And sure, there's a certain amount of fun and escapism in that framework. However, it does start to feel contrived after a while. Which is why I wanted to take this week to talk about something several GMs of mine have done, and which I'd highly recommend others consider in their games.
Instead of fighting individuals, have your party oppose a system. Because fighting a system is a lot harder to do.
 |
| Ahem. |
For those who are curious, yes, my group did recently start playing Hell's Rebels, and that's at least partially why this particular topic is on my mind.
As always, if you want to stay on top of all my releases, make sure you sign up for my weekly newsletter. And if you want to help me keep the wheels turning so I can keep putting out content just like this, consider becoming a Patreon patron!
It Is Astonishingly Hard to Kill an Idea
When it comes to battles in our campaigns, the physical ones are always the easiest ones to win. If there is a local bandit gang preying on the highways, or a cult stealing people in the night, what's the solution? You send in a group of adventurers, and they will break up the problem. Once heads have been knocked, and potential prisoners taken, the threat is over...
Or is it?
 |
| Who can say for certain? |
While an individual bandit gang might be disrupted or broken up, if those bandits existed because there weren't enough legitimate ways for individuals to earn a living to care for their families, there will be fresh bandits sooner rather than later. If the cult is slain, then they might become martyrs to other believers who didn't put on the robes and lead rites, but who might now feel they must follow in the footsteps of those who went before them.
The root causes that led to the situation in the first place were not fixed. It was not created by any singular individual, and so it cannot be solved by dealing with that singular individual. Which gives our protagonists a very different kind of challenge to face.
And it has been refreshing as hell every time it's come up.
This Isn't System Specific, Either
For those who've read my group's journey through the Mummy's Mask adventure path (and if you haven't, start at the beginning), my GM embraced this idea whole heartedly. Because the Cult of the Forgotten Pharaoh was centered around an individual, that's true, but it was not the Forgotten Pharaoh themselves that gave it power. It was what the cult could do, what it could offer, how it wormed itself into the society of Osirion, and how it got into the minds of the populace through fear, nationalism, greed, and more.
While the party was instrumental in fighting against the cult's ground forces, and while it did remove several of its major players from the board, they did not slay this idea all on their own. They had to recruit allies, reform enemies who realized they'd been duped by the cult, and they had to fight a war of propaganda over the hearts and minds of the public in order to instill bravery and tell the truth about many of the cult's lies.
It was one of the more engaging experiences my table got, especially when one considers how linear adventure paths can often be.
 |
| Don't worry, I have negative examples, too. |
On the other end of things, though, there are a lot of games that are designed with systems and ideas as the enemy, but where the individuals running the game focus too much on the "Great Man" that's responsible for everything. A majority of my experience with World/Chonicles of Darkness games suffer from this tunnel vision. The corrupt CEO who's responsible for all the pollution in a region in Werewolf: The Apocalypse, for instance, or a vampire who acts as the nexus of all evil in a given territory that can simply be slain to purify everything, and so on, and so forth. When it's far more likely that taking out one vampire means another will take their place, or removing one company means another two will compete for the market (possible even a few entries from Evil Incorporated: 10 Pentex Subsidiaries for those looking for inspiration).
Perhaps the best example I can think of is a Changeling: The Lost game where the storyteller's entire focus was treating a single True Fae (the demigod alien creatures that steal people away to Arcadia) as the BBEG of a particular conflict. Not just in the sense that their attention and malice had fallen on the freehold, but that they were actively involved in an arms race, and they were going to march on the gathered changelings to fight them... for reasons?
While I am all for deadly punch ups with magical wooge and fae nonsense, this entire plot arc was a classic case of making the plot all about an individual rather than a system, an idea, or something more difficult to combat. Because this True Fae didn't have any sort of persuasive rhetoric on their side that turned people against the freehold. They weren't riding some populist wave of anti-changeling sentiment among the hobgoblin community, and the army they had seemed to be made up mostly of nameless, faceless NPCs who had no personality, no driving goals, and no real purpose other than to act as cannon fodder. They couldn't be reasoned with, persuaded to change sides, or even spoken to aside from shouting across a battlefield.
This plot spiraled out of control, eventually getting so messy and frustrating that it culminated in a single, massive, completely unsatisfying battle. A battle that, once it was resolved, left no mark on the game's landscape, achieved nothing, satisfied no one, and was more or less forgotten about within a month. In fact, even trying to recall the details of it right now is a difficult exercise as it just faded into so many other fantastic battles that were waged more because the person running the game felt there should be a Protagonist V. Antagonist throw down rather than because it was a genuine, organic development of the plot and its themes, or that it would achieve anything tense or meaningful.
Also, speaking of Lost, if you haven't checked out my supplements for that game yet, give them a look!
Win Hearts and Minds to Forge Your Legend
Memorable villains and satisfying victories are tough things to achieve. But this is a topic I've been thinking about long and hard even since I got to work on Archbliss: The City of The Sorcerers (available for Pathfinder and DND 5E) for my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting. Because in a setting where there is no alignment, and everyone is left to decide right and wrong for themselves, you won't find evil waiting in black robes and wielding blood-dripping daggers making sacrifices to demon lords. You find it in the indifference of the common people to oppression. You find it in the greed of the powerful. You find it in unfariness, and brutality, and myths that treating other people with violence makes you tough, or strong, or righteous.
And fighting ideas like that takes more than steel and spells.
What's Next on Table Talk?
That's it for this installment of Table Talk! What would you like to see next? Or do you have your own story you'd like to share with folks?
For more of my work, check out my Vocal archives, as well as the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio where I help out from time to time. Or, to check out books like my hard-boiled cat noir novel Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my recent short story collection The Rejects, head over to My Amazon Author Page!
To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, as well as on Pinterest where I'm building all sorts of boards dedicated to my books, RPG supplements, and greatest hits. Lastly, to help support me and my work, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron! Even a little donation can have a big impact.
No comments:
Post a Comment