the Next Step

[Zylo]

Well I and my fellow gamers have been doing Dnd for a few years now. (Yes we are all Young whippersnappers around the ages of 18-20) We have done the basic dungeon crawls, saved the princess and the world. My question is what is the next step. I’ve listened to this podcast for a while now and what I hear discussed here and on the rest of the web sounds nothing like the Dnd I’m used to. (It sounds a lot better) So what do me and my group need to do to ascend to the next level of role-playing and finally start playing what I’m going to call a “Real campaign”.

[Lord Z]

That is a great question for a feature presentation, Zylo.

To get some discussion started, I'll post something off the top of my head. Think about what aspects of the game that you and your players enjoyed the most. Exploit those by manipulating by creating a campaign concept that emphasizes these aspects of the game.

If you aren't sure what to emphasize, have a conversation. You don't have to commit to any specific ideas. Just set aside ten or twenty minutes to speak with the players about what type games they think they would be the most interested in trying.
To get the proverbial ball rolling, you could ask them what pieces of literature (movies, tv shows, novels, comic books, etc.) would make fun games. Ask, "why?" Different themes will emerge. Maybe your group likes being heroes, legendary or even myth figures championing justice. Maybe your group likes management, politics, & intrigue. Take some of these suggestions and make a campaign proposal for the group to either accept or reject. You can always keep one or two of those themes as your own secret to introduce later.

A couple of resources come to mind also. C.O.R.E. has a chapter about creating campaigns based around tones & themes. You can find it here as a .doc or there as a .odt for Open Office. Wait a minute, that's not the latest version. Oh well, the Director's Notes start on Page 27, but it is mostly system specific stuff. You could just ahead to Stories & Series on Page 42. The section on tones & themes is on Page 44. Creating a Screenplay (a campaign world) by answering a series of simple questions starts on Page 50. The example Screenplay given is Jane Austin RPG. There is a guidesheet for creating screenplays on Page 53.

The second resource that comes to mind is for the player who doesn't know what tones and themes he wants to use. I am thinking of Lonnie's novel writing course. Very early in the system, Lonnie uses a some exercises to help the beginning novelist decide what type of novel she wants to write and what its plot should be. I don't see any reason why this technique couldn't be used to great effect in creating an original campaign.

[Iconoclast_]

Here are some ideas.

1. Check out other RPG books. Not for another game to play, but rather for ideas to improve your D&D game. While there is a ton of material for D&D games (literally, though I doubt you could afford it all), there are also lots of great ideas out there that were published in other RPG systems that you can use in your games. Here are a few suggestions.

Teenagers from Outer space. Sci-Fi comedy set in a high school after an alien "invasion" of sorts. Can teach you what works in terms of humor, or be played when you need a break from slaying orcs.
Ars Magica. A more serious fantasy setting, about wizards living in dark ages europe. Provides a lot of information on the life of someone under feudalism, which can help flesh out your game world.
Amber Diceless. One of the earliest diceless systems to be published, can teach you when dice rolls are necessary, and when you do without them.
Rolemaster or MERP. While this game is VERY tables heavy, you should check out Arms Law & Claw Law and see if you can't learn something from the descriptions of critical hits they present.
Palladium Fantasy. If only so you can see what a setting looks like when Dwarves and Elves DON"T get along.
Hackmaster. A different take on the D&D game, from people who've been doing it for a really long time.

I'm sure other people will have some suggestions (Mouseguard seems popular right now), but I'm restricting myself to stuff I have on my shelves. Note, some of these RPGs will have to be picked up used at a bookstore or on E-bay.

2. Ask yourself, "Is my group happy playing D&D right now?"

I'm going to assume the answer is "yes", as if the answer is "no" you can just take the above suggestion and use it to look for a new RPG.

Now the question becomes "Where does the group want to go from here?" Does your group just want to bash monsters, or do they get enough of that playing WOW? Do they want to try their hand at a little bit of politics, getting close to the nobility and trying to join their ranks (through marriage or money), or does a political game sound like a bore to them? Is your group interested in building a power base and forming a legacy for the next generation after them, maybe creating a multi-generational game? Does your group have any long term goals beyond just killing monsters and building a pile of wealth and artifacts to slay larger monsters with?

Likely, your group will want some combination of all of these things, action, politics, legacy-building, and furthering their non-combat based goals.

Hob-nobbing with the upper class can get them jobs for further adventures, help them acquire land grants to build a mansion or castle, and advance whatever long-term goals their character is striving towards, whether it's the quest for immortality, fame, wealth and power, knowledge, revenge, or just improving their family's (or species') status in the world.

Building a power base, with a manor house, castle, grounds, farms, and defenses to protect these assets, will provide adventures to go on, give the characters a place to entertain people in power and ask for favors, help provide for their families, and help them advance whatever goals they have.

Finally, ask the players what the long-term goals of their characters are. This will provide a lot of information to create new adventures with. Often, their long-term goals can conflict with the shorter term goals, forcing the player to make a decision of what they are looking to accomplish at the moment, and what they are willing to sacrifice to get what they want.

In writing, conflict drives a story, and in gaming, the same is true. It's just a matter of deciding what kind of conflict you want to tell a story about.

3. Where do you and your group want to start making changes?

Are you running the game from a published setting, or from a homebrew setting you created?

If it's a published setting, then see if all the players are happy with it or if there's another setting they'd rather play in (dragonlance instead of forgotten realms, eberon instead of greyhalk).

If it's a homebrew setting, then ask how fleshed out the world is, and what you can do to make it more real for your players. See what your world mythology is like (creation myth, world history, popular legends) and what you can add to it. Get your players involved in helping flesh out the world's history, maybe writing up a race's history for some experience points and magic items. Maybe even start from the beginning, with the players as the first generation of gods, shaping the world to their liking, forming the PC races, and then playing the next game in the world they themselves created.

If the players are perfectly happy playing in the game setting, then look at the direction the game is going in and make sure it's where they desire to go with their characters. Do they want the adventures to have more romance? Do they want to do more to help the common person in your world? Do they want to deal more with the nobility and royals, attending dances and parties between dungeon delves? Do they want to carve out a place for themselves in the world, acquiring land and peasants, or a wizard's tower and library? Do they want to form their own clan and begin the conquest of the monster lands to the west, creating their own nation from the wild and unfriendly territory beyond the borders?

There are a lot of places you can go with your game, but where do you (and your gaming group) WANT to go with your game?

More to come...

[TheMetal1]

Zylo,

FYI, Steve and I give our take on your question in 99.94.

[Lord Z]

And it's gooood stuff.

[Iconoclast_]

Okay, so I said I'd have more, and I'm in the mood for a bit of philosophy.

We are all likely familiar with old Gamist, Simulationist, Narrativist, debate, about how a gamer approaches a game focusing on either Gameplay, Rules Realism, or the Story they want to tell. But while this debate focuses on the player (or GM, or game designer) I'm interesting in what are the three elements of a CHARACTER.

So, are there three primary elements of a character, and if so, what are they?

Well, the three I've come up with are Ability, Personality, and Relationships. Let me explain. (because just about everything I say seems to need explanation)

Ability is, well... Just about EVERYTHING on your character sheet. This one word I'm using to sum up most of what we use to describe our character, your stats, your skills, your talents and special powers. Maybe, this can also include your equipment.

Next is Personality. Again, it's pretty straightforward, as this is how you play your character, his backstory and reactions to events. Sometimes this is well defined when you create your character, other times it's vague and needs to defined through game play.

It's the third aspect I'm going to focus on for this discussion, the aspect I feel is too often missed by gamers, Relationships.

Relationships are an important part of our lives, but too often in games, we relegate this to the other PCs, treating the NPCs in game as tools we can use, rather than actual people. Perhaps your group is different, but if not, I'll offer some suggestions to bring out this aspect of the game.

Friends and Acquaintances.

To encourage your players to think of NPCs as people your PC interacts with on a regular basis, put a "relationships" list box on the character sheets your players use. When they encounter a NPC who they consider interesting, have then list that character in the Relationships box. If they've only just met briefly, or example a friendly merchant, that person is an Acquaintance. If they did a quest or significant favor for that person, then they've just made a new Friend. Use this to encourage your players to see the people in the world as potential friends, who can offer the PCs quests that grant them experience points.

Hey, it worked for Facebook...

Family.

Too often players run the Orphan character, a PC who's "parents were killed by..." sometime before the game starts. While this was fresh and original in 1939, when Bob Kane did this with Batman, now it's become tired and cliche. Typically, the PC will walk the earth with no family and a chip on their shoulder.
This is acceptable once in a rare while, but after Orphan PC adventurer #729, it gets old FAST.

So how to get the player to make a character who's parents are actually ALIVE when the game starts?

Have the players make a list of every living, or now dead but significant, family member they knew growing up. Encourage them to compile the list by giving out 5 xp per family member. Making a family for a PC is rather easy, just a name, relationship, and a paragraph of their significance to the PC. For example...

Name: Uncle Bob.
Relationship: Uncle (mother's side).
Description: Uncle Bob taught young Lancelot how to use a sword when he was young.

This will give players some bonus experience points for their character to start with, flesh out their backstory a bit more, and hand you some NPCs they can interact with (and use to pass out quests). It's Win-Win in my book.

But how do you, as the GM, use these family members? Maybe, you don't, but you instead have the players do that for you.

Am I crazy? Probably, but let's find out.

Using Meta-Gaming to improve Immersion.

Typically, GMs see meta-gaming as a bad thing, it's something that takes players out of the game and makes them think of the game they're playing as some entertainment construct. The infamous line "Oh, the GM won't kill us off here, we haven't even found out who big boss is yet." is the bane of many a GM's existence.

But what if you could use Meta-Gaming to actually improve immersion?

At this point most of you have already labeled me as crazy. Are you right?

What if you could give the players a reason to want to come back to their family, to want to help out their family, and even to endanger their family members, all though some strange meta-gaming mechanics you add to your D&D game?
Can such a thing even be done?

Disclaimer, I'm assuming you're playing the latest version of D&D, but if you're not playing 4th edition, this could still apply.

How about if you give all the players four cards. On one card is written the word "illness". On another card is written "kidnapped". On the others is "extortion" and "indebted".

You're probably saying something like "huh?" or "why?"

Well, in 4th edition, there's something called an Action Point, which gives you an extra move in that round. This is an encounter power, so you can only spend it once per fight with a group of baddies, normally. So how do you use this Action Point to encourage the player to visit and help out their relatives?

Create a meta-gaming mechanic to encourage the player to use one of the four "endangerment" cards on one of their relatives, and in exchange, they can "reset" their spent action point, allowing them a second use of their action point. Alternately, if you want, they can also do this to reset a used encounter power, so they can use it a second time.

We'll call this mechanic "Karma", as they have something good happen to them, but then have something bad happen to them in the future. Obviously, with four cards, they can do this up to four times per adventure. Each time a different affliction on a different family member.

Now, when the adventure is over, they know they'll have another adventure in the future when they go to the next family reunion, or visit Uncle Bob's house. Better still, they'll have a degree of control over this, so they don't complain that you're "always screwing with my family to get back at me". If something bad is happening to their family, they'll know exactly why.

But what happened to their family member?

Well, first off, you don't want to go killing off family members. They serve as a nice quest hub, and the players even endanger them for you, leading to future quests. However, the player will be offering you the chance to start a new quest for the group, based on the card they played on that family member.

Let's say one of our players played an "illness" card on Aunt Flo. They visit her to see what happened after the dungeon crawl. There are a few things you can do here. The illness that hit Aunt Flo may just require a very expensive medicine, so the PC has to spend some of their money to save their relative. Alternatively, you could have the PCs visit the Apothecary themselves to get the medicine, only to learn the Apothecary is out of Unicorn Tail Hairs, so the PCs have to hurry and pluck the tail hairs of a local unicorn to grab the reagent so they can get the medicine to their aunt in time.

It can be as simple or as complex as you like.

Now, in the next adventure, another player uses the "Kidnapped" card on their Niece. Knowing their niece was kidnapped, they then rush to her home. What do you do?
One option is to have her kidnapped by bandits who knew the PCs had just pulled loot out of a dungeon, so they hold her for ransom. Do the PCs pay the ransom, or show the bandits they don't mess with this group or their family, possibly risking her life in the process?
Alternately, they could arrive at her home and find she's just fine, waving at them from the porch as they approach. So what happened?
Possibly the girl was kidnapped, and the niece they see is a changeling, there to make sure no one suspects she's really been abducted. The PCs slowly find out as she starts to act odd, or remembers events incorrectly.
Or maybe the "kidnapping" isn't of her body, but of her memories. She's been possessed by a malevolent psionic entity that's eating her mind and memories. They watch as the young girl starts to forget her life, and needs help, that maybe the PCs can't provide unless they hire an expert.

Likewise, the "extortion" and "indebted" cards can be played obviously, with a simple straightforward solution, or you can make it more complex, where the PCs have to find out what happened, and then go on a significant quest to solve the problem.

Does the family member who's being extorted even want the PCs to know what it is? Is the Indebted family member short on money for their taxes, or a chronic gambler who needs help beyond just what they owe?

There are multiple ways of handling this, depending on how you want your game to go. But it's something that can improve immersion through, of all things, meta-gaming. If you want to try it.

Of course, if you are playing an earlier version of D&D, you may have to change things a bit, by using "Karma" to reset a spent spell, or allow the player to use a feat they don't yet have. However you want to do it and think is best for your game.

Well, good luck with it. Hope this helps your game.

[Lord Z]

Ico No Clast! Thank you for explaining slowly and in detail. Yes, I would have asked for clarifications.

The Rogue Trader game uses background elements from character creation to establish relationships. Background elements are written graphically on a large chart for an entire group of PCs. Whenever two lifepaths cross, a relationship forms. For example, maybe two characters both studied in a military academy. Well then, that is where they met, and they have been friends ever since they were teenagers. Anyway, that is how the game was explained in a creator interview on the Accidental Survivors Podcast. I thought you might be interested in how another game implements a similar concept.

Your philosophy is flawless and well presented. Your example, however, needs some work. Isn't one enounter power or even daily power in D&D4 a bad trade for a plot complication that could set back the PCs for several game sessions? If I were a player and in tactical-mind-mode, I would be viewing this boon as way too expensive. Furthermore, an exploitive player could use this same system to move us away from out goal by exploiting the family and ignoring the consequences. (Hey! I have no alignment!)

If I may suggest a slight variation, instead of cards create a chart. Random charts are more exciting because they involve another roll. Include a small chance that the PC oneself will be the victim of bad luck. If you want to encourage use of the chart, make it relatively benign by giving a majority chance that nothing bad will happen or a negligible complication occurs. If you want to discourage going to the chart, make the reward small and increase the odds of a bad outcome. If you want to make going to the karma chart really exciting, give a big bonus for going to the chart, give a chance of a second good bonus in the chart itself, but also make the worst outcomes more common really really bad. HackMaster 4th edition had similar random event charts.