tomes
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Hello madness
Posts: 1,438
Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
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Post by tomes on Feb 14, 2018 15:02:12 GMT -8
Not sure if any of you read blogs by bluestockings, but I love most of her stuff. In the most recent one ( www.bluestockings.ca/2018/02/victory-importance-of-winning.html), she talks about the importance of winning, but more to the point, not falling into the trap of VOIDING the win by the PCs by just bringing back the big bad / invalidating a victory. I think most of us would agree it feels like lazy writing when we see it in media, but definitely feels shitty as a player in a game. Anyone have good examples of ways they've done such things in their campaigns or games?
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Post by chronovore on Mar 22, 2018 0:32:03 GMT -8
Yeah, the piece was a little long for me, esp. when your summarizing quote works so well.
I think I was guilty of this a couple times in college, though part of it was (and still is) a group of players who are great except not really having goals beyond what I put in front of them. So I'd do things like put them in service to Powers of Which They Were Not Fond. They eventually finish the quest/mission, and when they return to town, they are celebrated and lauded but they also know they were working for questionable people. In the end, they got to feel like heroes, but there was always a sting involved.
Maybe they liked it though? I have been trying to run the current game with ONE PATRON who is actually unquestionably good, and another who is more grey, and the team has been performing tasks for both…
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2018 18:31:02 GMT -8
I am a fan of having 'failures' not be fails as much as WrongVictories. Obvs, I'm a fan of John Wick's, and I really like his Santa Vaca retooling of D&D. One thing he mentioned was the lockpicking the door in combat. Succeed? You get through the door. Fail? Well... you still get through, but it may take extra turns of tense combat for you to do so.
It's along the lines of Robin Laws and... you will ALWAYS find the clue needed to move the story forward. The perception roll just adds to it - you find the clue (a matchbook). The roll might tell you you recognize the seedy bar it's from, or you may recognize the distinct perfume on the matchbook as belonging to a specific NPC you've met before. Failing on that roll means you just have a matchbook that obviously leads to a new location, but your brain hasn't really connected it in with relevance.
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Post by Stu Venable on Mar 27, 2018 20:35:45 GMT -8
This brings to mind our last L5R session. The party didn't do what they were told (I think the players forgot), but ... spoilers...
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. . . . . . . . Players: don't read this... . . . . . .. . Instead of taking the Kansen cursed sword back to the Asai Valley, they took it to a monastery in Lion lands. In the end, they were able to destroy the weapon, but one of the PCs sacrificed themselves in the process. Meanwhile, the Taint-perverted Crane Champion and his men marched on the Asai Valley to find the treacherous Inukai who robbed him of his power. While the sword was definitely destroyed, so their main goal was achieved, not following their daimyo's orders had other consequences. What these consequences are, I'll figure out later. But I would never say "the sword you thought you destroyed, is alive again." Especially since a player sacrificed their character to destroy it. Their main goal "to find the five swords of Ventuslar" has met with progress, but the rest of their mission might be complicated.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2018 8:43:06 GMT -8
One thing I like with L5R's magic swords/awakened items is that it's the soul or spirit of the sword that gives it its power. I haven't listened, but destroying the weapon doesn't always mean the spirit within has been destroyed. And while like you said, I wouldn't devalue a PC's death by 'Haha! The spirit is returning to cause troubles!', there is always the option later/another campaign that the kansen that was freed could come for revenge, or even worse... It could come to REWARD the players and tempt them into trouble.
And as far as players forgetting? Yeah, I'm that guy. Twice at least, memorably.
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