Campaign 101: Encounters

 I'm going to explain my methodology for creating campaigns, and to do that, I'm going to start with Encounters. They are the basic building block of every adventure or campaign.

An adventure is a plot with a series of problems (Encounters) that need to be addressed to solve the adventure. Common Encounters involve fighting, socializing, exploring, or chasing. 

A Bad Encounter is one that gets resolved with one or two rolls. It's a blip, a minor inconvenience that did not require the players to engage with story.

• The party thief rolls to detect traps. He finds one. He rolls to disarm it. He succeeds. Yawn.
• The heroes need to trick the guard into letting them in. One player rolls Persuasion, succeeds and they get in. My, how heroic.

A Good Encounter is one that causes the players to strategize. If they are talking about what to do next, they are playing the game. And their solution may not be what you have planned, but be flexible enough roll with it. It might be that their idea is way cooler than what you had planned.

• The thief finds the trap. It's a pressure plate across the entire floor, touch it and the roof might collapse, but the party needs to get across. Tell me how your hero intends to disarm or bypass this trap. It may require a player to make several careful rolls as or risk triggering the whole thing.
• The heroes need to get into that party but the gate guards say otherwise. The heroes need a plan.
• The heroes made it in to the party. Someone here knows where Alphonse the Mouse is and the heroes need to figure out who and where they're hiding him.

A Great Encounter is one that allows the players to strategize, but there's a timer going. 

• The heroes are in a trapped room and they have a limited time to escape before they drown/ asphyxiate/ get crushed.
• The heroes have triggered on of the mansion's traps. Now they have to race down a long, treacherous hall (requires multiple rolls) with a boulder chasing them. The heroes need to make 3 out of five rolls to dodge obstacles or get crushed.
• Alphonse is in danger. They need to find his whereabouts quick!
• Alphonse the Mouse is being held by several thugs. Combat timer - Who will run out of hit points first? or Can the heroes defeat the thugs before they kill Alphonse?

It's best have a mix between Good and Great Encounters.

What is the Goal and What's in the Way?

Every encounter should have a goal that the players understand. How they defeat that goal is entirely their business. Don't create solutions, that's not your department.

What's in the way of that goal? That's the complex obstacle your heroes will need to overcome by either outsmarting it, or out-fighting it.

Sample Goals

• To get information that helps you toward your adventure Goal.
• To acquire an item that helps you toward your adventure Goal.
• To stop or weaken an enemy.
• To recruit an ally.
• Stay alive!

Rewarding Treasure

Treasure rewards for encounters are very minor, like a handful of coins or a spare common item. There's going to be a lot of Encounters so don't overpower your heroes with rare rewards. Usually the main reward for an encounter is being able to progress the story.

Failing an Encounter

Failing an Encounter is a minor penalty and often just means they don't get the reward. This shouldn't make the rest of the adventure impossible, just a little more difficult. Give players the room to fail, but still find success. 

If they failed the Encounter because everyone died... well that's another Blog Post I will need to write.

The Problem With "Epic" Campaigns

 

Like Hollywood, many GMs are under the impression that the bigger the Threat to Existence, the more compelling the story will be. In my opinion, that's not going great for Hollywood right now and it may not be working great for your campaign either.

What's Bigger?

One problem with Epic storylines is that if you revisit a storyline based on saving All of Existence, your next story has to be even bigger (Dragonball Z)! Because it has nothing else really going for it except spectacle, does it? Sooner or later, you or your players will either get fed up with increasingly outrageous ways to threaten the universe (Star Trek: Discovery) or you'll just reboot or abandon it.

Not every story needs to be about saving All of Existence. Heroes can get just as much or maybe more enjoyment from just saving a village from the Barbarian Raiders. But if the heroes are working to save a village, I bet the village will know about it.

All Alone in the Night

Your heroes fight the spectacular battle with the Forces of Naughtiness, and though it was tough, they prevail. But... I've noticed a trend in Epic Stories where the world isn't necessarily aware it is in any danger, only the heroes and the villains know what is truly going on. And while a heroic victory without seeking glory is very noble, this is a game of Fantasy. Your players might be looking for some positive reinforcement beyond treasure for what they've done. How about a parade, or at least a heartfelt "Good Job" and "Thank You". Your players likely aren't getting thanks in their real life. 

However, all too often the heroes stand alone.

Take Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi. During the final battle over Endor, Skywalker has a serious battle of his own going on and the death of Palpatine and Vader may have helped turn the tide of the war. But I doubt anyone except Leia was told about what when down. There are parades for the Rebellion, but not for him. Very noble, the cause is more important than the person.

But! Your players might prefer a different ending, one where the people being saved know that the heroes are there doing what they can. It's all unfolding right in front of them. And when it is all over, the heroes get the recognition they've earned (see Army of Darkness).

All I am trying to say is that if the world is in constant danger of being obliterated every week, what does that say about the world? If the novelizations of Star Wars are to be believed, Republics are made out of tissue paper. 

And the Mandalorian? He just wants The Child back. That's all his story needs.

How I Handle Money Without Counting Pennies

 

I'm tired of counting coins and cracking silvers into coppers and NONE OF IT IS FUN!

It's an almost proven fact - As math increases, entertainment decreases.

So here's how we simplify things:

The Basic Unit - A Handful of Coin. What kind of coins? Who cares. How many coins? Who cares. A Weapon costs a Handful of Coin. A toolkit costs a Handful of Coin or two. A days food and lodgings costs a Handful of Coin. If the cost of an item is significant enough to note, it probably costs a Handful of Coin. When you search a goblin for loot, it might have a Handful of Coin.

The Sack of Coins. More expensive items cost 1 or more Sacks of Coin. Horses, Wagons, Sailboats, passage for a long voyage, their costs would be in Sacks of Coin. If the heroes are being hired for a "simple" job, they're going to be paid in Sacks of Coin. 1 Sack of Coin equals 10 Handfuls of Coin. The hero can carry 2 Sacks of Coin before becoming encumbered.

Chest of Coin. For the big payments. Magic items, castles, warships, blackmail, it costs Chests of Coins. A Chest of Coin equals 5 Sacks of Coin. Heroes are encumbered if they are carrying a Chest of Coins, so better get a wagon.  

Thus we keep wealth descriptive, math is at a minimum, and you can easily gauge whether a hero should be encumbered by their loot or not. And it should be easy to guess-timate the price of anything.

I got the idea from movies, tv shows, Vikings, etc. They never talk about amounts. When someone buys something, they toss a handful coins down and get what they want. The villain always pays a sack of coins to his nefarious henchmen for a dirty night's work. Kingdoms pay ransom to their attackers in chests of coins. The vikings never sat and counted each coin when they were paid off. They just threw open the lid, looked at the loot, and the deal was done. 

Edit>> I thought about just using individual coins to represent the wealth, but then heroes would only find single coins. Getting a Handful of Coins sounds better.

How to Run a Heist in Any System

This blog is in response to Zee Bashew and Matt Coleville's youtube channels, regarding running a heist. 

You want to run a heist, or your players are about to storm a heavily defended outpost. Preplanning is key, but how do your players know what to plan. I doubt any of them has real-life experience in these areas, but the characters probably do. So how do you cover for your player's lack of foresight?

The following method is a combination of the Leverage RPG system for heists and some suggestions made for Savage Worlds, but they will work for any system. You may have to add the meta-currency (bennies, tokens, fate points, hero points, most games already have one).

Start with some skill rolls. Every player needs to decide what their contribution will be to the plan: The hacker my crack the security systems, the Mastermind might get the layout, the hitter may keep tabs on the security guards, etc. Then everyone gets a skill roll. If the roll succeeds, add a Meta-Token into a pot. If it's a critical success, add two or three.

During the actual heist, any player may take a Meta-Token from the pot and spend it to reroll a failed roll or to conveniently have a tool for a job that wasn't listed on their character sheet. The Meta-Token might also follow the rules of whatever game system you are using. The player should explain how their fore-planning allowed them the advantage on the roll. Keep in mind also, the pot doesn't refill. Once it is empty, the heroes have reached the limit of what their pre-planning can do to help.

That's it. It should be easy to bolt into your game system.

Modeling the light side and dark side of the force in Savage Worlds

Yup, I'm back. I finally found something to say.

I was listening to the Savage GMs Hangout Podcast episode "Everything I need to know about GMing I learned from Star Wars". It's crude, but cool and worth checking out. They were talking about how to model the Light and Dark side of the Force and the legacy of "Dark Side Points" from West End Games. Jarrod begins describing a very complicated system he had designed for his Star Wars Companion that ultimately drove down the path of Dark Side Points and complicated mechanics and yadda yadda yadda...before he trailed off.

Then it hit me, the best way to model the Dark and Light side. It comes from the Revenge of the Sith and all it takes is two new Hindrances.

Palpatine: "The Sith and the Jedi are similar in almost every way, including their quest for greater power."

Anakin: "The Sith rely on their passion for their strength. They think inwards, only about themselves."

Palpatine: "And the Jedi don't?"

Anakin: "The Jedi are selfless, they only care about others."

New Hindrance: Selfless

The hero thinks about the welfare of others before his own. Even when he is starving, he'll split his last loaf of bread and given another the larger share.

New Hindrance: Selfish

The hero(?) acts in his own best interests, and has no qualms about abandoning others when it suits him.

So if you chose to make a Jedi character, you would have to take the Selfless hindrance. However, if your actions warrant it, the gm can switch that Hindrance to Selfish and your path down the Dark Side begins.

What's the mechanical benefit? Well they are Hindrances. The more they affect you in game, the more Bennies...ahem... Force Points you will receive. Bennies are a manifestation of the Living Force, and you don't have to be a Jedi or Sith to benefit from a bit of luck. 

Wait, what if I'm a Selfish character without AB (The Force)? Are you saying that I'm still using the Force even though I can't shoot lightning out of my hands?

Yup. And if you want to see a character that was consumed by the Dark Side but wasn't a Force Wielder, just look up Bib Fortuna.

Plus, there is this quote:

Luke: "Is the Dark Side stronger?"

Yoda: "No. Quicker, easier, more seductive."

Believe me, it is so much easier to play a selfish character than a selfless one. And that is the draw of the Dark Side.

As for how that affects Force Powers, it doesn't. If you are strong in the Force, you can use it to manifest abilities (AB (The Force)). All that separates a Jedi from a Sith is where they can draw that extra bit of luck from.