Finishing the Story
So the game is going along famously. Eventually, however, like any story, it must end.
The Story Climax |
| In theory, your adventure
has set the heroes a particular goal, and they have been opposed by one
or more main adversaries or obstacles. In the climax, try to draw
together the heroes, the adversaries, and the goal . Either the heroes
reach the goal, or they fail conclusively; the bad guys are overcome, or
escape, or triumph (for the moment).
One way to analyze your story and design the climax is to visualize an event that changes the situation, obviously and permanently. Somebody dies; a hero's (or item's) latent power is activated; the object the villains seek is destroyed; a hero and heroine fall in love; the setting burns down or explodes. |
Dramatizing |
| As the story reaches its
end, the players should not lean back to watch the show. You must
dramatize the action. That doesn't mean waving your arms dramatically as
you describe the ending; it means you involve the PCs as key actors in
the drama. The heroes must take action to achieve success.
If the climax of the adventure is an exciting battle, that's fine, and certainly not without precedent. Another interesting type of dramatization requires characters to make a choice, then act on that choice. Then they must deal with the consequences of the choice. For example, the villain may kidnap a guide who helped the characters on their adventure. At the climax, the villain appears with a knife at the victim's throat. Do the heroes let the villain get away? Or a spy who's been reporting to a villain on the PCs' movements turns out to be the daughter of an important NPC, perhaps the characters' patron. Do they arrest her on the spot? Perhaps players will have no trouble with these decisions, but making them agonize isn't the point. The choices they make define their characters and determine the course of the story. There is a whole section about these "dilemmas" later in this chapter. You manipulated the sequence of events to bring about the story's climax. But once you reach it, major manipulation is uncalled for. You can have a villain miss his FEAT roll or fail to see a brilliant tactic, if it would make for a dramatic defeat (see below). But in general, the actions the player characters take of their own accord should decide the story's outcome. Otherwise, the players feel like they're watching events, not shaping them. If they fail completely, the failure need not be permanent or fatal. |
Dicing with Danger |
| The heroes corner your
master villain, confront him with his crimes, deliver their impassioned
speeches, and hit him with overwhelming force. Everything's set up for
his defeat; he'll stagger a few steps, shake his fist in impotent rage,
and drop into a bottomless pit. All they have to do is hit him. You roll
his Dodge and he evades their blow with ease. The moment is lost. The
PCs resort to a long, tedious battle of attrition, wearing him down into
unconsciousness so they can kick him while he's down.
What went wrong? You let your dice do the thinking for you, that's what. The dice don't tell the story, you do! If their results interfere with a fun, satisfying adventure, what do you gain by slavishly obeying them? The reason you're all playing is to have fun, and "having fun" and "following each and every rule, without exception" don't always mean the same thing. You might ask, "But isn't this cheating?" Sure, but only to help the players have a good time. That's the rule that precedes all other rules. So if you think a scene would flow better if your villain rolled low instead of high-he did! (Just make sure you roll the dice out of the players' view, so they don't know you're fudging.) It makes a good story. It doesn't hurt anybody, except the villains. And they won't complain. |
Victory |
| The heroes won or lost.
But maybe it's not that clear-cut. They rescued the hostages, but the
villain escaped. Or, they defeated the radioactive monster, but it
managed to destroy midtown Manhattan beforehand.
In designing an adventure, think about levels of victory. The major goal may include certain minor or accessory goals, and the PCs may achieve some but not others. Most importantly, the heroes' victory may not be conclusive. If they overlook clues, don't take all the right actions, or suffer a string of awful luck, the villain may get away. Or they catch the bad guy, but the building the heroes were guarding gets destroyed in the process. Not good for the reputation. These inconclusive victories sow the seeds of future adventures. The villain vows revenge, or the site must be rebuilt and looters chased away, and so on. Defeat. Beyond the foggy land of inconclusive victory lies the swamp of utter, dismal, unconditional failure. Superheroes don't often blow it in major, permanent ways. Both in comics and in game scenarios, they come out on top. And a good thing, too; given the high stakes in a superhero adventure, the heroes' failure may mean the end of life on Earth as we know it. So are you forced to put PCs on a railroad track to success? No. Failing a mission need not mean the death of everyone involved, nor the triumph of evil. If the players fumble, there are less extreme ways of ending the adventure and letting them know they blew it. They can lose weapons or devices. If your characters are forcibly parted from their possessions, they'll hunger to track down the bad guys and retrieve them. Another adventure! Or you can let the enemy capture the player characters. Then the heroes escape in the next scene and try to pull together the remnants of their mission. And remember, after a failure the goal should somehow be harder to achieve. Other penalties include scathing editorials and the scorn of the characters' peers. A bad way to handle the players' failure is to bring in an- NPC to make things right. This galls the players and makes them feel useless. An important part of role-playing is the illusion that the player's character can, and must, influence events. If an NPC is always waiting in the wings to patch up mistakes, a player will think (justifiably) that he or she could have stayed home. The ultimate penalty is death. In a story, death is important and, usually, final. Don't let your characters die pointlessly in some random gunfight. Their deaths should serve the plot (but not—note!—be vital to it). A hero's death should be a dramatic, emotional moment in the story. Try to stage it as part of a climax, or vice versa, and be sure to give the character a chance for a few poignant (or defiant) last words. Failure happens. Reasons are not important, after the fact. Be ready to salvage the situation and set the stage for another adventure, in which the heroes have a chance to redeem themselves. Rewards: The good guys usually win. After a long and hard-fought battle, the PCs want to know their efforts have been appreciated. That appreciation usually takes the form of Karma awards, but there are also other ways to reward heroes. Equipment, for example. A rescued millionaire or grateful bank president could give them a spiffy limousine or private aircraft. Or the heroes might crib a magic ring or high-tech gizmo from the villain's headquarters. (Not only does this work as a reward, it can also trigger a future adventure.) Intangible rewards can be just as useful: the friendship of a more powerful or experienced hero; favours earned from the mayor or chief of police; a contact at a newspaper; even the grateful tears of an old widow. What about the rewards for handling really world-shattering events? Depending on the heroes' reputations and standing with the police, city officials could arrange a ticker-tape parade up Fifth Avenue. Filthy rich or influential people could build an entire headquarters for the heroes. National news shows broadcast the PCs' heroism. Of course, that means every gunslinging super-powered villain hot to make a reputation will target the PCs! Every reward should sow the seeds of future adventures. The story grows into a campaign |
| GM's Guide | Character Types | Telling Stories |
| Story Resolution | Goals | Villains' motives and methods |
| Adventure Hooks | NPCs | Dilemmas |
| Deathtraps | Preparing Campaigns | Running the Campaign |
| Bad GMing |