scenarios

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From: Colin Watson (watson@computing-science.aberdeen.ac.uk)
Date: Mon 15 Nov 1993 - 20:14:30 EET


Joerg Baumgartner asked:
>How far would you go to call a scenario context-free?

The extreme case would be to exclude mention of anything Gloranthan. I don't think that this would be very popular, and I don't think it's really necessary. (Although it *is* possible: I enjoyed "Watchers of the Sacred Flame" which, to my knowledge, is a non-Gloranthan scenario). What I had in mind were context-free scenarios which are still set (somewhere) in Glorantha. ie. scenarios which work in a variety of locations with enough flexibility to allow a variety of player characters.

>You allow the
>opponents' cults to be defined. If you want to avoid the (almost
>stereotypical) chaos- or God Learner-bash, you either have to provide
>introductions for all kinds of characters (a way we try to follow in
>the Free INT scenarios), or keep the cult business out of the story.

A lot of the time it's not necessary to mention cult affiliations for minor NPCs. A list of Spells in their stats will usually give a good indication of the type of god they worship, and any GM should be able to pick a cult which suits his needs: picking an allied cult if the NPC is meant to be friendly with the PCs; or an enemy cult if the NPC is opposed to the party. As I've said before, there's more to character motivation than simple cult stereotypes.
This approach could even be adopted for major NPCs; sometimes explicit cult ties are an integral part of the story; but often they are not. Not all battles have to be fought along cult lines.

One general-purpose rule for making a scenario context-free is to make the bad-guys sorcerers. Unaligned sorcerers can turn up almost anywhere and can be involved in almost any plot.
(I'm toying with a scenario idea based on "The Island of Dr Moreau": in some remote location a Sorcerer is carrying out magical experiments to give Ducks & Baboons more humanity.... or is he? "That is the Law; are we not Men?")

Ogres & Lycanthropes make interesting bad-guys for mystery plots - where the PCs have to track down the murderer or whatever. Possession by spirits can be good for this kind of story too - the murderer is actually the innocent victim of an evil ghost.

Setting an adventure on board ship is a good way of localising the action and cutting out external influences eg: a dodgy sorcerer is secretly transporting a Dominated vampire in the hold of the ship; the sorcerer falls ill/dies; the Dominate spell wears off; the vampire stirs from it's slumber... (Any monster could be substituted. Use a cockatrice for a short scenario;-)

etc. etc. and so forth...

>E.g. Free INT magazine. I am still looking for material about Vikings
>for issue 7. But Gloranthan stuff about Ygg's islands or the Manirian
>Wolf Pirates would be welcome, too - I want to show that one can
>combine Glorantha and non-Glorantha in one breath.

Hmm, how do I get hold of this publication?

___
CW.

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