Attempt at preparing for an episodic game

[Forest Eyes]

Occasionally in past efforts at STing, I have occasionally railroaded my players slightly more than I'd like to. However, one of the best sessions I ever had involved one of my players coming up with a solution I hadn't even thought of as a possibility, and then the rest of the players got really into it. So I decided for my next attempt at STing I want to make things more episodic in nature, and avoid long story arcs with pre-determined branches and conclusions.


Rather than just pull things out of nowhere and continually improvise, I decided the best way to prepare for this type of game would be to just think of a general theme and then develop a consistent supporting cast. So the theme I thought of as a challenge to my players (and myself) to overcome the tendency to railroad, so the metaphysical challenge I'm posing to them is to make their own destiny and not be tools to others. Thus, the supporting cast all have their own ulterior motives.


The first staple of the supporting cast is a Terrestrial Sworn Brotherhood who's out for some Anathema blood. Sounds typical, right? Well, the twist is that they all have some honor to regain or face to save another ulterior motive involved, so rather than just walking home with the Anathema's heads, they want to make sure they take them down with plenty of onlookers. So if they meet in a deserted place, they'll spare them. If they get desperate enough, they might cause some mayhem of their own that they can frame on the PC Circle, just to get that much more reputation.


On the less (seemingly) antagonistic side is Haruji Forest-Eyes, seemingly a wandering scholar documenting a journey across Creation. He seems to have a knack for being in the wrong place at the right time and a tendency to be absent-minded. In truth, he's a Chosen of Secrets documenting the Circle's experience as Gold Faction propaganda. Unfortunately for the Circle, he's more interested in making a good story than their own safety, so he'll point them in the direction where they'll get in the most trouble, and attract a LOT of unwanted attention to them. Besides, a heroic sacrifice might even be a better story than triumph. (I realized a while after I made him up that he vaguely resembles Xellos from Slayers.)


The last major player among the supporting cast is The Supernal Black Rose, a masked woman dressed in the finest black silks, hair filled with black flowers flecked with red like bloodstains. I'm the the players will probably figure she's an Abyssal within seconds of meeting her, which is apt since she is a Moonshadow Caste Deathknight. However, she's also probably the nicest person they'll meet, offering them aide, advice, and guidance, then disappearing as mysteriously as she arrived. In reality, she's pitting them against rival Deathknights in order to earn the ire of other Deathlords. Her ultimate goal is to maneuver them into a situation where their only hope of survival is to swear fealty to her Deathlord. And she's very patient.


So that's the basic setup, I'm going to let the PCs and the supporting cast do most of the work here, let their interactions dictate the adventure path. I do have a couple potential spots for action going on, and I'll be able to incorperate some "monster of the week" type stuff without it drifting too far away from the overall story. The potential pitfalls I'm worried about are falling in love with the supporting cast to the point where they overshadow the PCs, and that I overestimate my ability to improvise.

 

[vegetalss4]

sounds like a good idea, go for it

 

[Arthur]

Adopting a SAS like approach is also useful: think of some scenes that are likely to happen and stat them up, trying to consider the most probable approach your players might take.

 

[Forest Eyes]

I have a thought that came up about Supernal Black Rose.


From a metagame standpoint, it's obvious that she's an Abyssal. I don't know if any of my potential players are going to decide their characters have any knowledge or experience with Deathknights, but I don't want to write off the possibility that a player might decide they want to kill her on sight.


Now, I do want to make her fairly powerful, but just having her to invincible to beat in combat seems like a cop-out to me, so I'd rather just load her up with powers that would allow her to either A) convince the players to not want to fight her, or B) make a convenient escape should things get though. I've perused some Presence and Socialize charms that might work towards that end, but a lot of them are Obvious, and plus it's just a little too much storyteller fiat to continually say "She beats you at social fu, so you don't fight her."


The other option would be to give her a Perfect Defense or two comboed with something like Stepping Outside Existence, or have her know some Solar or Sidereal Charms (she IS a Moonshadow, after all.) I haven't taken too close a look at any applicable Necromancy spells (if I decide to make her a Necromancer, she probably would only have Labyrinth Circle at most) but most of the spells I have looked at are either for messing with ghosts or killing things, so I'm not sure there are any ones that are useful, beyond the one that uses a mirror to deliver messages (can't remember the name offhand).

 

[Thanqol]

The potential pitfalls I'm worried about are falling in love with the supporting cast to the point where they overshadow the PCs, and that I overestimate my ability to improvise.

As someone who's recently emerged from a campaign where the final boss fight consisted of the two epic NPCs battling it out, and our final battle was "Oh and you eventually kill that guy you were fighting", I can not stress the point that your support staff should be support staff. Bit of an extreme example, but NPCs should never overshadow PCs, especially in Exalted.


My advice for this is that your NPCs should be defined by their relationships with the PCs. If they don't have a personal connection with one or more PC, then they shouldn't be there or should develop that connection, stat. NPCs shouldn't interact with each other in major, plot-defining ways. If the supporting cast grows in importance, it should be based on the amount of energy the PCs are sinking into their relationship.

 

[Jukashi]

NPCs shouldn't interact with each other in major, plot-defining ways.

Well, within reason. If the whole point of the adventure is that Chejop Kejak has teamed up with, say, Regent Fokuf, to... for example... steal all the world's supply of gin, then their relationship with each other is going to have some importance. Especially if the PCs are the ones to take advantage of it, i.e. by turning them against each other.

 

[Brickwall]

I usually run my games episodic-with-plot. Like a good anime, sorta. Every session has its own internal conflict that rarely takes more than the session to resolve (and NEVER more than two), but there's an obvious overarching structure. This works because if they run things off, you can let it go all session, and you get a huge opportunity to recover.

 

[Thanqol]

NPCs shouldn't interact with each other in major, plot-defining ways.

Well, within reason. If the whole point of the adventure is that Chejop Kejak has teamed up with, say, Regent Fokuf, to... for example... steal all the world's supply of gin, then their relationship with each other is going to have some importance. Especially if the PCs are the ones to take advantage of it, i.e. by turning them against each other.

I would love to see what Fokuf would do to betray Kejak.


Setting villains and their relationships with each other is one thing. That's awesome. Villains should have complex motivations. A revised statement should be NPCs never resolve major, plot defining issues.

 

[Jakk Bey]

One thing you can try--and mind you, it's a fairly consistent part of my games--is allowing the players to develop and play the supporting cast. Primary and secondary, and even tertiary casts. Some of those tertiary casts can even be on the antagonists' sides.


You have to have players who can commit to the idea. Who will play their characters to the best of their ability, no matter what side they're on. And that may mean having them develop characters with some strict guidelines, and then tuck them away. Let them just about forget about them. Or poll them IF they were to play characters of a certain type of Exalt of faction, what would they do, and then sketch up the characters for them. And tuck them away when you get to a nice stopping point, or a break in the action--or even in the middle of an arc to get them to see what is coming at them, from the villains' perspective.


One way for players to respect their antagonists is if they actually see why they're doing things.


You don't want to have PCs running up against their other characters, but you can highlight how your antagonist got some information, or captured someone, or got an Artifact and even give the PCs a hint at what it does, tantalizing them with whispers of what it could do or mean. It's a tool to give them other scenes to fill in parts of the story.


You can likewise have your PCs respect their supporting cast by actually letting them play those roles. As followers of your PCs, or allies who have their own agendas--deal them in. Give them characters or develop them with your players and then give them a spin of your own, and then turn them loose on your PCs when they maybe aren't expecting it. They just sent a group of soldiers off to secure a pass, then let them play that group of soldiers--who you know your antagonist is possibly going to wipe out and strike at their back lines, or steal something valuable that the main cast doesn't even know exists.


Secondary and tertiary casts are great tools to expand the story, and deal the players in a bit more to be invested in these side tales. They respect their villains even more by seeing their machinations, and if they play characters that are ON the other side, they can appreciate the antagonists' motives better.


Just a thought.

 

[wordman]

Buy, beg or borrow a copy of Prime Time Adventures. From the description, you probably won't see the connection to Exalted, because there isn't any. The connection is to the episodic nature of what you are trying to do.


Once you read it, it will totally change your notion of how to do what you are trying to do.