My Life As A Gamer: Putting A Proper Campaign Together (Part Four)

(This is part of a series. The first post is here, the second here, and the third is here.)

The Benefit Of Patron-Driven Play

It will become obvious to the Referee why he should delegate all of the typical talk of "plotting" or "adventure creation" to the subset of players playing the Patrons in the campaign shortly after he launches the campaign.

Along with strict timekeeping, Patron-Driven Play is fundamental to creating and sustaining the illusion of a real world. Players assuming these roles not only free the Referee from undue and improper work, it also ensures that there is no tolerance for Narrative logic.

Adversarial play--which is how the Patron level works--insists on the reliance upon a fixed ruleset. Players need that ruleset to govern what they can and cannot do; the rules define the game by definition. Changing things on the grounds of Narrative logic violates that expectation and is seen as cheating--as fraud--and victims thereof are right to be furious with (and deal with) the cheating party (or parties) accordingly without penalty.

Proper Patron play, therefore, is the core of a campaign. The interactions of Patrons, and the efforts to expand and develop their Domains, cannot help but to create that living world experience that naysayers claim to want but prove by their words, actions, and endorsements to be untrue.

"But this is impossible!"

Nonesense. Not only is there an entire game all about this that remains popular--Diplomacy--one of the cult classics of tabletop role-playing games (and its spinoffs) has this as a core function.

The idea that tabletop RPGs cannot accomodate players running the entirely of a campaign's conflict by playing all sides of it is false, and claims to the contrary are fraud.

The Dynamics Of Patron-Driven Play

The reason that Patrons do most of the driving is because a campaign is a grand endeavor by definition. These are things done by Great Men, wielding wealth and power while leading retinues of men (at arms and not), and at larger scales those Great Men lead entire institutions.

These Great Men have missions. Those missions have objectives. That is the object of a Patron's campaign.

The interactions between Patrons are as that between Great Men. Sometimes they conflict, sometimes there is cooperation, and sometimes one sees no reason to impede the other and just lets the other pass through.

It is by their actions that opportunities for others arise. Dungeons are found, monsters are located, secrets uncovered, desired materials are discovered, etc. and all with the hopes of making one's fortunes and thus improving one's prospects in this life. These we can lump together as Points Of Interest.

There are the other, uncertain elements in the conflicting plans of Patrons. Braunstein as a game form arose out of this very thing; it was The Battle Before The Battle, whose results influenced the big set-piece game the next day. Today this is generalized in the form of Points Of Decision, where there is an uncertainty in the outcome of one or more Patron's operations and it is in that liminal space that adventurers can make an outsized influence upon how things turn out.

Early on in a campaign, focus for Patrons should be on uncovering Points Of Interest. Much like the early game in a Real-Time Strategy game, a Patron is wise to develop those resources close to his stronghold that he can secure quickly and easily while keeping an eye out for hostile parties. Points Of Interest that are not simple resource locations (e.g. a typical dungeon) can be delegated to adventurers to handle, especially if manpower is short (and it usually is) and attention needs to be devoted elsewhere.

Points Of Decision can't be rolled up on an Encounter Table. They in particular are the organic result of conflicting Patrons' plans interacting in a manner that indicates that the result is uncertain and thus can be influenced by outside actors (e.g. your typical adventuring company and their retinue).

The results of adventurers' choices on what opportunities to exploit, and the results of those decisions, make their way back up to where the Patrons are and influence their decisions accordingly. Clearing a dungeon removes a threat and opens up a viable place for the Patron to use for his own ends. Securing a mine guarantees its output and that it goes where it is needed.

Taking out a monster preying upon the local farmers ensures that food production is undamaged. Ambushing an enemy Patron's forces attempting to insert a spy or assassin prevents a Patron's attempt to take out a rival- and all of these add to the renown of the surviving adventurers, making their rise to become Patrons in their own right inevitable.

If you want to know how this will go down in action, head over to YouTube and start watching videos about military history. For how just one man can turn the tide of history, review Armenius and his revolt against Rome, or the lives of Harald Hadradta or William Marshall.

And for a good sense of how Patrons can wheel and deal, look no further than the history that made up Romance of the Three Kingdoms or the very time period (mid-to-late 19th Century Europe) that Diplomacy originates from.

This is the place for the planner, the schemer, the builder, the long-term thinker and the busy adult who can read emails or chats but can't spare hours around a table- even a virtual one. Referees, recruit accordingly for best results.

All three of these would be Patrons in a proper Lodoss campaign.