KhorasForum

Quote from: David Roomes on June 15, 2006, 09:56:56 PM
As with everything on the web site, use what you want. But feel free to alter whatever you need to for your campaign.

Oh, don't you worry about that :-) I doubt that Rexilar and Sorov worked on morphians in their early years, or that Lord Vaul is actually a morphian, etc. I just like to try to deviate from the presented world as little as possible, because it makes things a hell of a lot easier.

Hmm...so it looks like Rexilar was in fact alive about 62 years before the creation of the morphians. Problematic, since he's supposed to have helped in that project, according to my campaign. Hm....

Two options:
One, bump the conflict between Threll and Rexilar forward about 100 years. Doesn't actually affect much.

Two, say that Rexilar imbedded a bit of his life force in one or several "copies" of himself, which went on living, doing things. These copies/splinters/less Rexilars may be needed to complete the ritual to bring him back. That is confusing and adds complications to the background, but could be cool because I already have two such mysterious NPCs that could be Rexilar copies. Very, very old Rexilar copies.

Of course, the party just wants to get to Rexilar to talk to him about the morphian project, and how to cure an associated disease afflicted one of their members. It could be they only really need to talk to one of the copies, then.

Hmm...

Wow. Complex, multi-layered... sounds like one of my plot lines. I like where you're going with that...

I generally don't -try- to make things complicated. Here's how I do it:

-Get a very detailed world (For this campaign, I'm stealing yours).
-Present this world to the players.
-They make very detailed characters, with backgrounds, history, and motivations.
-I then create "shoves," where a force in the world alters the status quo for a character. For each character,this is their starting point, what gets them "adventuring."
-The characters move about in the world, interacting with things in an attempt to resolve their "shove".

Inevitably, the characters get involved with other aspects of the world, which may or may not be related to their original shove. The shopkeeper they talked to, the caravan they traded with, the dragon they heard about, the maurauders that raided them, etc. Even if when a player resolves their shove, they are hopelessly entangled in a myriad of other factors that will lead them to further adventures.

This idea extends to other PCs. Even if after 4 sessions one of the PCs resolve their own shove, at this point they have forged friendships with the other members of the party, and so will be inclined to help them with their own shoves.

The hardest parts of this method are creating the detailed world (Which is why I'm stealing it. Plus Khoras rocks), and engineering shoves that will keep characters going. A shove that resolves completely in 2 sessions may be enough to get the action started, but everything afterward may feel like an artificial continuation. Better to create shoves that can be partly resolved early, then expanded upon, then resolved a little bit more, and expanded upon again. This keeps the PCs in touch with their roots, their past, and provides a continuous source of conflict for the story.

For extra points, try to interweave shoves and storylines. In my campaign, the old martial arts master for one player could very well be the necessary person to talk to for another player's shove. This is partly just the Law of Conservation of NPCs (http://www.20by20room.com/2006/04/small_idea_the_.html), but can extent to other plot elements, too. Interconnectedness between factors makes the world seem to run without the PCs, having relationships without the PCs' direct interaction. This makes the world more realistic, and thus more fun :-)

Couldn't agree more.   Especially with that last part... everything in the world should be connected and that gives it the feel of a living, breathing world where things continue to happen and react, even if the players aren't there.