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Twist. Just DM enjoyment or OK for Players?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6988362" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I think manduck has good advice.</p><p></p><p>Two bad play experiences I remember: (1) first scenario in the campaign, we were hired to do something by some NPC, we do it and get back, it's all a trick and it turns out we lost instead of won. The campaign didn't have a second scenario.</p><p></p><p>(2) a campaign with a complex backstory that involved a prophecy and stuff (I think based on a previous campaign with different players). There were really two games at this table - the GM playing along with 1 PC who was "the chosen" of the prophecy; and the rest of us, who had fairly detailed interparty dynamics (we were all strangers outside the game, and so social interaction was mostly in character), built up a whole lot of "embeddedness" into the party and into our understanding of the logic of the gameworld, and gradually built up a sense of what the prophecy meant, how it fitted into bits of backstory that had come into play, etc. Then around 8th level the GM time-shifted everyone 100 years into the future. All our sense of backstory, "embeddednes", etc was invalidated - it was, in effect, a reboot of the campaign. I think the game lasted maybe two or three sessions after that.</p><p></p><p>Invalidating the players achievements tends to be a big deal in RPGing, unless the players go in knowing this is where things are going (eg a CoC game).</p><p></p><p>I like your anagram, and I like the idea of a sinister villain, but I'd try to see how you can handle it a bit differently. Instead of a "quest-giver", maybe look at having the villain be a NPC who drifts in and out as an advisor, perhaps sometimes a supplier of goods or information, and even someone for whom the PCs do a favour or two. Someone they know about, and are interested in, but are also perhaps ambivalent towards - maybe they see one or two dubious things in his manse that will make them wonder exactly what he's up to, but aren't enough to trigger outright hostility or rejection.</p><p></p><p>You might also think about how you handle things when they work out what is going on. You might want to try and set it up so a straightforward assault isn't entirely straightforward. Eg the PCs' true NPC friend, whom they can't just abandon or ignore, puts a lot of faith in the villain (<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?309950-Actual-play-my-first-quot-social-only-quot-session" target="_blank">here's a link</a> to an account of how I ran an "evil vizier" scenario in 4e). Or, when I ran the Freeport trilogy adapted to a high level Oriental Adventures game, one of the players straight away worked out that the main NPC was the villain. "Can't we just go an kill him now?" - but for reasons to do with etiquette and obligation they first had to reveal his villainy to other important personages.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6988362, member: 42582"] I think manduck has good advice. Two bad play experiences I remember: (1) first scenario in the campaign, we were hired to do something by some NPC, we do it and get back, it's all a trick and it turns out we lost instead of won. The campaign didn't have a second scenario. (2) a campaign with a complex backstory that involved a prophecy and stuff (I think based on a previous campaign with different players). There were really two games at this table - the GM playing along with 1 PC who was "the chosen" of the prophecy; and the rest of us, who had fairly detailed interparty dynamics (we were all strangers outside the game, and so social interaction was mostly in character), built up a whole lot of "embeddedness" into the party and into our understanding of the logic of the gameworld, and gradually built up a sense of what the prophecy meant, how it fitted into bits of backstory that had come into play, etc. Then around 8th level the GM time-shifted everyone 100 years into the future. All our sense of backstory, "embeddednes", etc was invalidated - it was, in effect, a reboot of the campaign. I think the game lasted maybe two or three sessions after that. Invalidating the players achievements tends to be a big deal in RPGing, unless the players go in knowing this is where things are going (eg a CoC game). I like your anagram, and I like the idea of a sinister villain, but I'd try to see how you can handle it a bit differently. Instead of a "quest-giver", maybe look at having the villain be a NPC who drifts in and out as an advisor, perhaps sometimes a supplier of goods or information, and even someone for whom the PCs do a favour or two. Someone they know about, and are interested in, but are also perhaps ambivalent towards - maybe they see one or two dubious things in his manse that will make them wonder exactly what he's up to, but aren't enough to trigger outright hostility or rejection. You might also think about how you handle things when they work out what is going on. You might want to try and set it up so a straightforward assault isn't entirely straightforward. Eg the PCs' true NPC friend, whom they can't just abandon or ignore, puts a lot of faith in the villain ([url=http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?309950-Actual-play-my-first-quot-social-only-quot-session]here's a link[/url] to an account of how I ran an "evil vizier" scenario in 4e). Or, when I ran the Freeport trilogy adapted to a high level Oriental Adventures game, one of the players straight away worked out that the main NPC was the villain. "Can't we just go an kill him now?" - but for reasons to do with etiquette and obligation they first had to reveal his villainy to other important personages. [/QUOTE]
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