The Alexandrian

Posts tagged ‘in the shadow of the spire’

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

Session 13A: At the Sinkhole’s Edge

Sun Tzu said:

As for deploying the army and fathoming the enemy: (…) After crossing rivers you must distance yourself from them. If the enemy is forging a river to advance, do not confront them in the water. When half their forces have crossed, it will be advantageous to strike them. If you want to engage the enemy in battle, do not array your forces near the river to confront the invader but look for tenable ground and occupy the heights.

Having some basic tactical acumen is a skill which I think is simultaneously overvalued and undervalued for Game Masters.

The Art of War - Sun Tzu (tran. Ralph D. Sawyer)Undervalued in part because there’s a prominent segment of the hobby that snootily holds its nose in the air and tries to draw a line between “roleplaying” and combat. (Which is weird, because mortal danger is a thing which artists have used to explore character since the dawn of narrative, and it feels more likely that you just aren’t very good at using combat in your roleplaying games than it is that roleplaying games are this special snowflake in which heightened stakes don’t have the same effect they do everywhere else.) And also because some gamers don’t feel that tactical knowledge is useful unless you’re playing a game with lots of “tactical rules”. (Whereas, in my experience, the less mechanical support you have for tactics, the more important it is for the GM to be familiar with them.)

Overvalued because there’s another segment of the hobby which places tactics on kind of a holy altar above all other concerns. (And there’s a chunk of this group which is not really interested in actual tactics at all, but rather in a very specific flavor of mechanical manipulation. A surprising number of these don’t actually spend much or any time playing at all, but do enjoy spinning spherical cows whenever they get the chance.) I’ve even met would-be GMs who don’t take the plunge because they believe they need to be able to match tactical wits with their players and feel as if they won’t be up to the task.

The thing about tactics in an RPG when you’re the GM is that there are four simple truths which make your relative tactical mastery (compared to the players) almost irrelevant:

  1. Just keep throwing more bad guys at the problem until you reach a tactical equilibrium. Maybe some other GM could challenge your players with five bad guys and you need nine of them. It doesn’t matter because (a) that other GM isn’t here and (b) you’re successfully challenging them.
  2. If your players create some tactical conundrum that you can’t figure out how to overcome, simply have your NPCs do whatever it is that they’re doing. Your players will show you how to beat their own best tactics.
  3. Encounters are cheap and your failure is the group’s success. You don’t want every encounter to be a pushover, but if you avoid the My Precious Encounter™ method of prep (and you should anyway, right?) then nothing of real value is “lost” if you throw up the occasional tactical dud, particularly since your players will be cheering their victory as they move on to the next encounter.
  4. You’ll get better with practice.

And as you get better with practice, you will find that some basic tactical acumen is valuable to have tucked away in your GM’s toolkit. When applied properly, it creates more interesting and varied encounters. Tactical thinking is, ultimately, creative thinking. And by presenting a variety of tactics, you will provoke creativity in your players.

The good news is that, in my experience, a little bit goes a long way here. Whole libraries full of books have been written about tactics, but in practice you only need a handful of basic techniques. (This is particularly true because you can dial difficulty with the number of opponents in addition to your own tactical genius.)

HALF ACROSS THE RIVER

As Tee was working to release Dominic from his harness, however, Tor suddenly gave a cry and drew his sword: The troughs of ooze were beginning to undulate. Tee whirled and drew her dragon pistol, blasting at the surface of the trough to her left. As she did so, the motions of the ooze became great waves which sickeningly shuddered their way from one end of the troughs to the other.

Here’s one such tactical technique: Engage the PCs when half of them have crossed the river.

This doesn’t have to be an actual river, of course. In the current session the “river” is the rope the PCs are using to climb down into the sinkhole: Tee and Tor climb down the rope and then, just after Dominic has been lowered but before he’s released from the harness, the oozes attack. Tee and Tor have crossed the river; Dominic is in the water; and the rest of the party (plus their goblin allies!) are still on the far side of the river.

There was a similar dilemma – also featuring height – back in Session 11 (when the PCs needed to climb down into the ruined fungal garden).

This tactical technique creates a great deal of complication at the very beginning of the fight. It can prevent PCs from achieving their ideal or “clean” engagement (whether that’s something they’ve carefully planned out or just the routine which has become habitual for them). It also forces the PCs to deal with whatever the “river” is dynamically while under the intense time constraints which are naturally part of the combat system.

A couple of things to keep in mind when using this technique:

First, don’t attack too soon. If you attack as soon as the first PC crosses the river, it can be too easy for them to pull back. Let several of the PCs commit themselves across the transition and then attack (from hiding, from the next room, from the Ethereal Plane, whatever). Roughly half the party is a good rule of thumb, but won’t necessarily apply in all circumstances.

Second, remember that the attack can also target the characters who haven’t made the transition yet. You can even occasionally have bad guys hit both sides of the “river” simultaneously. (This can create a tougher fight, but can, paradoxically, actually result in less tactical complexity, as the PCs will usually just settle into two largely separate fights on each side of the “river”.)

Third, make sure that the bad guys take advantage of the “river” to best effect. (If it’s a literal river, for example, maybe they push the PCs into it when they charge.) This works particularly well if the bad guys have special abilities that are enhanced by the “river”, take advantage of the “river”, or allow them to ignore the “river”. (This often happens naturally in fantasy settings because bad guys are often themed to their environment; oozes in a cavern of ooze, for example.)

SETUP

There was trepidation among those standing at the edge of the sinkhole and surrounded by rotting fungus, sickly slime, and malformed corpses. Tee, in particular, harbored deep misgivings. To her the sinkhole was filled with a horrible foreboding and a sense of nameless doom.

Unless the bad guys are proactively pursuing the PCs, I tend to spend little or no time prepping tactics for them ahead of time. I find it leads to a lot of wasted prep and I think it’s simply far more interesting to tactically react in real time to what the PCs are doing. That’s one of the reasons this sort of Swiss Army knife of tactical techniques is so useful: You just spin out whatever’s appropriate while actively playing the NPCs.

SharkThis particular technique is great because it often doesn’t require any setup at all. The PCs will usually do it to themselves. You can see that with the rope in the current session. If you think back to the near TPK in Session 7, that was due to the players allowing themselves to become sufficiently separated in featureless water that they had effectively “crossed the river” and could only reach each other with time-consuming difficulty.

Later in the campaign, the group got their hands on a ring of teleport. I was initially concerned that easy, unlimited access to teleport magic might be too powerful for where the campaign was at. But since the entire party can’t teleport in a single use of the ring, it turns out the more aggressive they get with using the ring tactically, the more likely they are to “cross the river” as the characters in the initial teleport desperately try to maintain a beachhead during the long rounds it takes for the wearer of the ring to cycle back and forth. (Or, conversely, hold out during the teleport-enabled retreat.)

So all you need to do is keep your eyes open: When the PCs have stretched themselves out and effectively separated themselves across a barrier requiring time, effort, or both to cross, that’s your “river”. And that’s when the bad guys should attack!

Ptolus - In the Shadow of the Spire

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

SESSION 13A: AT THE SINKHOLE’S EDGE

December 16th, 2007
The 1st Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

There was trepidation among those standing at the edge of the sinkhole and surrounded by rotting fungus, sickly slime, and malformed corpses. Tee, in particular, harbored deep misgivings. To her the sinkhole was filled with a horrible foreboding and a sense of nameless doom.

But when the group decided, collectively, that there was no other path to follow, she had no hesitation in leading the way. Agnarr hammered a piton into the rock of the cavern floor and she quickly tied off one of their ropes.

Tee worked her way down the rope, reversing herself in mid-air as she came level with where the bottom of the sinkhole opened up into a larger cavern. Peering over the ceiling’s edge she found herself looking down into a long hall.

The near end of the hall, just beyond where the sinkhole was located, had completely collapsed. In the opposite direction, two enormous troughs — each running at least eighty feet along the length of the hall – were filled to the brim with the insidious olive slime. Beyond these troughs, the hall ended in a short flight of stairs and a set of double doors wrought from iron.

Tee stared into this hall for a long while, but perceived no motion or threat of danger. When she was satisfied, she reversed herself again and completed her climb. Looking up, she motioned for the others to follow.

Tor was next, and he quickly joined Tee below. But Dominic, who was to follow, had no confidence in his ability to manage the long climb. So a crude harness was furnished from another rope, and Agnarr lowered the priest to the hall below.

THE WARCASTER

As Tee was working to release Dominic from his harness, however, Tor suddenly gave a cry and drew his sword: The troughs of ooze were beginning to undulate.
(more…)

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

Session 12C: To the Aid of Goblins

Final Fantasy VII - Allies

“The rest will be needed here. To hold the bridge,” Itarek said. “And they would not last long against the horrors that we have seen.”

Here’s something that I wish I was better at as a GM: Running NPC allies accompanying the PCs.

The internet is filled with horror stories of the dreaded “GMPC” – where the GM essentially tries to be a player in their own campaign by running a character indistinguishable from being another PC in the party. Although technically possible (and you can find a few success stories here and there), what usually happens is that the GMPC becomes the unabashed star / spotlight hog of the entire campaign and/or is used to forcibly railroad the players.

Because, frankly, the GM already controls the entire world, which should be power and participation enough for anyone. So 99 times out of 100, for a GMPC to exist there has to be some other shitty agenda motivating it in the first place.

The idea of running a GMPC isn’t just an obvious anathema to my whole ethos as an RPG gamer, I’m pretty sure it’s something I’m actually incapable of doing.

When circumstances, like those in the current campaign journal, dictate that NPCs will be allying with the PCs and traveling with them for some length of time, what generally happens is a simple, three-step process:

  1. I make an effort to make sure those NPCs are contributing and present in the group.
  2. I get distracted.
  3. “Oh, crap. Right. Robert is here. Uh… I guess he was standing in the back this whole time?”

Itarek and the other goblins in the current sessions actually work out pretty well because so much of their time onscreen is spent in raid-type or combat situations, which means that I’ve got an initiative list which constantly pushes them back into the center of my attention.

It’s odd, really, because I can successfully run incredibly complex social interactions featuring dozens of characters without a hitch. But as soon as an NPC gets firmly aligned with the PCs, it feels almost inevitable that they’re going to turn invisible.

I think there’s probably a couple of factors at play here.

First, to pat myself on the back a little bit, I am usually pushing myself to the limits of my mental gymnastics when it comes to running a game. I’m a pretty big believer in the idea that there’s always another element you could be adding to improve your game, it’s just a question of whether or not you can. So if something seems non-essential, it’s easy for it to get replaced by a different ball and fade away unnoticed.

Second, I think I have a strong, instinctual predilection towards viewing NPC allies as non-essential. One of my primary pleasures as a GM is seeing how player-driven decisions interact with the situations I’ve created in the game world. NPC allies, who should logically and naturally become part of the group’s decision-making process, aren’t just superfluous to that creative agenda, they’re actually kind of innately hostile to it.

GMPCs being anathema to my values as a gamer? I meant that pretty literally.

So whenever things heat up in the campaign, NPC allies are just naturally the first thing to get dropped in favor of almost literally anything else.

When you have a weakness like this, there’s generally three things you can do about it. First, you can steer away from it. And you will, in fact, notice that it’s a rather rare day when you’ll see me deliberately pushing scenarios in which NPCs will naturally ally with the PCs. (When allies do crop up, it’s far more likely to be because the PCs are seeking them out.)

Second, you can focus on improving it. In the case of losing focus on NPC allies, part of that is just literally focusing, of course. But you can also try other methods of keeping the NPC in the forefront of your brain. Giving them a unique miniature, for example, can help. (Although in some of the chaotic battlefields I run, they can still get lost.) An idea that just occurred to me as I was writing this: Clip a picture of the NPC ally to the inside of my GM screen so that the NPC is literally looking me in the eye. (Not sure why something so obvious has never occurred to me before.)

Third, find alternative techniques to achieve the same ends. For example, I’ll often kick an NPC ally to one of the players and ask them to run them as a secondary character if at all possible. (Often it isn’t, unfortunately, because the NPC has an independent agenda that can’t be assumed by the players, for reasons rather similar, actually, to why GMs shouldn’t be running GMPCs.) For NPC allies that are sticking around for awhile, I’ve even been known to invite in temporary players to assume the role. Having a co-GM who can focus on the areas where you’re weak can also be effective.

When you can have successes in the areas where you’re weak, of course, you’ll enjoy a real sense of accomplishment. That turned out to be the case with Itarek and his goblins, who came – as you’ll begin to see in Session 13 – to assume a very special place in the campaign.

Ptolus - In the Shadow of the Spire

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

SESSION 12C: TO THE AID OF GOBLINS

December 2nd, 2007
The 1st Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

In the carriage on their way back to the Ghostly Minstrel the group discussed its plans. A consensus was reached that they should return to the aid of the Clan of the Torn Ear.

And so it was, early the next morning, that they found themselves working their way back through the increasingly familiar tunnels beneath Greyson House. Passing through the vaulted passages of Ghul’s Labyrinth they made their way into the caverns of the goblins.

As they came to the cave of stalactites and stalagmites where they had first met Itarek, Tee was hailed by a goblin they did not know.

He knew them, however, and welcomed them back to the caverns of the clan. Only two of the clan were on duty here now. The true danger lay elsewhere, but the clan had an ancestral duty to guard this passage.

The goblin dispatched his fellow guard to escort them to the chieftess. Crashekka greeted them in her great hall. Few goblins were to be found there now, and she explained that nearly all of the clan had been placed as a guard upon the stone bridge.

“Have you been attacked again?” Tee asked.

“Not yet,” Crashekka told her. “But we live in fear of an assault. I am glad to see you again. Without you I fear we would be lost.”

Crashekka personally led them to the stone bridge, and there they met with Itarek. He reported to them that there had been no sign of movement within the noisome caves beyond, but no further attempt to breach them, either.

Itarek gathered to him his three finest warriors.

“Is that all that can come?” Elestra asked, with Tee translating.

“The rest will be needed here. To hold the bridge,” Itarek said. “And they would not last long against the horrors that we have seen.”

Tee nodded her understanding, and then saw to distributing the cindershards they had purchased. Each of the six companions had one strapped to their body in one way or another, and a seventh was given to Itarek.

Ten of them crossed the bridge – six from the surface world and four of the clan. (more…)

 IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

Session 12B: A Party at Castle Shard

Ptolus - Castle Shard Invitation

It was not the evening that any of them had expected – it had been both more and less than that. But it was an evening that none of them would ever forget.

I’ve had a couple of people mention, when they realized what the heart of Session 12 was going to be, that they were interested in seeing what the Party Planning game structure I wrote up awhile back would look like in actual play. Unfortunately, this is one of those occasions where the nature of writing up a campaign journal entry creates something of a distortion field.

Everything that’s described in the campaign journal actually happened at the table, of course, but events have been both rearranged and heavily condensed. My goal was not, in fact, to provide a transcript of the session, but rather an effective summary that could serve as both entertainment and reference document as the campaign moved forward.

Perhaps the most significant “deception” to be found here, for example, is the degree to which the campaign journal fails to represent how much cutting back and forth there was between scenes: When the party split up and went to talk to a bunch of different people, I would engage in conversation for a couple of minutes and then swap to another group and then again and then again. These interactions have not only been boiled down to their key highlights, they’ve also generally been grouped together into complete conversations.

With this limitations in mind, however, let’s take a closer look at how the Party at Castle Shard worked in actual play.

SETTING IT UP

To start, let’s consider what the function of the party was. This was several fold, actually:

  • It was a reward for their hard work. In Getting the Players to Care I talk about how one of the methods of doing that is to make it treasure. This is a somewhat unusual variant on that principle, but by making this party clearly part of the lavish pay-off for the hard work (and near death experiences) they had put in for Lord Zavere, the players became deeply invested in the party and were anticipating it for months in the real world.
  • It was a signal that the PCs had risen to a new level in the world. This inherently meant closing one “chapter” of the campaign and beginning the next.
  • It was an opportunity to introduce a bunch of new characters, drastically expanding the supporting cast of the campaign and setting up relationships that would drive the campaign forward into Act II (which is still a little ways down the road at this point, but which was definitely on my horizon).

It was also, of course, intended to be an entertaining evening of gaming.

THE GUEST LIST

Ptolus - Lord Zavere and Lady Rill

Let’s take a moment to look at the new characters I was introducing here. There were a total of eighteen guests at the party (not including the PCs), of which five were previously known to the PCs.

Familiar Faces: The familiar faces were quite intentional. First, because it would provide islands of familiarity for the PCs to fall back upon (and around which social interactions with the new NPCs could coalesce). Second, because the PCs had been compartmentalizing the various aspects of their lives and I knew that bringing some of these aspects together (and most likely overlapping with each other) would create dramatic tension.

New Faces: Nonetheless, throwing more than a dozen new NPCs at the players all at once may seem like a lot at first glance. But the party planning structure is designed to break them up into smaller groups, and introduce them in manageable chunks.

More importantly, I’ve found that it can be quite effective to introduce a bunch of new characters in a cluster (whether all at once in a party like this or just rapidly over the course of a few sessions) and then have spans where only established characters are being reintroduced. If I was going to theorize about why this works, I would say it’s partly because some NPCs will “click” with players and some won’t, and when you introduce them in clusters your focus will naturally be drawn towards the NPCs who are resonating. (You’ll notice that this echoes, at a macro-level, something I talk about in Party Planning at a micro-level.)

But it’s also because having all of these new characters interact with and collide with each other is a great way of revealing character; and also a great way of drawing the PCs into their drama.

Stacking Interesting NPCs: The other way I think about this technique is that I’m “stacking” interesting NPCs. It’s like I’m laying in a supply. Each NPC is a tool, but you can often let the PCs figure out how they’ll actually end up getting “used” down the line.

For example, look at how the PCs pursue selling the orrery they found in Ghul’s Labyrinth here, creating a plot thread that will run for several more sessions. You’ll also want to pay attention to how the PCs’ relationship with Aoska develops in the future.

Of course, in some cases I’m planting NPCs in order to very specifically set things up in the future. The great thing is that, if you do your job right, the players won’t be able to figure out which is which. Honestly, if you do it right, then down the line you’ll probably have difficulty looking back and remembering which was which.

BANG, BANG

“Ah, Mistress Tee!” Zavere’s deep baritone called out to her. “Perhaps you could help me talk some sense into Leytha Doraedian.”

With something of a sick feeling in her stomach, Tee turned. It was true. Doraedian was standing there with Lord Zavere. He had a look of absolute surprise on his face.

Which touches on a wider design ethos: Your party has a location, a guest list, a main event sequence, and topics of conversation. If you want to create a truly kick-ass party, your primary design goal is to liberally seed all of these elements with moments of dramatic potential.

Note that I didn’t say dramatic moments. I said moments of dramatic potential. The actual dramatic moments will arise out of that potential during actual play. What you’ll find even more surprising is how these varied moments of dramatic potential will begin interacting with each in ways you never anticipated.

For example, when it came to Tee’s mentor, Leytha Doraedian, I had only a single note:

Surprised to see Tee at Castle Shard.

I didn’t know how (or even when) that surprise would manifest, exactly, but I think the dramatic potential in it is clear.

In my Topics of Conversation, I had listed:

Argument between Doraedian, Zavere, and Moynath about the Commissar’s weak attitude towards the Balacazars.

It was only as the events of the party actually played out that Tee became the character who approached this debate in progress and these two moments joined together to create the very memorable scene you see in the campaign journal. (Nor had I anticipated the way in which Tee’s earlier interactions with the Commissar would increase her own tension and confusion over this topic.)

Many of these dramatic moments can be thought of as bangs around which scenes (or mini-scenes) can be framed during the party. But others are just angles of tension (old relationships, new debates, hidden agendas), and the bang will be discovered during play as these elements interact with each other.

And some of your bangs may not ignite. For example, the Graven One has a bad history with the Inverted Pyramid and I wrote, “His cold indifference with the Inverted Pyramid will manifest itself if he interacts with Jevicca Nor.” But in the organic ebb and flow of the party, that never happened. (Which is, of course, just fine.)

In other cases, of course, the PCs will aggressively pursue agendas and create bangs (either directly or indirectly) that you had no way of anticipating. Make sure you don’t miss those moments! Pursue them aggressively!

A STRONG START

“Master Ranthir!” The Iron Mage cried, crossing the room towards him and resuming his scan of the room. “Mistress Tee! Agnarr, Elestra, and Dominic! Master Tor! To my side! I have an errand for you!”

All of this talk about discovering things during play aside, there’s no reason to be afraid of having some strong, pre-designed moments. The sudden appearance of the Iron Mage is one such Ptolus - The Iron Mageexample of this: It’s a very strong bang that demands a response from the PCs.

In many ways, this is the primary function of the Main Event Sequence: You let things play out organically, but if you feel like the current pool of dramatic tension is being exhausted, trigger the next event, which will usually be some strong, dramatic moment – perhaps accompanied by a specific bang the PCs need to react to – which will cause all the pieces of the party to suddenly move in new directions and begin a fresh set of collisions.

One place where you’ll want to make a point of stocking these ready-to-go moments is at the very beginning of the party: You want a good, strong start to set things in motion. Once you’ve got some momentum built up, the action will generally begin driving itself. But you’ve got to get that momentum going.

You can see this in the Party at Castle Shard with the opening sequence of events, which, in my notes, I actually separated out as a separate event track labeled “Arrival – Events”:

  • Arrival (Kadmus greets them and leads them to Zavere’s private office; they’re eyed by other guests who are being taken directly upstairs)
  • Meeting with Zavere (chance to spot the writing on the map; Zavere tells them Linech’s burrow has been destroyed; he personally escorts them to the ballroom)
  • Rehobath and the Commissar (Kadmus barring their entry; a loud argument; Zavere smooths things over)
  • Guests of Special Honor (Zavere introduces them as “guests deserving of much honor, for their recent service to both myself and to the interests of the City of Ptolus” in order to needle the Commissar)

This sequence introduces them to a handful of characters; gives everyone a chance to start warming up to social interactions; and gives the PCs two BIG bangs. I don’t know what their reaction to those bangs will be, but they’re pretty much guaranteed to color how the rest of the party progresses.

You can also see how I used these first moments to establish, in brief, several key pieces of exposition which would be major hubs for the rest of the party:

  • Conflict between Zavere and the Commissar.
  • Destruction of Linech Cran’s burrow (which could have also been learned before the party if the PCs had been seeking information, but they were stuck underground).
  • The other guests are intrigued by the PCs being included on the guest list.

And, really, that’s all it takes to get the ball rolling.

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