Loss and struggle: a manifesto

So having things the PCs are 'supposed' to do is something I try to avoid. For the boss fights, usually I design a non-straight combat solution, that isn't 100% obvious but isn't totally ad hoc or nonsensical either.

We talked about this at your place Paul, so I feel okay saying it here to the group on DiD:B. Take for example, the final fight with Vrill/Croatius in DiD1. The straight combat approach was basically a poor one, and you all knew it. As a hint, I stopped combat, and had the NPC make some big statement and pause for your response. If Vrill launched into battle without giving you guys a chance, then that's a signal that straight combat should be satisfactory. But straight combat gets pretty boring, and I didn't want DiD1 to end with a bunch of useless blogrolls.

So the solution I had in mind was to use the Potion of Zelba on dead Sarah. I thought that would be satisfying- defeating Vrill with a potion, of all things, and raising the probability that Marivhon would have something to do with his final death, as Mar seemed the most invested. But I didn't want it all to hang on Mar, especially since he died early, so I dropped a lot of hints. I even asked every PC to post, stating what potions they had, without specifically saying to post only your healing potions. Lots of potion refs all around in my posts. I suggested that PCs start scavenging things, and look on other peoples char sheets.

But all-or-none solutions like that generally fail. An early example is the DiD1 gang against Mysterious X. MX showed up and again, paused and gave a speech and waited for you to act. The solution I had in mind was to free the valkyrie; and a couple PCs thought that would be a good idea too. Dave I think tried to cut the gold chain with his magic mace, and I said 'a blunt weapon is not effective at cutting the chain'. Then Mark I think tried to use a nonmagical edged weapon, and I said 'a nonmagical edged weapon is not effective'. Finally, everyone waited for Cinder to do something for days, with Shi Jukka and a modron making a bet about it, but with me trying to hint that Cinder, in one action that didn't involve a direct attack on MX, could save the day. Because Cinder had a magical sword. But nope, he didn't get it, he walked away, and so it went.

I want to make it clear that there's no blame there to be assigned. Maybe it's my fault for making combat too tough, or a solution too obscure, or maybe it's the PCs fault for not figuring it out. I don't think it's too fruitful to discuss that point though, as long as I try to keep things interesting, different, but not too obscure, and without serious permanent PC death as a consequence.

Anyway, so the lotus was added, partially just as treasure, partially as a red herring, but partially as a secondary solution. It turned out, by luck, to be the one that worked, and I'm still pretty satisfied with how DiD1 went down in the end. Rolling a white lotus was darn lucky, but I think it's kind of cool that a PCs-win end was achieved by a combination of brainpower, teamwork, and pure damn luck.

(The original solution, introduced way back in the first visit to the mirror world, involved raising Sarah yourself in the beginning by inserting all the magic lenses into a magic lamp, which Cinder did, and then playing the right magic keys on the magic piano to make a magic music light show &c. You can see why I dropped this pretty quickly from the design. It's complicated and stupid.)

...

Anyway, about the priest fight. Really, there was nothing you were supposed to do. I thought that either 1) not everyone would fail the save, or 2) even if they did, Thaka and Theo could pick off the priests, or KO enough to end the combat, or take the Ambassador hostage, or 3) once Thak went down that Theo could cast another illusion, or 4) that the PCs could hold Duggins hostage against Bekkers, or 5) that you'd get captured and we'd just move the game to Twilos.

There may have been other solutions. I'm not sure what Theo could have done to save you once everyone was out, but Mark's a smart guy and he's gamed for a long time, so I want to give him a chance to surprise me. Yeah, it wasn't great odds, and I would've done the same in his shoes, but you never know. So I storylined only at the very, absolute end. I could've had you guys wake up in the Gorgos fort jail, or on the trail back down to it, or on the boat, but those 're-starts' I decided would be less interesting than a brand new change of scenery, and one that would give you all firm control right from the start, with little chance of recapture or being killed, which the other options had a higher probability of.

I try to put myself in PCs' shoes and ask what they'd do. Hopefully, you try to put yourself in my shoes and ask 'how would I run this, if I were GM?' Is it fun, exciting, satisfying, story-rich, and interesting if the guards showed up and saved the day for you, let you all go, clap on the back, help us maintain order in town? (Maybe, but I wanted to get you out of Gorgos and give the game a bit more direction.) Or if you're all killed, throats slit and sacrificed when the priests knocked you out? (Clearly no.) Or if you face 4 1st level priests, who clearly would be no match for the party? You've all gamed forever, I hold you all to higher standards and abilities as players, and if you fail, well at least you failed when the odds were strongly against you.

I tried to make the priest hostage taking as PC-ruthless as I could, as I figured PCs will do just about anything to avoid losing their stuff. It's a situation which rarely comes up in gaming, so it was interesting to me for novelty's sake. Don't take it personally; I can understand your frustration, but that should be an in-game frustration. What you lost was some junk and some in-game pride maybe.

It should be obvious by now: my games are about loss and struggle. I find it really boring when PCs just sort of collect stuff and get better and better, and always save the day because what they need to do to save the day is relatively easy and uncomplicated. Yawn.

Loss and struggle. Sturm und drang. Even Dragonlance had it, and this ain't fuckin' Dragonlance.