Planning Sword & Sorcery campaigns

[gamerprinter]

Personally, while I would agree on the primary difference between high fantasy and low fantasy, is that high fantasy includes some over arching goal that will change the world, while low fantasy does not. I don't agree that characters do activities based on self interest only, and not out of the goodness of their hearts. I don't see doing good things out of the goodness of your heart, as being an anathema to Sword and Sorcery. Individuals do whatever activities based on whatever motivations, S&S doesn't dictate how PCs can act. Actions are based on circumstances of the locale, goals of the PCs, and events beyond their control.

 

[Yora]

I think it's entirely permitable that PCs occasionally find their conscience and take actions that don't benefit them or even go against their own best interests. Murdering horrible people when nobody is looking because of the attrocities they have done, putting themselves in danger to save a slave or a child even though they should just keep running, or beating up thugs who are attacking innocent, and things like that.

But I think it becomes problematic, in regard to the genre, when the PCs wander the land looking for opportunities for charity, helping the poor who can't fight for themselves, and generally making the world a better place.
One difference between general Heroic Fantasy and Sword & Sorcery in particular, is an underlying notion that the world is unfair and trying to fix it is just unrealistic. You can make a good life for yourself, and if you're doing really well create a safe sanctuary for your people, but overall the world is so unfair and devided that you can't establish safety in an area any larger than what you can guard and defend yourself. When wandering the world and helping people, the most you can hope for is giving another chance to those you just rescued. But once you are gone they will have to fend for themselves again. You could kill an evil king or mayor, but unless you take over their position you have no idea who will follow them once you're gone. Maybe the locals manage to institute a new ruler who actually protects them, but it may just as well return to being just as bad as it was before.
It's not just the rulers who are corrupt, but society at some basic level. Supposed you kill the king and claim his throne. Are you going to exile all the advisors, commanders, and soldiers and do all their work by yourself? And all the nobles and merchants who keep slaves, and all the farmers and laborers who are just as racist against minorities? You can't, especially when society as a whole is resisting any good intentions you might having.

A Sword & Sorcery hero might be doing the right thing most of the time, but within the genre they have no illusion that they could make the world a better place. As king Kull says "By this Axe I rule!", because the only thing that keeps the men below him in line is the threat of he coming after them personally and split their worthless skulls. If you have loyal and competent generals, you can extend this circle of control, and if they can mange to find good lieutenants, it can reach even further. But in the end, people will behave as a whole only if you are capable of forcing them to.

Bandits are attacking travelers on the road and monsters destroy farms on the edge of the village? There's always bandits and monsters and if you kill them, new ones will move in shortly after. The mayor and his guards are abusing their power, but so will their replacements when they are removed. And can the heroes even be sure that they can defeat the evil?
Often it's better not to kick the hornet nest and leave things be. If some lone stranger beheads the mayor and proclaims loudly that there won't be any mistreatment of the villagers anymore, will that really make things safer for them? It might just as well cause the local lord to send a more ruthless replacement to crush any trace of resistance among the villagers.

Sword & Sorcery heroes can definately be heroic, but the extend of their ability is limited. They may be able to kill a monster or defeat 10 soldiers by themselves, but they are still vulnerable and need to be careful to stay away from trouble that is bigger than what they can handle.

That's an example of the fourth aspect I mentioned as important at the start of the thread: Success is never a given. Sword & Sorcery characters can never be sure that they are able to win. They may be the most powerful individuals around, but they still stand no chance against all the possible enemies they could make in a place.

 

[gamerprinter]

I can see learning the sad tale of a particular slave with the skills that a given adventuring party could use, combined with some hatred of the slave's owner, and attempting to free that individual from his slave bonds to join your party for more adventuring success. However, I don't see an effort to end slavery or to free all the slaves as a major goal for an S&S character. I see instances of good will provided by given characters - an act of good for the moment, but not as an overriding goal when meeting every slave.

 

[Yora]

That's what I mean. Saving one particular slave or refugee is one thing, trying to improve the fate of a whole population is an entirely differently one.
Usually in such stories, those people who get the heroes help are not random strangers they just happened to pass by. There's almost always some previous encounter that left an impact on the hero and because of that, the hero makes the whole thing personal. It doesn't have to be a relative or very close friend. It could also be a virtual stranger the hero met just 2 minutes ago and doesn't even know the name of, but for some reason they find themselves in a situation where the hero regards them as someone who belongs to him.

I think this can actually be made into a solid piece of advice: Make the PCs action help an actual specific individual with whom they have made some form of personal connection. Saving some girl from the village who has disappeared isn't going to make nearly as much of an impact than saving the daughter of the barmaid who is always brining the PCs their drinks at the tavern and once delivered them a secret message. If she pleads with the PCs to rescue her daughter, it's going to be so much more of an impact than having "some villagers" telling them that "a child" has disappeared.

 

[Yora]

From another thread:

My replacement character was basically Danny Trejo as Machete, sticking knives in people who needed knives stuck in 'em.

...

The apprentices all exchanged glances. Half thought, "Now's my chance to show master my loyalty." The other half thought, "Now's my chance to eliminate master and take his place."

Have you ever seen a chain reaction of exploding wizards? Machete did, and that's how the campaign ended.

I think this is something quite important. Classic D&D modules are dungeon crawls with no story, and the more recent adventures that Paizo made for Dungeon and now for Pathfinder are well scripted and linear, and the PCs really just have to follow the well marked path.
In Sword & Sorcery, things go horribly wrong all the time and never work out as planned. A few days ago I was thinking about how the absurdly mundane events of Tarantino movies could be good pointers on how to shake thingd up. And not by coincidence his most famous movie is called Pulp Fiction. Once all the way round the circle.

To missquote the Joker, when there's a monster in the cave, a sorcerer summons demons, or a caravan get's ambushed by bandits, nobody panics, because it's all part of the plan. Make everyone losing their mind!
Here's a few ideas how things can turn belly up in an adventure, creating the kind of thrill that makes the genre what it is. I hope you can add more:

* Normally PCs can kill who they want and then tell the guard they are heroes and the dead guy was a villain, and the guards just shrug and are okay with that. Though life is cheap in S&S, killing a noblemen or rich merchant like that, even by accident or in self defense, will require a lot of explaining. To guards who are both able to overpower the PCs in combat, and also probably don't care about their excuses. So better try to hide the deed and try to get far enough away when the corpse is found, or prepare for a dungeon escape before your execution.
* Break into a place while nobody is there. Then realize that's not actually the case when you're at the most distant spot from your escape route.
* You escape from the villains mainsion. But the guards are still coming after you.
* The PCs want to meet with the villains to trade the hostage they have taken. (Or deliver the person they were hired to kidnp.) Then suddenly the hostage dies.
* You're supposed to meet an ally halfway through the mission at a very dangerous moment. He never shows up.
* Your employer didn't give you the right inormation to evade detection or defeat the monster, but tricked you into being a distraction or sacrifice, while the real henchmen do the actual job.
* Allies arrive to save you. Now they want to kill you, while you are vulnerable.
* You are supposed to use or destroy an artifact to defeat the villain. You get to the site of power, perform the rite... and nothing happens.
* You make your way to the end of the dungeon and reach the chamber of the artifact. But the pedestal is empty.
* You discover a conspiracy, aquire proof, and make it to your boss/high priest/captain of the guard. He already knows.