Saturday 27 June 2009

Of Sanboxes and Imperial Worlds

Recently Hair Dave and I have been talking about running a high level campaign in Dark Heresy, and Dave expressed an eagerness to avoid the events of the previous campaign. This is not to say the last campaign was poor by any means; there were some good characters there and some suitably memorable events, however it did seem at times that our band of Inquisitorial Acolytes were less bearers of the Emperor’s wroth and more paranormal detective agency.

The other difficulty would be to run a campaign with such powerful characters, especially since the rules were never intended to allow players to be Inquisitors. Inquisitors cannot be questioned by any agency; they carry a Rosette that allows them to get their way in any situation and combine the two worst boons in role-playing Excessive Wealth with Status. In short it would be very dull to play as there would be no challenge in getting what we wanted.

To this end some compromises needed to be made by myself. I agreed with Dave that I would operate my Inquisitor under Special Exemption, meaning that whilst I had all my status and power I would essentially be on the fringes of the Inquisition, operating as a rogue. As such I would be keen to avoid drawing attention to myself I would try and avoid using my assets as much as possible and make a covert investigation. This is the best kind of compromise as it doesn’t remove something from the character but gives me a reason to explore other avenues first rather than just flashing my ‘Fix-It’ badge; which would make things exceptionally dull for all involved.

We also agreed to a Sandbox style game, which I think Dark Heresy is actually quite suited to. Slap a few stat blocks for menials, guards and the like on some record cards, generate a few places with ‘gothic’ names (I hear of something skulking over by the Generatorum, let’s check it out!) that seem like interesting locales, then decide on a mission. The mission can be very vague, just decide who’s at the centre and what they’re doing and then work outwards; who do they need? Who would be involved with their plans? What materiel will be needed to complete their plans? Each one is a clue (or red herring) that slowly allows the characters to rein the plot in. Drop in some chase scenes and combat when you feel it’s appropriate or the investigation starts to sag and it should lead to an interesting campaign.

The reason I think Dark Heresy really works for this kind of game is that it owes a lot to Dan Abnett’s Eisenhorn and Ravenor Trilogies, which are full of interfering Inquisitors, dangerous Psykers and traitorous governors. Whilst you can include all of these elements in an event based game quite comfortably a sand box gives an impression that the locale you are in, be it an Imperial City a Ministorum Shrine or an alien world, is more of a living breathing entity that exists beyond the preview of the game. Certainly there are soft boundaries there, but you’ll hit them less often than with an event based game and they will be less obtrusive.

More and more I’m finding Sandboxes to be a preferable way to play role-playing games. Some people like detailed plots and a more cinematic play style with carefully planned scenes and set pieces, and I certainly won’t argue against that as a style of play. However a sandbox with a good GM can have all this and more, memorable NPCs can leap out of a random roll and a funny voice, interesting locations can just spring to mind as you’re playing and when you want an intense scene or an epic encounter atop a cable car in a hail storm you can have it because there’s no plan that says you can’t.

Tuesday 16 June 2009

On Top of the World: Session 7

In which the party gains a new member, massacre an encounter and leave Zendicon.

Two rounds. That'll make more sense in a paragraph or two.

So the party started where they left off last week, in the bottom of the Deeping Well with Lord Lofang cackling maniacally; yet there was hope! Oh yes, with a sunrod tied to an arrow the signal had been sent for Lady Jazelle's troops to assault Lord Lofang's stronghold and the first of her warriors had arrived in the form of Celavorn, Elven Ranger, played ably by 4th Ed. Neophyte Medium Dave. The party now looked like this:

Caradoc Burrows, Halfling Paladin of the Raven Queen (Giz)
Katarakis, Dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut (Hair Dave)
Skurmesh Anklebiter, Dwarven Warlord (Amanda)
Du'nn'o Me'name, Eladrin Rogue (Rachel)
Celavorn, Elf Ranger (Medium Dave)
Cael, Elf Barbarian (NPC)

Admittedly Rachel was absent from this session but with Giz playing her character we ploughed on regardless and started by adding Celavorn to the initiative order and then let them loose on Lord Lofang. Between Du'nn'o and Celavorn (and some action points) Lofang took over 100 damage in the first round of combat and a round later was very, very dead.

I am fine with this, Lofang wasn't underwhelming as a monster, he wasn't a one trick pony who couldn't hurt the party; it was just that the party came together and tore the encounter to pieces. Celavorn was horrific and Du'nn'o had a revelation to cause massive damage. Lofang's guards didn't do much better and an encounter that might have taxed the party was over relatively quickly.

A good thing too as after divvying up the spoils, looting the place and deciding to abandon Zendicon it was already time for Amanda to hit the hay (damnable 5am starts) and I didn't want to run without her. Furthermore whilst I did have some more encounters planned I wanted to spend some time really planning things out so that the Zendicon Caverns will have entertaining and interesting encounters and a memorable finish to this leg of the campaign.

Monday 8 June 2009

On Top of the World: Session 6

In which the party go trading, meet a beautiful women, become assassins and finally get a cliff hanger.

Woo.

Like Kirk in Star Trek II I'm back in the chair and being chased chased around a nebula by Ricardo Montalban... Well, maybe not. Finally after our three week hiatus we're back in Zendicon and rapidly approaching some variety of ending for the current campaign.

In a breief recap last time Du'nn'o had managed to climb up into the tower above Gaol Zendicon, borked her sneak roll across and empty room and got carved up by the wardens. When this session began the party were considering the possibility of escape by going through the caverns beneath Zendicon and escaping that way. They left Du'nn'o to rest following her ordeal and pressed on.

Realising quickly that they would need provisions for the trip the party decided to head to the Dust Market once again and eventually found the trader Avazan, a man who at first was happy to trade for what supplies the party had, but would not trade for gold. However he did mention his 'mistress' was rumoured to have some need of such precious things and directed one of his Ogre guards; Venerable Terry, to take the party to her.

The party came through many chambers to the ruined temple where the Lady Jazelle made her home, the party entered between drapes of precious fabrics into a room where an empty throne made of weapons sat unattended. As they waited Lady Jazelle seemed to appear from nowhere, a beautiful woman with almost luminous green eyes. The party traded with her for goods (15 trail rations, 10 flasks of water, and they managed to guess the price bang on) losing a quantity of gold and some sun rods for their trouble. Lady Jezelle for her part seemed interested in the Dwarf and bade them return to discuss a favour over dinner.

At dinner the Lady described her desire to control the trade of the market uncontested and solicited the party to remove her rival; the secretive Lord Lofang whose priests Caradoc and Du'nn'o had recently butchered. Caradoc was resistant to the idea of becoming an assassin but the party swayed him and in return Lady Jazelle promised to get her troops in the caverns below to allow them passage. Having agreed the party went to check her story out and found the cavern reinforced on both sides by a great many troops who barred the path with hails of arrows.

(Skurmesh also promised to make an army for the Lady, with whom he seemed infatuated. To this end, and given Dwarves unique biology in the Hearthlands, he was to impregnate the stone with his 'seed' thus giving rise to new Dwarves who must bear the sigil of his clan. Thus Skurmesh Anklebiter, last of the Anklebiters, has founded a new clan within this place.)

And so the party went to assassinate Lord Lofang, with a promise of aid from Lady Jazelle once the deed was done. To this end they took Caradoc and Du'nn'o bound and entered the 'Deeping Well' under the pretense that they had been captured by Katarakis and Skurmesh. The party were brought before Lord Lorfang, a grey skinned humanoid, and Talvil the priest Caradoc had maimed earlier. Words were bandied and eventually Caradoc head-butted Lord Lofang and the party jumped their collective adversaries.

The party aren't idiots and when Lofang went down they suspected he was a decoy, Skurmesh decided his manservent was in fact the real Lord Lofang, but he turned out to be a minion. Then with a terrible noise within his mind Caradoc was hit for a great deal of damage and upon the balcony above a voice entreated them and, coweled and robed, his face purple and festooned with tentacles; the Illithid Lord Lofang made himself known to the party.

Dun-dun-dunnnnn!

Monday 1 June 2009

The Game of Houses

The default assumption with an adventuring party is that they have no family, in this regard they are considered to be blank slates with no origin close enough to themselves to warrant any mention. Perhaps they are orphaned farmers sons who have headed off to learn the ways of the world and become embroiled in a desperate mission. Rarely do we even give it this much thought.

However surely we’re missing a trick here. A character with family is a character that has dramatic tension; there are questions to be asked. Do they like their family? Are there old grudges held? Are there obligations passed down from father to son?

Even better is a character that comes from a noble house who might be embroiled in some kind of clandestine power struggle for the throne/princesses hand in marriage/spice. Consider Paul Atredies in Dune who by the very fact of his birth has been involved in not one but several power struggles and must constantly calibrate his position as the sharks circle around him.

As you might guess it is nobles I want to talk about today.

Playing a member of a noble house does have several potent hooks for a character, both in terms of their family and their own personal agenda. If we consider the aristocracy of Europe throughout the ages we see a variety of different agendas and personalities; from the hedonist who thinks only of their own pleasure, to the moralist who seeks to improve himself and those around him.

Any campaign in which the PCs were nobles would have to run heavily upon a conflict between the private, the personal agenda, and the public, loyalty to their house and ruler. To run it in an interesting manner the GM would allow the players to pick their house and perhaps their agenda, but then would have to impress upon them the rules of the court, whereby they would have to show deference to those around them, even those whom they might seek to usurp.

I imagine this would end up being a clandestine game where the PCs would be innately paranoid of capture, especially if the consequences were dire, and would allow players to come at their problems from different angles. Even better would be to run it in something like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay where not only would they have to avoid exposing their agenda but be wary of witch hunters and the like who believe there is the taint of chaos in the court!

Here’s how I would do this: Allow the character to come up with their ambitions in secret, they must write it down but need not show the other players. Next come up with some ideas of how their houses would like them to act, such as upholding the honour of their house, negotiating for a trade route or the like. Finally give them some kind of directive from their ruler, who has a task for them or considers them a favourite, perhaps they are to perform some task on their behalf. Let the players draw their house and liege directives in secret but make a note of them. Finally chuck them into a feast with a few NPCs and allow the whole thing to come to the boil.

I would be wary of the competitive nature of such a game, players competing for the same outcome might be tempted to ‘dispose’ of their rivals and this can lead to ill will in the group, which is undesirable. You could try and reinforce the idea of using more subtle, Machiavellian ways of disposing of them (dishonour, getting them assigned to a far off war etc) or allow the murdered player to come back as some kind of court investigator with a directive from the ruler to discover the culprit of this heinous crime.