Continuing my series on low-prep RPG games, this morning I’ll talk about the Fantastic Four technique.

One great way to get player-generated ideas for adventures and campaigns is to ask the Fantastic Four questions.

Hand out four cards to each of your players. Each card should have one to three sentences describing a person or objective.

The first card is a Friend NPC who can be anything from a drinking buddy to a contact in the local royal court. These NPCs can be patrons, plot hooks, or just for fun roleplaying.

The second card is a Family member, an NPC related to the PC. The GM can imperil a family member to create tension and motivation for an adventure.

The third card is a Foe, an NPC that is directly opposing the PC either directly or indirectly. Foes are particularly useful for GMs. Need a quick adventure or side-quest? Have the Foe make an appearance and make the PCs’ lives miserable. The players will quickly seek to deal with the Foe. Make sure the Foe is not easily defeated — surround them with retainers or followers so Foes can live for multiple adventures.

The last card is for a Flame. The Flame is something the PC desires and can be an NPC they are in love with, a need to seek justice against an evil empire, or an object (perhaps a magic relic or powerful weapon) that the PC desires.

Make the Fantastic Four questions a collaborative discussion where people muse out loud about what they are thinking of writing down. The group can build off each other’s ideas and help inspire you if you get stuck.

After the brainstorming session, have the players pass in their cards. Use a few cards to form the framework of the current adventure. Shuffle through the cards between games and make sure each players gets the spotlight from time to time by pulling a PC’s Friend, Family, Foe, or Flame into the next game!

In my next post we’ll talk about the Triggered Heist technique.

#LowPrepRPG #RogueComet

Continuing my series on low-prep RPG games, this evening I’ll talk about Villain Flashback and Custer’s Last Stand techniques.

Villain Flashback

Start the game with an unexplained battle. Perhaps the villains ambush the PCs. Maybe you set up the scene as the players attacking the villains in order to obtain the contents of a large chest, or to rescue someone important from inside a wagon. Whatever the setup, the heroes engage in combat, not knowing what the villain’s motive are or what is in the chest or wagon.

At the end of the scene when the villains are dead or captured, you leave the questions unanswered. Have the players put away their character sheets and assume the roles of the villains they just defeated. Start a new scene as a flashback from three days ago. Ask the players questions: “What are you doing?”, “What are you transporting in the box that’s so important?”, “What is your diabolical plan?”, and “What will your boss do if you fail on your mission?” Have them role play out their villain characters through events up to the present.

The players get to determine motivations and backstory for the villains. At the end, bring them back to the present and let them resume their normal characters. Not only did the players spend much of the game setting up backstory but they also have set the stage for the upcoming adventure!

Custer’s Last Stand

This is a technique especially good for new campaigns where some players are learning the rules.

Give each player a quick pre-generated character, or have them generate a new character from scratch, but without an elaborate backstory.

Open a scene where the players are in a village or other location under siege. Throw overwhelming force against the PCs to assure their demise. Play up the ruthless, diabolical nature of the foes — the players should really come to hate these opponents! All players will die in combat save one PC (or NPC) which the gamemaster selects to spare.

The villains take the one spared character and dispatches them back to the allies friends or family to tell the news of their terrible destruction.

Fast forward the scene to the arrival of the messenger telling of the massacre. Let the players roll up new characters — this time, these will be their long term characters. The players have been exposed to the rules, allowed to make some mistakes, and discovered how easy it is to die. Now, with new characters, the players will be out for revenge and emotionally invested in defeating these adversaries!

In my next post we’ll talk about The Fantastic Four technique.

Continuing my series on low-prep RPG games, this morning I’ll talk about the Inspirational Interlude and Player Punch List techniques.

Inspirational Interlude

1. Lost Love — What person (or thing) has the character lost in the past? What stands in the way of fulfilling that love? What event happens in the present that gives the player an opportunity (with the party’s help) to seek that lost love?
   
2. Old Enemy — What past foe became the character’s enemy? What terrible consequences came from this old rivalry? What event resurfaces your connection to this enemy?
   
3. Secret Need — What undisclosed need does your character have? Why have you kept this a secret? Who or what is in the way of getting your need? What has just happened that gives you hope you might finally fulfil your need?
   
4. Terrible Tragedy — What terrible tragedy befell the character or someone the character knows? What collateral damage resulted? What person or creature from the past now emerges that demands you address this past injustice?

Player Punch List

Ad Lib Adventures

Ad Lib adventures follow a fill-in-the-blank approach. Start the game without planning. Read the setup to the players. Ask questions and use the answers to collaboratively build the adventure. Usually it is best if you just ask one question at a time. Once there is a satisfying answer to that question, then move on to the next question. Make it a group discussion: everyone collaborates on the story. Finally, ask “What do you do?” Then, play to see what happens, using players’ ideas and your own imagination!

This format is great for con games or to kick off a campaign. Here are a couple of examples. Feel free to come up with your own!

Ad Lib Adventure: ‘Slayer to Lair’

Setup: “You’re visiting a small village. The streets are mostly deserted and villagers eye you with suspicion. There seems to be a disturbing air of fear.”

Questions:

— “What is the legendary creature most feared in this region?”

— “What cult is sacrificing young virgins to appease the monstrosity?”

— “What else motivates you to slay it?”

— “Where is its lair?”

— “What prevents you from getting there?”

— “Who else is involved and trying to stop you?”

— “What is the the creature rumored to protect or hoard?”

Ad Lib Adventure: ‘Heroes Under Fire’

Setup: “You’re in an overturned vehicle that is on fire. Someone is shooting at you. It’s very important that you protect the vehicle’s content.”

Questions:

— “What’s inside the vehicle?”

— “Why are your attackers shooting at you?”

— “Who are the allies of these attackers?”

— “What riddle must you still solve?”

— “What hazards await you if you approach your enemy’s stronghold?”

— “Who else is interested in stopping you?”

A couple of years ago I had a twelve hour Classic Traveller game scheduled at my house. I spent a lot of time formatting a rules summary and setting handout, and ran out of time to prepare for the game. But, I wasn’t worried. I just pulled out my ‘Heroes Under Fire’ ad lib template, and decided to rework and expand it. Here’s what I had written on a notecard five minutes later:

Setup: “You’re in a crowded, metal corridor. Anxious bystanders walking along the corridor eye you suspiciously. You consult your map, finding the still-distant location of a noble’s child. You’re starting to wonder if the 5,000 credits are worth it. It is very important that you save this person from their captivity. A warning klaxon blares. Over the global intercom, a sultry security agent’s voice urgently demands: ‘We order all security personnel to find the intruders. Shoot them on sight.’ You see assassin robots rounding the corner with drawn weapons.”

Questions:

— “Where are you?”

— “Who is trying to kill you?”

— “How did they discover you were there?”

— “Who paid you for this mission?”

— “What other dangers are ahead?”

— “What are you going to do?”

Moments later the first player arrived, and off we went. We played for almost twelve hours and it was one of the best Traveller game I’ve ever run. Players enjoy being invested in the story because they helped craft it. Aside from those five minutes of prep, the other thing I did was take a ten minute break about two hours into the game. During the break I did some deep thinking about how to make the story interesting.  I asked myself my usual question: “How can I twist this into something unexpected?” I decided that the noble’s 14 year old child they were rescuing was not really a victim but rather a super genius mastermind organizing a planet-wide coupe. That certainly put a wrinkle in the events that unfolded!

Here’s a recap with some details behind this twelve hour Traveller game.

In my next post we’ll talk about Inspirational Interludes and Player Punch Lists.

I’m writing a series on ways to run a game with little or no prep.

Published adventures with dozens of pages may take hours to read. Writing your own adventure from scratch can also take a significant time investment. What about when you want to run a game, but have little time to prepare? Let’s first look at some conventional ways: Random Encounters, Adventure Seeds, and One Sheet Adventures.

1. Random Encounters
First up is the venerable use of random encounters. Use encounter tables from your game system or setting of choice to randomly roll up monsters or NPCs. Throw a conflict at the players and come up with motivations and complications on the fly. Works great in exploration games when you’re mapping the wilderness or exploring a city.

2. Adventure Seeds
One sentence adventure seeds are another quick way to kick off an adventure. Start the story with only a sketch of the events in mind. As players speculate about what is really going on or strategize details, craft a story that foils their plans and makes the adventure interesting. Some examples:

• A village has pooled their money and will pay you to vanquish nearby bloodthirsty tribal raiders.
• A princess is missing, along with her court wizard rumored to be her abuser (but really her lover).
• A cult is abducting people to use for in dark sacrifices to an unknown god.
• Thieves in league with local corrupt officials have arranged to have you framed for their crime.
• A sinkhole opens up overnight and the local village leader’s child is now missing, taken by a Gnoll shaman to sacrifice to their revered Purple Worm ‘deity’ who created the sinkhole.

A variation of this technique are rumors. Let the players overhear some fragment of truth related to the one sentence adventure. Note that many times rumors are a bit misleading! Drop a red herring as part of the rumor to make things interesting.

Keep a list of adventure seeds handy that can kick of a game and start the momentum for an one-the-fly story.

3. One Sheet Adventures

If you have ten minutes to prepare, a one sheet adventure can serve as an ideal framework. Whether it’s a Classic Traveller 76 Patrons adventures, a Savage Worlds one sheet adventure, or a one page dungeon, any short adventure that is only a page or two long is ideal for busy gamemasters who want a ready-to-run story.

Next up I talk about what I call Ad Lib Adventures.

#LowPrepRPG #RogueComet