My group recently started up a new 13th Age campaign, but this one's a bit unusual in that we're alternating GMing duties with each GM running a 3ish session adventure and then passing the baton over to someone else. I've done this in the past with a different group in D&D 4E (and I posted actual plays on that, using the Red Frogs tag). The concept is similar, with all of the PCs belonging to an adventurer's guild (which we haven't thought of a good name for yet), and each player having the option of making multiple PCs so that they can choose one from their roster at the beginning of each adventure. All characters level up at a consistent rate (otherwise the GMs would fall behind!). These elements strongly encourage a more episodic campaign structure, which will be an interesting departure from my last campaign which was more like one long arc. The advantage of this is that I think it will be well-suited to improvisational Icon driven play.
Oracles
As the first GM in the lineup, that's definitely the route I'm going. A while back there was a random adventure design tool posted in See Page XX (the Pelgrane Press webzine) called 13 Oracles. Each Icon is given a list of 6 associated places, objects, people, and circumstances and by rolling randomly you can combine those elements to create a random adventure. I decided to test this premise, and so after my players finished writing up their characters during our world-building session I had everyone roll Icon dice early. Luckily I had 4 results (one for each category), but with more I could have easily doubled up on one or more categories. Rolling on the Oracles list in the order that I wrote everyone's results in, I ended up with the following:
Place - 5 with the Archmage: an enchanted lake
Object - 5 with the Dwarf King: gold, gold, gold
People - 6 with the Elf Queen: a bard whose songs come true
Circumstance - 5 with the Elf Queen: under strange stars
To plan the adventure I simply spent 15 minutes or so using these results to come up with a basic plot outline. The summary version goes like this:
Maulnar, a dwarven vaultkeeper, hires the PCs because the contents of one of his vaults (a big pile of gold owned by the Dwarf King) has gone missing. This happened the same night that a wandering bard, Quentin Kroft, passed through Forge and sang a comic song at a local tavern about the Dwarf King losing his gold. The PC's first lead is Quentin's traveling companion, a gladiator in Axis, which was his last known location. They learn from the gladiator that Quentin was headed to Lake Everfrost, which was the last place he visited before going to Forge and where his songs started coming true. The land around Lake Everfrost is forever under winter's grip, and as soon as the PCs step onto the frozen lake the day sky goes dark and the sky over the lake is a clear, starlit night, but the stars look unfamiliar. They see Quentin kicking a rock in the center of the lake, and soon figure out that the lake is a window into another plane called the Land of the Unseelie. They learn that a drow sorceress (Lithariel) in that realm cursed Quentin when he first ventured onto the lake, using mishaps from his songs for profit (when the gold disappeared from the vault, it went directly to her tower!).
That actually sounds doable for a single-session adventure, but instead I decided to stretch it over 3 sessions. I had some ideas for a few adversaries, locales and some set-piece encounters which I weaved into this basic plot outline to flesh it out a little more and fill in the details.
Additional Icon Examples
A few days later (but before running the first session) I decided that some of the connections to the icons weren't terribly obvious. I also wanted more practice using Icons in-play, so I decided that the rolls for the first session would do double-duty. How would I have used these results in my previous campaign if I hadn't "counted" using them for the plot outline?
Session 1
Dwarf King 5 - Deldrak (the High Elf Wizard with the Forge prison escapee background) recognized Maulnar as an employee of the Dwarf King; a connection that the vaultkeeper originally kept secret to prevent this mishap from going public (twist - the Dwarf King doesn't even know his gold is missing!). This was planned before the session.
Elf Queen 5 - Farrah, the Drow Bard, noticed an obviously-stolen bracelet on the wrist of a thieves' guild leader. Unfortunately, the party couldn't (or wasn't motivated enough) to overcome the complication, and after abandoning a chase never got ahold of the bracelet. The thief will most likely make a future cameo. The general idea behind this was planned before the session, but the details were improvised on the spot (crazy PCs didn't do what I expected of them).
Elf Queen 6 - Kalder, the High Elf Sorcerer with the traveling merchant background, passed a colleague on the way to Lake Everfrost. This colleague happened to owe him some money, and paid back the debt with two healing potions and a +1 rune. This was planned before the session.
Archmage 5 - I kept this as a "floating" Icon roll, and I ended up invoking it when the PCs were in the pit barracks talking with the gladiators after being pursued by a squadron of town guards. Deldrak used Hold Portal to keep the guards off the party long enough for the conversation to take place. Unfortunately, that door was the only way out of the room (except for a sewer drain that the sorcerer opted to escape through, but nobody else did). Deldrak's One Unique Thing is that ever since his testing at the School of Imperial Wizardry, he's had to cast a spell every single round (usually he's constantly casting light as a quick action; each footstep he takes lights up the ground) or some random magical effect occurs. When the Hold Portal spell ended, he simply said he stopped casting light. I had sparks erupt from the ceiling, creating a lot of smoke that blinded everyone in the room and the incoming guards, allowing Deldrak to escape through the door (unfortunately, everyone else had to talk their way out of the situation once the smoke cleared, which they did just fine).
Session 2
These Icon rolls were made at the beginning of the session, so none were planned ahead of time.
Archmage 5 - After looting the bodies of some redcaps, Kalder (the sorcerer) found a bundle of mushrooms and a pouch of yellow powder. I initially wasn't sure what use they'd be, but after trading a minor secret to Ungol (see The Three, below) he learned that the powder is a spider repellent. I also used the mushrooms as part of another one of Deldrak's random magical effects from his OUT, which actually ended up being a nice complication.
Emperor 5 - This is an unused roll that will carry over to the next session.
The Three 2 - This was from the cursed dice of Balladeer. The party found themselves in the lair of Ungol, an ettercap who trades in secrets. Their goal was to learn the secret of who cursed Quentin, but such information doesn't come cheap. The PCs had to tell Ungol secrets of their own first. I wasn't sure what to do with this cursed die result until the players were at somewhat of a loss when asked to divulge their secrets (eventually they came up with some juicy stuff). So I told Seamus Stonystones, the Dwarf Bard who made the Balladeer check, to come up with a secret that would anger followers of The Three. He established that he was the writer of a limerick that had gone viral throughout the land, "Three Heads; Might as Well Be One."
Session 3
Emperor 5 (from last session) & Archmage 6 - The Emperor had sent Jeras, a former schoolmate of Deldrak, to aid the group after learning of their mission (he didn't want to compromise his alliance with the Dwarf King). Unfortunately, he got captured by redcaps and used as bait to lure the party into another battle, this time as revenge for their previous victory against redcaps (this was the complication). Point of interest, the "bad word" was literally a bad word that the group can't help but unconsciously utter when things go wrong, so even when they figured it out it still got triggered several more times. I love redcaps. In the first fight, the "bad word" was "attack," and the players never figured it out. Jeras gave the party several +1 Runes, a couple of potions, and some practical advice on the defenses of Lithariel's tower. Specifically, he told them not to touch the water in the stream that effectively acted as a moat from the side they approached. Note: I planned this general idea before the session using the Emperor 5 result, and decided to simply increase the magnitude of the benefit by combining the Archmage 6 result with Jeras (in short, he had more stuff for the party).
Dwarf King 6 - The haunted bagpipes of Seamus the Dwarven Bard warn him to steer clear of the disturbed earth around Lithariel's tower. The ghosts can sense other undead - zombies! - and the party avoids a trap/fight. While everyone loves a good zombie horde, I'm not sure how long it would take my party to realize that the zombies were effectively infinite (it was the site of a mass grave from a battle). Thus, this would have really been quite dangerous.
Great Gold Wyrm 5 - carried over to next session (see notes below).
Emperor 6 - carried over to next session but never used.
Session 4
Bonus session! This was a short session, and just a quick wrap-up since things ran longer than anticipated. The party fought Lithariel, "killed" her (she dissipated into smoke, and a successful knowledge check revealed that she'd regenerate later since the kill shot wasn't from a cold iron weapon). I used the Great Gold Wyrm roll from Seamus' Balladeer to have the toll-collected dragon brood be off chasing some merchants who were singing his anti-Three limerick ("Three Heads; Might As Well Be One"). The complication being that they'll probably kill those merchants, but perhaps not before learning who wrote the song (wink, wink).
Showing posts with label Icons in Action. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Icons in Action. Show all posts
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Musings on Icon Rolls - Alternatives and the Default Rule
There was a recent post on the Pelgrane Press forums about how to best utilize Icon rolls, with one of the complaints being that despite the fail-forward philosophy of the system as a whole, why should failing a roll connected to one of the most influential PCs in the game world (the Icon system being a major innovation of 13th Age) do nothing? Two posts down Guurzak responded that he'd changed Icon rolls to a single d6 to determine which of your Icons is involved.
The Single Die Icon Roll
The rationale for this is pretty simple - if you're hoping for a 5 or 6 (odds are 1/3) but you're rolling 3d6, on average each PC will benefit from one Icon relationship per session. For example, your first relationship triggers on a roll of 1 or 2, with 1 being the equivalent of 5 and 2 being the equivalent of 6 (and so on). The advantage to this system is that every PC gets some benefit from one of their Icons every single session, preserving the fail-forward feel of the system. This does, however, restrict possible combinations since a single PC with two different relationships can never see both of them come up in a single session. Likewise, a PC with 3 points in a single Icon will force that Icon to come into play every single session. I can see this getting repetitive pretty quickly.
An extra wrinkle is the fact that some talents grant additional relationship points, and as a PC levels they gain an additional point at each tier transition. There are two possible solutions for dealing with this. One is to increase the die size, having someone with 4 relationship points rolling a d8. This keeps the number of Icons being triggered consistent, but makes each individual relationship less potent. This may be ok with some groups, especially if the GM is trying to keep from getting overwhelmed by too many Icons. It does invalidate the idea that PCs become more influential as they move up a tier, though.
The second solution is to roll the first 3 Icons with one die, but use individual dice for any additional Icons, hoping for a 5 or 6 as per RAW. While this is no longer a single-die system, it does preserve the relative strengths of each relationship point and continues to guarantee that each PC will benefit from at least one relationship per session.
Another potential problem with this system is that it messes with talents like the Bard's Storyteller. Using the Icon rules as written, this talent is valuable for re-rolling a relationship that came up dry, but using just a single die you're merely swapping out Icons.
The New Art Sidebar
I've actually seen this single-die solution offered before online (though I can't remember where or when), as well as some other alternative mechanics that I can't quite remember. Clearly this is the type of thing that the "New Art" sidebar on p. 179 of the core rulebook is talking about:
Often, when an RPG introduces a new mechanic, such as our icon dice, soon enough the fans figure out how to use that mechanic better than the designers ever did. Designers are too close to their own creations to get it 100% right. Check the internet for the latest advice on using icon relationship dice.
But I'm not convinced such solutions are "better," or that there even really is a "better." If the published rules lack consistency session-to-session it's because they're an improvisational story tool, and stories shouldn't be repetitious from session to session. Sometimes a PC will get shoved into the spotlight by 2 or 3 Icon results, while another PC gets nothing. But being in the spotlight for story-driven reasons and being in the spotlight because you're given the opportunity to act are very different things. Bob can still make decisions and take actions in response to the current situation even if they're in the situation because of Jane. And over the course of a moderate to long campaign, everything should average out in the end. In the end, I think the published rules work really well, and in practice I think they allow for more organic results than any of the alternatives I've seen online.
An exception worth pointing out is convention games and one-shots. In such scenarios a single-die Icon roll is absolutely appropriate because there's only one session to get spotlight time in, so every PC's relationships should come up at some point.
Mechanical Benefits
Another alternative rule for Icons that I've seen posted online is for results of 5 or 6 to grant some kind of one time use mechanical benefit. The player can invoke their positive result for a re-roll, a -5 reduction to the DC of a skill check, or something of that nature. This has cropped up a few times in the inevitable "how do I use Icon results?" threads on various forums, and while there's certainly precedent for it (the suggestion that Icon rolls can grant magic items is, after all, a mechanical benefit), I'm not sure if that's necessarily a good use for the mechanic.
Essentially, such an add-on is trying to fit a plot currency device like Bennies (from Savage Worlds), Fate points (from Fate), or Destiny Points (from Edge of the Empire) into the Icon framework, but to me this seems like a square peg in a round hole. I have nothing against Fate Points, Destiny Points, etc., but they're pretty easy to add onto most systems as-is, and if you want them in your 13th Age game you should just do that. Using Icon rolls as the vehicle for "bennies" disassociates them from the fiction unless you can come up with an explanation for exactly why the PC gets a mechanical benefit from their relationship every single time, and in an interesting, unique way. Ultimately they work really well as an improvisational story tool, but they become less flexible if you have to inject story into a routine mechanical benefit, and the narrative impact is probably reduced as well. And then when you have a really good story-driven use for an Icon roll, will a player feel cheated if you use that instead of giving them a mechanical benefit like the other guy whose Icon roll you didn't have an obvious use for got? In other words, sometimes using them as a narrative tool and sometimes using them for a mechanical benefit might seem to lighten the load, but it could also mess with the expectations of the players and cause some friction.
While Icons as more of a GM's tool vs something that a player can invoke will vary from group to group, ideally the end result will be some narrative element. The location of the upcoming adventure is somehow tied to a PC's icon, NPCs that are tied to a PC will come into play, etc. A PC might be able to use a 5 or 6 as leverage during the adventure, but reducing that to something as simple as a re-roll seems like both a cop-out and forgettable. It's far less memorable than telling one of the players "ok, so these guys that outnumber and outgun you, you recognize one of their faces. You remember him from the Emperor's court; remember the Emperor giving him orders to infiltrate this group and act as a double agent. You lock eyes with the spy, and with a simple nod you see his crossbow go from pointing directly at you to pointing at his leader's throat." That provides the PC with a concrete link to the campaign world, and in my opinion that's the primary function of the Icon relationship dice in the first place.
The Single Die Icon Roll
The rationale for this is pretty simple - if you're hoping for a 5 or 6 (odds are 1/3) but you're rolling 3d6, on average each PC will benefit from one Icon relationship per session. For example, your first relationship triggers on a roll of 1 or 2, with 1 being the equivalent of 5 and 2 being the equivalent of 6 (and so on). The advantage to this system is that every PC gets some benefit from one of their Icons every single session, preserving the fail-forward feel of the system. This does, however, restrict possible combinations since a single PC with two different relationships can never see both of them come up in a single session. Likewise, a PC with 3 points in a single Icon will force that Icon to come into play every single session. I can see this getting repetitive pretty quickly.
An extra wrinkle is the fact that some talents grant additional relationship points, and as a PC levels they gain an additional point at each tier transition. There are two possible solutions for dealing with this. One is to increase the die size, having someone with 4 relationship points rolling a d8. This keeps the number of Icons being triggered consistent, but makes each individual relationship less potent. This may be ok with some groups, especially if the GM is trying to keep from getting overwhelmed by too many Icons. It does invalidate the idea that PCs become more influential as they move up a tier, though.
The second solution is to roll the first 3 Icons with one die, but use individual dice for any additional Icons, hoping for a 5 or 6 as per RAW. While this is no longer a single-die system, it does preserve the relative strengths of each relationship point and continues to guarantee that each PC will benefit from at least one relationship per session.
Another potential problem with this system is that it messes with talents like the Bard's Storyteller. Using the Icon rules as written, this talent is valuable for re-rolling a relationship that came up dry, but using just a single die you're merely swapping out Icons.
The New Art Sidebar
I've actually seen this single-die solution offered before online (though I can't remember where or when), as well as some other alternative mechanics that I can't quite remember. Clearly this is the type of thing that the "New Art" sidebar on p. 179 of the core rulebook is talking about:
Often, when an RPG introduces a new mechanic, such as our icon dice, soon enough the fans figure out how to use that mechanic better than the designers ever did. Designers are too close to their own creations to get it 100% right. Check the internet for the latest advice on using icon relationship dice.
But I'm not convinced such solutions are "better," or that there even really is a "better." If the published rules lack consistency session-to-session it's because they're an improvisational story tool, and stories shouldn't be repetitious from session to session. Sometimes a PC will get shoved into the spotlight by 2 or 3 Icon results, while another PC gets nothing. But being in the spotlight for story-driven reasons and being in the spotlight because you're given the opportunity to act are very different things. Bob can still make decisions and take actions in response to the current situation even if they're in the situation because of Jane. And over the course of a moderate to long campaign, everything should average out in the end. In the end, I think the published rules work really well, and in practice I think they allow for more organic results than any of the alternatives I've seen online.
An exception worth pointing out is convention games and one-shots. In such scenarios a single-die Icon roll is absolutely appropriate because there's only one session to get spotlight time in, so every PC's relationships should come up at some point.
Mechanical Benefits
Another alternative rule for Icons that I've seen posted online is for results of 5 or 6 to grant some kind of one time use mechanical benefit. The player can invoke their positive result for a re-roll, a -5 reduction to the DC of a skill check, or something of that nature. This has cropped up a few times in the inevitable "how do I use Icon results?" threads on various forums, and while there's certainly precedent for it (the suggestion that Icon rolls can grant magic items is, after all, a mechanical benefit), I'm not sure if that's necessarily a good use for the mechanic.
Essentially, such an add-on is trying to fit a plot currency device like Bennies (from Savage Worlds), Fate points (from Fate), or Destiny Points (from Edge of the Empire) into the Icon framework, but to me this seems like a square peg in a round hole. I have nothing against Fate Points, Destiny Points, etc., but they're pretty easy to add onto most systems as-is, and if you want them in your 13th Age game you should just do that. Using Icon rolls as the vehicle for "bennies" disassociates them from the fiction unless you can come up with an explanation for exactly why the PC gets a mechanical benefit from their relationship every single time, and in an interesting, unique way. Ultimately they work really well as an improvisational story tool, but they become less flexible if you have to inject story into a routine mechanical benefit, and the narrative impact is probably reduced as well. And then when you have a really good story-driven use for an Icon roll, will a player feel cheated if you use that instead of giving them a mechanical benefit like the other guy whose Icon roll you didn't have an obvious use for got? In other words, sometimes using them as a narrative tool and sometimes using them for a mechanical benefit might seem to lighten the load, but it could also mess with the expectations of the players and cause some friction.
While Icons as more of a GM's tool vs something that a player can invoke will vary from group to group, ideally the end result will be some narrative element. The location of the upcoming adventure is somehow tied to a PC's icon, NPCs that are tied to a PC will come into play, etc. A PC might be able to use a 5 or 6 as leverage during the adventure, but reducing that to something as simple as a re-roll seems like both a cop-out and forgettable. It's far less memorable than telling one of the players "ok, so these guys that outnumber and outgun you, you recognize one of their faces. You remember him from the Emperor's court; remember the Emperor giving him orders to infiltrate this group and act as a double agent. You lock eyes with the spy, and with a simple nod you see his crossbow go from pointing directly at you to pointing at his leader's throat." That provides the PC with a concrete link to the campaign world, and in my opinion that's the primary function of the Icon relationship dice in the first place.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
The End of the Axtalrath Campaign
I started my 13th Age campaign back in January, as a way to introduce the group to the game. Eight months later, I found myself surprised how long it actually lasted. I had intended to run a shorter campaign just to get people used to the system, but the ideas just kept flowing and it took on a life of its own. With everyone wanting to actually play Edge of the Empire, it seemed like a good time to draw 13th Age to a close, despite the fact that I still had plenty of material floating around in my head.
Finale Summary
We covered a lot of ground throughout this campaign, but the quick and dirty backstory is that there was a recently colonized island in the Midland Sea, where the PCs were residing at the start of the campaign, and about a week (game time) earlier a great red dragon named Axtalrath had taken up residence there. Somewhere in the middle of the campaign the wood elf Cleric had also freed an imprisoned Dracolich, meaning that there were TWO dragons loose now. After escaping the island via a portal at the end of a living dungeon, hanging around in Drakkenhall, and getting some magical aid from Arden, the Great Gold Wyrm's silver dragon counterpart (known as the Sea Dragon, she left the empire when the Midland Sea was tamed, and now guards the Sea Wall from the creatures of the Iron Sea), it was time to return to the island and put a stop to Axtalrath.
Now, Axtalrath was a Huge Red Dragon (the level 13 one from the core book), and the party had just hit level 5. The Dracolich was a Huge 8th level custom creation based on the dragons from the book. Clearly a face-to-face fight was out of the question. Fortunately, the magic that Arden gifted the PCs with would allow them to reverse the polarity of the island's sky-metal monolith (which has been drawing magical energy from the ley lines underneath), forcing it to siphon nearby elemental fire instead. If Axtalrath were nearby, it would destroy her.
With that plan in mind, the PCs began the session in an old cave system where the Dracolich's phylactery was hidden. The kobold guards were toast (all 30+ of them) after the last battle of the previous session, so after recovering the phylactery the party sought out the Dracolich and threatened to destroy it unless he challenged Axtalrath in single combat, drawing her to the monolith. After some negotiation which left the Cleric with cursed hands (think Dumbledore's) and cursed eyes (a self-inflicted complication from an Icon roll), the Dracolich grudgingly agreed.
Cue the big epic battle. The Monk's OUT was that he can climb impossible surfaces, so once Axtalrath was in sight he activated Arden's magic at the top of the monolith while the Fighter did the same at the base. It took a few rounds to charge up, during which the Dracolich occupied most of Axtalrath's attention, while Axtalrath sent some allies (courtesy of The Blue) after the PCs (a hill giant and several Hobgoblin warcasters). Just when things were looking dire for the Dracolich, the energy began arcing from the monolith to Axtalrath. It was then that she knew what was going on, so for 2 rounds before her death she focused her attention on the PCs. One breath weapon killed the Cleric outright in a single shot, and grievously wounded the others. The Fighter was unconscious, so I randomly rolled to see whether she would target her death throes on the Paladin or Monk. Paladin got the unlucky roll, and in a surprising bout of heroism the Monk intercepted, and I let him use Improbably Stunt to use a finishing move as part of the intercept. After 3 attacks from the dragon (2 of which hit; I think I fumbled the other one) the Monk was outright killed, too. Axtalrath swallowed him whole, and as the player noted that he'd had 2 vials of poison on his person, the dragon experienced some mild gastric distress before being immolated and siphoned into the monolith.
The Paladin used a magic axe with item-destroying powers to betray the Dracolich by destroying the phylactery anyways. This axe caused images from the destroyed item's past to be reflected in its blade, and destroying the phylactery therefore replaced the images from the last item the axe destroyed - images that would have implicated the Paladin's political rival and ended his exile, restoring his status in Dwarven society. A noble sacrifice, to be sure, but not so final as the one that the Cleric and Monk made. Of course, being inside of Axtalrath when she was consumed allowed the Monk's essence to be sucked into the island's ley lines through the monolith, so he IS the island now. And the Cleric got to meet the voice behind a mysterious amulet that talked to him - the voice of God. And the Fighter, well, he made the Great Gold Wyrm proud by defeated two rivals.
Icons
This session was interesting because I hadn't planned on having the PCs roll their Relationship Dice until the last minute. The final confrontation was pretty much set without much wiggle room if we were to finish in one session, and I'd had a 6 with the Emperor and a 5 and 6 with the Orc Lord banked from last session. But I figured I'd let them roll one last time, and got more results than usual. Three more 6's and three more 5's, to be precise. Even more surprising was that all of them got used except one of the 5's (for the Emperor).
So how'd I pull it off? Well, I decided to burn the Orc Lord relationship by making the Dracolich's phylactery a shrunken head - that happened to be an orc. No shame in having an Icon roll result in some interesting aesthetic detail. Were it not the last session, something like that could have taken on greater significance later. A 5 with The Three meant that a pair of kobold scouts happened to be discovering the massacre of their fellow guards just as the PCs exited the cave, and they were able to capture one of them and force him to take them to the Dracolich's camp. A 5 for the Priestess let the Cleric (by his suggestion) discover the ritual to destroy the phylactery by studying the various runes carved into the scarified face, but at the expense of getting cursed eyes (a negative background; too bad he didn't live long enough for it to come into play). The Fighter used a 6 with the Great Gold Wyrm (by his suggestion) to convince the Dracolich during negotiations that Arden had provided them with the means to destroy his phylactery (this was before the Cleric discovered its secrets), and the name-dropping also leant much weight to the plan to destroy Axtalrath. The Dracolich was, after all, very much outmatched in that fight. A 6 for the Emperor revealed that an old ally (Lord Taramos) was in residence at the Wizard tower beside the monolith, and being the most powerful wizard on the island he was able to aid them by animating the crystalline walls surrounding the compound during the fight. Rolls for the Dwarf King and Orc Lord determined the allies sent by The Blue through the portal (this is one that I'd actually planned on using BEFORE the session, even jotting down a list of possible allies associated with each Icon in the party).
And that about covered it. It turned out to be perhaps the most Icon-heavy session in the campaign, despite the fact that the plot was pretty much "set." I guess the moral of the story here is GMs shouldn't be afraid to stack the odds against the PCs, and let Icon rolls determine whatever little advantages they can eke out to level the playing field a little bit. It's usually pretty easy to come up with story-guidance results as a GM, but until that sub-plot resolves itself sometimes it's tough to interpret Icon rolls. But that's cool, because if you just increase the pressure on the PCs they might just come up with clever ways to leverage their connections with the Icons. In some ways I don't think that the player-input facet of the Icons hit its stride until later in the campaign, which makes me really excited for the next campaign now that the players know the ropes!
Finale Summary
We covered a lot of ground throughout this campaign, but the quick and dirty backstory is that there was a recently colonized island in the Midland Sea, where the PCs were residing at the start of the campaign, and about a week (game time) earlier a great red dragon named Axtalrath had taken up residence there. Somewhere in the middle of the campaign the wood elf Cleric had also freed an imprisoned Dracolich, meaning that there were TWO dragons loose now. After escaping the island via a portal at the end of a living dungeon, hanging around in Drakkenhall, and getting some magical aid from Arden, the Great Gold Wyrm's silver dragon counterpart (known as the Sea Dragon, she left the empire when the Midland Sea was tamed, and now guards the Sea Wall from the creatures of the Iron Sea), it was time to return to the island and put a stop to Axtalrath.
Now, Axtalrath was a Huge Red Dragon (the level 13 one from the core book), and the party had just hit level 5. The Dracolich was a Huge 8th level custom creation based on the dragons from the book. Clearly a face-to-face fight was out of the question. Fortunately, the magic that Arden gifted the PCs with would allow them to reverse the polarity of the island's sky-metal monolith (which has been drawing magical energy from the ley lines underneath), forcing it to siphon nearby elemental fire instead. If Axtalrath were nearby, it would destroy her.
With that plan in mind, the PCs began the session in an old cave system where the Dracolich's phylactery was hidden. The kobold guards were toast (all 30+ of them) after the last battle of the previous session, so after recovering the phylactery the party sought out the Dracolich and threatened to destroy it unless he challenged Axtalrath in single combat, drawing her to the monolith. After some negotiation which left the Cleric with cursed hands (think Dumbledore's) and cursed eyes (a self-inflicted complication from an Icon roll), the Dracolich grudgingly agreed.
Cue the big epic battle. The Monk's OUT was that he can climb impossible surfaces, so once Axtalrath was in sight he activated Arden's magic at the top of the monolith while the Fighter did the same at the base. It took a few rounds to charge up, during which the Dracolich occupied most of Axtalrath's attention, while Axtalrath sent some allies (courtesy of The Blue) after the PCs (a hill giant and several Hobgoblin warcasters). Just when things were looking dire for the Dracolich, the energy began arcing from the monolith to Axtalrath. It was then that she knew what was going on, so for 2 rounds before her death she focused her attention on the PCs. One breath weapon killed the Cleric outright in a single shot, and grievously wounded the others. The Fighter was unconscious, so I randomly rolled to see whether she would target her death throes on the Paladin or Monk. Paladin got the unlucky roll, and in a surprising bout of heroism the Monk intercepted, and I let him use Improbably Stunt to use a finishing move as part of the intercept. After 3 attacks from the dragon (2 of which hit; I think I fumbled the other one) the Monk was outright killed, too. Axtalrath swallowed him whole, and as the player noted that he'd had 2 vials of poison on his person, the dragon experienced some mild gastric distress before being immolated and siphoned into the monolith.
The Paladin used a magic axe with item-destroying powers to betray the Dracolich by destroying the phylactery anyways. This axe caused images from the destroyed item's past to be reflected in its blade, and destroying the phylactery therefore replaced the images from the last item the axe destroyed - images that would have implicated the Paladin's political rival and ended his exile, restoring his status in Dwarven society. A noble sacrifice, to be sure, but not so final as the one that the Cleric and Monk made. Of course, being inside of Axtalrath when she was consumed allowed the Monk's essence to be sucked into the island's ley lines through the monolith, so he IS the island now. And the Cleric got to meet the voice behind a mysterious amulet that talked to him - the voice of God. And the Fighter, well, he made the Great Gold Wyrm proud by defeated two rivals.
Icons
This session was interesting because I hadn't planned on having the PCs roll their Relationship Dice until the last minute. The final confrontation was pretty much set without much wiggle room if we were to finish in one session, and I'd had a 6 with the Emperor and a 5 and 6 with the Orc Lord banked from last session. But I figured I'd let them roll one last time, and got more results than usual. Three more 6's and three more 5's, to be precise. Even more surprising was that all of them got used except one of the 5's (for the Emperor).
So how'd I pull it off? Well, I decided to burn the Orc Lord relationship by making the Dracolich's phylactery a shrunken head - that happened to be an orc. No shame in having an Icon roll result in some interesting aesthetic detail. Were it not the last session, something like that could have taken on greater significance later. A 5 with The Three meant that a pair of kobold scouts happened to be discovering the massacre of their fellow guards just as the PCs exited the cave, and they were able to capture one of them and force him to take them to the Dracolich's camp. A 5 for the Priestess let the Cleric (by his suggestion) discover the ritual to destroy the phylactery by studying the various runes carved into the scarified face, but at the expense of getting cursed eyes (a negative background; too bad he didn't live long enough for it to come into play). The Fighter used a 6 with the Great Gold Wyrm (by his suggestion) to convince the Dracolich during negotiations that Arden had provided them with the means to destroy his phylactery (this was before the Cleric discovered its secrets), and the name-dropping also leant much weight to the plan to destroy Axtalrath. The Dracolich was, after all, very much outmatched in that fight. A 6 for the Emperor revealed that an old ally (Lord Taramos) was in residence at the Wizard tower beside the monolith, and being the most powerful wizard on the island he was able to aid them by animating the crystalline walls surrounding the compound during the fight. Rolls for the Dwarf King and Orc Lord determined the allies sent by The Blue through the portal (this is one that I'd actually planned on using BEFORE the session, even jotting down a list of possible allies associated with each Icon in the party).
And that about covered it. It turned out to be perhaps the most Icon-heavy session in the campaign, despite the fact that the plot was pretty much "set." I guess the moral of the story here is GMs shouldn't be afraid to stack the odds against the PCs, and let Icon rolls determine whatever little advantages they can eke out to level the playing field a little bit. It's usually pretty easy to come up with story-guidance results as a GM, but until that sub-plot resolves itself sometimes it's tough to interpret Icon rolls. But that's cool, because if you just increase the pressure on the PCs they might just come up with clever ways to leverage their connections with the Icons. In some ways I don't think that the player-input facet of the Icons hit its stride until later in the campaign, which makes me really excited for the next campaign now that the players know the ropes!
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Icons in Action (2)
Overall tonight's session was pretty light on Icon usage. I guess that just happens sometimes; it was a short session, and somewhat combat-heavy. Each player rolled one 5 for Relationships at the start of the session, and there was an outstanding 5 and 6 from last session that hadn't been spent as well. Complications are awesome and make perfect sense in some situations, but in others I find I struggle to come up with a good disadvantage. Results of 5 can be, quite simply, more work to utilize in play (unless you're endowed with more improvisational creativity than I am).
Icon Rolls/OUTs
Argus, our party's Fighter, wanted to copy down some ancient writing from a tapestry onto paper for later research. The player simply asked if the standard adventurer's gear included paper. Thinking it unlikely for any but a studious Wizard type, a Bard who likes to compose on the road, or a PC of any class that has an established personality/backstory that would justify carrying paper, I said probably not. "But what happened to 'Always say Yes,'" you might ask? Well, I happened to be struggling with coming up with any applications for these relationship rolls (as were my players), so I offered the player the following bargain: if he spent a 5 for the Emperor that was still in play, he can be carrying around imperial stationary with an appropriate writing implement.
The beauty of this suggestion is that it's so minor at the present time that I didn't feel the need to tack on a complication. Easy on me, right? Results of 5 could involve a complication, OR they could simply provide a lesser benefit than a 6 would. But it's still open-ended. How did Argus come by this imperial stationary? His Relationship with the Emperor is conflicted, and his OUT is that he's the only person known to have insulted the Emperor to his face and lived to tell the tale. Is it left over from a former position that he once held in the imperial military? Or did he come by it later through illicit means? Will it be possible to forge an official document later on, now that it's established that he carries imperial stationary? Maybe a more significant benefit will come up later, and the possibility for future conflict is certainly there as well. Point being, just because you need to come up with something on the spot for a relationship roll doesn't mean you have to come up with EVERYTHING on the spot. And everyone knows sometimes minor details can end up having a big narrative impact later on.
Backgrounds
Turns out the best example of a surprising (and yet obvious, in hindsight) background application came from Argus as well. After repeatedly breaking down several doors with axes (because when will a party consisting of a Cleric, Paladin, and Fighter decide to pick a lock?) and subsequently alerting those in the room, Argus decided to finally try to pick the final door in their path. "Can I use Blacksmith?" he asked. Lightbulb moment. Hey, we have someone whose halfway decent at skulduggery! A blacksmith just might know enough about the internal workings of locks to be able to have an advantage while picking them. And an otherwise under-utilized background gets some screen time.
Icon Rolls/OUTs
Argus, our party's Fighter, wanted to copy down some ancient writing from a tapestry onto paper for later research. The player simply asked if the standard adventurer's gear included paper. Thinking it unlikely for any but a studious Wizard type, a Bard who likes to compose on the road, or a PC of any class that has an established personality/backstory that would justify carrying paper, I said probably not. "But what happened to 'Always say Yes,'" you might ask? Well, I happened to be struggling with coming up with any applications for these relationship rolls (as were my players), so I offered the player the following bargain: if he spent a 5 for the Emperor that was still in play, he can be carrying around imperial stationary with an appropriate writing implement.
The beauty of this suggestion is that it's so minor at the present time that I didn't feel the need to tack on a complication. Easy on me, right? Results of 5 could involve a complication, OR they could simply provide a lesser benefit than a 6 would. But it's still open-ended. How did Argus come by this imperial stationary? His Relationship with the Emperor is conflicted, and his OUT is that he's the only person known to have insulted the Emperor to his face and lived to tell the tale. Is it left over from a former position that he once held in the imperial military? Or did he come by it later through illicit means? Will it be possible to forge an official document later on, now that it's established that he carries imperial stationary? Maybe a more significant benefit will come up later, and the possibility for future conflict is certainly there as well. Point being, just because you need to come up with something on the spot for a relationship roll doesn't mean you have to come up with EVERYTHING on the spot. And everyone knows sometimes minor details can end up having a big narrative impact later on.
Backgrounds
Turns out the best example of a surprising (and yet obvious, in hindsight) background application came from Argus as well. After repeatedly breaking down several doors with axes (because when will a party consisting of a Cleric, Paladin, and Fighter decide to pick a lock?) and subsequently alerting those in the room, Argus decided to finally try to pick the final door in their path. "Can I use Blacksmith?" he asked. Lightbulb moment. Hey, we have someone whose halfway decent at skulduggery! A blacksmith just might know enough about the internal workings of locks to be able to have an advantage while picking them. And an otherwise under-utilized background gets some screen time.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Icons in Action (1)
My 13th Age campaign based on the Dungeon World Front "The Great Wyrm Axtalrath" is still going strong. I believe we're something like 4 sessions in; I just haven't been in the mood to write session summaries. Instead of doing so, I think I'd rather use my own play experience to highlight the narrative mechanics of 13th Age. Hopefully this will be a regular series (hence the parenthetical "1" in the title) which explores not only how Icon rolls are being used in my games, but One Unique Things (OUTs), and potentially Backgrounds as well.
Icon Rolls
I've admittedly struggled the most with how to best implement Icon Rolls, to the point where for the first session I didn't use them much at all, and didn't even really think about them. They occasionally even stressed me out a little bit, but after last session they finally "clicked."
I won't go into every example I've had so far, but I will go over many to get started. First of all, until tonight I've exclusively been using the "roll all of your Relationships at the beginning of the session" method. A few weeks ago it occurred to me that while I was using the rolls as plot element generators, I wasn't being at all transparent with my players about what their rolls were doing. So I sent them a message via our campaign's group on Facebook explaining how I'd used each roll for that session.
Each player got a magic item, and each one was the result of an icon roll. None of these items were loot; they were gifted to the PCs by NPCs. The Paladin was gathering information on the Dragon Cultists in town, and instead of having him roll a "Streetwise" type skill check I simply spent a result of 5 that had been rolled for The Three. After publicly expressing interest in the Cult, I later had some undercover cultists pass him a coin later on the street. The complication was that the etchings on the coin needed to be interpreted, and a correct interpretation revealed the location and time of their next meeting. Well, the players didn't readily interpret it, but the Fighter took it to an acquaintance at the temple to see if the head priest had any insight. I spent a roll of 6 for the Priestess and had him guess the exact right answer they needed, explaining his thoughts on the different marks.
When I needed a random quest for the PCs to go on, I used a roll of 5 to have Derro show up in the mining town of Rockbreak (soon to be under siege by the fire-elemental-esque Magmin) hoping to find someone to retrieve a drill for them (which the Magmin could use to wreak havoc on the town). Cool, this drill ended up driving tonight's session and veering the campaign in a new direction.
The PCs ended up using the drill to get back to the surface of a sea-cave dungeon, unfortunately in an area where a small army of Magmin were camped out. The clearly-magical drill melted rock that it touched, but it still made a lot of noise when it surfaced. Fortunately, I had a result of 6 for the Emperor that I needed spent, so I had the Magmin be out on their pumice rafts to destroy an Imperial yacht that appeared offshore. Perfect time for a clean escape (I had vague plans for if the PCs decided to search for survivors, but they headed directly north with the drill instead).
At this point I should mention that after my initial Facebook message explaining my Icon Roll decisions to the group, I added that they too were encouraged to "spend" rolls to gain narrative advantages of their choosing. In tonight's session the Fighter lamented that he didn't have an active result for the Great Gold Wyrm to aid him in pursuing a problematic assassin who has been harassing the party, so I let him roll (unfortunately he rolled a 4, but I'm sure that just means the inevitable is delayed).
Finally, what I was most pleased with was that the party decided to cut through the Lizardfolk occupied swamps to shortcut their journey, and the Paladin (with the "Ambassador" background) asked how the game handled languages and what the Lizardfolk might speak. I told him "I'll tell you what, if you want to spend that result of 6 for The Three, I'll say that your character can speak the language of the Lizardfolk." He accepted, and I'm sure that little fact will have an impact for sessions to come.
I said earlier that Icon Rolls finally "clicked" for me recently. I think this was largely a combination of reminding my players that they could spend results, and me mentally comparing the mechanic to Destiny Points in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire. I had a player make an awesome use of a Destiny Point to introduce a narrative fact in our last session, and it hit me that Relationship Dice were 13 Age's version of that. I think that's the strength of pre-rolling each relationship at the beginning of the session, actually. It's great if the players know their narrative currency, and can simply say "this works" because of a prior roll. It's less awkward than rolling RD on the spot and possibly (most likely) not rolling a 5 or 6. I find the idea very empowering from both a player perspective as well as the GM's, and it's not often that a mechanic can pull that off.
OUTs
So far I've really only made use of this once, in tonight's session. The Cleric has a mish-mash suit of armor containing random metals because metal sometimes speaks to him (when that happens he usually incorporates it into his gear). I had the drill say to him "I have a mission, and it's not with the Derro." Cool stuff! The PCs have successfully completed their mission, and now they needed to decide whether to make good on their assignment or to comply with the drill's wishes. It's always fun when party members disagree with what the best course of action is, but then compromise.
Backgrounds
It's no secret that I LOVE the Background system. It's so intuitive that I don't anticipate there being much to say about it most of the time. I am finding the Cleric's "wanderer" Background a little awkward, though. It's so easy to justify most any skill check with "I've done/seen/learned about this on my travels" and I'm finding it tough to draw the line regarding what's acceptable or not. It's not that the player is arguing its applicability with me; most of this is on my part! I think in the future I might have players refine very generic backgrounds like that quite a bit more.
Bonus Section: Rituals!
Our group saw its first use of Ritual Magic today! In transporting the drill across the swamps the Cleric decided to enhance its wheels with the Shield of Faith spell. This was to effectively turn it into an "all terrain" drill to speed up travel, but when an unlucky D% roll determined the Cleric (who was pushing the drill) as the target of a kobold trap (two trees were blasted and felled his way), I got the idea that while the Cleric deftly dodged out of the way but the trees landed on the drill. It sank in the mud a bit, but was unharmed thanks to the protection of the Ritual (normally its wooden wheels would have shattered).
Icon Rolls
I've admittedly struggled the most with how to best implement Icon Rolls, to the point where for the first session I didn't use them much at all, and didn't even really think about them. They occasionally even stressed me out a little bit, but after last session they finally "clicked."
I won't go into every example I've had so far, but I will go over many to get started. First of all, until tonight I've exclusively been using the "roll all of your Relationships at the beginning of the session" method. A few weeks ago it occurred to me that while I was using the rolls as plot element generators, I wasn't being at all transparent with my players about what their rolls were doing. So I sent them a message via our campaign's group on Facebook explaining how I'd used each roll for that session.
Each player got a magic item, and each one was the result of an icon roll. None of these items were loot; they were gifted to the PCs by NPCs. The Paladin was gathering information on the Dragon Cultists in town, and instead of having him roll a "Streetwise" type skill check I simply spent a result of 5 that had been rolled for The Three. After publicly expressing interest in the Cult, I later had some undercover cultists pass him a coin later on the street. The complication was that the etchings on the coin needed to be interpreted, and a correct interpretation revealed the location and time of their next meeting. Well, the players didn't readily interpret it, but the Fighter took it to an acquaintance at the temple to see if the head priest had any insight. I spent a roll of 6 for the Priestess and had him guess the exact right answer they needed, explaining his thoughts on the different marks.
When I needed a random quest for the PCs to go on, I used a roll of 5 to have Derro show up in the mining town of Rockbreak (soon to be under siege by the fire-elemental-esque Magmin) hoping to find someone to retrieve a drill for them (which the Magmin could use to wreak havoc on the town). Cool, this drill ended up driving tonight's session and veering the campaign in a new direction.
The PCs ended up using the drill to get back to the surface of a sea-cave dungeon, unfortunately in an area where a small army of Magmin were camped out. The clearly-magical drill melted rock that it touched, but it still made a lot of noise when it surfaced. Fortunately, I had a result of 6 for the Emperor that I needed spent, so I had the Magmin be out on their pumice rafts to destroy an Imperial yacht that appeared offshore. Perfect time for a clean escape (I had vague plans for if the PCs decided to search for survivors, but they headed directly north with the drill instead).
At this point I should mention that after my initial Facebook message explaining my Icon Roll decisions to the group, I added that they too were encouraged to "spend" rolls to gain narrative advantages of their choosing. In tonight's session the Fighter lamented that he didn't have an active result for the Great Gold Wyrm to aid him in pursuing a problematic assassin who has been harassing the party, so I let him roll (unfortunately he rolled a 4, but I'm sure that just means the inevitable is delayed).
Finally, what I was most pleased with was that the party decided to cut through the Lizardfolk occupied swamps to shortcut their journey, and the Paladin (with the "Ambassador" background) asked how the game handled languages and what the Lizardfolk might speak. I told him "I'll tell you what, if you want to spend that result of 6 for The Three, I'll say that your character can speak the language of the Lizardfolk." He accepted, and I'm sure that little fact will have an impact for sessions to come.
I said earlier that Icon Rolls finally "clicked" for me recently. I think this was largely a combination of reminding my players that they could spend results, and me mentally comparing the mechanic to Destiny Points in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire. I had a player make an awesome use of a Destiny Point to introduce a narrative fact in our last session, and it hit me that Relationship Dice were 13 Age's version of that. I think that's the strength of pre-rolling each relationship at the beginning of the session, actually. It's great if the players know their narrative currency, and can simply say "this works" because of a prior roll. It's less awkward than rolling RD on the spot and possibly (most likely) not rolling a 5 or 6. I find the idea very empowering from both a player perspective as well as the GM's, and it's not often that a mechanic can pull that off.
OUTs
So far I've really only made use of this once, in tonight's session. The Cleric has a mish-mash suit of armor containing random metals because metal sometimes speaks to him (when that happens he usually incorporates it into his gear). I had the drill say to him "I have a mission, and it's not with the Derro." Cool stuff! The PCs have successfully completed their mission, and now they needed to decide whether to make good on their assignment or to comply with the drill's wishes. It's always fun when party members disagree with what the best course of action is, but then compromise.
Backgrounds
It's no secret that I LOVE the Background system. It's so intuitive that I don't anticipate there being much to say about it most of the time. I am finding the Cleric's "wanderer" Background a little awkward, though. It's so easy to justify most any skill check with "I've done/seen/learned about this on my travels" and I'm finding it tough to draw the line regarding what's acceptable or not. It's not that the player is arguing its applicability with me; most of this is on my part! I think in the future I might have players refine very generic backgrounds like that quite a bit more.
Bonus Section: Rituals!
Our group saw its first use of Ritual Magic today! In transporting the drill across the swamps the Cleric decided to enhance its wheels with the Shield of Faith spell. This was to effectively turn it into an "all terrain" drill to speed up travel, but when an unlucky D% roll determined the Cleric (who was pushing the drill) as the target of a kobold trap (two trees were blasted and felled his way), I got the idea that while the Cleric deftly dodged out of the way but the trees landed on the drill. It sank in the mud a bit, but was unharmed thanks to the protection of the Ritual (normally its wooden wheels would have shattered).
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