Game in Review

So we actually managed to game this past Saturday and overall it was a great success. Sending out a story advancing e-mail allowed me to skip the last bit of the prologue and move the players into the main part of the campaign.

The players rescued the townsfolk from the previous session and returned home. After a month of time has passed the mayor looks rather ill and a "special ops" character from the capital has come to collect the PCs to escort them to the capital. Turns out they weren't the only people in the world that were suddenly granted powers and levels. The players weren't terribly fond of this character as he was all business and little in the way of social skills.

They set out and were ambushed one night the PCs drove off the attacker, but did not notice the assassin that executed the Spec Ops character. This is where my story took a turn off the rails. I had intended the PCs to get captured by this group and in order to facilitate that, I had them all be of a higher level than them. They were supposed to be ordered to surrender so they could be captured. Instead, one of the characters grapples the assassin and ties her up while her goons advance. The dwarf orders her to surrender, she tells him to shove it, and promptly gets beaten by another character.

Had I allowed actions to go where they were headed, the players would have offed the assassin only to be killed by her goons. So I took my plans, threw them away, and started flying by the seat of my pants. As a result, she turned into a rebel agent, trying to overthrow the government of the land so that all races can rule themselves. She was ordered to "rescue" the PCs and escort them to the capital city, to be delivered to the Rebel Organization instead of the Senate to try and find out what happened.

Of course, I then had to set up an encounter that would kill off most of her goons so I don't have to manage 8 npcs at once. So the goons went through threatening level to Red Shirt incompetence and were promptly murdered by hobgoblins, so I have half as many NPCs to deal with now.

Even though the game went a direction I wasn't expected, the spontaneous creation of the Rebellion will lead to a deeper story than what I had intentionally envisioned. So if the players in your game start running in a direction that you're not sure of, just go with it. 9 out of 10 times anything you say during one session won't be fully resolved until later sessions so you have plenty of time to alter the story to fit what has been said and done.

Game in Review

So this should be a post about a game review, since we gamed on Saturday. Sadly, we ran into insurmountable technical difficulties. Construction workers cut the cable line going into my neighborhood so there was nothing to do about that.

No matter how much I like technology, sometimes there is something to be said for face to face gaming; you don't need to worry about random events like that getting in the way. We work through what we can, when we can, sometimes there is nothing to do.

So if you're considering doing a game via video/teleconference, be mindful that sometimes no amount of creativity with technology can make it work if the connection just isn't there.

However, I decided that in the interest of moving the story forward (since we game twice a month) I was going to dictate what I had planned, with input from the players on their character's actions. This way I can maintain the pace of the game, even when things go sour.

Don't be afraid to wrest narrative control from your players when you have to. You can use it to speed up downtime within the game, expedite travel, and even keep the game moving when it start to stagnate.

Game in Review

Since we're now gaming every other week instead of weekly, this post will serve a few purposes.

1. I can let everyone in on the goings on in my games.
2. It will allow me to chronicle the party's adventures/antics to help maintain continuity between games. 

This means that in theory, there should be a Game in Review post in the week following my games. I will keep this as spoiler free for the players, so that they can read with impunity.

So away we go.

For this campaign, I decided to try a quasi-"in media res" start. What in media res means is that you start in the middle of the action and move on from there. So my first session immediately started with combat. I had sent out an e-mail prior describing what was happening right before combat to everyone. This let us bypass some of the usual "meet and greet" that happens at the start of most campaigns.

Part of idea for this campaign is "Commoners to Heroes." I told everyone to create a character without a backstory. After that was done, I told them that they were going to start off as commoners in a village and that something would happen to them to "transform" them into PCs.

The game started with news of an orcish attack that was going to happen from the North. Half of the town militia set out to ambush the orcs and try to head off the attack. That night everyone wasat the tavern, unwinding after a day of work, when orcs and goblins burst through the door and began killing. At this point I had the players "change" into their characters. So they were suddenly well equipped and suddenly had spells and knowledge of combat at their disposal. They cleared the bar and went outside to see their village and farms being destroyed and burned.

They rescued some people that the goblins were dragging off and stopped orcs from raiding the forge of the village for weapons. The next day, the leader of the town, an Illumian named Mathrin, said that the militia that had gone to the north had been themselves ambushed and had few survivors. He then asked the PCs to, since they had shown themselves capable in a fight, to track down the orcs and goblins and report back their location as he sent for reinforcements. The characters reluctantly agreed and set off that day.

Early that afternoon they were ambushed by a rearguard of two goblins archers and a mounted goblin. They quickly dispatched the goblins and killed the mounted goblins mount. At the end of the fight they were fairly weakened so they decided to rest, which is where we broke for the day.