Welcome back to the Wrought Iron companion article series. Crunch here to take you behind the GM screen for an exploration of episode three.
This is where the adventure really begins. The partial scripting we did for the first two episodes brought us to this point and we are now playing for real. Well. Real in the sense that the players don’t know what’s happening. I still consider the first two episodes examples of great game play. We simply discussed the best possible course of events and ensured that they happened. The middle bits were still improvisational role play.
My plan for this campaign began with knowing the opening scene and the few events that follow. This episode is where my plan starts. The actual events that I envisioned during my planning happen in the next episode. In retrospect, things played out better than I hoped. This is a perfect scenario for a GM. The story that we created together trumped the story that I would’ve written on my own.
This episode featured some great moments of comedy too. We decided to leave in some of our jokes and tangents for a few reasons. One, they were pretty damn funny. Two, they helped recreate the atmosphere of what it was really like playing at our table. Three, they naturally broke up the drama and tension in the game.
When preparing for this gaming session, I wrote out a very basic outline of events that I knew had to happen. There was the role play in the tavern, the investigation in the temple, the chase through the jungle, and the exploration of the cave. I wrote up a few notes of details that I wanted to include, but I did not prepare more than that. I’ve learned over the years that writing out much more tends to be pointless. As the saying goes, no preparation survives interacting with your players. I know my players and trust them to participate and deliver a great story. I don’t need to waste my time writing when I know that they will make it happen.
One great point to observe here is the investigation scene. When figuring out how this would go down, I had to decide what information would be immediately apparent and what information would need to be discovered with skill checks. I debated this for a little while. On one hand, making the players earn the discovery would be entertaining. On the other hand, listening to a lot of rolling dice makes for bad radio. I could’ve rolled for the players. Or I could’ve used passive scores. Ultimately, I decided to provide some details witha variety of methods. Some I gave out based on the fact that the PCs are good at their jobs. In D&D, it is generally accepted that PCs are the best of the best. Even at a low levels, they’re better than the average commoner at doing things. Thus it just makes sense that certain details would be immediately apparent to them when investigating. I provided other details based on role playing. It was an easy way to reward creative choices from the players. Why have them describe something cool or add an interesting story element, then ask for a roll that might negate their choices? Lastly, I did lock some information away behind a skill check. This info was what I considered a bonus, or something that would give them an advantage in the next few scenes. I think it all worked out quite well.
The next scene was interesting. It is an example of a plan I had failing and me adapting on the spot. Did anyone wonder why I called for an initiative check as the PCs went into the jungle? My original plan was to test out our “monster as a environment challenge” from Table Topics 84 and 85. I had a monster ready to represent the dangers and difficulties of the storm and its effects on the jungle. But as the first turns played out I realized that I hadn’t established my intent clearly enough to make it happen. Basically, I should’ve prepared a little bit more. Thus, I quickly changed gears and let the players narrate their way through the jungle. There were still some good, exciting moments supported by dice rolls, and I think that this scene worked very well with the tone of the session. But it went completely differently than I planned.
Of course, I could’ve called for a pause and reset that scene after explaining what I wanted. This is a podcast, after all, and we can edit the final product. You can do that in your home games too. There’s nothing wrong with saying “hey, I want to try something specific here. Can we take a few steps back and try again?” But I decided to change my plans because the momentum of the game was going so well. I liked what my players had done and I felt that it was a better choice to reward their creativity and move forward.
And I will absolutely try this environmental challenge technique again very soon.
Ultimately, I know that I made the right choice because the focus of this gaming session was the cave exploration, which you will all hear in episode four. Had the focus really been the challenge of the environment, I would’ve definitely spent more time making that important. But everything that happened here pointed the PCs towards the cave. The scenes leading up to the cave were certainly important to the overall story, but their intent was to get the PCs moving towards the more important goal.
This is something to keep in mind as you are running your games and writing your outlines or stories. What’s the most important part of the session? If you were watching your game night as a TV show, what would happen in the climax? With that goal set, you can either work backwards to ensure that your players get to experiences that moment or you can adjust events as as they are happening to direct them down the correct path.
Next week, we will discuss episode four and a very interesting debate that I had with myself, both during the game session and immediately after.
Oh, and there was one detail in episode three that I did not plan at all but threw in on the spot in response to a player question. I have no idea what it means or how it will become important. Can anyone guess what it was?
