Comments on: The Three Laws of Emergent Story Motion http://tally.fatratgames.net/2008/05/05/the-three-laws-of-emergent-story-motion/ Hosting rpg campaigns in Tallahassee since 1992 Sun, 14 Mar 2010 06:31:39 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: daHeadRat http://tally.fatratgames.net/2008/05/05/the-three-laws-of-emergent-story-motion/comment-page-1/#comment-20 daHeadRat Tue, 06 May 2008 15:15:21 +0000 http://tally.fatratgames.net/?p=8#comment-20 The start of a campaign strikes me as having a lot of pitfalls from the perspective on an emergent story. Unless the GM has provided a clear indication of the basic premise of the game and the setting and the players have created characters who goals, motivations, and back stories that tie in well with the premise and setting, the start will feel fairly contrived and forced. Although the GM and players can sit down and establish the setting and premise as a collaborative activity, it typically doesn’t work that way. Instead, the GM typically establishes the setting and has the initial adventure in mind (if not an entire “adventure path”) before the players create their characters. When this is the case, it is important that the players know what is in store and “buy” in on the premise and setting and create appropriate characters. At the start of the Ptolus campaign, I didn’t provide this clear indication. Instead, the players each had been provided the Ptolus Player’s Guide (a good intro to the setting) and allowed to create whatever characters they wanted with a single premise in mind: they needed to have some "hook" to have brought their character to the city of Ptolus. I had planned on using the standard Ptolus adventures starting with the attack on Phon and going on through the Banewarrens. I probably could have provided some sort of information on this to help the players build characters that would naturally “hook” into this meta-plot but I didn’t. As a result, I got a pretty mixed bag of “hooks” (or lack thereof) for why the characters had arrived in Ptolus (see the character descriptions in the <a href="http://tally.fatratgames.net/2008/05/03/ptolus-campaign/" rel="nofollow">Ptolus Journal</a> post). Amaryllis had the most concrete hook—she had come to Ptolus tracking down slavers who had taken, and later killed, her brother in the hopes of stopping their vile trade. Ellywick and James had each come to Ptolus to learn something more about their characters but left it pretty vague (she about her sorcerous powers and he about why he was spared from death and ended up with a scar in the shape of the holy symbol of Lothian). Rodlat really didn’t have any hook…he had been traveling with his mentor to the city but wound up the only survivor of a shipwreck. So, instead of already having “bought” in on the initial premise, the characters (and players) came in cold and I fell back on the old technique of introducing a colorful and memorable NPC and then later appealing to the characters’ (and players’) inherent sense of adventure and goodness via the bard Al Kaline the Third and then later a cry for help from a dark alleyway. The start of a campaign strikes me as having a lot of pitfalls from the perspective on an emergent story. Unless the GM has provided a clear indication of the basic premise of the game and the setting and the players have created characters who goals, motivations, and back stories that tie in well with the premise and setting, the start will feel fairly contrived and forced. Although the GM and players can sit down and establish the setting and premise as a collaborative activity, it typically doesn’t work that way. Instead, the GM typically establishes the setting and has the initial adventure in mind (if not an entire “adventure path”) before the players create their characters. When this is the case, it is important that the players know what is in store and “buy” in on the premise and setting and create appropriate characters.

At the start of the Ptolus campaign, I didn’t provide this clear indication. Instead, the players each had been provided the Ptolus Player’s Guide (a good intro to the setting) and allowed to create whatever characters they wanted with a single premise in mind: they needed to have some “hook” to have brought their character to the city of Ptolus. I had planned on using the standard Ptolus adventures starting with the attack on Phon and going on through the Banewarrens. I probably could have provided some sort of information on this to help the players build characters that would naturally “hook” into this meta-plot but I didn’t.

As a result, I got a pretty mixed bag of “hooks” (or lack thereof) for why the characters had arrived in Ptolus (see the character descriptions in the Ptolus Journal post). Amaryllis had the most concrete hook—she had come to Ptolus tracking down slavers who had taken, and later killed, her brother in the hopes of stopping their vile trade. Ellywick and James had each come to Ptolus to learn something more about their characters but left it pretty vague (she about her sorcerous powers and he about why he was spared from death and ended up with a scar in the shape of the holy symbol of Lothian). Rodlat really didn’t have any hook…he had been traveling with his mentor to the city but wound up the only survivor of a shipwreck.

So, instead of already having “bought” in on the initial premise, the characters (and players) came in cold and I fell back on the old technique of introducing a colorful and memorable NPC and then later appealing to the characters’ (and players’) inherent sense of adventure and goodness via the bard Al Kaline the Third and then later a cry for help from a dark alleyway.

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