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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Some Dude" data-source="post: 7867633" data-attributes="member: 6980080">CHAPTER 8: LIBER OBSCURUSChapter 9 is all about Conspiracies. How to write them, how to run them, and what to do when your players do the unexpected. It combines ideas for running a very particular kind of adventure with some general, all-purpose GMing tips.Conspiracies can be used to add more narrative flavor, as well as intrigue and suspense which are very engaging, but can be very hard to build. In my own experience, I have found that a little mystery, or an unknown threat, will often be more exciting to players than a single big, bad monster or objective in full view.Zweihander takes a more structured approach than one might expect here. It all begins with the "Rule OF Threes". You see, a Conspiracy in Zweihander has three parts: Clues, Leads and Revelations. 3 Clues uncovers 1 Lead; 3 Leads uncovers 1 Revelation; 3 Revelations blows the lid off the entire Conspiracy. It is also recommended to use Index cards, so that both the GM and the Players may keep track of unfolding events and important facts (way ahead of you there, Zweihander).Conspiracies in Zweihander are divided into 6 Steps. They are:Step 1: Your Hook - This is the event that draws the Players into the story. Mysterious deaths, missing persons or objects. It is recommended that PCs are dropped into a story that is already in progress. That is to say, that the event or events that draw them in note be the beginning of a new conspiracy, but rather a facet of an ongoing one. At this stage, the GM is only concerned with what is happening, not yet with why.Step 2: The Agenda - An Agenda is the overarching concept that drives the Conspiracy. It is advised that the GM define the Agenda in three "very abstract categories". This Chapter uses examples from the A Bitter Harvest scenario in the Core Rulebook, as well as the There's Something About Marie adventure in this book. In addition, the following advice is given:Keep It Vague: Do not reveal everything, or too much, at once. The Consoiracy should be multi-layered, revealed in pieces, and give the Characters a reason to search out its true nature.[/b]Time Is Not Their Friend:[/b] Putting the PCs under the lash of the clock is a great way to keep adventures on track and Players focused.Go For Broke: Don't be afraid to make your conspiracies or your villains outlandish.Reduce & Refactor: Listen to your Players' discussions and theories. Don't be afraid to make changes along the way, especially if it will improve your story and/or the Players' experience. They need never know that the nearly absurd theory that turned out to be true was, in fact, provided to you by them!Web Of Conspiracy: Create a loose "Conspiracy network" that will help you to visualize how it is structured, and flesh it out from there, adding conspirators, henchmen and servitors as necessary.Step 3: Clues - This Step gives an alternative to having Players roll for whether or not they find Clues. Instead, it is recommended to make the Players, in character, search for Clues, but letting Skill Tests determine what or how much they can glean from it if necessary. Advice on how and when to give hints is given here, as well as how to proceed when you Players just don't seem to be "getting it", and a general reminder not to over-complicate things. Which, I'd guess, is a common mistake when writing a Conspiracy-based adventure. Note: The Investigator Profession has a "True Detective" Trait that can confer additional benefit relating to Clues.Step 4: Leads - Leads are defined here as a correlation between all three of the Clues. Though they may have an optimal "order" of discovery, for the purposes of your story, you may reveal them out of order, for a more comlex, challnging, and possibly realistic Conspiracy. After all, who thought that a break-in at the Watergate Hotel would unseat an American President? At this stage, it is still necessary to keep things somewhat ambiguous. Whereas the Players should be able to follow the Clues to a Lead, the Leads themselves should be more of a direction than a destination. There is advice for rescuing your Players from dead ends, mounting up tension and the sense of "someone" pushing back against their efforts, nad the importance of restraint when using GM fiat.Step 5: Revelations - Here, it is impled that a Conspiracy can encompass an entire Campaign. I say "impied". because this is the first time in the Chapter that we are explicitly seeing that as a concept. While the into does say that Conspiracies can interweave complex storylines together, Step 5 suggests that each Revelation should come just before the end of each Character Tier of experience. This would certainly add deoth and flavor to many different types of Campaign, and it would have been helpful to have this laid out more clearly. Examples from the adventure in this book are used to illustrate key concepts, and there is a reminder not to overload Players with minutiae. Just because I wrote it, doesn't mean it will come into play or even add anything. I have written lots of "background" and "flavor text" for my home games, that the players never saw.Step 6: Beyond The Conspiracy - Think about what comes next. Is the Conspiracy truly foiled? Or have the players just uncovered one small wheel within many larger ones? Is this the end, or a new beginning? This will be up to the GM to decide.Thus ends Chapter 8. Another fine set of tools, though it could have been a bit clearer in spots.</blockquote>

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