the same rationale, IMHO, for toning down violence a bit and making violence secondary to thinking/socializing forproblem solving.

Agreed. Some of the bad guys I listed are obvious, others are not, and one (the company rep.) is a seducer to the dark side, who will use carrot and stick to bring them into service of the company. (There is a much bigger, obvious bad guy, but this is the dangerous one...) Most folks are just folks, selfish, but not malignantly so.

Some of the scenario is based on the Pinkertons and the Molly Maguires.

The Auld Grump