tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post6527657182544559671..comments2023-05-27T11:14:02.426-04:00Comments on Some Space to Think: Action vs. FrustrationAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14216103531396452644noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-78584997495355371362010-10-13T09:17:53.382-04:002010-10-13T09:17:53.382-04:00I've had this feed sitting in my reader for so...I've had this feed sitting in my reader for so long that I'm no longer sure when or how or why I started following this feed in the first place. <br /><br />But I certainly don't regret it. You're definitely my favorite RPG philosopher.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-30458073765417171922010-09-20T04:42:31.963-04:002010-09-20T04:42:31.963-04:00@Lisa One interesting answer to the "Why hasn...@Lisa One interesting answer to the "Why hasn't someone already stopped them?" question is to ask the question what would happen if they weren't there?<br /><br />As an example in my current Dresden game the Black Court Vampires were viewed by my players as an issue. They rounded up a considerable force to deal with them and drove the Black Court out of town.<br />Since then they've been dealing with the consequences of that action. Some of the issues they've encountered include a) The balance of power between the three vampire courts was finely balanced. Removing one court has resulted in open warfare between the other two, b) Without the Black Court to control them then Renfields are a serious problem, c) The Black Court limited the flow of drugs into the city because they saw the drug trade as benefiting the Red Court. The city now has a serious drug problem and d) The Black Court sorcerers have for decades been holding back something from beyond the outer gates which has now partially entered the city.<br /><br />Sometimes the question isn't "Why has no one been able to stop them?" but "What did people fear would happen if they stopped them?".<br /><br />Its also fun that the problems the players are now facing are quite clearly problems of their own making.Whirly / R00kiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02646431525198450681noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-24917396241856057842010-09-17T09:11:51.188-04:002010-09-17T09:11:51.188-04:00@lisa This question probably merits a post of its ...@lisa This question probably merits a post of its own, but the rub of it is in the "Why hasn't someone already stopped them?" question. The trick is that the answer to that should only tangentially be related to the bad guys being badass (unless they're really, hugely epically badass, like the sorcerer kings in Dark Sun). Instead it should be abut the people underneath them, the secrets the hold, the things that make fighting them directly a terrible idea, if not for the people who fight them, but for everyone else. (If your players are willing to kill a villain whose death will detonate a nuke in a major city, that's fine, so long as the players realize that they are now also villains.)<br /><br />History provides most of the useful answers to this. It is a rare tyrant who keeps his position because he can win fights with people who challenge him - that model just doesn't work past a certain scale. They stay in power through other means, and in mimicking those means, you can often find a way to keep villains afloat.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14216103531396452644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-16369893604180462222010-09-17T00:24:42.546-04:002010-09-17T00:24:42.546-04:00I've fallen into the trap of making things too...I've fallen into the trap of making things too complicated. I had very smart players, and the smarter the players, the harder to gauge how tricky to make the trail. A complicating factor was that one of the players favors taking down bad guys and their plans with overwhelming competence and force. My thinking was "If the villains are too incompetent, it doesn't make sense that they would have gotten away with this for so long, and the PCs will utterly trounce them in the first reel, and I will have bored players."<br /><br />And it's quite true -- how to find the happy medium to walk?Lisa Padolnoreply@blogger.com