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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5195443" data-attributes="member: 2067">This is like the classic D&D problem of "Edward The Great, Eldritch Wizard of Waterdeep, wants to start a small farm, raise a family, and maybe grow turnips." <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> There's three main ways I handle this.The one I usually choose is roll with it. Okay, fine, the tone changes. Not a big deal, we can have fun with the new tone, too. I'm not too attached to a certain style myself. But if I really want to get a feel, I go for the second way. The second way I like is to start futzing with the rules. I'm a big believer in using rules to achieve a feel, so this might not be for everyone, but I like it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Things like adding an Honor system for your noble crusaders (with bonii that go away when they start doing things like looting corpses), or not allowing wealth to carry over between sessions for your "forever broke mercenaries" feel, or giving rewards for exploration that are worth the risks of not taking 20 at the door, or giving anti-heroes bigger bonuses for fighting villains then for burning down orphanages, etc., etc.Usually, a few broad genre rules can help you massage your players into the behavior you expect out of them, the kind of actions they'd be doing anyway if they weren't kind of stuck in some other genre unintentionally. It can be enough just to introduce an extra bit of thought to their process: would crusaders really do this?Games are psychological tools in my mind, they reward you with points and smiles and big numbers and accolades and XP for performing certain things, and they penalize you with penalties and lost lives and frowns and no levels for doing other things. Just figure out what you want to reward, and reward that, and figure out what you want to avoid, and penalize that. That can be as simple as changing the XP system from "killin' stuff gives you XP" to "going broke gives you XP" (if you're for that forever broke campaign), though I like to get into it a little deeper. This is essentially what D&D does already -- it encourages behavior with rules. The third major way is to just futz with adventures. I use this as a kicker to the second way, usually not on its own, but it can work OK on its own, too. I don't like it because it can kind of seem like your penalizing PC's for doing things that they aren't even thinking are out of genre. If you have classic knightly quests (slay the dragon, get an apprentice, save the princess, woo the queen without her husband finding out...er...seek the grail...), it can be easier for the players to get into the vibe. If your game of knights and lords essentially involves going into the nearest dungeon and killing some goblins, it's not really much of a different game, despite your glossy coat of paint over the top of it. Again, that can be a little frustrating without rules to back it up, especially if the players aren't used to the genre.</blockquote>

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