Planning by the Negatives July 6, 2015 11:00 2 Comments
I run a weekly Tephra game, and I've had a number of players say that the way I run games is unlike anybody else. That's not necessarily a boast. My games tend to be extremely political and I aim to have a high sense of realism while keeping a large cast of NPCs. My games will regularly go 3-4 sessions without combat, leveling is slow, and treasure is next to non-existent.
Last week, I had a customer complain: "I'm tired of losing. Can't we just win for once!?"
I thought this statement was funny. From my vantage point, they had just done a phenomenal job! In that session, I had planned for:
(1) The local nobleman to die of poisoning.
(2) The adventurers to be chased out of the mansion by a king-appointed private detective.
(3) For the butler that had been helping them to be hung for treason.
At the end of the day, they saved the local nobleman, they convinced the private detective that they were in the right, and they managed to chase the noble's advisor that had been slowly poisoning him out of the city. It was a hugely successful adventure... if you compare it to the disaster I had planned for them.
I don't plan good things. I plan my sagas to be like Game of Thrones episodes, where everything bad is going to happen and all the great characters are eventually going to die off in some horrible way. It's up to the players to prevent the bad things from happening, and they often do. But when you're accustomed to great victories, tons of treasure, and happily-ever-after, even the best of my sessions tend to be let-downs.
But take heart! During the next session, I had the surviving nobleman provide them with coin and supplies in exchange for saving him, and now they have a powerful ally in the fight to come. See, I'm not all bad, right?
Last week, I had a customer complain: "I'm tired of losing. Can't we just win for once!?"
I thought this statement was funny. From my vantage point, they had just done a phenomenal job! In that session, I had planned for:
(1) The local nobleman to die of poisoning.
(2) The adventurers to be chased out of the mansion by a king-appointed private detective.
(3) For the butler that had been helping them to be hung for treason.
At the end of the day, they saved the local nobleman, they convinced the private detective that they were in the right, and they managed to chase the noble's advisor that had been slowly poisoning him out of the city. It was a hugely successful adventure... if you compare it to the disaster I had planned for them.
I don't plan good things. I plan my sagas to be like Game of Thrones episodes, where everything bad is going to happen and all the great characters are eventually going to die off in some horrible way. It's up to the players to prevent the bad things from happening, and they often do. But when you're accustomed to great victories, tons of treasure, and happily-ever-after, even the best of my sessions tend to be let-downs.
But take heart! During the next session, I had the surviving nobleman provide them with coin and supplies in exchange for saving him, and now they have a powerful ally in the fight to come. See, I'm not all bad, right?
Comments
Daniel Burrow on July 6, 2015 16:13
Thanks for the comment, Merlon! I agree completely. I think that’d make a good post.
Merlon on July 6, 2015 14:45
I have been running a D&D game for about a year and a half now, before that I ran a year long Tephra game in the Dallas/FtWorth Area, and I too like to do more political and less combat focused game, where death is always around the next corner but with quick thinking you can get around it. I also tend to run a Cthulhu-esque element to my games and make it a little bit more horror based.
All that being said. I would love to see how you organize your DM notes and Games Session notes. It’s the one thing I’ve always struggled with. I’d love to see a blog post about how you organize your games, along with the thought process that you personally use to craft your games.
I tend to do everything last second with very little thought about the tiny details, and focus more on what I think would be happening big picture, and just improve and come up with on the spot, events and characters that the PC’s encounter. It’s lead to some really great and intresting games, but sometimes I’m way too ill prepared and we have a session that is just…lacking for loss of a better word. I guess you could call it a reactionary style of running a game.
Would love some feed back! Thanks!