It’s time for the thrilling finale!

The villain gives a little monologue, the initiative dice roll, and now it’s time for an epic—

Oh. Never mind. The PCs already killed him.

It turns out it’s quite difficult to keep a single target alive when five highly trained killing machines (i.e., the PCs) are highly motivated to simultaneously release all of their death-dealing abilities on them. (Particularly if your stat blocks are simulating reality and/or you want that same stat block to function as Not a Boss™ in other situations.) So this is a systemic problem that you’ll find in a lot of different RPGs.

There are various solutions to this – mechanical, structural, and otherwise – but here’s one that works surprisingly well:

Have the boss show up AFTER the fight starts.

In other words, the PCs get into a fight with a bunch of the bad guy’s minions, and then two or three rounds later the bad guy shows up:

• The door is slammed open dramatically!
• The summoning ritual completes and the demon materializes!
• They teleport in with reinforcements!
• A helicopter swoops down from the sky and they jump into the middle of the melee!
• They were invisible the whole time and suddenly reveal themselves!
• A car with blackout windows drives through the wall of the warehouse and the vampire lord leaps out!

However the bad guy makes their dramatic appearance, this has three effects.

First, it’s a cool and memorable moment. This really shouldn’t be undervalued.

Second, the PCs will already be engaged with other bad guys. Their tactical positions may be far muddier than they were at the beginning of the fight. They are likely to have already blasted some of their most powerful combat options. In other words, it will be much more difficult for the PCs to focus their fire on a target that appears in the middle of the fight than one that’s available when the fight begins.

Third, even if they do wipe out the boss nigh-instantaneously, you’ll have pulled off an important bit of legerdemain: Yes, the boss died in two rounds. But that didn’t happen until the fourth or fifth round of the fight. So it will, no matter how illogically, feel like a big, satisfying fight instead of a curb-stomping.

Another variant here is to have the bad guys retreat to wherever the boss is, drawing the PCs after them in pursuit. This inverts the dynamic while expanding the encounter’s theater of operations and giving it a more epic scope.

It should also be noted that this whole dynamic can often organically arise if you’re using adversary rosters (either because the PCs are pulled into a running fight that takes them to the boss or because the boss is drawn to them).

You shouldn’t do this every time, of course, or it will become predictable and trite. (Although with enough variation in the boss’ dramatic entrance you can cover your tracks quite a bit.) But it’s definitely something to keep in your toolbox.

First Colony is a supplement which every Blue Planet GM should want to own.

Review Originally Published May 21st, 2001

First Colony is the sourcebook for the city of Haven, the surging metropolis which is at the heart of the colonization and exploitation of Poseidon in Fantasy Flight Games’ Blue Planet.

There is nothing revolutionary here: As city sourcebooks go, this is precisely what you expect. The geography is covered, important locations described, the major political structures discussed, and influential NPCs introduced. In addition there are four adventure scenarios set within the city.

Sometimes, though, you don’t need to be revolutionary in order to be good. In fact, most of the time it isn’t even remotely necessary. First Colony delivers the goods by not only providing a broad overview of the city, but in giving that overview depth. Despite its somewhat short length (made even shorter by the inclusion of the adventures), First Colony gets it done.

WHAT YOU GET

The Argos Island Cluster, on which Haven is located, is the first thing covered by the book. This coverage is relatively brief, but since there is little of interest there beyond Haven itself, this is hardly a fault.

Haven itself is then systematically detailed by breaking it into districts, and then describing the major features within each district. Once you have a firm grasp on the city’s existing geography, First Colony moves onto Haven’s society, starting with a history of the island’s colonization, and then moving onto its politics, commercial make-up, and culture. Throughout this description of the city, NPCs are liberally sprinkled. By the time you are finished, First Colony has given you a complete top-to-bottom view of Poseidon’s capital.

The four adventures which are included are more than adequate. I’m not, however, remotely sold on the idea of including adventures within a sourcebook like this. I would have vastly preferred to see the 50 or so pages used on these adventures used to give even more description of Haven.

CONCLUSION

Like Fluid Mechanics, the first Blue Planet supplement, First Colony is a book which every Blue Planet GM should want to own. And, when it comes to supplements, that’s high praise.

Style: 4
Substance: 4

Writers: Greg Benage, Brian Breedlove, Catten Ely
Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Price: $23.95
ISBN: 1-887911-32-4
Production Code: BP04
Page Count: 128

My thinking about urban sourcebooks has evolved quite a bit since 2001, and I wonder what my opinion of First Colony would be if I revisited it today. Re-reading my review I got a bit of whiplash, as my initial thought on seeing that the book included four adventures was, “Great! Love to see that!” only for my past self to say, “Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.” Quickly thumbing through my copy, I wonder if the setting details are, in fact, a little lighter and lacking in concrete detail, which could certainly explain why my past self might have thought it better to fully deliver sourcebook utility instead of including adventures.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

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David M. asks:

How do you marry scenes (framing, agenda, bangs, etc.) with scenarios/game structures? Do you prepare scene ideas within your scenario “tool bag”, or do they typically pop up in your games organically through your scenario prep?

I ask because scenarios, which I view as more freeform, amorphous, and/or a “bag of tools”, don’t seem to lead directly into scene-framing; however, prepping scenes seem anathema to the flexibility of nodes, scenarios, etc. 

The answer to this question is going to make a lot more sense if you’re familiar with The Art of Pacing, so if you haven’t read that series, you may want to pop over and take a peek. In brief, though, a scene has:

• An agenda, which is what the scene is about. It can be thought of as the question the scene is asking. (For example: Can the PCs escape the kobolds? Can Baron von Stauffen trick the PCs into revealing the identity of their patron? Can they steal the Ruby of Omarrat?)
• A bang, which is the inciting incident that kicks off the scene.
• A location and characters.
• An ending, which may or may not resolve the original agenda of the scene.

The quick answer to your question is that I generally don’t prep full scenes. There are exceptions, but in situation-based scenarios you’re far more likely to be prepping parts of scenes — agendas, bangs, locations, characters, etc. — and then combining and framing those parts into fully realized scenes in reaction to what the players are doing.

For example, my campaign status document is often stocked with a timeline of bangs, many of which are generated by things that have previously happened during play. For example, maybe the PCs have angered the Domingo cartel, so the cartel sends an assassin to kill them.

You could, in fact, prep this as a full scene: The assassin will attack the PCs when they go to a specific place and in a specific way. (For example, when the PCs go to the 1029 Bar, their favorite hangout, the assassin will try to poison their drinks.) And there are many cases when that’s exactly what you should do.

In practice, though, I’m far more likely to just put the assassin in my campaign status document. The actual scene I frame will be the result of combining that scene fragment with the events of actual play. For example, maybe the PCs decide to hole up in a motel outside of town. What might happen next? Well, I can look at my timeline of bangs, pull the assassin, combine it with the given circumstances, and frame up a scene where the assassin attacks them at the motel.

Similarly, if I’ve running a mystery scenario, my adventure notes will likely be filled with locations and characters for the PCs to investigate. But those aren’t necessarily scenes. They’re just parts of scenes, and the actual scenes that get framed up will depend on where the PCs go, what they do, and how events play out.

To take a simple example, the PCs might identify a suspect. When they decide to investigate the suspect, what scene(s) will you frame up? Well, that depends. Are they going to interrogate them? Put them under surveillance? Hack their phone? Try to seduce them under false pretenses? Each of those would be completely different scenes, often playing out at different locations, with different bangs, and with very different agendas.

As this suggests, scenario structures are going to give you guidance on what scene elements to prep and how to use them. In many cases, the structure tell you how to frame your scenes: What scenes to frame, what questions are important to answer, and what to fill those scenes with. It’ll also often tell you a lot about empty time — the unimportant stuff you can and should be framing past to the next scene.

For example, consider a dungeon scenario: You prep individual rooms filled with threats, secrets, and treasures. The structure naturally leads you to frame each room as a scene, with common agendas focused on the content keyed to the room like:

• Can the PCs defeat the monsters?
• Can the PCs find the treasure?
• Can the PCs solve the puzzle?

Similarly, in a node-based scenario one of your nodes might be an NPC with key information (that will lead the PCs to other nodes and/or reveal deeper truths about the conspiracy). The structure here is going to naturally lead you to frame scenes that have some specific variation of, “Can the PCs find the leads they need to continue their investigation?” as the agenda.

Of course, you’re not limited to these basic, structurally suggested scenes. Your scenarios will be enriched if you can find — or follow your players’ lead in finding — agendas that are more unique, personal, and tailored to the context of the campaign. But the fundamental guidance of the structure will nevertheless be helpful.

Go to Ask the Alexandrian #1

Fluid Mechanics sets itself a goal and then goes and seals the deal.

Review Originally Published May 21st, 2001

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one surprised when Fantasy Flight Games started releasing hardcover supplements for their critically acclaimed Blue Planet game. Although I was initially skeptical, I now applaud them for taking the risk: The extra couple of bucks the hardcover format tags onto the cost for these supplements is more than compensated for by the durability which the hardcover offers.

The unavoidable question, of course, is whether or not the content wedged into the pages between those hard covers is worth the price tag. To start answering that question, let’s take a look at the first Blue Planet supplement: Fluid Mechanics: Technology in the World of Blue Planet.

ASSESSMENT

Arguably the first thing which distinguishes one science fiction setting from another is the technology which is available in that setting – in fact, technology can be considered the defining quality of any given science fiction world. Fluid Mechanics is designed to give Blue Planet players a wealth of technological tools, developing the hard science which provides one of the foundations for the creative depth of the Blue Planet setting.

Unlike the “techbooks” for many games, Fluid Mechanics does not limit itself to simply providing a textual warehouse of disconnected technical gadgets, instead distinguishing itself by presenting a cohesive, integrated view of the technical reality of the Blue Planet world. As a result, even if a gadget is not specifically addressed within Fluid Mechanics, the book will leave the GM with a firm sense of whether or not such a device could exist within the scope of the setting.

Another strength is the technical art which accompanies the text – illustrating the technology which is being described. I would have liked to have, perhaps, seen a bit more of it – but, when it is present, it is crisp, clear, and informative.

Given the strength of the technical art, it is surprising to note that the book’s sole true weakness lies within some of the “atmosphere” art (art which is not specifically connected to a technical description). At times, this can be extremely weak.

CONCLUSION

Fluid Mechanics sets itself a goal and then goes out and does it with great panache. If you’re running a Blue Planet campaign, then this book should definitely be on your “To Buy” list.

Style: 4
Substance: 4

Writers: Jeffrey Barber, Greg Benage, Greg Porter, Brian Schoner, Jason Werner
Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Price: $23.95
ISBN: 1-887911-11-1
Production Code: BP03
Page Count: 128

Reading this today, it probably seems weird to open a review by questioning the wisdom of publishing a hardcover RPG supplement. At the time, though, this was a surprisingly controversial decision. With very few exceptions, RPG supplements were simply NOT hardcover books. There were certainly exceptions, but it was completely unprecedented for an entire line of RPG products to feature hardcovers. Even D&D wasn’t doing that!

There were, in fact, people who were really angry about this. They felt that RPG publishers were somehow ripping them off by charging premium prices for hardcovers. In reality, the hardcovers were generally only a few bucks more expensive than comparable softcovers of the time, but it wasn’t unusual to see someone ranting about how they would rather pay less for a softcover book.

The reality was that RPGs were becoming unprofitable to print, but fans were, in fact, extremely resistant to publishers increasing prices. (Nothing has really changed: People, of course, never like to see prices go up, but RPGs with print runs of a few thousand copies are frequently having their cover price compared to books with print runs of tens or hundreds of thousands of copies.)

The watershed moment for hardcover RPG supplements came when John Nephew, the founder of Atlas Games, posted a detailed breakdown of the design and production budget for Ars Magica supplements on the RPGNet forums. What it boiled down to was simple: It cost a little bit more to print a hardcover book, but the perceived/actual value of the hardcover meant that gamers were willing to pay a price high enough that publishers could actually afford to CREATE the book. Therefore, all future Ars Magica supplements would be hardcover books. It wasn’t long before the rest of the industry followed Atlas’ lead.

Even Wizards of the Coast was eventually dragged along: 3rd Party OGL publishers followed the same economic logic and began publishing hardcover books while Wizards was still publishing softcover B&W books. This contributed to the 3.5 Edition reboot of the game, which also allowed Wizards to reboot the D&D supplement line in more profitable (and competitive!) hardcovers.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.