tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4109303943492581322.post3301715873894937939..comments2024-03-22T00:40:15.077-07:00Comments on Monster Manual Sewn From Pants: Votaility scrap princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278801560026111482noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4109303943492581322.post-68565544235825761522019-01-22T22:44:16.504-08:002019-01-22T22:44:16.504-08:00I think the simplest forms of volatility are just ...I think the simplest forms of volatility are just a lever that the PCs can pull that will change the area significantly. Breaking a dam, finding the missing prince, releasing a zombie army, causing a fog that blots out the sun for a year, etc.Arnold Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12603155377769597516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4109303943492581322.post-79905303913888186132019-01-22T12:33:18.190-08:002019-01-22T12:33:18.190-08:00Deal with HSI is everyone on island together so ev...Deal with HSI is everyone on island together so everything sticky geographically anyway and all consequences rebound more rapidly in closed environment. <br /><br />Bigger the environment, more spaces between agents, longer time needed for consequences to rebound.<br /><br />Golden Duck was designed this way. Evee agent has reason to be interested in the PCs. Each can offer something and each can be dangerous. No one knows each other and everyone has reason to be suspicious. Plays out in one building in a night rather than outside over days.<br /><br />Can 'nest' these situations inside each other and have different power balances at each scale for complex inter-reactions at each level.<br /><br />Kingdom level - Frog King and heron priests fighting, hedgehog Knights trapped in the middle. Frogs winning but if hedgehogs join heron priests they might win.<br /><br />This town of Frogs occupied by Herons, but things on edge as frog army approaching. Hedgehog keep is main strategic point.<br /><br />This Inn run by powerful Hedgehog, Frog drinking spot but hidden pacifist Heron ambassador needs help.<br /><br />PCs need to swear to aid frogs to cross territory, promise herons to be allies to enter town and play nice with Hedgehog innkeeper to get a room. Impossible to fulfill all loyalties if called on, but all have a reasonable moral claim. Each faction good/bad/neutral at different levels of situation. All levels interact with each other and consequences stick.pjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4109303943492581322.post-66917974386167733082019-01-22T12:18:41.162-08:002019-01-22T12:18:41.162-08:00Hightened emotions in factions really good for thi...Hightened emotions in factions really good for this. Intense "cold war" situations w limited mutual knowledge but intense paranoia means 3rd parties like the PCs will be treated as likely enemies by both unless they declare strongly for one.pjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4109303943492581322.post-48481961130895996852019-01-22T12:15:52.529-08:002019-01-22T12:15:52.529-08:00"Stickiness" or the quality of the situa..."Stickiness" or the quality of the situation that ensures the PCs become involved, can come from a variety of different kinds of thing.<br /><br />One is meta story stuff. Previous contacts, backstories and relationships can be worked into a factoin, i.e. it's that guy you know/hate/you owe/owes you <br /> ( The idea of the PCs having an entirely legitimate claim on someone here is the most psychologically powerful as players hate being screwed/losing out and it can be almost impossible for them to resist getting involved).<br /><br />Once pulled in can go either eay; "I _want_ to pay you, I really do, but all my cheese is tied up in this lizard/toad thing and I _literally_ don't have the money. Unless you help me sort this out..."<br /><br />Or they get so pissed off the PCs join other side to get revenge.<br /><br />Lot of Zak's vornheim encounters were a bit like this: "it's your cousin in the cage brinb dragged past etc.<br /><br />On phone more later <br />pjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4109303943492581322.post-61351151073507783142019-01-21T06:17:00.894-08:002019-01-21T06:17:00.894-08:00a good volatile situation will kick off even if th...a good volatile situation will kick off even if the players don't get involved, causing it to start changing until hopefully causes something that interests the pcs. Or at the very least means you get to draw over the map scrap princesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01278801560026111482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4109303943492581322.post-70550966322811099412019-01-21T06:04:53.149-08:002019-01-21T06:04:53.149-08:00Factions are helpful, but part of volatility is re...Factions are helpful, but part of volatility is requiring characters to get involved (otherwise its pure set dressing).<br /><br />Which boils down to unpleasant consequences that players think maybe they can solve after they take the first action, which of course solving those will have secondary consequences...<br /><br />In essence its an exercise in yak shaving when developing consequences. The theory that everything could be solved but the reality that botched rolls, existing problems, and most importantly other bored players will prevent it from collapsing like a house of cards.Zzarchovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07714805545939725730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4109303943492581322.post-13145776160550030232019-01-21T03:16:41.093-08:002019-01-21T03:16:41.093-08:00There is something to be said about Good Ole Chaos...There is something to be said about Good Ole Chaos as well. The swamp is releasing hallucinogenic gas that has random effects (maybe depending on who inhales it), but no one knows when it's going to happen next. That kind of purely random event will make things moving even when the party is busy with something else.<br /><br />(Note that in this example, someone is definitely going to want to weaponise the swamp gas - my money's on the PCs ;)<br /><br />Random but known events can become a Pressure Cooker: people from one or more factions have been having nightmares about a swamp gas explosion that will affect everyone. Or wake up Old Mother Dragon, whatever. Whether it's true or not, signs are seen and panic is brewing. You can track the social effects with some sort of gauge or countdown, to help you decide when someone does something stupid. Eric Nieudanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07663906394653460662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4109303943492581322.post-20059224245927078082019-01-20T22:17:24.164-08:002019-01-20T22:17:24.164-08:00So I feel like there's a connection here to Pa...So I feel like there's a connection here to Patrick's notion of Held Kinetic Energy (http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2017/07/held-kinetic-energy-in-old-school.html). But whereas that's about literal kinetic energy, what you want is Held Social Kinetic Energy. <br /><br />So that implies stasis, like you said, but ideally from more than two factions. Somewhere around four or five is great, which is what you see on Hot Springs Island. And instead of all factions competing over the same thing, which doesn't lend itself to a cascade, you want them to all have unique goals which happen to conflict with one another. So once the stasis is broken all factions exploit the disruption in different ways. And if you've set it up so that the different factions don't completely understand each other's goals, they they will be regularly making errors which make more openings to exploit, and the cascade continues.<br /><br />Maximum volatility, I think, requires confusion and partial knowledge.Ben Miltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00059505985098422978noreply@blogger.com