How do you guys do the narrative for “Undertake a Perilous Journey?” Some times I can get off easy with like for the quarter master it’s a case you go lost in the swamp, and just lost track of time, so they missed a meal, ect.
But for the most part it’s hard to come up with reasons why they saved time, or save rations. Most of the time when I ask my players too, they shrug and say “I don’t know.”
I kinda don’t like the Perilous Journey move, but I’ve done it before where before each roll, some OTHER player presents a problem on the journey – making each roll a bit of a Defy Danger.
For instance, Steve tells the trailblazer “the way is covered with thatch and thorns that the mounts don’t like”. Trailblazer rolls:
10+ “yeah but it was just this isolated patch, we can go around, and follow this dried creek bed”
7-9 “yep, we’ll have to hack our way through it, leading our mounts”
6- GM asks what the TB tries to do. Assume she replies like the 7-9 result. GM says “one of your pack mules gets stuck in some thorny vines behind you, not following close enough. it’s hurt bad, and won’t survive without help. no matter what, it can’t carry all that gear. What do you do?”
Have you checked out this post?
https://plus.google.com/+JeremyStrandberg/posts/YxDNAsQiFuy
To be honest a lot of times the saving time doesn’t matter and its weird that its not related to rations. So that I definitely struggle with because 9 times out of 10 they aren’t trying to rush to a place and doesn’t matter how long it takes to get there.
I ask players to choose roles, then roll and discuss one by one. If I can’t imagine what may slow them down, drain their resources (I interpret the Quartermaster role in a broader fashion), or ambush them – I will ask the players how they perform each of their roles. I ask them what sort of things their character would do to help the situation, and that gives me hooks for how it goes wrong or right. If their response was, “I don’t know”, then I would ask if they counted up the rations for the group and took an inventory, if they searched for clear paths and stopped to make maps of their progress, or if they brought the group to a halt every now and then and listened for unusual sounds. I might give them a few options for answers so they feel less like they’re being asked to be creative when they don’t think of themselves that way.
If I don’t get an answer, I keep pushing – but I try not to interrogate. I just want them to get confident talking. Small, easy questions are a good way forward.
Aaron Steed They shrug and say “I don’t know.”
Patrick Schenk is it a bored/disinterested “I don’t know” or are they actually struggling to come up with ideas.
If the latter, you can seed the ideas with leading questions. Instead of “what delayed you?” you can say “what happened to the Thief’s horse that made you lose a day?”
Aaron Griffin actually shrug and say “I don’t know.”
It’s only Perilous Journey they “don’t know.” Everything else they have lots of fun making up fiction.
I don’t know what “actual shrug” evaluates to in this case, it could be a lot of things. As you know these people and we don’t, you’re going to have to try to read into their behavior and guess at a motive for us.
There are two big possibilities, though: 1) they just don’t like the travel stuff and it should probably be hand-waved or 2) they honestly don’t know what consequences would crop up – in which case, give them ideas through leading questions.
Perilous Wilds lets you blame it on the weather.
Unexpected landslides, “…is that an actual shortcut that’s not on the map?”, stampede of squirrels, fetid water, friendly elves help you out or bar you from getting somewhere…