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<blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 5404091" data-attributes="member: 16069"><p>My players in my new VTT Campaign (see sig) are returning to Fallcrest to do a little light investigating of their own, I'll not bore you with the details. I also want to introduce the guys to some of the cool places in the city and a few future patrons/villains/friendlies et al.</p><p></p><p>I therefore sat down and wrote out a step by step (a flowchart) guide to how the players would achieve their goal- find the bad guy (whatever). I then complicated it by adding in a few false trails etc until I had a twelve box flowchart.</p><p></p><p>I then decided upon NPCs (multiple) and/or puzzles/encounters that could be used to reveal the next stage of the investigation, so now I have a 12 step flow chart with multiple branching routes, and ideas for encounters, smaller skill challenges or NPC interactions that ultimately leads to the location of the bad guy (my example).</p><p></p><p>Then I personalised each, ie made a smaller Flowchart which (without railroading- hopefully) requires each player to undertake their own Skill Challenge to discover a portion of the clues- when all the players succeed and put their individual pots of info together then the location of the bad guy becomes apparent.</p><p></p><p>So from the initial 12 point flow chart I now have a tailored skill challenge for each player, each of which incorporates other mini challenges or combat encounters, and opportunities to meet new people and explore new places within the city.</p><p></p><p>So some examples-</p><p></p><p>Resolute, Male Human Brawler (a wild man), his sniffing around leads him to an Inn, in the basement of which cage fighters beat the living crap out of each other, he has to train (with a blacksmith) and finally win two cage fights to succeed at his skill challenge (which will give him (and the party) exactly one-sixth of the clues they need to discover the whereabout of the bad guy). </p><p></p><p>His challenge obviously involves seperate skill challenges- training, getting hired in the first place but also involves combat encounters like the fights, and other encounters in which all the PCs can get involved.</p><p></p><p>In short each part of the investigation has been constructed to make use of a single PCs strengths (and sometimes weaknesses).</p><p></p><p>One of the other PCs has to deliver a sermon, convert people to his faith; another involves the delivery of a mystery package (and other illegal activities), another a romance, another...</p><p></p><p>At the end of it all of the PCs will have met some people that will prove of great help in the future, made a few enemies, got a bit of experience (and money et al); and finally will have located the bad guy.</p><p></p><p>Lastly- while I have written out the expected pathway for each PC I have done so in pencil, I know the order I want the clues to be revealed- it doesn't really matter who does the uncovering, there's enough filler for each of the PCs, by which I mean they have to work to earn the next clue.</p><p></p><p>I did this because I have seen too many Skill Challenges in which gangs of PCs wander to six locations either fight someone/thing, or undertake some sort of skill challenge, get next tidbit and head off- and it all seems to work in a linear fashion.</p><p></p><p>In mine PCs can learn the 11th clue (as it were) first, they still need the ten before and the one after for it all to make sense. And for each clue (by clue I just mean piece of information) they need to do a lot more than chat to one NPC, or beat down bad guy X.</p><p></p><p>Hope that helps.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Goonalan, post: 5404091, member: 16069"] My players in my new VTT Campaign (see sig) are returning to Fallcrest to do a little light investigating of their own, I'll not bore you with the details. I also want to introduce the guys to some of the cool places in the city and a few future patrons/villains/friendlies et al. I therefore sat down and wrote out a step by step (a flowchart) guide to how the players would achieve their goal- find the bad guy (whatever). I then complicated it by adding in a few false trails etc until I had a twelve box flowchart. I then decided upon NPCs (multiple) and/or puzzles/encounters that could be used to reveal the next stage of the investigation, so now I have a 12 step flow chart with multiple branching routes, and ideas for encounters, smaller skill challenges or NPC interactions that ultimately leads to the location of the bad guy (my example). Then I personalised each, ie made a smaller Flowchart which (without railroading- hopefully) requires each player to undertake their own Skill Challenge to discover a portion of the clues- when all the players succeed and put their individual pots of info together then the location of the bad guy becomes apparent. So from the initial 12 point flow chart I now have a tailored skill challenge for each player, each of which incorporates other mini challenges or combat encounters, and opportunities to meet new people and explore new places within the city. So some examples- Resolute, Male Human Brawler (a wild man), his sniffing around leads him to an Inn, in the basement of which cage fighters beat the living crap out of each other, he has to train (with a blacksmith) and finally win two cage fights to succeed at his skill challenge (which will give him (and the party) exactly one-sixth of the clues they need to discover the whereabout of the bad guy). His challenge obviously involves seperate skill challenges- training, getting hired in the first place but also involves combat encounters like the fights, and other encounters in which all the PCs can get involved. In short each part of the investigation has been constructed to make use of a single PCs strengths (and sometimes weaknesses). One of the other PCs has to deliver a sermon, convert people to his faith; another involves the delivery of a mystery package (and other illegal activities), another a romance, another... At the end of it all of the PCs will have met some people that will prove of great help in the future, made a few enemies, got a bit of experience (and money et al); and finally will have located the bad guy. Lastly- while I have written out the expected pathway for each PC I have done so in pencil, I know the order I want the clues to be revealed- it doesn't really matter who does the uncovering, there's enough filler for each of the PCs, by which I mean they have to work to earn the next clue. I did this because I have seen too many Skill Challenges in which gangs of PCs wander to six locations either fight someone/thing, or undertake some sort of skill challenge, get next tidbit and head off- and it all seems to work in a linear fashion. In mine PCs can learn the 11th clue (as it were) first, they still need the ten before and the one after for it all to make sense. And for each clue (by clue I just mean piece of information) they need to do a lot more than chat to one NPC, or beat down bad guy X. Hope that helps. [/QUOTE]
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