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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yora" data-source="post: 8338458" data-attributes="member: 6670763">While I really do appreciate everyone's participation in this topic, I hope that we can keep the discussion on how to create and run fantasy RPG adventures that evoke the feel of Sword & Sorcery.There have been many discussions about running Sword & Sorcery campaigns over the years, and they always devolved into the same discussion on how to define Sword & Sorcery. Which always comes down to exactly the same points everyone has always been making for the last decades. If anyone has new revelations to share about that, it's a discussion for a different topic. I think for the purpose of this thread, an elephant definition is sufficient: "It's really hard to describe, but I know it when I see it."Or the specific definition of the man who introduced the term: "Howard, Leiber, and Moorcock, yes. Tolkien, no."While this is true, the challenge for the GM is how to make that eventually be in next week when the players return to play. Sword & Sorcery is generally not concerned with longer ongoing stories and happy to skip straight ahead to the moment that something interesting happens. Ideally, you get into the action within 5 minutes of play. But with the PCs being the masters of their own fates, and proactive initative by the players being desired, I think this is a point where the media of roleplaying and writing lead to different demands. The circumstances under which the PCs end up in an adventure can be skipped in a story, but are important parts of play.Similarly, someting I have planned for my next campaign, is to strictly track the time of the campaign and the money of the PCs. These are things that are irrelevant in stories and are therefore ignored, and those Sword & Sorcery games that have something to say about this usually go "eh, say some time has passed and everyone is broke at the start of a new adventure". But I think the PCs handling their money and other resources might actually be useful to make part of the game. A story writer can just say the the hero lost and wasted anything and accepts a job because he needs money. But I think this might take too much agency from the players. It they are broke and have to make money quickly, it should be the consequence of something the players did, not something that is arbitrarily forced upon them. Because then theh can also play their characters in a way that makes them plan ahead for when their money runs out and go searching for well paying work themselves before they get broke. This avoids the situation where players have to take the one job the GM offers them now because at this point they have no more option to keep looking.It also increases the value of treasure. If players expect that all their money will be taken away from them soon, then there is little incentive to go looking for gold, and take extra risks for extra gold.Though instead of tracking the buying of a roasted chicken or mugnof beer, I would very much recommend just doing a weekly or monthly upkeep, based on the standard of living of the PCs. I think finding that they can't afford the luxuries they enjoyed after their last three hauls for much longer might be a big motivator. Not every PCs has to be like Conan and be happy with a bed of moss and a cloak for a blanket.(Tracking time is important to determine how fast money runs out.)Though of course, all of this goes very much against the conventional wisdom for Sword & Sorcery campaigns, so I am really curious about any strong counter-arguments anyone might have.</blockquote>

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