Greetings and Campaign Notes....

[doubtofbuddha]

Well I finished what will likely be the last game of this particular campaign. Two player's had likely ends to their character's stories, a third was fleeing the city, and the final character was planning on confronting and (trying to take out) Naera.

I honestly think that this session was probably the strongest of the three as a number of times I left each of the players thinking "What the hell am I going to do here?" and I was able to improve my ability to seemlessly bring people into various scenes. I also had points where people were suggesting that there character should show up and even going so far as doing rudimentary scene framing. :)

The CWDBG ended up giving into her vengeance and trying to kill Sabunda. After losing twice, the session ended with her sneaking up onto the ship so that she could kill Sabunda and anyone else who go in the way. Interaction with other PCs mainly revolved around her being on the opposite side of a battle with the PPH.

The PPH found her dad and was getting ready to leave the city on his ship (I made him the first mate on the ship that Unsur and the captain were on and Sabunda was leaving). Unsur refused to share any info unless she got him out and she went to the DHPN for help. He refused because it would be dishonorable. She was able to eventually weasel her way into convincing Unsur to give her the name of the ship that her father served on and was giving the EFS and the DHPN a way to get out of the city (via the ship).

The EFS was offered a chance to perform the (actual sacrifice) on the DHPN so that they could have the magical strength to properly launch a coup against the Warm Earth Faction. She thought a bit and decided her vengeance wasn't worth it, and refused. An assassin disguised as a priestess of Bavara came for her and, after she killed the assassin, she decided it was time to flee the city. First she went looking for Unsur to see if he had a way out of the city. He said he would if she helped him escape. She went looking for the DHPN first to see if he could help her get Unsur and found him at Leera's meeting with the PPH where she explained the situation to both of them. The PPH offered to let them flee on the ship her father was on. The EFS agreed but the DHPN refused and the session ended for the EFS with them planning on how to get out of the city on the boat.

The DHPN had the scene with the priestesses you suggested and ended up deciding to try to prove he wasn't incompetent by seducing her again. I found that kind of amusing. She admitted why she did it and he seemed to like the idea of her being a virgin. ::snickers::
Later on she came and told him about the plot against him and suggested he flee the city and take her with him. A little after that he found out the info the EFS had and decided he had to confront Naera as fleeing the city (even if it would save his life) would prove to be counter to his goals and his job. For him the session ended with him going to see if he could lure Naeara to a third party location and take her out.

So thats where I am currently at. The group is talking about whether or not they want to continue but I think that, with the new semester (and my expressed amivalence), it is unlikely to do so.

However I think that the players of this group that I am going to include in my group of four are looking forward to the HQ game, and I know that I am feeling more confident about both it and the players I am going to have in the game.

Once I have more information from the players I will start a new thread were I take the techniques I learned here and use them to start constructing the new game. Hopefully those of you who helped me here will be willing to help me improve my skills from running a short game in this style into a longer, more drawn out afffair.

[J B Bell]

Jesse, Mike, et al.:

This is one of the most instructive threads on the Forge for Narratvist role-playing, bar none. I just wanted to let everybody who participated know how helpful and, indeed, inspirational, this series of posts has been. When people ask for a practial "how-to" on using the techniques of scene framing, relationship maps, and fortune placement, this will be where I will send them. And of course, it shows HQ's strengths incredibly well. Kudos and thanks so much!

Special congrats and good luck to Jesse for navigating troubled waters so gracefully--it's always really great to read about a burning-out GM who gets the formula for fun and success with the right players and system.

--JB

[Mike Holmes]

First an answer to a couple of earlier questions:

Hmm...
How would you include events such as a flash flood into the whole bang-relationship map set-up?
I mean, it doesn't really ask a question for the PC to answer and it doesn't neccessarily have some sort of enemy force behind it?

Is this the sort of thing that you just don't include in a narrativist design or is there something I am missing?

How do NPCs cause these issues to come to a head? Issues belong entirely to characters, and the NPCs that cause them are just catalysts. Thus if the issue is "what's more important, love of honor?" then a pretty but dishonorable NPC is just a way to trigger that issue.

Events are no different. Let's say that you had written a bang up in which an NPC tells the PPH that he had some information, but the PC had to duel them for it. How would that be any different from the information being in a book on the other side of a flooding river? In each case the game element is just challenging the PPH to a question of, "what's more important, personal safety, or family history?"

No, the flood itself is not the issue. But then neither are NPCs. They're all just catalysts, setting upon which the character issue is brought into question. As such, there's no difference between them at all.

Let's look at the EFS, who wants to advance the Red Faction cause. For her, the flood could be an event which threatens a nearby RF army encampment. Does she go to help with evacuation, or stay in town thinking that she can do more good with the local scene (and what does that say about her personal bravery and honor)?

Most importantly, these things don't have to be the source of the conflict at all, but rather just the "messenger". That is, if the real bang is that the character has to decide about what to do with some piece of information, for instance, then have it arrive in a bottle via a mysterious black winged thing that seems to be made of shadows. Poses no threat, itself, but it gets the fantasy feeling across better than some NPC delivering the message.

Think of this for a minute. What if it turned out that the Esvulari minstrel was actually a demon? He didn'tt want to get back to Esvular, really (that's his cover story), what he wants is to lure a bunch of people out onto the water so that he can perform some demonic ritual intended to make them all undead sacrifices to some obscure water diety? Nothing else changes (in fact, he could really be falling for the PPH), just the backstory.

There's no trick to any of this, hence why I'm having trouble expressing myself. You just make some cool setting element outside of the humans the source of the conflict, or the means of delivering it. Just as if you'd used an NPC to do it.

It doesn't really seem she overly values anything. I think we might have to play some more before she forms attachments (or maybe she won't who knows. She is new to the entire gaming thing).

Hmmm. New to gaming is actually just fine. Shy is another. Some players just refuse to commit. This is a problem for all modes of play, and hard to rectify if the player is stubborn about it. It amounts to not really wanting to engage in play.

Interesting events in the last game. :-)

I honestly think that this session was probably the strongest of the three as a number of times I left each of the players thinking "What the hell am I going to do here?" and I was able to improve my ability to seemlessly bring people into various scenes. I also had points where people were suggesting that there character should show up and even going so far as doing rudimentary scene framing. :)

So, did you feel a loss of ability to do anything that you wanted to? The fear that by opening up these responsibilities to others that you'll lose out on some part of the fun is just unfounded.

The CWDBG ended up giving into her vengeance and trying to kill Sabunda. After losing twice, the session ended with her sneaking up onto the ship so that she could kill Sabunda and anyone else who go in the way. Interaction with other PCs mainly revolved around her being on the opposite side of a battle with the PPH.

Who won?!? Just curious. :-)

The PPH found her dad and was getting ready to leave the city on his ship (I made him the first mate on the ship that Unsur and the captain were on and Sabunda was leaving). Unsur refused to share any info unless she got him out and she went to the DHPN for help. He refused because it would be dishonorable. She was able to eventually weasel her way into convincing Unsur to give her the name of the ship that her father served on and was giving the EFS and the DHPN a way to get out of the city (via the ship).

How did she "weasel" it out?

The EFS was offered a chance to perform the (actual sacrifice) on the DHPN so that they could have the magical strength to properly launch a coup against the Warm Earth Faction. She thought a bit and decided her vengeance wasn't worth it, and refused.

Was the DHPN's player sweating? :-)

The DHPN had the scene with the priestesses you suggested and ended up deciding to try to prove he wasn't incompetent by seducing her again. I found that kind of amusing. She admitted why she did it and he seemed to like the idea of her being a virgin. ::snickers::

In other words, he lost? The player didn't spend a HP on it? :-)

I think it's cool that you had her come after him anyhow. What a ballbuster!:-)

So thats where I am currently at. The group is talking about whether or not they want to continue but I think that, with the new semester (and my expressed amivalence), it is unlikely to do so.

It's too bad that there were things left hanging. OTOH, I think that some of the decisions could be left there from a literary POV. I mean, it's kinda cool that the one went off to face Neara and we don't know what happens. Kinda highlights the fact that it was the decision to go face the betrayer instead of fleeing that was really important - win or lose doesn't really much matter.

What happened to ES? Noshow? Did the Mythic Hero ever show?

Any final feedback from the players? If you call it, post their thoughts about that here, please.

However I think that the players of this group that I am going to include in my group of four are looking forward to the HQ game, and I know that I am feeling more confident about both it and the players I am going to have in the game.

Sounds good to me. A short game to get the feet wet with these new techniques, then you tighten up your group and head into an even better game. Couldn't really be much better, from my POV.

Once I have more information from the players I will start a new thread were I take the techniques I learned here and use them to start constructing the new game. Hopefully those of you who helped me here will be willing to help me improve my skills from running a short game in this style into a longer, more drawn out afffair.

I'm sure you'll do fine. But we're not going anywhere, so... :-)

Looking forward to that new premise.

Mike

[doubtofbuddha]

There's no trick to any of this, hence why I'm having trouble expressing myself. You just make some cool setting element outside of the humans the source of the conflict, or the means of delivering it. Just as if you'd used an NPC to do it.  

That makes sense, honestly. Thanks for the input.

Hmmm. New to gaming is actually just fine. Shy is another. Some players just refuse to commit. This is a problem for all modes of play, and hard to rectify if the player is stubborn about it. It amounts to not really wanting to engage in play.

Actually this ended up not being an issue as she ended up having a tough conflict between whether it was more important for her to curry favor with Naera (and thus help her revenge) or help the person who saved her without even really knowing her. She chose the later, and it was a difficult choice. Which are the best kind. ;)

So, did you feel a loss of ability to do anything that you wanted to? The fear that by opening up these responsibilities to others that you'll lose out on some part of the fun is just unfounded.

Well it wasn't any sort of loss of ability to do what I wanted to do or to control the NPCs, but more of me taking bangs from PCs suggestions and them being involved in other scenes as per what you were suggesting earlier. I didn't really have a problem with this aspect of it and, in fact, see that it was happening as a sign the game was successful.

The CWDBG ended up giving into her vengeance and trying to kill Sabunda. After losing twice, the session ended with her sneaking up onto the ship so that she could kill Sabunda and anyone else who go in the way. Interaction with other PCs mainly revolved around her being on the opposite side of a battle with the PPH.

Who won?!? Just curious. :-)

The PPH did, actually, but that was because she also had the captain of the ship, about 6 sailors, and Gerisa on the same side as her. If it was just the CWDBG it would have had a slightly different ending, methinks. ;)
The player of the CWDBG is getting pretty good at finding appropriate situations for her augments.

How did she "weasel" it out?

She told him that she needed it to see if she could get some money to pay the proper bribes to get him out of jail. Despite the DHPN refusing to help her (because of the dishonor involved), she still used his name and went through with the plan that she wanted him to help her with.

Was the DHPN's player sweating? :-)

Not really. I was playing at the DHPN and EFS's place (they are dating) and they had a habit of wandering out of the room when one of their character's weren't directly involved in the scene. Which I think took away some of their enjoyment from the game because the other two players had a blast with each other's actions.

In other words, he lost? The player didn't spend a HP on it? :-)

Oh he won (and he used a hero point) but it was only a minor victory. I decided that sex = complete victory and major victory = third base, minor victory = second base, marginal victory = first. So he got a minor one.

One of the more amusing quotes of the session happened at this point, as the CWDBG noted the irony of her using hero points to survive and win battles while he was using hero points to get into girl's pants.

It's too bad that there were things left hanging. OTOH, I think that some of the decisions could be left there from a literary POV. I mean, it's kinda cool that the one went off to face Neara and we don't know what happens. Kinda highlights the fact that it was the decision to go face the betrayer instead of fleeing that was really important - win or lose doesn't really much matter.

Oh, definitely. I wonder if the players see it that way... (I know the CWDBG's player said her story was basically over, and I could easily see the other's ending here with various levels of conclusion)

What happened to ES? Noshow? Did the Mythic Hero ever show?

He was out of town, and no. :(

Any final feedback from the players? If you call it, post their thoughts about that here, please.

I will ask them.

Sounds good to me. A short game to get the feet wet with these new techniques, then you tighten up your group and head into an even better game. Couldn't really be much better, from my POV.

Indeed.
I am much more confidant about running the HQ game now. I am even a little bit more excited about my AU campaign as I plan on using some of my techniques there.


[quoteI'm sure you'll do fine. But we're not going anywhere, so... :-)[/quote]

I am too.
However, I could always use more help.

Besides, hopefully that thread will be as educational for the viewers (and me) as this one was. :)

[doubtofbuddha]

Looks like this thread is pretty much over and done with. I hereby declare it to be officially 'closed.'