Old Class informed GURPS Dungeon Fantasy video gaming. Fundamentally killing owlbears and using their material, however with 3d6.
Pages
Sunday, August 28, 2016
DF Felltower: No Quests!
I have mentioned maintaining my Sunday beer-and-pretzels, hack-and-slash game exactly that – beer-and-pretzels, hack-and-slash.
I have discussed campaign creep, too, and exactly how We avoid that.
Element of this really is, no quests.
There is certainly a wizard within my campaign known as Black Jans. He/she/it has a mysterious nature, a tower that seems and vanishes from Stericksburg apparently arbitrarily (really arbitrarily – we roll dice for look), and strange servants.
Ebony Jans buys strange products, can enchant any such thing within one week for twice the fee (violating a number of guidelines about economics and just how enchantment works), and offers an excellent reason for the market of Stericksburg accepting cursed items and blacklisted books for money.
We also provide a big church that is capable of doing Resurrection and cast eliminate Curse, a bevy of nobles, cultists the players have actually clashed with (as well as, when, arranged a cope with), and guilds of each and every stripe necessary to justify in-town rolls.
Does the Thieves’ Guild have quests for all of us? Can we ask the church whether they have sometime they need carried out in the dungeon in return for cash?
My reply to many of these is, basically, NO.
In the event that response becomes yes, then the game shifts from a player-driven sandbox to a GM-driven sandbox.
It is the one thing for folks to supply unique benefits – method, method, method straight back at the beginning of the overall game one noble provided to spend significantly more than the money value of good from a single associated with draugr for the return. Prince Vlashkalabash the III of Cashamash has an incentive out for finding and giving unto him Gram, the dragon-slaying blade. Sometimes individuals offer a bounty for certain products or things.
Those are ok https://datingranking.net/minichat-review due to the fact PCs can work on it or otherwise not. They may be simply bait from me personally, the GM, into the players, to incentivize specific tasks or even to within the prospective honors from those actions. Or even hint that particular things exist. Or even to set up an option – do they keep Gram if they believe it is once again, or offer it for a lot of money?
But when the PCs can head to city and commence asking available for quests, then this really is as much as me personally, the GM, whatever they must do when you look at the dungeon. Its an easy out of making your personal plans and choices to saying, hey, GM, inform us what direction to go. No matter if that isn’t what exactly is meant, it really is inescapable it will probably take place.
All things considered, quests can come with extra prizes. Or include punishments for maybe not doing them. This limits your actions and provides a motivation to find them down. Why make your very own plans and very own choices an individual in the city can let you know how to proceed, perhaps inform you things you didn’t understand, then provide you with more money for setting it up done?
Failure – which will be fairly typical – means problems. Those problems should be town-centered because the quest beginning is town-centered. This means town unexpectedly acquires more level due to the fact PCs are experiencing difficulty within the dungeon. Personal relationships in town grab more level with failure. State Ebony Jans supplies you with on a quest and you also fail. Either services in the city end, or you need to avoid town, or perhaps you need certainly to replace with it with another quest. Let’s say – and also this has occurred in games i have run before – the PCs fail or just learn it’s harder than they thought and need more support or even more loot? Personal relationships in town deepen or end. Town gets to be more essential.
You are able to nevertheless seek sponsors in order to find individuals and propose unique awards, if you should be confident of one’s ability roll outcomes. You are usually best off doing all of your very own thing. Nobody can help you 100% free, and that’s not just practical but helps drive player-centered play.
And yes, you will find individuals within the dungeon and do things for them. You can easily inquire further how to handle it. Because any problems that derive from this are straight impacting the enjoyment section of play (the dungeon). Bad outcomes from success or failure affect the PCs into the play area. The players working with those effects are typical inside the play area. Doing favors for Faction the and killing down Faction B has consequences whenever Faction A isn’t your buddy any longer.
That is why “No Quests!” is an essential part of maintaining my game beer-and-pretzels, hack-and-slash, and a player-centered megadungeon sandbox.
