Weel, after many delays and complications, my HQ game has gotten off to a stuttering start.

Having stumbled across the Forge some time ago, I decided to try and incorporate some of the wonderful ideas I have learned here. My players have been suspicious, but willing to try something new.

Now, like many before me, I am asking the group brain here for some help with bangs and ideas.

A little background: The game is set in Karse, 1619, just after the siege. The Lunars have taken over and everything is in flux.

The characters:

1) The Merchant. Born in Northern Sartar, he grew up with Kallyr (the great rebellion leader), who he views with a bit of a crush/older sister idolizing. He didn't directly participate int he 1613 rebellion, but did help out. He's drifted down to Karse, where he has established a merchant house trading in exotic animals. That's the public face. The private face is providing obscure magic and exotic goods for the very rich. He's got a good black market business, now disrupted by the arrival of the Lunars. He mostly thinks himself divorced from his upbringing, but he's always supprted Kallyr, if not the rebellion. He wants to move up to become the main merchant power in Karse.

2) The Scholar. A Sartar patriot and Lhankhor Mhy Scholar, she left her clan young at the call of her god. She studied prophecy and ancient texts and then was called back to become lawspeaker of her clan. She did so, but her tribe (the Kultain) were beset by bad omens. She studied her prophecies and realized that the child of the Tribal King was going to bring doom to the tribe. Realizing only she could act (no one really believed her), she kidnapped the child and left him at the edge of the Troll Woods. Then she confessed what she had done. At her trial, she staked everything on proof that eliminating the child had saved the tribe. The next omen would not happen. The Lunars crossed into Kultain tribal lands, fulfilling the next omen. She was wrong, and had committed kinstrife. Making the punishment fit the crime, they bound her and left her in the Troll Woods. She didn't die, rather a Troll found her, cut her free, and escorted her through the woods. She doesn't know why, and it didn't speak any language she knew. She decided she had been saved for a reason and neeede to atone, so worked her way south to Karse to find her old Mentor.
She arrived after the siege, and knows only she wants to redeem herself.

3) The Wizard. From an island still locked by the Closing, he knows nothing of the world outside. Hundred of years ago, his land was sealed against the evils destroying the world by the MageKing. His culture has always been taught the world was scoured clean by the evil, and only they are left. He ascended the ranks of sorcerers and joined the inner circle. There he learned his utopia was maintained by the foulest of chaos rites. He rebelled and was banished to the trackless ocean, but not before he managed to grab the Banestaff - a powerful artifact tainted with Chaos. He was picked out of the ocean by a passing ship. He has since learned the rest of the world wasn't destroyed, but that the Closing locks the seas. He has sworn to find the power necessary to return to his island and free it from the Mage King. The ship he was on docked in Karse just after the siege and has been trapped there. He is trying to learn about the world and what he might use for his purpose.

4) The Guard. A member of the city guard of Karse, he was wounded in the siege and therefore spared the slaughter of the city defenders. Always deidcated to the city, he must decide who to support: the Baron, the new Lunar overseers, the rebels?

5) The Assassin: Plucked from her clan as a baby during the invasion of Sartar, she was raised by an army officer until 6, then taken by an assassin cult in the Lunar EMpire. Deadly and focused, she was given an assignment she could not stomach, slew the noble hiring her and fled. She has worked her way down to Karse to try to find her adoptive father and to find out more about her origins among the Heortlings. She hates the Empire, even if she believes the Lunar Way will save mankind. She has stolen notes about a fearful magic that she hopes to trade to someone fighting the Empire.


That's the sketch version of everybody. I;ve played one short intro session that only included the first 3 people. Anyone willing to toss out ideas and just generally poke my brain to make it work would be helpful.

Hi,

Here are some possibilities based on what you've provided(note these are not actual bangs, but seeds that can be developed into bangs by putting forward more concrete situations)

1) The Merchant. All of his connections are ripe for action. It's very easy to set him in motion, as he's caught between a lot of powerful groups. Here's some potential ways to throw some bangs in there:

-"That old thing?" Something in his inventory turns out to be a big, big deal, either really good, or really bad. Naturally he discovers this after selling it. And his rebellion friends want it. And so does the Lunars. And everyone is looking at him...

-"I need this, man..." One of his clients regularly gets some potion or medicine that is keeping him alive. Or maybe just a bad addiction. Either way, you have a powerful patron who is upset that he can't get his fix. Maybe even the Lunars came and confiscated it... And the patron is either going to wreck his shop or totally reveal his shady business unless he gets what he needs...

-"Do this, and we let you go..." The Lunars discover his business, and are willing to... cut him a deal. They know he has connections all around for strange magical items, and there is something some higher up Lunar official wants... The Banestaff. The Lunars are willing to let him keep his business if he finds this, otherwise...

2) The Scholar. Everything hinges on her "discovering" what it is she needs to do to atone. Whatever this thing is, is going to be the character's direction. Without it... you're just going to get meandering play. All of her bangs will revolve around this... and how this grand goal intersects with the other heroes. This atonement should fit her crime... so perhaps redemption lay within stopping kinstrife and restoring a family? It'd be a good tie to the Guard or the Assassin.

3) The Wizard. Like the Scholar, everything for this character is based on what will give him power to eliminate the Mage King. Perhaps it is an artifact possessed by the Merchant? Or maybe that fearful magic held by the assassin?

4) The Guard. His support doesn't mean anything if there isn't pressure making him have to choose. If his family has ties one way, or many ways, and pressure is being applied, that has a pretty big effect on his life. Don't use the family as "hostages", use them as advocates. Some might want to support the Lunars, some might want to struggle to the very end. Use different characters to show the different views, but slam the guard by having them pressure him to make decisions.

5) The Assassin. Play on the family lineage tip, perhaps even one of her family members is working for the Lunars, or enslaved by them. Add in a few bounty hunters or other assassins looking to cut the loose thread.

Again, in order to turn these ideas into bangs, you need to figure out an angle on all of the characters. Characters who are tied into community, relationships, etc, they always have to juggle their own goals with those
of the people who matter to them, and that is always ripe for bangs. Those who are looking for family, start putting the family out there, right away.

Characters who are without family, from faraway lands, they only work based on the level of involvement they choose to take in a situation- or the level of involvement they are mistaken or believed to be in. With them, instead of dangling hooks for the players to grab or ignore, if they are mistaken or believed to be something, then it gets interesting. What happens if the Wizard looks "just like" some famous Lunar who went missing a few years ago? Or, if he was "prophesied" to arrive for some big hoo-hah reason, and now everyone is looking to him to save them? Ditto with the Assassin.

Just some ideas :)

Chris

Thanks Chris. I'll fill in some details from game one and see how your ideas bounce around my empty skull.

1) The Merchant. All of his connections are ripe for action. It's very easy to set him in motion, as he's caught between a lot of powerful groups. Here's some potential ways to throw some bangs in there:

-"That old thing?" Something in his inventory turns out to be a big, big deal, either really good, or really bad. Naturally he discovers this after selling it. And his rebellion friends want it. And so does the Lunars. And everyone is looking at him...

-"I need this, man..." One of his clients regularly gets some potion or medicine that is keeping him alive. Or maybe just a bad addiction. Either way, you have a powerful patron who is upset that he can't get his fix. Maybe even the Lunars came and confiscated it... And the patron is either going to wreck his shop or totally reveal his shady business unless he gets what he needs...

-"Do this, and we let you go..." The Lunars discover his business, and are willing to... cut him a deal. They know he has connections all around for strange magical items, and there is something some higher up Lunar official wants... The Banestaff. The Lunars are willing to let him keep his business if he finds this, otherwise...

2) The Scholar. Everything hinges on her "discovering" what it is she needs to do to atone. Whatever this thing is, is going to be the character's direction. Without it... you're just going to get meandering play.

All of her bangs will revolve around this... and how this grand goal intersects with the other heroes. This atonement should fit her crime... so perhaps redemption lay within stopping kinstrife and restoring a family? It'd be a good tie to the Guard or the Assassin.

3) The Wizard. Like the Scholar, everything for this character is based on what will give him power to eliminate the Mage King. Perhaps it is an artifact possessed by the Merchant? Or maybe that fearful magic held by the assassin?

4) The Guard. His support doesn't mean anything if there isn't pressure making him have to choose. If his family has ties one way, or many ways, and pressure is being applied, that has a pretty big effect on his life. Don't use the family as "hostages", use them as advocates. Some might want to support the Lunars, some might want to struggle to the very end. Use different characters to show the different views, but slam the guard by having them pressure him to make decisions.

5) The Assassin. Play on the family lineage tip, perhaps even one of her family members is working for the Lunars, or enslaved by them. Add in a few bounty hunters or other assassins looking to cut the loose thread.

Again, in order to turn these ideas into bangs, you need to figure out an angle on all of the characters. Characters who are tied into community, relationships, etc, they always have to juggle their own goals with those
of the people who matter to them, and that is always ripe for bangs. Those who are looking for family, start putting the family out there, right away.

Characters who are without family, from faraway lands, they only work based on the level of involvement they choose to take in a situation- or the level of involvement they are mistaken or believed to be in. With them, instead of dangling hooks for the players to grab or ignore, if they are mistaken or believed to be something, then it gets interesting. What happens if the Wizard looks "just like" some famous Lunar who went missing a few years ago? Or, if he was "prophesied" to arrive for some big hoo-hah reason, and now everyone is looking to him to save them? Ditto with the Assassin.

Can you list the NPCs? That would probably go a long way towards suggesgting bangs. PCs are only half of the equation, situation is the other half. If all we know is that "Lunars are in control" that does provide a little situation, but not enough to really work with.

So who do we have to creat bangs with? Who are our tools, our NPCs?

Mike

Absolutely, and my bad for not having done so in the first place.

This isn't everyone because I can't find my notes right now. But it's the people off the top of my head I can think of as having been brought in.

1) The Fat Man (Wilmsfisk the Large) Major mover and shaker merchant in Karse. He is both head of a leading merchant house ("A humble dealer in spices") and the head of most organized crime in the city, a somewhat open secret. He is a rival of the PC merchant, obviously, who wants to replace him in both roles.

2) The Mentor. This is the Scholar's mentor. He's a Lhankor Mhy scholar, teaches the Baron's daughters (and has a very unhealthy attraction to the eldest), and assesses magic items sometimes for the PC Merchant. He also has a gambling and hooker problem, and is deeply in debt to the Fat Man.

3) Ovdur Quickthrow: A member of the Kultain tribe (same as scholar) who lost friends when the Lunars came down. He's a young hothead who now dreams of joining Kallyr and Broyan in WhiteWall. But he wants to show up with some deed under his belt and impress her. He made contact with the PC Merchant (how he got the name is somewhat vague right now).

4) Radjik Shipborne: First Mate on the Grey Brother, he befriended the Wizard when he was fished out of the sea. An old sailor, he's been on boats since almost the beginning of the Opening. I am currently leaning to him being a Holy Country patriot and Pharonic Revivalist, wanting the old GodKing to return.

5) Fazzur Wideread: Governer General of Dragon Pass, and sitting in Karse directing his armies. He will winter here, then head down to southern Heortland for the rest of his invasion.

6) Sir Herik Vinder: Head of the Fabulous Hunting Troupe (MoLaD) and contact of the Merchant.

7) Derek of House Marteau (Local nobleman who bought a Gargoyle Egg through the PC Merchant. It came in on the Grey Brother.)

There are a number of people who show up in one way or another on people's sheets, but haven't yet shown up in game.

6) The Baron's guard. This is the one who's got some sort of addiction fed by the Merchant. I am also thinking he is the secret lover of the Baron's daughter maybe?

7) The Assassin's adoptive Father. A Tarshite legion commander, now stationed in Karse. He's a good Tarshite Lunar, but mostly a simple army man. He loves her dearly and hasn't seen her since she was chosen for the assassin cult (I am not decided whether or not he knows where she ended up, I don' t think the PC has made a call on that yet.) 10 years ago.

8) The Merchant's Mistress: Totally undefined, but he put her down, so I have her as a tool.

OK, that's about all I can think of as having been specifically mentioned or implied right now. (Obviously, there are some more that aren't focused on yet. Other merchants in the trade ring, contacts in the underworld, the rest of the crew of the Grey Brother --> oh yes, the Captain's fleet is indirectly owned by the Fat Man, but the Captain does occaisional cargo runs for the Merchant PC.)

OK, good. Now we just apply the following process:

1. Identify two values of the PC.
2. Figure out a way to put them in conflict.
3. Designate an appropriate NPC to create the conflict in the character.

So, for the Merchant player hero:
1. He wants money, but still feels for the rebellion, and hates the Lunars. 2. They'd be in conflict if he could make money by helping the Lunars.
3. The Fat Man seems perfect here. He asks the player's merchant character to start supplying the Lunars with Black Lotus (or whatever) that'll make the Lunar magicians more powerful, and will make them more money.

This, of course, then puts the character at odds too between wanting money, and wanting to supplant The Fat Man. So there are lots of potential resolutions for the player to pursue. (This follows Chris' last bang well, too).

OK, you do the next one.

Mike

So, for the Merchant player hero:
1. He wants money, but still feels for the rebellion, and hates the Lunars. 2. They'd be in conflict if he could make money by helping the Lunars.
3. The Fat Man seems perfect here. He asks the player's merchant character to start supplying the Lunars with Black Lotus (or whatever) that'll make the Lunar magicians more powerful, and will make them more money.

Are you rolling now? Or do you want more ideas?

Have I taught you to fish? I hope so. The point of the three step process is that it's really rather easy - didn't you find it so? You even managed to correct my bad version with just a slight adjustment.

I'm hoping that it is as easy as I find it to be for everyone. Bangs seem somehow elusive to people, when they shouldn't take too much brain-sweat to come up with. I mean, with work you can make better ones than otherwise. But I find that Bangs are great as GM input precisely because they make game prep take so little effort. Sit down, and look at the character sheets for a bit, and then scribble down some notes, and each session should take only about 15 minutes to be ready for.

BTW, this is only one method, there are more. But you're already figuring that out. For example, giving a player a "path to power" is precisely one of the other ways to make bangs. Not only are the choices involved with geting power good for creating the same sort of "dilemma" bangs, but once the character has some power it automatically asks the "what do I do with it now?" question.


One bit of advice, remember your "basic" values when making bangs. For example, the whole wizard character seems to be all about power, sure. But why does he want power? How does he feel about people? Does he want to dominate them? This brings up all of he relationship stuff from which to create bangs. The old hidden sex keyword. As I've said, a pass by a character of the opposite sex is almost always an automatic bang (no pun intended), for instance.

Mike

Are you rolling now? Or do you want more ideas?

Have I taught you to fish? I hope so. The point of the three step process is that it's really rather easy - didn't you find it so? You even managed to correct my bad version with just a slight adjustment.

I'm hoping that it is as easy as I find it to be for everyone. Bangs seem somehow elusive to people, when they shouldn't take too much brain-sweat to come up with. I mean, with work you can make better ones than otherwise. But I find that Bangs are great as GM input precisely because they make game prep take so little effort. Sit down, and look at the character sheets for a bit, and then scribble down some notes, and each session should take only about 15 minutes to be ready for.

One bit of advice, remember your "basic" values when making bangs. For example, the whole wizard character seems to be all about power, sure. But why does he want power? How does he feel about people? Does he want to dominate them?

This brings up all of he relationship stuff from which to create bangs. The old hidden sex keyword. As I've said, a pass by a character of the opposite sex is almost always an automatic bang (no pun intended), for instance.

lightcastle wrote: OK, so that brings us to the bandolier. How many to keep per person? I seem to recall an earler thread where people talked about having a few waiting for when a given character's stuff winds down a bit. (Obviously, some bangs will keep them propelling along for a while.)

So what he does with the power might be interesting.

Hmm.. The Wizard would be tough just because of the player. He's one of the most asexual humans I know.

The Scholar... I think it would be a good storyline to go with, but she's deliberately playing a character who is not a romantic basket case because she has ended up playing romantic entanglements in all her other games right now.

How about tying bangs together? For instance, a sage connected to Kallyr comes to the Mentor and the Scholar and asks them to for help researching the Clock of Circadia, an EWF artifact that can affect solar magic. (Which, interestingly, both the Lunars and the Rebellion have access to.) He suspects it may be the target of Fazzur. At the same time, Fazzur is offering the merchant the deal above, looking for the same Clock.

Better to tie bangs or not?

Another bang idea. Quickthrow raids either a Lunar barracks for weapons, or perhaps some of the other merchants for supplies? He then shows up at Kelson's door, admitting he's done it, and demanding help in getting the stuff to Kallyr. (Does Kelson piss off his fellow merchants or his new patrons?)

I want to figure one out for the Scholar and her outlawry. IT seems that I should be able to find something there. (She still loves her people, but she has committed the ultimate sin and can't be accepted back.)

Alrighty then. 3 per person as a back up.

I'll have to come back when I have time and see if I can get that done.

I think I will throw a pass at the wizard, just to see what the player does. If it fizzles, it fizzles.

As for the Scholar, it's a shame, since I've seen her play romantic entanglements (she's GREAT at it), but I want to respect her decision. She's one of those players that feeds off of finding things to react to and putting herself in complicated situations, so I won't be bored, and she'll tell me if she has changed her mind. (This is the player who gave herself "Get into trouble" and "Get out of trouble by the skin of her teeth" as abilities.)

Better, yes. Those are excellent. The only thing you have to be sure is that your players are ready to have their characters end up potentially against each other, and yet work together as players to play it out.

Ooh, very good. Reminds me a little of Mystic River, which I saw last night. What do you do when a friend has done something bad? Excellent. Good example of a "one issue" bang where you put the value up against itself (or, from another POV, from the very generic self-interest value). Those can be tricky.

Typically it would be an offer of redemption that, say, prevented her from finding out something important to her scholarship.

lightcastle wrote: Yeah. Something like that, but I'm blocking on what, exactly.

Oh, great to hear this game is finally starting! (Also makes me wish my job hunting was leading me back to Montreal so I could come listen in some day, but not to be).

Anyway, one specific thought for the scholar--offer her false redemption. That is, have an NPC who knows of her situation come offer evidence that she was in fact correct. The NPC is even willing to go to bat for her, show others that she is innocent.

Then she realizes that it is all a scam. His evidence is flawed, or invented, or whatever.

She could be redeemed in the eyes of everyone.....except herself. Does she take it?

For added torque on the screw, don't make the error in the evidence obvious until she has been partially redeemed, so she has had a taste of being accepted again, then might have to turn her back on it.

(follow on question of course is: what is the NPC really after?)

--Bryan

Bryan:

Anyway, one specific thought for the scholar--offer her false redemption. That is, have an NPC who knows of her situation come offer evidence that she was in fact correct. The NPC is even willing to go to bat for her, show others that she is innocent.

Then she realizes that it is all a scam. His evidence is flawed, or invented, or whatever.

She could be redeemed in the eyes of everyone.....except herself. Does she take it?

For added torque on the screw, don't make the error in the evidence obvious until she has been partially redeemed, so she has had a taste of being accepted again, then might have to turn her back on it.

Bad details, but you get the idea.