Well, things didn't quite go as I thought they would. In short, I expected a lot of investigation and roleplay while they expected a lot of action and combat. From the feedback I got, I gave them too many options and not enough guidance. And I accept full responsibility for the gaming not going anywhere, because I failed as a DM to encourage the good ideas and to discourage the bad ones. I think we're going to do a little bit of "do over" at the next game. Since we hadn't seen each other in a while, we all vented about the things that had kept the group apart and then started to feel giddy about being together. This led to a High Elf character suddenly having the personality of Snooki....and then things went south from there.
Starting at the beginning....everyone arrived within 30 minutes of each other, which is just amazing in and of itself. Most had an idea of the character they wanted. Characters were rolled up and we had an Altanian fighter, a human ranger, a human thief, a Mycretian cleric, and a High Elf magic-user. Since I couldn't think of a good reason for why they were together in the first place, and the players didn't seem to care enough to offer suggestions, we just started with the idea that they just know each other.
Looking over the 10 rumors, the first one which looked interesting was the search for bronze "brassieres" and the gnome associated with that search. So, at the urging of the most Chaotic Neutral player (yes, player..not character) the group headed over to the Plaza of Profuse Pleasures. The Mycretian was horrified and started handing out little "Mycr scrolls" warning the heathens about damnation and such. The High Elf had a fit and suddenly was Snooki. At the urging of the thief character, the High Elf was going around nude and trying on all the exotic bronze "clothing". After a batch of silliness there, the group then bought a goblin at the Slave Market in the hopes of using it as bait for another Rumor. However, the idea also popped up to disguise the goblin as a gnome to continue following the original Rumor.
Basically, traipsing all over the City State, asking off the wall questions and not following up too closely on the answers, the group finally threw up their hands and admitted defeat. They eliminated a couple of rumors as frivolous, two others as "not level appropriate", and then started asking for a dungeon nearby to raid. So, by next time I'll have a couple of dungeons ready as well.
Now, looking back on this, I really do not mean to portray the group as at fault. It really was me. I was not listening to them as well as I should have. I did not give them enough to work with in the rumors. And I did not respond well when they tried to run off on their own interests. So, I'm going to redo the Rumor List with more detail and I'll put together a few dungeons, and I'll have a better group of encounters to make the city more lively. That was a huge failing on my part. The city felt empty and dead. I'll work on that.
1 comment:
My opinion: any game where you have a great time and walk away wanting more is a good game. I definitely want to keep playing in this setting.
I am also absolutely fascinated with seeing what best-practices we can cook up with regard to running a sandbox city campaign.
A few other thoughts that could improve play:
1) Already discussed by email -- limit our choices to maybe three or so options. Otherwise we cat-like split into too many directions.
2) As a variation of #1, have us pick from a list of 10, but get it narrowed down to a list of 3 before the game. This way when the game begins we have some memorable 3 or so plot hooks to pursue.
3) We had a wide variety of experiences with CSIO (one player had the books and was well read, I didn't know CSIO but at least I'd read Fritz Lieber which was the model, another had familiarity with neither). Because of this, maybe a 10-15 minute setting walk-through at the start of the game would be helpful. Or maybe a one-page summary of the setting. Goblins-as-a-slave-race was an example of something that was a jarring if you run into it in-game if you don't know the setting ahead of time.
(If I get time I'll put together such a summary; not sure if I'll get around to it though).
Anyway, very much looking forward to the next session!
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