The Culture: Build It And Your Man Will Become

What's another way to get players to drive the bus? I alluded to it yesterday. It is this:

Making the magic rings your man wants.

Remember that blank map idea? Remember that you, as Referee, are to roll on the charts provided to generate what is there when a player encounters it? That includes both treasure and NPCs.

Sometimes players' mans will get lucky and score some potent treasures early on, or encounter some NPCs that become part of (or allied to) their organization. Just as often, they don't, and when the players complain--and they will--that's when you hit them with the obvious: "What are you going to do about it?"

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition hard-codes this into its rules; players' mans are expected, even required, to seek out key personnel (NPCs) from time to time in order to make full use of the powers that they possess. (e.g. Magic-Users recruiting and retaining an Alchemist for potion creation.)

Other games of comparable quality (e.g. Traveller, ACKS) put similar provisions into their rulesets. Most, alas, fail to meet this standard of competence in design and go "(shrugs) Figure it out. I can't be bother."

Be it a properly-designed product or not, the issue remains the same: if a player wants a specific thing, service, or resource and it has not arisen due to exploration then it is on that player to have that man handle it himself.

The framing is obvious. "Your man wants (X). What will he do to get it? Figure that out and do it."

Playing a Magic-User? You're going to want--to need--to do original Spell Research to get access to spells that he had not acquired otherwise, be it acquring spells already in the game or to create new spells that no one else in the campaign possesses. The same goes for Magic Item creation; Staves of the Magi do not grow on trees, cannot be ordered from Amazon, or snatched up on clearance at Target- if he wants one, he'll have to make it himself.

Fighter wants that army? He'll need to find and retain subordinate officers (Lietenants and Sergeants) in addition to supporting personnel (Medics, Armorers, Carpenters, Cooks, etc.) before he settles on what combat personnel to recruit.

The Elf Fighter/Magic-User wants to find some Elf-specific martial art that synergizes both classes? Ooh boy, that's going to take some work.

The Techno-Wizard wants to turn his workshop into a manufactorum? That's going to take a lot of time, skilled assistance, and raw materials.

"The point being?"

Having players take action to create what they want for their man is (a) yet another way for players to drive the bus and (b) how players mitigate the downside of relying on chance via randomly-generated results to get what they want to achieve what they're after.

Furthermore, when players decide to do such things they generate scenarios for others to intervene into--they generate playable content--because someone, somewhere, is going to either want to get in on that action or to oppose it entirely.

And if that player succeeds in getting his man some new items, powers, services, etc. then he can turn that around and grant access to the same to others for a price- and thus expand his man's influence and power even further, making it easier to get what his man wants- such as an Assassin that acquires the means to guarantee disposal of a target.

Which serves to further prompt players to have their mans to interact- and to get closer to arriving at what their man will become.

Those that take control and make things happen are far more likely to succeed than those that do not. Encouraging players to do just that to address deficiencies in their man's circumstances goes a long way to rehabilitating Cargo Cultists into competent campaigners- and from there into #EliteLevel hobbyists that #winatrpgs.

We'll start putting this together tomorrow.