Halivar
First Post
I wanted to share something really, really cool our RPG gaming group has gotten into.
Last year, we bought a copy of Risk Legacy and played it with great eagerness for the next session. If you haven't played it, it's basically a game of Risk that you permanently modify each time you play. When you open the box, you have a series of pouches that say "Open when ...". Our group became obsessed with opening the pouches to such a degree that it changed our strategy of play.
I don't pretend to know the psychology behind it, but people go crazy for achievements. In video games, achievements just give you bigger meta-number, with no other benefit. In Risk Legacy, though, it's tied to tangible rewards, thus increasing the drive to get those achievements.
I'm currently experimenting with this model in my current sci-fi campaign. Each character wakes up with amnesia. The player is presented with 7 thick packets to choose from labeled things like "The Pilot", or "The Architect", or "The Mercenary", etc, etc. Each player chooses one. In each packet is their character's back-story, but they have to unlock it first. Upon opening the packet, they find two slightly smaller packets with 5 empty circles and a title in great big letters (for instance, the Pilot has packets labeled "POWER" and "KNOWLEDGE"). In addition, there are 15 2-inch envelopes with a sticker indicating when it should be opened. Each one is specific to the character's back-story. When one of the "achievement" envelopes is unlocked, they open the envelope and find a vignette from their character's back-story and a round sticker that is emblematic of the vignette. This sticker goes in one of the 5 empty circles on the packet of their choice. When all five are opened, they open the packet (a major achievement) with huge story reveals, and more packets.
One of the great things about Risk Legacy is the dread players have for tearing things up. I put in something similar in my game, by having "choose your own adventure" moments in the packets. Each packet has choices to make in the form of 2 envelopes; one is opened and the other is torn up. In this way, the players make critical choices about their character's back-story (in some cases the choice between triumph and tragedy), and hopefully get them postulating about what could have been.
Now, to be sure, the packets are not the game in its entirety. Though they are integral to the overarching campaign, they have little to no bearing on most sessions at the moment. Except for when players unlock an achievement.
On a less grand scale, our annual Halloween Deadlands survival-horror game made use of this, also. The GM made envelopes similar to my mini-achievements but made them available to all (not always a treat, to be sure).
Anyway, I wanted to share that and maybe plant a bug in your ear. If you can think of any way to improve this, or have some other cool ideas like it I'd love to hear it.
Last year, we bought a copy of Risk Legacy and played it with great eagerness for the next session. If you haven't played it, it's basically a game of Risk that you permanently modify each time you play. When you open the box, you have a series of pouches that say "Open when ...". Our group became obsessed with opening the pouches to such a degree that it changed our strategy of play.
I don't pretend to know the psychology behind it, but people go crazy for achievements. In video games, achievements just give you bigger meta-number, with no other benefit. In Risk Legacy, though, it's tied to tangible rewards, thus increasing the drive to get those achievements.
I'm currently experimenting with this model in my current sci-fi campaign. Each character wakes up with amnesia. The player is presented with 7 thick packets to choose from labeled things like "The Pilot", or "The Architect", or "The Mercenary", etc, etc. Each player chooses one. In each packet is their character's back-story, but they have to unlock it first. Upon opening the packet, they find two slightly smaller packets with 5 empty circles and a title in great big letters (for instance, the Pilot has packets labeled "POWER" and "KNOWLEDGE"). In addition, there are 15 2-inch envelopes with a sticker indicating when it should be opened. Each one is specific to the character's back-story. When one of the "achievement" envelopes is unlocked, they open the envelope and find a vignette from their character's back-story and a round sticker that is emblematic of the vignette. This sticker goes in one of the 5 empty circles on the packet of their choice. When all five are opened, they open the packet (a major achievement) with huge story reveals, and more packets.
One of the great things about Risk Legacy is the dread players have for tearing things up. I put in something similar in my game, by having "choose your own adventure" moments in the packets. Each packet has choices to make in the form of 2 envelopes; one is opened and the other is torn up. In this way, the players make critical choices about their character's back-story (in some cases the choice between triumph and tragedy), and hopefully get them postulating about what could have been.
Now, to be sure, the packets are not the game in its entirety. Though they are integral to the overarching campaign, they have little to no bearing on most sessions at the moment. Except for when players unlock an achievement.
On a less grand scale, our annual Halloween Deadlands survival-horror game made use of this, also. The GM made envelopes similar to my mini-achievements but made them available to all (not always a treat, to be sure).
Anyway, I wanted to share that and maybe plant a bug in your ear. If you can think of any way to improve this, or have some other cool ideas like it I'd love to hear it.
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