Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Eugee" data-source="post: 6354394" data-attributes="member: 61170">I think newer players to 13A are the ones most likely to fall into the trap of too narrow backgrounds.&nbsp; In my experience, the first time they are doing an overland journey and I say, &quot;&lt;insert name&gt;, during the first morning of your quest, your background in &lt;insert background&gt; helped you overcome... what?&quot;&nbsp; It's not long after that when they ask me if they can flesh out their background a little more.&nbsp; Suddenly &quot;survival expert&quot; becomes &quot;veteran ranger of the wyld guard&quot;.The first time I read the montage stuff in 13A I was like, &quot;yeah yeah it's nice in theory&quot; and then I found myself kind of drawing a blank as to how to make an overland journey that didn't involve a wandering monster encounter noteworthy.&nbsp; So I lobbed that meat pitch out there...It was amazing.&nbsp; Not only did the player jump in and run with it, but suddenly the rest of the party wanted to chip in with what their backgrounds offered.&nbsp; As a matter of fact, I ended up throwing a random encounter at them anyway, but this time it was because their story really made sense, and it was a gratuitous slaughter encounter, because their montage just teed up a great chance for them to ambush a patrol.I got an effortless, noteworthy overland travel journey, and they were engaged, and got to slaughter some goblins.From their perspective, they slaughtered those goblins because they overcame an obstacle in the adventure through their ingenuity and tactics.&nbsp; In truth, their ingenuity and tactics is the reason the encounter even occurred--and was then lop-sided in their favor.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Eugee, post: 6354394, member: 61170"] I think newer players to 13A are the ones most likely to fall into the trap of too narrow backgrounds. In my experience, the first time they are doing an overland journey and I say, "<insert name>, during the first morning of your quest, your background in <insert background> helped you overcome... what?" It's not long after that when they ask me if they can flesh out their background a little more. Suddenly "survival expert" becomes "veteran ranger of the wyld guard". The first time I read the montage stuff in 13A I was like, "yeah yeah it's nice in theory" and then I found myself kind of drawing a blank as to how to make an overland journey that didn't involve a wandering monster encounter noteworthy. So I lobbed that meat pitch out there... It was amazing. Not only did the player jump in and run with it, but suddenly the rest of the party wanted to chip in with what their backgrounds offered. As a matter of fact, I ended up throwing a random encounter at them anyway, but this time it was because their story really made sense, and it was a gratuitous slaughter encounter, because their montage just teed up a great chance for them to ambush a patrol. I got an effortless, noteworthy overland travel journey, and they were engaged, and got to slaughter some goblins. From their perspective, they slaughtered those goblins because they overcame an obstacle in the adventure through their ingenuity and tactics. In truth, their ingenuity and tactics is the reason the encounter even occurred--and was then lop-sided in their favor. [/QUOTE]

Verification