Design Log 4
Design Log 3
Design Log 2
Design Log 1
Design Log 2
On the table today: Story. The last design log mentioned that Spellbound Kingdoms supports a strong story. Let’s talk about how it does so. I’m going to focus on plot because it’s the most important element in a story, in my opinion, and also one where RPGs sometimes fall short.
One of the hallmarks of a good narrative is rising action and narrowing options. Frodo faces greater and greater evils while his resources – friends, food, time – all run down. Ender finds himself in larger and larger battles (at school, of course!) while his family grows more and more distant and his own mental health wears thin. Spellbound Kingdoms supports this rising danger-dwindling option mechanic through action points.
In SK, each action point is tied to a concrete, in-game love, fear, or other emotion. As the character spends action points, his fear grows or his loves risk being torn away. In either case, there are mechanical consequences. Of course, a character can take a scene to try to re-connect with something that he loves, say by spending an afternoon crafting in the smithy, or slug-racing with his son, or attending the king’s Saucy Quail banquet with his wife. These scenes are like the character-building scenes in a movie or novel – where we see Rocky talking to Adrian, or Obi-Wan teaching Luke. And they provide a mechanical benefit if done right. The climax comes when the rising evil outpaces the character’s ability to maintain his equilibrium, and he must confront the evil or perish.
Action points aren’t the only tool that players and GMs have for molding the plot. GMs can track scenes by type – combat, chase, dialogue, exploration, romance, battle, and more – and tailor the pace of the plot to suit. (Not that anyone ever uses the word “scene” in-game; that is not good for immersion!)
Also, Twain would be happy, because the game keeps in mind his admonishment to Cooper: all scenes must advance the plot. Spellbound Kingdoms makes sure of this with stakes. Every scene has its stakes, and unless the group decides otherwise, the stakes inform the plot. Erik Mona always talks about how he dislikes dungeons with “empty rooms.” These rooms were pointless pauses in dungeon crawls. If a room had no monster to fight, no treasure to be won, literally nothing to be found – then why have it in the adventure? This is art, not real life. The unimportant details should be omitted. Spellbound Kingdoms does that with scenes and stakes. There are no “empty rooms” in the plot, no scenes that do not matter.
There are many more aspects of story-support that we could discuss. players are rewarded for playing in character and in theme (character, adventure and environment concepts all have ‘themes’); certain characters may have the ability to prophesy, bringing foreshadowing to the story; villains are always defined in multiple dimensions rather than just combat statistics; players can participate in world-building and help shape the setting of the story.For example, the rules-light (or light-medium) nature of the game naturally drives plots toward a faster pace. But I need to get back to designing. Drop in and comment in the forums.
PS. Since I talked about how SK uses action points above, I’ll point out something else. The use of loves and fears as action points also takes care of one of my pet peeves with a lot of traditional RPG adventures. Many times, the characters first meet the Big Bad Evil Guy for the first time in the adventure’s climax. There’s no opportunity for James Bond-style witty repartee with the villain, except for the moment right before the final fight. Why is this? Because PCs attack the bad guy as soon as they see him. This is a logical choice by the players in most game systems and worlds. In SK, the bad guy may have so many action points that he probably can’t be taken down or captured until the heroes whittle away at the villain’s loves and add to his fears. And the same is true for the characters! This means that the first couple of times the good guys and the BBEG meet, they’re unlikely to fight (although nothing in the rules prevents that). More likely is that the heroes will verbally spar and attempt to raise doubts about the BBEG’s mistress’s fidelity, or insult him to provoke a rage, or threaten him with a massive army that may or may not be a bluff. They do this because it’s weakening the BBEG by cultivating his fears and weakening his loves.
