In addition to this nanowrimo nonsense I'm doing, I have my first session running a game for more or less strangers coming up on Saturday.
I'll be running B/X and plan to do a traditional dungeon crawl using one of the many available one page dungeons.
Of the ones I've tested, many have a significant number of empty rooms.
While I like empty rooms, my playtesters expressed that they wanted more to do - at the same time, they aren't familiar with the old school paradigm. And, the reality is I have 4 hours to run the thing to conclusion. There's no going back next session (although i hope to find enough interest that people want to do a B/X campaign of some sort).
I could just throw in more encounters I suppose, if I find interest waning or time is available - certainly adding wandering monsters to the playtest helped in that respect.
I'm not really worried about running the game itself, or improvising or anything like that, so much as having an adventure the players will enjoy.
Wherein Our Hero blathers on about playing with toy soldiers, playing RPGs and related interests for his own edification.
Why not putting in some logical problems, or some player interaction?
ReplyDeleteLet me tell you a folk story from where I came from... A group of adventurers wandered into cave where no light can be lit. In absolute darkness a voice was heard: "There are rocks on the ground. Those who take some of them home, will be sorry. Those who do not take it will be sorry also." Some adventurers took few rocks, some adventures didn't. When they come home, they found out that the rocks were chunks of gold. Those who didn't take were sorry they didn't. Those who did take some were sorry they didn't took more. Adventurers spend the remaining of their lives looking for that cave but they were unable to find it again.
Maybe something in that line... :)
This is a great story! I could see feeding this story to PCs in a campaign to get them to start exploring.
Delete-John
My $.02:
ReplyDelete>Is this for a convention or private gig? That always changes my plans.
>The game/event must feel "complete" as in the participants experienced everything they could - they "watched the whole movie," so to speak. B/X can be pretty deadly depending on the opposition. Err on the side of making things easier, then adjust on the fly if challenges need to be upped. Everyone wants to live to see the big finish.
>There is a big finish, right?
>Empty rooms are boring. Tell a story with them. In each empty room, leave behind artifacts of some terrible secret or hidden past that can be pieced together by the players. Players LOVE that stuff, sometimes more than combat.
>B/X has no mechanical way of expressing PC motivations beyond the intrinsic kill and loot. A one-liner such as "sworn to protect [other PC's name]" or "desperate to prove his worth to [patron liege or god]" go a long way to nudging proactive play and directed decision-making out of strangers.
>Flavor, flavor, flavor. And then more flavor. (Especially since it's B/X, which I do not think is a bad choice, just one that doesn't immediately evoke conceptual depth like, say, Call of Cthulhu.
>When in doubt, go satirical - you're still playing your game, but you, the DM, are controlling the joke-making that will invariably happen at the table. (I eventually did get to run Chainmail Bikini Beach Party - high fantasy + 60's beach movies - and it was a massive hit with 4 total strangers. In fact, most of my material is satirical, but with a solid gaming core and badass villainy.)
Thanks, JF! A lot of good ideas here - definitely more to think on as I prepare for Saturday.
DeleteI particularly like the one liner idea, especially since I have billed the game as one of old school treasure seeking.
-John
One more: do at least one run through, even if alone aloud. This is a must for any performer, which is how I see the DM role for one-shots with strangers.
ReplyDeletegreat suggestion, JF! I have done that with some but not all of the candidates. I also gave them solo runs to get me more familiar with them.
Delete-John