Happily ever after - design thoughts

[museleading]

I'm designing a game and I'd like to get some input on it.  I have a set of characters with a strong backstory and set of relationships.  I have a number of questions I think each character would want answered, but am uncertain how to entice the players to address them in game. 

The game's main theme is about anti-climax.  These are a group of heroes who, after the war is over, are doing one last (tiny) clean up mission.  I'm happy to give more details on the situation if wanted, I didn't want to make a huge post. I've included a draft version of the blurb (below).

The mission is irrelevant, the main questions (each chr has a number of indivdaul ones as well) are:
1) what are the characters going to do now they are no longer "the heroes"? (now the war is over)
1a) they have a chance to set the war up again - will they fade into obscurity or shine again?
2) how will they feel when they learn the leader betrayed and killed one of the group (an NPC) deliberately in the final battle?
3) how will they sort out the various relationships within the group?


I'm planning on setting the questions up in the chr sheets, but I'm a little concerned over how to get them to come forward during play.  How would you entice players to address these sorts of questions during play?

----------------------------------------------
Happily ever after
Most stories end where this one begins.  The heroes come together, fight a foe and emerge victorious.  What happens when the story ends, but lives go on?

Once upon a time a great evil swept across the land.  A hero and a heroine stepped forward together, to stand between it and harm, to utter their defiance.

From small beginnings, they fought long and hard.  Veterans and rookies marched together, some falling to that terrible evil.

Last of all to their side was the rebel, swayed by the heroine for the cause was just and his heart was pure.

In the terrible final battle the medic, with them from the beginning, sacrificed that which is precious to any lifegiver – her own life.  Her memory will be honored forevermore.

Thanks to these heroes, the land is free once more.

Life is never as simple from the inside.

A thematic game for a hero, heroine, veteran, rookie and rebel - set after the victory celebrations.

[TonyLB]

Cool concept!

It'd be cool to give them a pool of spendable resources, like "Glory tokens" or something, that do cool stuff in the game... but have fewer and fewer opportunities to refresh that pool, since the war is over and all.

In TSoY, for instance, you get your pools back for doing fun, social, relaxing type things.  In many games of TSoY I presume this is a mechanic that drives people to play out their carousing, and generally make their characters rounded.  But I'm playing in a post-apocalyptic fantasy TSoY, where we're survivors making a hard-scrabble effort to wrest a living from a magical city.  We don't have any fun, and it is killing us on resources.  We, as the players, viscerally feel how little joy exists in the lives of these characters.

It's driven people to do some ... wacky things.  For instance, seduction gets you a pool refresh, and one of the PCs has gotten himself into a really dysfunctional sexual relationship.  I think that the constant pool refreshes that go along with the empty relationship are, in a very real sense, contributing to it staying in the game.

So, likewise, I'd love to see the kind of self-destructive things that your protagonists might do in order to keep up their supply of game resources.

[Matt Wilson]

Yeah, that's a cool idea.

Do I understand right that you play one of a set of pre-made characters? If I'm playing, what contributions can I make to the setup besides answering those questions?

[dindenver]

Hi!
  I really like this. Its seems to me like it could use a sort of "Ever After" creation system, so it can be used in more and different ways. ort of establish the key facets needed to create a successful "Ever after" tale.
  I think Tony is right, something where if they Rekindle their old glory, it gives them more resources, but doing the right thing is harder...
  But I feel like you have the foundation of something cool!

[Selene Tan]

This reminds me of the Lion in Winter concept that Brand and Mo came up with a bit ago. Maybe you can mine the thread for ideas.

[museleading]

It'd be cool to give them a pool of spendable resources, like "Glory tokens" or something, that do cool stuff in the game... but have fewer and fewer opportunities to refresh that pool, since the war is over and all.
....

But I'm playing in a post-apocalyptic fantasy TSoY, where we're survivors making a hard-scrabble effort to wrest a living from a magical city.  We don't have any fun, and it is killing us on resources.  We, as the players, viscerally feel how little joy exists in the lives of these characters.
.....
So, likewise, I'd love to see the kind of self-destructive things that your protagonists might do in order to keep up their supply of game resources.

That's a really interesting idea.  Do you find the players hoard the resources, or end up not using them at all?

[museleading]

Yeah, that's a cool idea.

Do I understand right that you play one of a set of pre-made characters? If I'm playing, what contributions can I make to the setup besides answering those questions?

Yeh - I am planning on offering it at a con (as a single session game), which means the chrs are pregenerated. 

I need the players to get close to the medic (an NPC who dies before the game begins).  Whilst players tend to (IMHO) get close to a named NPC, the fact that the medic will only exsist in flashbacks and memories scenes concerns me.  I want them to react strongly to the medic's death when the circumstances are found out, to do so, I need her to be present in the players thoughts.

One of the ideas I have had was to open the medic to the players.  Set out some guidelines around the medic's personality and opinions in an OOC way and allow the players to create memories of the medic within the group. 

"Do you remember the time when we all went bar hopping and the medic started a fight?"
"Yeh, we had to ..."

My thought is that it might make the players think more about the medic and associate with her...

My concern is that some players like to immerse themselves in their own character and don't want to be pulled into another's.  My other concern is that to a degree this is making players part GMs (and the GM in my thinks this is cool), but I know not all players feel confident they can moderate a scene (espoically one they have to create on the fly).  Has anyone had experince with this as a concept?  How did it turn out in play?

[museleading]

Hi!
  I really like this. Its seems to me like it could use a sort of "Ever After" creation system, so it can be used in more and different ways. ort of establish the key facets needed to create a successful "Ever after" tale.
  I think Tony is right, something where if they Rekindle their old glory, it gives them more resources, but doing the right thing is harder...
  But I feel like you have the foundation of something cool!

I'm glad you like the dichotomy :)

I don't know about the 'Ever After' creation system.  Can you provide details?

[museleading]

This reminds me of the Lion in Winter concept that Brand and Mo came up with a bit ago. Maybe you can mine the thread for ideas.

Umm, I'm having problems pulling up the link. It's coming up with an error.

I did a search on the topic in Story Games for Everybody, but got no results.  Can you give me the name of the thread?

[dindenver]

Hi!
  Well, it seems to me like there is an expected or anticipated flow of events "Ever After." So, if you can sort of take a step back and make a generic or systematic description of the various possible elements of these events and fctors, then you can convey this to the Players. Then, players can create many different scenarios that follow your theme, but will have unexpected twists maybe. I'm thinking of Dogs In the Vineyard, where the natural progression of a town in trouble provides a blue print for situation creation.
  What do you think?

[TonyLB]

That's a really interesting idea.  Do you find the players hoard the resources, or end up not using them at all?

I find that if they suddenly refresh a pool of (say) eight tokens then they spend the first four or so very willingly, but the last couple they spend very grudgingly.  And while they're spending those last few they are looking everywhere for their next fix.