Thread: Feldor

This is it. Prong 1 Have each player describe his PC to the others 1 Describe the PC in terms of race, clothing, attitude, and weaponry. This does not include personality, because I want personality to come out in role-playing. 2 The layer should say as much or as little detail regarding their background as they want the other PCs to know. Some of the PCs in this game have pasts that may be considered sketchy, so it is important for them to decide how much the other PCs might know. - Prong 2 Have players answer questions asked by me with the following parameters 1 Answer as the character sees it. 2 Only the person asked gets to answer a question, even though the answer may affect the other PCs. 3 Be interesting. This is what makes for great experiences. 4 I generally asked one player a single question, with maybe a follow-up or two. I did not skip anyone and I tried to make each question have an effect on the party or on the world or both. - So What were the Questions? 1 You feel that you owe one member of the party your life. Who is it, and why? 2 Who is the leader of the group? Why? this is a question about leadership as the PC sees it, not about PC roles in 4e 3 How long has this group been together? Do you foresee the group being together for the long term? 4 What is one thing that you are good at that has nothing to do with your adventure training? Why are you adventuring and not making a living doing that? How does this talentskill help or hinder the group? 5 Why dont you want to be the leader? Do you feel pressure to lead? I usually ask this of the person who was denoted as the leader in question 2, unless the person answers question 2 indicating that the leader is himself. 6 Who do you trust the most and why? Who do you trust the least, and why? - Prong 3 Determine the relationships within the party. - This prong usually happens as a result of prongs 1 and 2 above. During the course of the session, players may find that their PCs have things in common. For example they are from the same region, they are both running from the law, they are both outcasts from their respective social groupssocieties, they are both good at a particular skill or knowledge and the reason why that is the case. Players may also find that their PCs have differences that may make the game interesting. For example one of them might have spent their childhood as a street urchin living off of trash while another is from a noble family, one of them may be from the forest heavily steeped in fey traditions which another has never been out of the urban sprawl in which he grew up. - Use these similarities and differences to bind different members of the party to each other. Have them talk about the general goals of the party. Once they determine what each individual PCs motivation is, it may be easier for them to form natural connections. - Prong 4 As a final challenge, ask the party to decide, as a group, why they are where they are. - This one is slightly difficult from the DMing perspective because, as you know, the DM needs to plan out the adventure beforehand, at least to some extent. This means you have to be willing to go with whatever the party decides. If they decide they are there looking for some rumored artifact, then go with it. If they decide they are all running from their origins and want to start fresh, go with it. If they decide they have been called their to help the leaders Great Aunt perform a ritual, go for it. - After asking them to decide why they are where they are, I actually mentioned to the players beforehand that they had heard rumors of an artifact in the area, but told them nothing more. The fact that one of their main goals was treasure-hunting prompted this disclosure. Since the other main goal for at least three of the PCs was to increase their reputation, seeking an important artifact also addresses that motivation. If your players get stuck deciding, give them a prompt, if not, let them decide and go with it.