Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="BookTenTiger" data-source="post: 9380900" data-attributes="member: 6685541">Last year I played a lot of Ironsworn, and it made me fall in love with Story Now games. I did some solo Ironsworn games, then ran some for my friends. The experience of being a GM but not actually knowing where the story was going to go was thrilling!For fun, I'd like to brainstorm some ways to convert 5e D&D into a Story Now game. What would I need to add, change, or delete in order to run 5e as Story Now?I know there are some fantastic Story Now games out there I could just run or play instead. But that's not what this thread is about.My understanding of "Story Now" is that the story is not preplanned by the GM. Much of the world is purposefully left blank. As the game progresses, the actions of the characters, and choices of the players, provide opportunities to learn and answer questions about the world. If the characters are traveling to a Wizard's Tower, they might make a roll during the journal or upon arrival. A good roll would set up a positive arrival: what sets the characters up for success at the Wizard's Tower (example: a friendly NPC has a camp nearby)? A bad roll would set up a negative arrival: what is more challenging about the Wizard's Tower (example: the wizard has returned from the dead and is gathering an army of zombies)? The characters would react to the result, and the story progresses from there.Often Story Now games are supported by a big bank of campaign truths, collaborative world-building, or random tables. In Ironsworn, you start a campaign by establishing truths about the world: how big are settlements? What is the nature of magic? How frequent are encounters with the supernatural? And then are are lots of fantastic tables to generate everything from settlement names to combatant actions. There are also two tables of "themes" and "actions" that can create very evocative results like "withhold chaos." Finally there's a simple system of "Asking the Oracle" which just produces a "yes" or "no" when asked a question.So what would this look like with 5e D&D?One of my initial thoughts is changing the basic nature of d20 rolls. In 5e, most rolls are Success or Failure, based on AC or DC. To create a Story Now game, d20 rolls would have to be changed to a similar system of Success / Failure / Success at a Cost. It could look something like:1 - 8: Failure (with a Cost)9 - 16: (Success at a Cost)17+: SuccessWhen picking a lock, the Rogue makes a Dexterity Check with Thieves Tools, and gets a 15. They successfully pick the lock, but the bolt opens with such a loud noise that it alerts nearby guards.Since there would be a larger chance of costs, you probably wouldn't want to ask for a roll unless failure is actually interesting. Furthermore, it may be useful to have the actions of the whole group be represented by a single roll. For example, if the group is climbing a cliff, everyone's efforts could be represented by just the Ranger's roll. If there's a cost, it could be the weakest member of the party falling or getting hurt.In combat, would it make sense to remove the enemies from Initiative and instead have them "act" on Failures and Success with a Cost? That might be a little too much of a departure from 5e.But the most important thing for Story Now 5e might be something D&D has done for a long long time... Random tables! Random Encounters, landscape features, NPC generation... All those things would be important, and could be filled in with Story Truths.It might also be good to have Random Tables for Costs / Failures for different actions. Many Story Now games do this through "moves." I could see the same thing being applied to 5e. You could have moved such as "Search," "Travel," and "Negotiate." Then each move could have a little table like this:NegotiateYou attempt to sway someone, usually through Diplomacy, Deception, or Intimidation.Success: You change the target's mind, or find out what it would cost to do so.Success at a Cost: You change the target's mind (or find out what it would cost you to do so), but it will also require a personal sacrifice (such as gold, a pledge, or a trade of services).Failure: You fail to sway the target's mind. Choose or roll for a cost:1. The target's opinion of you is tarnished.2. A complicating truth about the target is revealed.3. A complicating truth about the situation is revealed.4. Suffer one level of exhaustion due to the stress.Let's imagine the Paladin is trying to convince the Peasants to organize a militia to help face down a local Hill Giant. He gives a rousing speech and rolls a Diplomacy Check. He gets a 12. The Peasants agree to help if he will stay for the next few weeks and aid in the harvest.Later, the Fighter is trying to trick the Hill Giant into fleeing the township, saying there's a big scary dragon that visits once a year. He rolls Intimidate and gets an 8. He fails to sway the target and rolls for a cost. A complicating truth about the situation is revealed... It turns out the Hill Giant came here because dragons have taken his precious territory, killed all his clan, and are probably coming to the Township next!Anyways, those are just my thoughts for now. What do you think? How can 5e be adapted into a Story Now game?</blockquote>

Verification