Obstacles Without Antagonists

[[OMENRPG]Ben]

So I've been thinking about it, and I have a natural inclination to create obstacles for a party through some kind of antagonist. That antagonist might not be a single person, but it usually is embodied by an individual or a group of individuals, whether sentient or not.

More recently in my games I've been introducing obstacles without some kind of force bringing it on. For example, my playtest party is stuck on a derelict space station which is slowly but inexorably decomposing. Whole sectors are without power, and thereby gravity and oxygen. The people living there are generally amicable and helpful to the party, and there really is no antagonist (unless you argue that the decomposing station is an antagonist in and of itself). The station was already damaged in this manner before the game took place, and had no direct cause from anything the party did.

How do you feel about obstacles that simply exist without some kind of force driving them on? The classic disasters are fairly common I guess: asteroids coming to the earth, a plague which is 99% deadly, or earth-shattering natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes. But I'm referring more to non-plot centric obstacles, things that simply get in the way of the plot that have no real cause.

Is it too boring? Does it make the players feel too helpless or too weak? What, if any, such obstacles have you used or experienced in your games?

 

[wedgeski]

I think an obstacle can be just about anything as long as its unambiguous in its opposition to the party and in the various ways they might be able to defeat or overcome it.

Having said that, your actual villain fulfils the basic human need to organise the universe by apportioning blame. Nothing is permitted to be an accident; someone must always have been negligent or wilfully ignorant of their responsibilities; someone must always be made to pay.

If an obstacle has expressed itself by damaging or interfering with the party's goals or friends, it's always nice to deal out some comeuppance. A slab of space rock doesn't really fit the bill, but the brain bug who sent it our way certainly does.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Sickness, death in family, needing new shoes, same for your horse...this stuff happens. You also have a population and events happening within your world that the players don't have any control over. Someone could try and kill a king and all gates get closed as the city watch goes from house to house. Your contact may be busy with something else.

Best to create table, just a small chance of something happening then a roll to see what it was.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=6677983][OMENRPG]Ben[/MENTION]
Yeah I love "non-antagonist" scenarios....my groups tend to get the itch for combat even when engaged in a lethal scenario, so I usuall only have so long of a window to run such a scenario before I need to throw antagonists at them to appease their bloodlust

These sorts of scenarios do have a way of breeding antagonists over time too.

For example, the space station leader waits for help, attempting to squeeze out every bit of life support for the people, confident the distress beacon will be answered. The PCs might be the active party wanting to organize an escape plan but they need to use precious power and resources to do it. Wham - an antagonist is born.

 

[Janx]

[MENTION=6677983][OMENRPG]Ben[/MENTION]
Yeah I love "non-antagonist" scenarios....my groups tend to get the itch for combat even when engaged in a lethal scenario, so I usuall only have so long of a window to run such a scenario before I need to throw antagonists at them to appease their bloodlust

These sorts of scenarios do have a way of breeding antagonists over time too.

For example, the space station leader waits for help, attempting to squeeze out every bit of life support for the people, confident the distress beacon will be answered. The PCs might be the active party wanting to organize an escape plan but they need to use precious power and resources to do it. Wham - an antagonist is born.

Sounds like the OP has a Man vs. Nature/Environment setup (where Nature is the space station)

quickleaf has the right of it though, in that the space station has scarce resources and potentially disagreeing people, thus the posssibility for man vs. man conflict.

 

[the Jester]

I think these kinds of scenarios can be very cool, even really short ones. For instance, perhaps the party has to cross a few days' worth of hostile terrain (the sands of Volturnus, IIRC, were a great example of this in Star Frontiers).

 

[gamerprinter]

While this is more 3x/PF in thought, but recently I've been using lots of Haunts, Hazards, Special Terrains, Traps and Curses in every single session I run. At least 1 haunt, trap and hazard in every session.

Hazards, especially fit into your 'nature as an obstacle'. While some hazards are molds spewing spores as a kind of monster, many hazards are things like mud slides, avalanches, dust storms, quick sand, coastal undertows - none of which are intelligently driven obstacles, rather hazardous conditions that exist apart from the intelligent and monstrous obstacles that also coexist in such environments.

I see nothing boring about non-monster/NPC encounters that are enviromental obstacles instead. You still need to bypass the obstacles or somehow overcome the threat so you can move to where the monsters are and fight in a normal encounter.

 

[Ringlerun]

I love obstacles in games. It breaks up the usual travel, combat, social interaction that most games are created upon. Two of my best beloved books are the old dungeoneer survival guide and wilderness survival guide. Getting stuck in blizzards or dying of thirst in a desert add great atmosphere to a game. One of my fondest memories was in trying to get to the underdark and all the obstacles the party had to overcome just to get there.

 

[Aramax]

anytime you create an exciting adventure w/o combat youve created a masterpiece