Large Groups and Spiritual Attributes

[Morfedel]

I'm curious. I run my games with the plot created around the characters. The Spiritual attributes in TROS makes this much more interesting.

However, I was thinking... it seems like it could make it very difficult in large groups. For instance, I have recently gotten involved in a group playing exalted; I invited a couple over th try TROS, and they are very intrigued with it, and suggested it as a possible game for their main group to try.

Their main group has... well, has a LOT of players. Many of them don't always come on any particular meeting, but the potential is there. And juggling sessions trying to keep in mind Destinies and Drives and other things in your plot seems like it could possibly be difficult.

Drive: to become as wealthy as possible is easy to handle. Destiny: to steal the shard rumored to be burried in Otamarluk and Drive: to aid Xanarth against Gelure starts to complicate things. Get 8 players with these things and I see the potential for a logistics nightmare.

Has anyone else run into this situation? And if so, how did they deal with it?

Thanks in advance!

[Andrew Mure]

hmm... big groups are always problematic whatever the game.

My advice would be to identify which of the players can be relied upon to turn up most weeks and to form the main party from these people. However in each week have some pre-gens with relevent SAs prepared as background npcs so any one who turns up unannounced can be handed a sheet to play and can be introduced at your leisure. The next week when fair weather player doesn't turn up, the pre-gen can either become a npc again or handed to another unannounced arrival.

If a fair weather player asks if they could make up their own character, take them aside and tactfully suggest they make a bit more regular prescence in the group. This may sound harsh, but the way I see it if players want to be the central characters in the story they really have to be 'on stage' most of the time, the folks who turn only every so often only get bit parts.

[Lance D. Allen]

Precisely said Andrew. I, as garulous as I am, have nothing to add.

[Nick the Nevermet]

If the goal of the game is to introduce TROS, not play a campaign, one suggestion I have is to not make 1 party.  Intentionally set it up so they are in conflict.

Make a plain, simple, direct plot that will guarantee the two sides get to be strategic, and set their SAs up in direct opposition on a few key issues.


For example, a ship has just survived a storm at sea.  A lot of the crew was lost.  The ship is a mess.  The original mission of the ship was 'critical Church business,' and the high-ranking clergy on-board demand the ship press on.  The captain, on the other hand, wants to go back.  Things get worse, and finally the Church members attempt to commandeer the ship (a.k.a. mutiny).  The rumpor goes through the sleeping quarters that SOMETHING is going to happen at the changing of the shift (not the right word, but you know what I mean).  And now everyone has the rest of the night to decide what they want to do.  Wee.

Set up the characters so that 2-3 are definitely going to side with the clergy, 2-3 are going to the captain's aide, and 2-3 are conflicted.  Combat, strategy, and SAs will all become very apparent in this scenario.  Whether the PCs are sailors or servants or whatever doesn't change the basic issue.  Plus, if someone dies early, let them have another sailor.

It will also get the players introduced to another critical aspect of TROS: set-up.  As stated a million times, you cannot make characters in isolation.  Make the players know its about choices, and that you intend on player vs. player fighting.  Warn them its bloody.  Make all the characters yourself ahead of time, including replacement characters.

With 8 people, a very short scenario is probably best.  Running a campaign of 8 players in TROS would make me cringe.  I made my suggestion because:

1) its contained & isolated (this simplifies things)
2) It immediately forces the PCs to start making choices about which side
   to be on and how to do it
3) It gets to combat and SAs pretty quickly.

Anyways, that's my suggestion.

[kenjib]

That's great Nick.  I'm thinking of running a campaign with heavy naval themes and a mass mutiny is an integral part of the backstory.  Something like that would make a really great prologue/introduction-to-TROS session, and I hadn't thought of approaching it like that.  Thanks!!!

[Overdrive]

My 'intro' game was a bit like what Nick suggested. It ended in a fight between the two PCs, both having 3-4 SAs firing. As it happened, there was a HUGE difference in the CP dice, just because one of the characters had one more SA on.

Actually the game was pretty cool, thinking afterwards. The players played their characters with heavy sim influence, and I tried to hand out SA points whenever appropriate. But the outcome of the final battle was fixed when we figured out what SAs to include. That kinda flattened the mood at the time.