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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
In your RPGing, who chooses the antagonists/opposition - players or GM?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 8226302" data-attributes="member: 16814"><p>I'll talk about my Planescape game, which is currently on hiatus as we explore other things. In this, there was a mixed of antagonist sources. One of my players had a backstory where they were an escaped thrall of mindflayers, and that they did not recall anything of their life prior to becoming a thrall. So, of course, mindflayers featured in the game as antagonists so that the player could explore their goal of recovering their memories and getting revenge on his captors. A second player had a backstory of their clan being wiped out someone/something. Only a name was provided, no details about the how or what. This name featured in the game, moving into becoming a nemesis for the party and actively working against them on their quest to recover a multi-part artifact, which was a lot of fun because I kept this antagonist as vague as the player did -- a scary name, moving in the shadows, with minions doing the dirty work. All of these are player introduced antagonists. A few others cropped up in play (the Death Cleric ended up possessed by a powerful spirit that acted more as a foil than an antagonist, but this was player prompted).</p><p></p><p>On the other side, I absolutely introduced antagonists, and had a few ideas waiting in the wings if needed. I set up an aboleth as an antagonist for a number of sessions, originally just as the end bad guy in a fetch quest job the PCs took for money, but they failed the quest, and this ended up as having a run as they tried to complete the job. A few more in this vein, but none in this category were long term antagonists. </p><p></p><p>Now, in my Blades game, there was a lot more of both -- players can and do establish NPCs quite regularly, as does the GM, depending on the current need, the current action, the current fiction, and how a check resolves.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 8226302, member: 16814"] I'll talk about my Planescape game, which is currently on hiatus as we explore other things. In this, there was a mixed of antagonist sources. One of my players had a backstory where they were an escaped thrall of mindflayers, and that they did not recall anything of their life prior to becoming a thrall. So, of course, mindflayers featured in the game as antagonists so that the player could explore their goal of recovering their memories and getting revenge on his captors. A second player had a backstory of their clan being wiped out someone/something. Only a name was provided, no details about the how or what. This name featured in the game, moving into becoming a nemesis for the party and actively working against them on their quest to recover a multi-part artifact, which was a lot of fun because I kept this antagonist as vague as the player did -- a scary name, moving in the shadows, with minions doing the dirty work. All of these are player introduced antagonists. A few others cropped up in play (the Death Cleric ended up possessed by a powerful spirit that acted more as a foil than an antagonist, but this was player prompted). On the other side, I absolutely introduced antagonists, and had a few ideas waiting in the wings if needed. I set up an aboleth as an antagonist for a number of sessions, originally just as the end bad guy in a fetch quest job the PCs took for money, but they failed the quest, and this ended up as having a run as they tried to complete the job. A few more in this vein, but none in this category were long term antagonists. Now, in my Blades game, there was a lot more of both -- players can and do establish NPCs quite regularly, as does the GM, depending on the current need, the current action, the current fiction, and how a check resolves. [/QUOTE]
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In your RPGing, who chooses the antagonists/opposition - players or GM?
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