Great article. One thing I’d like to comment on is your example with skipping the encounter roll after a harrowing fight.
Whether it’s a good idea to do so depends on your table’s intended play culture.
In classic/OSR play, story isn’t everything. Player skill expressed via resource management is an important aspect. Skipping that encounter roll means you remove a possible punishment for overextension. If your table is embedded in this play culture, it would remove an important part of satisfaction people derive from the game. Even if there is a wyvern-caused-TPK, it’s a lesson learned for next time.
In story-driven play, or maybe „character-driven” would be more precise (and this means most tables, honestly), you are absolutely right.
When I run a game with a proscribed amount of time like at a con, I normally base pacing on the hour marks. If it's a 3 hour session, I know I want to be done creating characters and entering the world by the end of hour 1, I want to give the players loads of agency and room to explore til the end of hour 2, and by hour 3 I want to have a pretty solid idea of what the climax will be and steer towards that.
I'm not sure how I learned this method, I think it's just what feels right in a con slot to me, and for one shots more generally.
I've been saved by a procedure in Pirate Borg a few times, rolling on the Carousing Table at the top of a session has been great to jump into a one shot. I'm glad I ignored a procedure in Avatar: Legends any time I catch a glance of the combat mechanics. I hope they work at someone's table, but they definitely don't work at mine. I have a hard time seeing the value.
Couldn't agree more! And yknow, it's funny, you've used a few music metaphors in here which may or may not dovetail into my article coming out tomorrow... 😉
Great article. One thing I’d like to comment on is your example with skipping the encounter roll after a harrowing fight.
Whether it’s a good idea to do so depends on your table’s intended play culture.
In classic/OSR play, story isn’t everything. Player skill expressed via resource management is an important aspect. Skipping that encounter roll means you remove a possible punishment for overextension. If your table is embedded in this play culture, it would remove an important part of satisfaction people derive from the game. Even if there is a wyvern-caused-TPK, it’s a lesson learned for next time.
In story-driven play, or maybe „character-driven” would be more precise (and this means most tables, honestly), you are absolutely right.
Great addition, thank you!
When I run a game with a proscribed amount of time like at a con, I normally base pacing on the hour marks. If it's a 3 hour session, I know I want to be done creating characters and entering the world by the end of hour 1, I want to give the players loads of agency and room to explore til the end of hour 2, and by hour 3 I want to have a pretty solid idea of what the climax will be and steer towards that.
I'm not sure how I learned this method, I think it's just what feels right in a con slot to me, and for one shots more generally.
I've been saved by a procedure in Pirate Borg a few times, rolling on the Carousing Table at the top of a session has been great to jump into a one shot. I'm glad I ignored a procedure in Avatar: Legends any time I catch a glance of the combat mechanics. I hope they work at someone's table, but they definitely don't work at mine. I have a hard time seeing the value.
Great article!
Couldn't agree more! And yknow, it's funny, you've used a few music metaphors in here which may or may not dovetail into my article coming out tomorrow... 😉
Hello friend, you share some interesting things!, I’ve been on Substack for about 2 weeks and trying to meet new people.
I thought I’d drop a comment and introduce myself with a article:
https://open.substack.com/pub/jordannuttall/p/giants-in-history?r=4f55i2&utm_medium=ios