PLUCKY HEROES FIGHT CORRUPTION,
CLEAN UP TOWN!
CLEAN UP TOWN!
...Sound good?
A great many adventures in fiction are about dealing with the shadowy villain that has overtaken some place, bringing their sinister powers to bear in order to seize power behind the scenes. Setting up that kind of challenge for your game can seem tricky. But it isn’t, really. My tricksy method, let me show it to you.
YOU’LL NEED THE PDF
The PDF for this article contains the article text (including this paragraph, for no real reason), but has a fillable, saveable form as it’s first page. By filling in the blanks, you’ll build a place that has been overtaken by such a nefarious force.
IT STARTS WITH THE PLACE, AND THE RISE
Give the place a name - Shropshire, the West End, Tommorrowopolis, Lunar Studio Number 54, whatever suits your game and your needs. Then finish each of the sentences in the first section to tell the story of the rise of the villain. For a (somewhat odd) example, look below.
Give the place a name - Shropshire, the West End, Tommorrowopolis, Lunar Studio Number 54, whatever suits your game and your needs. Then finish each of the sentences in the first section to tell the story of the rise of the villain. For a (somewhat odd) example, look below.
GETTING A GOOD HISTORY
As you finish each sentence, ensure that you’re showing both how the villain got power (usually by leveraging whatever was wrong with the place to begin with - the ‘It wasn’t perfect’ bit), and make sure that you’re showing off why the villain is absolutely the Bad Guy. After play begins, those sentences become the framework for the history of the place that the characters can hear about.
NEXT, FIGURE OUT THE “PROPER ORDER”
Something can’t really be corrupted unless there’s a good or right way for things to be. The second section of this process is to go over how things ought to look. This part is fairly easy; there should be a leader (which might be a group, such as ‘the tribal elders’), probably with some adjucts, specialists that aren’t officials but are close to the leader, and some officials, each with their own areas of responsibility. While you’re filing out these names, you may want to give them job titles, and you’ll probably want to include the villain - most villains have an ‘official’ job that is significantly more humble seeming than their actual powers. In addition, unless the society of the game world makes it unfeasible, use a nice blend of males and females, and spend a quick moment considering their family situations; fiction about broken places often also includes broken families divided along partisan lines, people ‘sleeping with the enemy’, and all manner of other messed-up personal mojo. The form is built to act as a quick reference for authority structures in play, but that doesn’t mean that authority is the only game in town.
Something can’t really be corrupted unless there’s a good or right way for things to be. The second section of this process is to go over how things ought to look. This part is fairly easy; there should be a leader (which might be a group, such as ‘the tribal elders’), probably with some adjucts, specialists that aren’t officials but are close to the leader, and some officials, each with their own areas of responsibility. While you’re filing out these names, you may want to give them job titles, and you’ll probably want to include the villain - most villains have an ‘official’ job that is significantly more humble seeming than their actual powers. In addition, unless the society of the game world makes it unfeasible, use a nice blend of males and females, and spend a quick moment considering their family situations; fiction about broken places often also includes broken families divided along partisan lines, people ‘sleeping with the enemy’, and all manner of other messed-up personal mojo. The form is built to act as a quick reference for authority structures in play, but that doesn’t mean that authority is the only game in town.
THE REAL POWER
This set of boxes is filled out in much the same way as the way things should be, except that filling this out is about the power structure that the villain actually has and uses. This should include the villain, and any notes about them you care to make, and their ‘free-roaming’ agents (thugs). It should also include the people that the villain has subverted with authority or has put in charge of his own operations (dupes), and finally, it should describe what those dupes are in control of (with a note on how they do it, if they have no ’legitimate’ authority). As with the boxes describing how things should be, consider how these characters relate to others in the community (and especially in the legitimate power structure).
This set of boxes is filled out in much the same way as the way things should be, except that filling this out is about the power structure that the villain actually has and uses. This should include the villain, and any notes about them you care to make, and their ‘free-roaming’ agents (thugs). It should also include the people that the villain has subverted with authority or has put in charge of his own operations (dupes), and finally, it should describe what those dupes are in control of (with a note on how they do it, if they have no ’legitimate’ authority). As with the boxes describing how things should be, consider how these characters relate to others in the community (and especially in the legitimate power structure).
GETTING INVOLVED
Now that things are nicely messed up, and you’ve put a villain in charge, it might be good to turn your attention to creating the opportunity for some band with sufficient daring and wit to come and save the day.
Now that things are nicely messed up, and you’ve put a villain in charge, it might be good to turn your attention to creating the opportunity for some band with sufficient daring and wit to come and save the day.
• The Hook: First, you’re going to need to get their attention with something that they can’t (or won’t) ignore. Maybe they’re raring to go, and just need an excuse; maybe you need have their friends kidnapped, houses burned down, distant cousins living in starvation. Maybe you’re not that heavy-handed, and have ideas with more finesse. You know your players. How will you hook ‘em?
• The Contact: Also known as the “mouthpiece”, the contact is someone on the inside that knows what the characters need to know. Decide who that is, and (just as important) think of a few ways to connect the characters to them, as quickly as possible once they’re on the scene.
• Network: If there’s a villain running the show, then there will be people that want to resist. The network is the means by which they communicate - do they still act like the legitimate government is in power? Do they meet secretly? Have a base out in the jungle?
• Insiders: Some of the people working for the villain should be ready to change sides, turn out good, be double agents, that kind of thing. Who are they?
CHANGING THINGS UP
There’s quite a bit of extra space on the form given, and you typically won’t need all of it. The extra spaces can be used for various notes, made in whatever way you like; you might start listing relationships right with responsibilities and powers. You could end the sentence “AND SEIZED CONTROL;” with the words “Not Yet”, creating a conspiracy in the making rather than a fully broken place. You could fill out the way things should be, save the file, and then fill in the rest several different ways, to create a references for a place where several different factions are vying for control (and one in which a given character fits into several different factions). You could choose not to use character names anywhere, only institutions, creating a broken country. It’s your toy now; play with it a bit.
There’s quite a bit of extra space on the form given, and you typically won’t need all of it. The extra spaces can be used for various notes, made in whatever way you like; you might start listing relationships right with responsibilities and powers. You could end the sentence “AND SEIZED CONTROL;” with the words “Not Yet”, creating a conspiracy in the making rather than a fully broken place. You could fill out the way things should be, save the file, and then fill in the rest several different ways, to create a references for a place where several different factions are vying for control (and one in which a given character fits into several different factions). You could choose not to use character names anywhere, only institutions, creating a broken country. It’s your toy now; play with it a bit.
0 comments:
Post a Comment