The time that is given

In my last post I spoke a bit about the structure of a game that I would like to run. For simplicity’s sake I’m going to call this Dungeons and Dragons, but it’s quite likely that I’m going to be using the Castles and Crusades rule set from Troll Lord Games. (Link) Why? Well, in a nutshell, it’s a set of rules that encompasses a lot of things that I like about “new school” (additive AC for instance) with the open ended feeling of the old school genre.I had written down a list of things that I was going to structure my game around, the first being: “Based on many of the the same premises as Ben’s West Marches game, but with fewer participants.” I’d like to dig into this a bit further. First, when I say fewer participants, I mean that one of Ben’s major premises for running this type of game will be absent in my iteration. I won’t be drawing from a pool of 10 to 14 players. I’ll be lucky to get 4, and I’ll be happy with that.

Which segues into my next point. Because there wont be nearly as many people playing in the game, there obviously wont be the need to schedule and run games based on a rotating pool of players. Now this isn’t to say that I wont be utilizing his idea of characters talking about their next “run” on a forum or board. (I used the word “run” because Ben’s game sort of reminded me of how we used to play Shadowrun back in the old days.) I don’t think that this will take away from the game in any meaningful way. In fact, it’s the spirit of the game that’s infinitely more interesting to me.

I absolutely love the idea of a slate (call this a sandbox if you must) with which the characters are free to paint whatever story they’d like. The basis for the game was this: “There was no regular plot: The players decided where to go and what to do. It was a sandbox game in the sense that’s now used to describe video games like Grand Theft Auto, minus the missions. There was no mysterious old man sending them on quests. No overarching plot, just an overarching environment.” What does that mean exactly? Or rather, more apropos, what does it mean in the context of my game? Simply put, if there’s going to be some kind of background story going on then it’s going to be exactly that, a background story.

Maybe there’s some kind of planetary alignment that presages a murderous torrent of sacrifices by the already bloodthirsty kobold tribe inhabiting the Mossbrook Woods…If so, that’s fine, and it’s something that’s only going to be discovered if the characters stumble across some kind of clue. It’s not going to be the driving force (plot) in the story. I’ve played in that kind of game before. In fact, I’m playing in one now, and it’s quite likely that I’ll be playing in a different one with a different group of guys as well. It’s not that I don’t “like” that kind of game, that’s not true, I actually do, if it’s run well.

And that brings me to my next point: I don’t run plot driven games very well. I’m just not that kind of DM. I have a tendency to imagine how the story ought to play itself out and then find myself creating roadsigns that are actually just levers with which to shoehorn (aka railroad) a party onto the “one true path”. And that my friend, is NOT a fun way to DM, OR to play. It’s a shortcoming of mine. Among many.

The games that I, and my players, have had the most fun in are all centered around a memorable encounter / location that is fairly self contained and not overly long. Unfortunately I tend to liken this to some of the video games that I’ve played in the past. Most notably Elder Scrolls, Oblivion. Let me explain, if you’ve never played the game it’s all based on the freedom to do what you want to do. And the fun thing is that the environment completely supports this type of play.

Add to that the fact that there are myriad notable spots that you can walk across at random should you be strolling  cross country to your next “destination”. I mean it’s pretty neat. You are heading to do the bidding of some elder god in order to attain some kind of favor or item, and you suddenly stumble across this really neat little town that’s stock full of cultists trying to appear “normal”, or an ancient set of ruins, or a gathering of fey. And of course, there’s the always present “random” encounter.

Either way, this idea that Ben has to basically set up a very rich environment and use it as the motivation for adventuring. How though is a DM going to initiate the whole process? I suppose you could use the old method of “you’re an adventurer, go and do what adventurers do; Adventure!” Now I don’t have anything against that rather heavy handed method. In fact, I’ll most likely use it for lack of inspiration and perspiration.  I’m basically a lazy bastard. Now you know. But I’m not so sure about this motivational method.

On one hand I suppose that it allows a pretty wide range of background motivators for each character. In other words it doesn’t necessitate any kind of maneuvering that forces the players to explain things via their background. I mean sure, if a character would like to fill in some kind of background explaining why they’re where they are then yeah, it’s a “little” constraining. But what game isn’t? I mean really…So a few more ideas then, I’ve recently had the opportunity to purchase the “A” series of modules from Troll Lord Games. (link) In all honesty I have hordes and scores of material that I could quite easily lever into an environment, but the temptation to get my hands on some modules that were actually written for Castles and Crusades was just too great. So I pulled the trigger and I’m actually quite happy I did so.

A quick review: Most of the adventures that are centered around The Blacktooth Ridge in Castles and Crudades’ Erde setting are VERY old school in feeling. There’s a bit of a plot up front but like Keep on the Borderlands, it doesn’t really do much more than set a stage. (***SPOILER ALERT***) If you plan on playing in any of these modules please don’t read any further…. I’ll end the Spoiler Alert when all is safe.

So, Attack on Blacktooth Ridge is VERY open ended. The redcaps or Rottenkips (I think…I don’t have the module open in front of me at the moment) are a band of well organized goblin raiders that have been terrorizing the southern reaches for some time. They’ve now come into the area of a little town called Botkinburg and that’s of some concern to the local citizens. As well it should be, these little rotters are quite a terror and have built up a fearsome reputation.

There’s actually a little more to the module than the goblins though, a bit of political maneuvering plays into the “why” of the goblins moving into the area. But in all honesty I’m not too interested in that, and much to Steven Chenault’s credit he’s only loosely associated this with the redcaps. It’s going to be easy peasy to work some other kind of reason into their existence. Although I’m not sure that there’s a “need” to do this. This is after-all an old school game and as we all know, much of the way things were structured in the days of yore adhered to the “Devil may Care” school of design. Meaning that you didn’t necessarily need a reason, if it was cool, and Erol Otis could paint it then go for it.

Anyway, the modules (I’ve only read through about 1/3 of what I purchased) are so far pretty cool. Like I’ve said above, they’re very old school in the way that they simply explain locations rather than trying to add all sorts of window dressing in the form of plot elements and motivations. It’ll be quite simple to insert them into my setting. Which by the way, if I haven’t yet mentioned, is a heavily reworked version of The Wilderlands of High Adventure.  I’ll write more on that later.

(** END SPOILER ALERT **)

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