Last Tuesday's DH game was a post-arc downtime (for the Seattle based game, I framed Long Rests as like time passing / a few days or so). I grabbed a bunch of the excellent downtime activities from a couple Forged in the Dark games I've run that make them character beats - vibing at a bar with your buds, strolling the sights of the city to clear your head, curled up together on the couch repairing each other's armor, etc. Worked great, got to see the inside of one character's apartment as they all crashed out there and had some good (high as f) conversations.
Then I was thinking about what I wanted to focus in on before we moved into more narrative/duty stuff and I decided I wanted to highlight some character backstory elements I'd asked the players to bring with them. Specifically some NPCs that mattered to them, and their mentors - the death of whom was the inciting incident behind the campaign and these young folk being thrust into a position of responsibility.
Scrolling around our Miro playspace, my attention alit on a NPC one of the players had described as a "fellow apprentice of their mentor who resented me." Perfect! Framed in on him putting in a shift at his restaurant where he works as a line cook for rent, asked a couple provocative questions, and then dropped the proposal from the NPC - she had the keys to a storage unit owned by their former teacher, but she knew that the PC would have a better chance of getting through any wards - was he interested in checking it out? He was, and I suggested they grabbed the rogue along the way.
This meant I had to split screen over to the other two, so I asked the Guardian what musical instrument did he find in his mentor's penthouse closets when he was quietly sorting through them as he recovered from the adventure? We established it was a classical guitar, perfect link to bring in the 4th PC who runs a record shop and knows all about that stuff.
So we bounced between the two PCs up north at a rural storage unit fighting earth elemental defenses and strange wards, as the other two played a clearly haunted (or at least spirit residued) guitar, heavy with his mentor's memories and regrets - ghosts of the past swirling about (and unwanted attention showing up).
0 of that planned, everything built out from PC backstories and collaborative back and forth to establish facts about their relationships and the people and things that matter to them.
Then I was thinking about what I wanted to focus in on before we moved into more narrative/duty stuff and I decided I wanted to highlight some character backstory elements I'd asked the players to bring with them. Specifically some NPCs that mattered to them, and their mentors - the death of whom was the inciting incident behind the campaign and these young folk being thrust into a position of responsibility.
Scrolling around our Miro playspace, my attention alit on a NPC one of the players had described as a "fellow apprentice of their mentor who resented me." Perfect! Framed in on him putting in a shift at his restaurant where he works as a line cook for rent, asked a couple provocative questions, and then dropped the proposal from the NPC - she had the keys to a storage unit owned by their former teacher, but she knew that the PC would have a better chance of getting through any wards - was he interested in checking it out? He was, and I suggested they grabbed the rogue along the way.
This meant I had to split screen over to the other two, so I asked the Guardian what musical instrument did he find in his mentor's penthouse closets when he was quietly sorting through them as he recovered from the adventure? We established it was a classical guitar, perfect link to bring in the 4th PC who runs a record shop and knows all about that stuff.
So we bounced between the two PCs up north at a rural storage unit fighting earth elemental defenses and strange wards, as the other two played a clearly haunted (or at least spirit residued) guitar, heavy with his mentor's memories and regrets - ghosts of the past swirling about (and unwanted attention showing up).
0 of that planned, everything built out from PC backstories and collaborative back and forth to establish facts about their relationships and the people and things that matter to them.
