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Dungeons & Dragons - Role Playing Tips
Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #94
9 Ways To Increase Player Heroism In Your Game
Contents:
This Week's Tips Summarized
9 Ways To Increase Player Heroism In Your Game
- Think Of Your PCs As Heroes In A Cooperatively Told Story
- Ask Your Players How They Imagine Their Character
- Give Your Heroes Closure, And Let Them Do The Closing
- Hinge A Key Element Of The Plot-Line On Each Of The Heroes
- Focus On What Your Players Think Is The Most Fun/Heroic
- Give (Or Get From) Every Hero A Secret
- Reward Players For Out-Thinking You
- Keep It Close
- Let The Heroes Lead
Readers' Tips Summarized
- Be Creative With Your Taverns
- Using Descriptions To Keep Players Wary Of Monsters
- General GMing Tips
Return to Contents
A Brief Word From Johnn
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johnn@roleplayingtips.com
Return to Contents
9 Ways To Increase Player Heroism In Your Game
Here is a guest article written by Ted Oliverio, sometimes
known as Helpful-GM in various forums. He can be reached for
comments or to 'talk game' at HelpfulGM@PlayNaked.com
- Think Of Your PCs As Heroes In A Cooperatively Told Story
Think of your player-characters as heroes in a cooperatively
told story. Of course, everyone knows this -- but really
THINK about it! They are the stars of this show, the main
characters in this book, the headliners in this movie.
It's good that your heroes should struggle once in a while -
-overcoming adversity is key to heroism. It's good that they
should take losses while accomplishing their goals -- the
reason they're heroes is because they have the strength to
get up and do what needs to be done! It's even good that the
audience (who happen to be the players of these heroes --
something which mildly complicates the standard formula :)
be concerned that the hero be dead, once in a while. But, in
the end, they ARE the heroes, so look for the occasional
opportunity to let them do something really spectacular.
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- Ask Your Players How They Imagine Their Character
Ask your players how they imagine their character. I
recently had a little difficulty with a player who objected
to me saying that I wanted their character to be from a
particular region. They didn't like me driving the
character that way, and I couldn't figure out why they
thought that the rather wide swath of continent I'd selected
seemed unreasonable.
It later occurred to me to just ask "ok, where do you want
to be from?" and, guess what, they wanted to be from smack-
dab in the center of the area I had in mind! Had I opened
with "any idea where you want to be from?" and offered a
gentle nudge ("if you slide over to >here<, I can tell you
all sorts of local knowledge that you might find useful
later. Or not, it's your choice..."), the player would've
felt much less "run over by the plot wagon."
Similarly, I have another player who wants to be the world's
best archer. Without me knowing that, it'd never have
occurred to me to strategically place magic bows, arrows,
knowledge of archery, archery contests, etc., around my
campaign world. I asked how he thought his character was
special, he told me, I made an adjustment to the world that
doesn't hurt my story any, and this made him totally happy.
Win, win, win!
The key thing is that what YOU think is
important/cool/heroic might be different from what your
PLAYERS think is important/cool/heroic, and it's to
everyone's advantage that you reward folks with things they
value.
Return to Contents
- Give Your Heroes Closure, And Let Them Do The Closing
Give your heroes closure, and allow them to do the closing.
It does your heroes little good to spend years following
clues, interrogating prisoners, and killing minions only to
confront the Main Bad Guy and be killed, permanantly, and
the world is destroyed anyway.
Almost as unheroic is to have them battle the arch-villian
for several sessions, taking losses, retreating to regroup,
fighting some more, almost dying -- all the heroic stuff --
only to watch a random event, like an earthquake knocking a
chandelier from the ceiling, kill the bad guy for them.
Certainly the world is still saved, the king will still give
them all medals of valor, the townsfolk will sing their
praises --but, in their heart of hearts, the heroes will
know that serendipity saved the world, not them. Let your
heroes be heroes. If possible, let the "little guy" in the
party give the final blow.
Return to Contents
- Hinge A Key Element Of The Plot-Line On Each Of The Heroes
Hinge a key element of the plot-line on each of the heroes -
- make sure they each get some time to shine. This can be
tricky to work in, and you may have to deal with some player
jealousy as The Big Wheel spins around, but try to plan
things so that, for example, THIS session is where we see
the rogue's skills put to critical use, and THAT session is
where the party learns to appreciate the Bard's abilities
and THE OTHER session focuses on the wizard controlling some
key magical orb that makes or breaks some important
encounter. It doesn't always have to be "wow, without Gronk
the half-orc fighter here, those guys would have creamed
us!" -- although that's a fine way to give your fighter some
hero-time, if that's what he enjoys. Which leads to the next
point...
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- Focus On What Your Players Think Is The Most Fun/Heroic
Focus on what your players think is the most fun/heroic. I
have my players complete a character-survey and, among the
usual "what colour is your hair?" and "who was your
favourite pet?" questions, I have questions like "what would
be the perfect magic item for this person?", "what would be
the best thing that could happen to your character?" and
"what would be the worst curse imaginable?", etc.*
From this, I can see what my players think is super-cool
that might not have occurred to me. I can also learn
interesting ways to "torture" them ;), or barriers to place
in front of the goal ("worst curse" type stuff) before
giving them access to the super-coolest of all things. In
this way, the player tells you what HE thinks of as heroic
(eliminating "DM: See? You're the Big Hero, now", "Player:
That's it?! That's lame!" arguments.), you set up tension
(worst curse), allow the player to overcome (heroic,
closure), and give a reward that you know the player will
appreciate (coolest item). And, of course, you can always
scale these things down (1/2 worst curse, 1/2 coolest item),
if that fits your situation, better.
* Footnote: To see my "character survey", check out [
http://www.PlayNaked.com/olie/DandD ] and click on the
"Character Survey" link.
[Johnn: also see this article:
"The Mother Of All Character Questionnaires"
http://www.roleplayingtips.com/articles/character_questionnaire.php ]
Return to Contents
- Give (Or Get From) Every Hero A Secret
Give every character a secret. Better yet, get one from
them. My good friend Joe writes: One trick I use as a DM is
to make sure that each character has a secret. If every
character has something in her background, some special
ability, or even an item that the other characters don't
know about, it makes them feel special. And when you subtly
refer to it in the game, it's nice for that character --
they know they're the only one who can understand that
reference.
If you can arrange it, it's extra-nice if each player thinks
they might be the only one with a secret .
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- Reward Players For Out-Thinking You
Reward players for out-thinking you. Many DMs have the idea
that they place an obstacle before the players and want it
solved a certain way. Players, however, can be extremely
creative, so try to give credit for players coming up with
truly inventive solutions to problems -- even if it's not
exactly what you had in mind. It's heroic to come up with
something no one else would ever think of.
Return to Contents
- Keep It Close
It's not particularly heroic for a 7th level party to slay a
pair of run-of-the mill kobolds. Neither is it heroic for
them all to be squashed in the surprise round by an ancient
red dragon. "Keeping it close" doesn't just pertain to one
battle, either, but the overall campaign. There is no
generic formula that can work for every game. This is
something that the DM has to work at to keep everyone on
their toes.
The idea is to allow the heroes the occasional victory,
several setbacks --without breaking the players' spirits --
and a final decisive victory. The heroes make a little
progress, then maybe get captured. Then they escape but are
badly hurt in the process. Then they defeat several bands of
minions and infiltrate the bad guy's secret lair only to
have 2 party members killed and have to run away leaving all
their equipment behind in order to carry out the bodies.
Later, they spend all their money getting their friends
resurrected, the bad guy shifts gears, it seems they have to
practically start over, but then they fall into an important
piece of intelligence that becomes key to finding the
villain's new hide-out, etc.
Success should never be "in the bag", and the situation
should never be actually hopeless --although it may look
that way for a while. Each DM will have to customize this to
her players and campaign, but the basic idea is the same for
all. "From desperate times come Heroic Deeds."
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- Let The Heroes Lead
Be careful not to fix your adventures in stone. Going into
any given session, be prepared for the players to head off
in any direction. If you plan everything to the North,
Murphy can almost assure you that the party will decide they
need to go Southwest to check something out, no matter how
urgent the business to the North is.
The players should never feel that you're driving them North
-- even though there may be several indications of something
interesting to the North. Heroes select their own destiny
and are not forced to meet the schedule of any particular
plot-train. (Unless, of course, the adventure is that some
super-power has teleported them all to the castle to the
North -- but this should be an exception, not the rule.)
This ties in with point #7, be prepared for your heroes to
do something that you didn't think of, and reward them for
creative solutions. As a general rule, I try to have
everything within a couple of miles of the heroes in every
direction planned in great detail, with decreasingly firm
ideas about things that are further away. In this way I'm
ready for nearly anything the players might try, and can
wing it if they go in an unexpected direction. Next session,
I can fill in details for the direction that the players
chose for a mile in every direction, and adjust other
things, accordingly. Heroes lead, the DM follows (and
sometimes shuffles things that used to be off to the North
around to the Southwest ;) -- it's a beautiful dance :)
There are many other things you can do to increase heroism
in your game and, if demand is high enough, I may write a
follow-up to this article. But if you start with these tips,
and keep yourself focused on the idea of "the PCs are the
stars of this heroic movie", then a lot of it will just fall
into place on its own.
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Readers' Tips Of The Week:
- Be Creative With Your Taverns
From: JL Ford
Tired of the old cliche of starting off in a tavern? I was
too, but it is usually a quick way to begin a new campaign
or adventure. The solution I came up with was to put a new
spin on it.
Ever wonder what happens to a dungeon after a party of
adventurers clear it out? In my campaign, a wizard decided
to retire shortly after clearing out the dungeon with his
friends. He moved into the dungeon and started a tavern
inside. Nice thing about this, it provides a resting point
in what normally is wild, untamed lands, it provides some
NPCs without having a lot, and, because supply is low,
prices are a little on the high side.
In my world, Tennerth's Refuge (the wizard was named
Tennerth, obviously) became a popular meeting place for the
PCs and they eventually became so trusted by the middle-aged
wizard that he would give them quests to find items he
needed to create a magic item, often telling them if they
came back with an extra one, he'd 'make it worth their
while'. Just my new spin on an old cliche.
- Using Descriptions To Keep Players Wary Of Monsters
From: Rick K.
I have a suggestion for an issue of your e-zine. How do you,
as a DM, keep your players wary of creatures, especially
when, after some time playing, they probably know the
monster's general stats?
One trick I've used successfully is to change the HD of the
creature. This is especially useful for leaders, and easy to
do in 3e D&D.
Another trick more unique to my game is with my Orcs. I only
bumped them up to 2 hit dice, but I still have 5th and 6th
level characters worried about them. I actually had someone
ask me last night if they were 5th level creatures in my
game!
It's all about description. I gave them a special ability of
not feeling any pain, and a unique history of being directly
created by their gods as a holy army. There are no females
and the occasional orc child born grows to physical maturity
in the space of a year (this is where half-orcs come from).
It's very unnerving to try and torture a creature who only
looks at you blankly after firing a crossbow quarrel into
its knee.
To enhance this image of painlessness, I always over-
describe a wound done to them. For example, when someone
deals it 5 points of damage I'll describe it as a powerful
cut, nearly severing it's arm. Then I'll add that the orc
doesn't appear to have noticed the wound, or even chuckles
at its attacker. Of course, 5 points of damage wouldn't be
enough to kill any self-respecting 2 hit dice creature
anyway, but people will forget the number if you describe
the effect well enough. They won't realize that they only
did a total of 11 points of damage to kill the orc, they'll
just remember that they had to cut off it's leg, stab it in
the heart, then pitch it into the gully.
So, in summary, give creatures a unique history (some, not
necessarily all), and describe them in a terrifying manner.
That will make your monsters seem much more dangerous than
their stats would indicate. Who cares if you only did 7
points of damage to the whole party, if all the players have
to wipe sweat from their foreheads after the battle? Hehe.
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- General GMing Tips
From: Mike S.
- Keep 'em guessing
One of the things that seems to throw off GMs is having one
or more of the players being 'rules lawyers' or the equivalent
that live to catch you in a snafu of the rules or
continuity. All GMs try their best of course, but we're not
perfect and the occasional error creeps in. You can admit
the error and correct the problem, but occasionally this is
either not possible due to game factors or the rules lawyer
mentioned above is trying to ruin your credibility and
authority (see the BA/Brian conflict of Knights of the
Dinner Table comic series).
In this regard, when a player mentions something like "Hey,
Rock Trolls live in mountains; why did one attack us in a
swamp?" or "Hey, Holy Avenger Swords are supposed to do
__(fill in the blank)___." or "Tremier mages can't cast
that!"; just say....
"Why yes, that *IS* odd, isn't it?", smile, and continue the
game.
In such a case the players then think this was intentional
and try to begin to figure out the clues or possibilities
they MUST have missed themselves.
Naturally, a GM shouldn't use this to cover lazy or shoddy
work nor do this constantly, for the players will catch on.
But it can help bring some thought to the game, even if
they're trying to figure out a nonexistant quandry.
- Listen to Player Paranoia
I've often listened while the characters have debated what
Encounter A or Item B could *really* mean. And hearing them
come up with theories and possibilities often gives me ideas
and plotlines I didn't think of myself. These can be used in
this scenario if the game has drifted from where you
originally wanted the players to go and are fishing for a
sub-plot or story to keep them occupied while trying to give
them the opportunity to get back on the main adventure hook.
- Don't steer the PC's by force
One thing I've discovered in 20 years of gaming is that PCs
frequently do the unexpected, and if you plan a detailed
adventure for them to go to Town A to save Maiden B from
Evil C they'll immediately become fascinated with Forest
D that you've only barely mapped and only mentioned as a
minor landmark. At such a point, its very tempting to
'force' the PC's onto your planned track. This is bad. PCs
are like cats. The more you try to force them into a
situation, the more they fight you on it, suspecting
something.
The best way to handle this, I've found, is to use #2 above
if possible. If it's not possible, just let them choose
their path but make the wood just as boring as any normal
wood. Or leave some clues in the wood that will lead them
back to the main scenario but whatever you do it must be the
PC's choice. Otherwise, you're asking for trouble.
***ADDENDUM: There are a few game systems where forcing the
PCs at certain strategic points works for the story and is
acceptable, but in my experience these are almost always
horror games where the PCs are 'normals' facing ghastly
forces (Call of Cthulhu, etc.). But even here the GM needs
to be careful to not overdue it or the PCs will just hand
the GM their character sheets and say "Just tell me when its
over and how my character did...." :-)
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