On the three questions again:
“• Did we learn something new and important about the world?
• Did we overcome a notable monster or enemy?
• Did we loot a memorable treasure?”
We’ve not been hitting the “treasure” one very much, in either of our current games. Consensus (at least in one group) was that we don’t really care – we’re playing a game of fantasy characters having stories, often involving various factions and powers, not actually a game of dungeon crawling for treasure. So, we’re thinking of alternatives.
Some ideas so far:
* Did we acquire a valuable asset that advances our position?
[This is meant to be broader than just physical items, to encourage us to think of allies, legal statuses, enchantments applied to things…]
* Did we do something significant towards rebuilding the shattered city?
[This is a kind of campaign/story goal – it would need buy-in from all the players, and should be reviewed frequently just like bonds are]
* Did we advance most of our character stories?
* Did at least on of our character stories take a dramatic advance?
[These zoom in on individual PCs, but unlike the campaign one above they don’t precommit to which PC(s)]
Has anyone else done anything similar?
Rob
One of the ones I changed for Inverse World was, instead over overcoming a notable enemy, “Did we change a place, for better or worse”? The answer is usually “yes.”
Maybe also: Did we meet someone important or useful to us? Kind of like the first option, but for NPCs the players interacted with, instead of killing them. 😉
I’ve been playing around with a hack where the PCs are all closely tied to a small backwater town built on the remains of a much older civilization. I’m leaning towards changing the questions to something like:
– Did we put down a threat to the town or improve its fortunes?
– Did we discover something important about wider world or the ancient past?
– Did we impress or improve our relations with our neighbors?
(I’m also thinking that the town might get a playbook of it’s own, and that these questions add to the town’s XP rather than to the PC’s XP.)
Also: someone posted a while back about a more kid-friendly game with questions like:
– Did we make a new friend?
– Did we discover something wondrous?
– Did we overcome great danger?
For Licensed Adventuring Company, I used this end-of-session move:
• Did we overcome a notable adversary or obstacle?
• Did we learn something important about the world?
• Did we make things better for somebody other than ourselves?
• Did we become better known?
Stephanie Bryant really like the “better or worse” aspect. Both have a place in the kind of games I like – what matters is that something changed, that the world moved on (partly due to player actions) and will not be going back.
sub
I dig these suggestions.
Sometimes it feels like a lot of pressure to make sure all three of those questions get answered “yes.” I feel like a failure at the end of a session otherwise, but a lot of them don’t really work out that way.
I wonder if instead it could be more like “Choose up to 3 questions you can answer yes to” instead. That way, you could build up a list of five or six meaty questions that fit the tone of your game.
I wouldn’t feel bad if they don’t answer yes– my players generally only answer yes for 1-2 out of 3 every other session, and all 3 on the others.
Hey Jeremy Strandberg that sounds like an interesting hack, can you share?
Matteo Sasso soon.
I’ve actually had my players argue against answering yes when I was encouraging them to take the XP.
Alex Barrett if you feel like you’ve failed if you’ve not hit all three… yeah, that’s not good. OTOH their main value is as a “session health check” – “no” answers do mean that your session was missing something.
(That’s assuming that the genre/style you’re actually playing in matches the one assumed by the questions. Maybe you don’t want the kind of play that would give you “Yes” answers.)
I’m afraid I don’t understand your “Choose up to 3 questions…” idea – can you explain again?
Rob Alexander Yeah… The “Choose up to 3 questions” would look like this…
End of Session
When you reach the end of a session, choose one of your bonds that you feel is resolved (completely explored, no longer relevant, or otherwise). Ask the player of the character you have the bond with if they agree. If they do, mark XP and write a new bond with whomever you wish.
Once bonds have been updated look at your alignment. If you fulfilled that alignment at least once this session, mark XP.
Then as a group choose up to 3 questions to which you can answer “yes”:
– Did we learn something new and important about the world?
– Did we overcome a notable monster, enemy, or danger?
– Did we loot a memorable treasure?
– Did we change a place for better or worse?
– Did we work together as a party to solve a problem?
For each “yes” answer everyone marks XP.
Got it. I’d be interested to hear how that works for you. You’re more likely to get at least 3 Yes answers each session, which might feel like a success – it’s not the maximum score, but it’s the highest that makes a mechanical difference.
It may also remind the group that there are many different ways in which a session can be good.
On “Did we work together as a party to solve a problem?” I’d strengthen it a little, to imply something beyond merely working alongside each other. Maybe “Did we act together as more than the sum of our parts?”