Crescent Skies (D&D 3.5, Drift to Nar)

[Bankuei]

Hi folks,

I recently ran the first of (hopefully) a continuing series of D&D 3.5 games, with some serious System Drifts to support Nar play.  Without going into all the gory details of the game narrative, I wanted to just post up an overview for now.

-Rules Drifts-

The Cool Die

First, anything narrated in a cool fashion gets an extra D20 and the player takes the highest.  This applies to Skill and Attack rolls.

Ties(Sorta SAs)

For 100 xp, the player may designate any character, or collective of characters as a Tie, which is a strong emotional tie.  Anytime the hero acts based upon that Tie, they receive 100 xp on the spot.  The initial cost keeps players from going overboard, but it usually pays back quick enough to make it worth the effort.

Other Mods

The other modifications include specialized benefits or changes to some classes, mostly skill bonuses, although the biggest changes are specifically in clerics.  But nothing that alters D&D play significantly.

-Actual Play-

I ran a 3 hour session for 1 player, beginning with a 4th level character.  I also set up a scenario along the lines of the stuff you'd find in Sorcerer's Soul- lots of personal issues, betrayal, anger, resentment, shame, etc.  Plus one righteously angry little girl with a lot of magic.  

First, the Tie modification made a huge difference in play.  As the player worked his way through the R-map, he was making Ties, and getting XP as he went.  This contributed in total, approximately half of the XP earned during the session.  

The Cool Die wasn't used as often, but I think that has more to do with the player getting used to applying more narration to announcing actions, and also that the dice got thrown very little compared to my other D&D experiences.

-Side Notes-

Overall the player earned 4,200 XP.  Enough to level up to 5th.  Which, if I recall correctly, is supposed to be around 13 encounters along the D&D DM's advice.  I'd say if we count social interactions with the Ties, it's probably around there.  Ties made up half of the XP.  

The other half came in the fact that I failed to really read up on cleric's turning ability vs. Undead and how at a certain level, they pretty much disintegrate stuff like zombies and skeletons.  The "scary" hoard of undead started getting blasted like a preacher armed with a grenade launcher was at hand.

-Engaging the Player-

It was interesting to note how certain things "trigger" players into action.  The player got really involved after his hero met a bastard child who pretty much is living a life of sorrow and neglect.  The whole issue pretty much sparked him into play, I could see the difference in commitment instantly.  I think it will be interesting over long term play to check out what hot-button topics trigger him, and as I add more players, them as well.

Thoughts? Questions?

Chris

[Kerstin Schmidt]

Interesting stuff, it's always nice to see other people testing their ground and experimenting with drifting their DnD games.  I'd like to hear more detail.  
How did you use the Relationship map?  Did the player have previous experience with Narr play? How did the game feel in comparison to more standard DnD games you might have run for the same player? How much of the change did you see as coming from your drifted rules?  What made the player and you decide you want to go forward with the experiment rather than relapse into 'normal' DnD?



I have one minor concern with the Cool Die mechanic:  
Both the Cool Die and the Tie XP mechanic sound like they could work beautifully with the right player or players, but I wonder whether the Cool Die might cause problems once you have get than two or more players.  

To briefly explain where I'm coming from:  I've been experimenting with drifting my DnD3.5 game, but haven't (yet?) fiddled with the rules in any major way to achieve this.  Essentially what I've been doing is alternate between military combat mission scenarios in which player wargame tactics, miniatures and the DnD combat system really shine, and what one of my more Gamist players tends to refer to as "talky sessions", with more complex setups and a broader ranger of possible solutions and outcomes than "victory or failure".  
I'm doing this to accommodate mixed tastes in our group - we have everything from the powergamer who likes the occasional brief RP scene and will get into character for it, to the heavy-duty freeform roleplayer who likes danger and tactical challenges now and then.  Obviously, my views on DnD rules changes are coloured by my play experience in this group, which likes its Gamist, rules-heavy challenge at least once in a while.

One of the strengths of DnD as we experience it in play is that it supports Gamist challenges, especially combat challenges, very well. It's a complex, intricately balanced system - and Balance is a (if not the) major factor in making it all work.  Depending on what the group wants, anything that tips balance in favour or against PCs in general might cause problems, although with a little work you can re-balance that as the GM, so no sweat.  

A trickier problem in my experience (again, perhaps that's only the groups I know) exists where there's a power imbalance between PCs. Whenever one PC is perceived as a great deal more powerful/effective than others, frustration arises.  

This is where my concern comes in.  You say the Cool Die basically doubles a PC's chances of success on an attack roll or a skill check. So where's the equivalent benefit to spellcasters?
Perhaps you were just leaving the spellcaster's Cool-Die benefit out of your summary to keep it brief? If so, my apologies for jumping to conclusions.  
If not, and if your future group has a mixture of warrior and skill-heavy types and spellcasters in it, I fear the Cool Die mechanic may lead to frustration on the part of spellcasters, who are left out of the fun in two ways:  they won't get increased chances of success from narrating cool stuff; and they likely won't get as much cool spotlight time as the attacking/skilling types, because without any reward for narrating cool stuff, why narrate anything at all?
One solution I could think of is the old variant rule that replaces the fixed save DC with a roll by the spellcaster - in which case you could simply add a Cool Die to this roll.  

Of course and to reiterate, all this is assuming that you don't already give spellcasters a Coolness mechanic of their own.

[Bankuei]

Hi SB,

The R-Map and Nasty Details

Port Duarte is a small castle turned trade city by the Western Sea.  It is ruled by Lord Duarte, and mostly administered by his two knights, Master Nazario Ayala and Master Luis Moya.  Moya manages to finangle a deal with one of the better trade guilds and basically cuts a deal that's very good for Duarte overall.  In return Duarte promotes Moya to Seneschal of the castle.  Ayala gets upset, and proceeds to hole up in his manner refusing to see anyone.  

The real problem, isn't basic jealously, the fact is 10 years ago, Ayala went away to assist the Queen's allies in the Far Isles, and Moya promised to protect and look after Ayala's wife, Isabel.  Ayala returns to find Isabel pregnant.  Not only that, but a scandal breaks out revealing that Moya is a womanizer as well.  Isabel's child, Carlita looks a lot like Moya...

The truth of the matter is, Lord Duarte himself had figured Ayala for dead during the campaign, and blackmailed Isabel, claiming that he wouldn't send much needed supplies to Ayala(which he wasn't doing anyway...).  Shortly after Carlita's birth, Isabel went into the woods and killed her.  Wandering back in a state of shock, the next day, some servants found Carlita... alive.  

Carlita somehow came back to life for the sole purpose of wrecking vengeance on the entire castle, since as far as she's concerned, everyone was responsible for her suffering.  Naturally she returns back to life with magical powers to assist her vengeance.  Isabel has a breakdown from the whole affair and is "cared for"(detained) in a tower.

The kicker that brings in the player is that one of the Queen's potential grooms is Prince Takeo from the Far Isles, who is already in route to Port Duarte.  He also happens to be an old war buddy of Ayala's...  The hero is sent to talk calm into Ayala and try to engineer a peaceful resolution and keep things from exploding before the Prince arrives.

R-map in play

So, with all the drama set to go, it was simply a matter of playing out the NPCs without having to preplan every little detail.  It was very useful to make all the NPCs extra talkitive about  the other NPCs, allowing most of them to take the heat off their own sins or shameful histories.

History and Nar Play

I've played quite a bit with this player, we've known each other over 10 years, and we've played quite a bit of D&D together as well.  We're both pretty into Nar play, so it wasn't hard to take the rules and run with them.  It didn't take a lot of time or prodding, about maybe 20 minutes into play he understood using Ties, and began making quite a few of them.  I think the entire session ended up with him having somewhere around 6 or 7 of them.  About half of the XP earned was from character interaction, so it seems to work just as well for "talky" sessions as combat.

Spellcasters and the cool die

I forgot, saves made against spellcasters who earn the cool die use two dice and take the lowest.  So it makes it more likely to succeed.

Chris

[Kerstin Schmidt]

Ah I see. So who was the PC specifically? Did he appear somewhere in the Relationship Map or was that all-NPCs?

Re Cool Die for spellcasters: I love your mechanic, very simple and elegant!

[Bankuei]

Hi SB,

The PC was a cleric of Maia(think Buddha/Kuan Yin goddess descended from the sun), Ranaq un Maia.  

Queen Amarilla sent in Ranaq to calm down and resolve the situation, also for his healing skills in case if things did turn violent.  He was given the usual "On orders of the Queen" sort of papers to actually give him enough say to effect change(plus send a message to Lord Duarte that she did not feel he was handling the situation right...).

As far as the R-map and actual play, Ranaq basically ends up meeting people who provide more and more information about the whole situation.  It doesn't take long for him to start probing the ugly parts and revealing stuff that people didn't expect to get opened.  

Interestingly enough, the biggest emotional spark for the player was Carlita.  The climax included Ranaq trying to talk Carlita out of destroying all of Duarte with her undead minions.  He willingly stood there and simply took her spells (magic missle, acid arrow, shocking grasp...) while trying to talk her down, ending in this dramatic climax:

"As I cast my Turn, I grab her and whisper in her ear, 'I'm sorry...;'"
(rolls 20 for turn, gets "Destroyed" on the Turn attempt...)
"She whispers back, 'It's not fair...', and falls back, nothing but clothing hitting the ground."

Chris

[Kerstin Schmidt]

...Interestingly enough, the biggest emotional spark for the player was Carlita.  The climax included Ranaq trying to talk Carlita out of destroying all of Duarte with her undead minions.  He willingly stood there and simply took her spells (magic missle, acid arrow, shocking grasp...) while trying to talk her down, ending in this dramatic climax:

"As I cast my Turn, I grab her and whisper in her ear, 'I'm sorry...;'"
(rolls 20 for turn, gets "Destroyed" on the Turn attempt...)
"She whispers back, 'It's not fair...', and falls back, nothing but clothing hitting the ground."

Chris

Oooh. Nice. :)  

Thanks for additional detail on R-map and PC's role, very interesting.