As promised last time, we’re going to look at the 2 things that can drive a conflict. While this may, at first, sound unrelated to the dynamic terrains, stick with me. I first heard about these ideas from the Dramatica story theory, and they fit roleplaying so well, I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to share.

What are conflict Drivers?

Conflict drivers are what forces the conflict. What raises the stake and makes the characters find an urgent need to make this happen. I’ll give an example in a minute that will clarify everything. There are two types of drivers, Option-lock and Time-lock.

Option-lock is when the characters are up striving to accomplish their goal but all of their options are being taken away from them. For example, our characters are being hunted by a creature that is beyond their normal capabilities to destroy. They arrive in a room with 6 exits (we’ve all seen these before, right?). At this point, they have 7 options: the 6 exits are each an option, and the 7th would be to stand and fight. The choose one of the corridors and race to the end, where they are at a 3-way tee of intersections, with a door. This brings them down to 4 options: left, right, the door, or stand and fight. The other option would lead back to the creature. Not a real option at this point, especially since it takes us back to standing and fighting. They try the door, knowing they can bar it and gain some time. It’s locked and they don’t have time to open. One more option removed. This continues, with the options progressively narrowing, until they only have 1 option left: fight the creature. Or maybe find the only way out. That’s an Option-lock.

Time-lock, on the other hand, is when the characters have a specific time-limit to get something done in. We’ll use the previous examples here. The characters are in the middle of a city when they are attacked. Crowds go crazy, and someone calls for the guards. At this point, the characters are up against a Time-lock: they only have until the guards get there to finish this fight or escape. For our other group of characters, stuck on the bridge, with goblins to either side, the bridge cracking and the villain climbing a statue to get to the eye—they are limited by the time it takes for the villain to get the eye, since they know that once he gets the Eye, he will destroy them. It’s not running out of options that will bring this part of the adventure to an end, but running out of time.

These are not things that you necessarily need to use when planning encounters. You shouldn’t have to sit down and force yourself to run through a check-list every time an encounter comes up. Instead, just knowing about these 2 ideas will be enough. They will be in the back of your mind when an encounter happens that you hadn’t planned, and you need some excitement.

If you really want to create some havoc and create a memorable encounter, combine the two at the same time.

If you use this in an adventure, or have some great examples of how they have come to play in your adventures, then please send me a note through the contact page, or leave a message. I would love to hear how this helps or applies to you!

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcast [0:34:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

D is for Dead Ends

On the podcast this week, we step back into the player’s shoes, and look at ways to try and remedy common game problems from the player’s point of view. We’ve talked about this before from the Game Master’s point of view, but there are definitely things that can be done as a player to kick the campaign back into gear.

Captain Drake is back

And he’s got some great advice to hand out. We were lucky enough to have him in-studio while recording and it worked out great. We hope to have him back again.

Since this is the first “real” chapter on Dynamic Terrains, I thought that we should build our foundation, so that we have somewhere to grow from here.

When I say “Types of Dynamics” I don’t mean all of the different forms of terrains. Instead, I believe there are 3 primary aspects of each terrain that can be used in any situation. That’s what we’ll look at here. If you can keep these ideas in mind while running your game, and incorporate as many as you can, then the excitement level of your conflicts is going to shoot way ahead of your normal game.

The Dynamics:

The Grounds - The first Dynamic is the ground itself. Back in the introduction this is what first came to mind when hearing “Dynamic Terrains.” This is when the you are fighting in the middle of an ancient bridge and the bridge starts cracking. So now, instead of just the opponents on either side of you to deal with, you also have to find a way to either keep the bridge from giving way, or find a way to hold it together until you can finish up. It does not have to be just the “earth” beneath your feet. Fallen trees, rolling boulders, crates blocking the path, gates, grates, traps, the surrounding buildings, and the ledge you’re on literally sliding out from under your feet are all examples. The terrain often suffers natural disasters, and what a better time for that forest fire to happen then when the characters are trying desperately to get something buried in the path of the fire. When running your game, be sure to look for elements of the surroundings that could be put to use.

Flora and Fauna -  Each type of terrain has plants and wildlife that can come into play. And you shouldn’t think of these as other parts of the encounter, but as little mini-encounters that can be put in the way of the players at any time. Having a collection of small encounters like this at your disposal can bring any encounter to life and add to the challenge. To continue with the forest fire example: the characters are digging away furiously, trying to pry the boulder out of the ground. All of the sudden the characters smell the smoke, and one of the yells a warning–pointing to the red glow building in distance. All of the sudden a deer dashes past the party, just missing the outermost character. They breathe a sigh of relief when a family of massive, nearly-blind boars rush the party. Still they have to dig, though, before the fire overruns them. Another example might be that the party was attacked by bandits in the middle of the night. They spring up to the battle, and back away from their camp, tripping over a baby bear. The bear screams and the mother charges into the fray. Now the party is left with two battles to fight.

Plants shouldn’t be forgotten either. Vines can entangle running characters; tree roots can trip; thick grasses might hide traps or poisonous creatures, and so on. If the environment calls for it, living plants might exist, such as the Ents, or shambling mounds, etc. Each has a place in the environment. If the characters chop some thorny bushes out of the way, they may find a deadly plant on the other side that was trying to make the now-dead plant its dinner.

The Population - The final piece of the puzzle are the inhabitants. They may have strange customs that the characters unknowingly violate. Maybe the characters become embroiled within a racial war. Make sure that the population reacts to what the characters are doing. If a fight erupts in the middle of a city, people will stumble into the area. How do they react? Do they join in? Do they wait, hoping to loot the corpses when they’re done. Or do they call the law, creating a ticking-clock until the law arrives? The bystanders may scatter, trying to get out of the way of the fight, but a number of them are sure to accidentally get in the way of the combatants. Perhaps the villains can grab the innocents as they rush past and hold them hostage, or use them as a shield. forcing the characters to change tactics and be extra careful.

Like I mentioned at the beginning of the article, the trick is to find ways to make the challenges more exciting by throwing anything and everything in the book at them. Preferably at once. Okay, that may be a little harsh, but look at it this way. Drama is conflict. The more conflict you can throw at them, the more decisions you can force them to have to make, the more dramatic the situation. At different points in the game–based mostly on how important this encounter is to the story, you will want to use different amounts of conflicts shoved together. If it’s a random encounter, one extra addition might be enough to liven it up. If its the final encounter with the major villain of this story, then you should have them on the middle of a narrow stone ledge, with a river of lava flowing beneath them, while they are attacked from both sides by goblins who are more of an annoyance than anything, and while the villain climbs his way to the top of the jade statue to grab the Eye of Arushka–and artifact that will make him unstoppable–and the characters have to stop him before he gets it or the world is destroyed and–oh crap!–the stone bridge cracks violently under the strain of all of the weight, throwing people off balance, and the crack gets wider and wider, the ledge less stable, as the villain gets closer to the Eye and . . . I think you get my point. When the characters find a way to succeed at something as dramatic as this, it is an encounter they will be sure to remember.

Next time, we’ll talk about the 2 main Drivers of conflicts and how they can be used to ratchet up the stakes and the player’s nervousness. After that, we’ll dive in to exploring the various terrains.