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<blockquote data-quote="Irda Ranger" data-source="post: 4225793" data-attributes="member: 1003">Agreed.&nbsp; Very solid and practical advice.&nbsp; It's not high falutin' prose, and it acknowledges the realities of player management, while keeping it all fun.&nbsp; Very, very good.This is a great rule.&nbsp; I've always wanted to use it since I read Burning Wheel, but haven't had an opportunity.&nbsp; I also like the JohnSnow's idea of awarding Action Points for this rather than XP.It's only &quot;constraining&quot; if you give them that one quest, refuse to give them any other quests, and frustrate all attempts to turn right or left.&nbsp; And that would be your fault, not the games'.Me, I just plop the PCs down in a sandbox (called &quot;Homlett&quot;, or whatever) and describe the scene around them.&nbsp; I answer questions, and curious NPCs ask questions, and usually by the end of the first couple days in town I ask &quot;So, what do you (meaning the PCs) want to do?&quot;&nbsp; They'll reply &quot;We want to look into those Bugbear raids on the outlying farms&quot;, or whatever, and I then get the following in writing:1. What's the Problem? (Bugbear raids)2. What's the Action? (Investigate farms, ask questions, probably follow tracks)3. What's the End Game? (We know where they came from &amp; why)This provides incredible focus and motivation, since they picked it themselves.&nbsp; Psychological buy in is very important here.&nbsp; At about that point I'll let them know what the local shops have and say &quot;OK, buy whatever equipment you need for this quest; I need a moment behind the DM screen.&quot;&nbsp; Then I'll roll on my Random Evil Plot Generator 1d4 times and mix the results (&quot;Well, isn't that interesting, apparently an Eladrin Prince lost a baby son five years ago and he hired a Centaur Bounty-Hunter to find him; the Centaur has tracked his kidnappers to this vicinity, and then (not being too keen on race relations outside the Feywild) hired the Bugbears to help him canvas the area looking for a child of the right age - but they've gone ultra vires.&quot;)&nbsp; BAM!&nbsp; Instant quest.See edits. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Irda Ranger, post: 4225793, member: 1003"] Agreed. Very solid and practical advice. It's not high falutin' prose, and it acknowledges the realities of player management, while keeping it all fun. Very, very good. This is a great rule. I've always wanted to use it since I read [I]Burning Wheel[/I], but haven't had an opportunity. I also like the JohnSnow's idea of awarding Action Points for this rather than XP. It's only "constraining" if you give them that one quest, refuse to give them any other quests, and frustrate all attempts to turn right or left. And that would be your fault, not the games'. Me, I just plop the PCs down in a sandbox (called "Homlett", or whatever) and describe the scene around them. I answer questions, and curious NPCs ask questions, and usually by the end of the first couple days in town I ask "So, what do [I]you [/I](meaning the PCs) want to do?" They'll reply "We want to look into those Bugbear raids on the outlying farms", or whatever, and I then get the following in writing: 1. What's the Problem? (Bugbear raids) 2. What's the Action? (Investigate farms, ask questions, probably follow tracks) 3. What's the End Game? (We know where they came from & why) This provides incredible focus and motivation, since they picked it themselves. Psychological buy in is very important here. At about that point I'll let them know what the local shops have and say "OK, buy whatever equipment you need for this quest; I need a moment behind the DM screen." Then I'll roll on my Random Evil Plot Generator 1d4 times and mix the results ("Well, isn't that interesting, apparently an Eladrin Prince lost a baby son five years ago and he hired a Centaur Bounty-Hunter to find him; the Centaur has tracked his kidnappers to this vicinity, and then (not being too keen on race relations outside the Feywild) hired the Bugbears to help him canvas the area looking for a child of the right age - but they've gone ultra vires.") BAM! Instant quest. See edits. ;) [/QUOTE]

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