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52 · Joined: 25 Jun 2010 Posts: 11

I'm kinda toying with the idea of running a Scion game but I'm not entirely sure how to plan sessions and story arcs and that sort of stuff, does anyone know nice and simple ways to plan and prepare and stuff that are more than suitable for a blithering idiot?

Oh I had a look at the gamesmaster PDF thing someone put up but honestly it scared and confused me, that's kinda the level you need to be working at sorry... Embarassed

dead · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 1:29 pm Post subject:

However you start runing games will change once you have run a few and depending on the system. It all depends how your brain works, some people like to have lots of background already worked out, in folders with pre genned characters etc.

I generally will have an idea in my head of the plot, basically:

1: Bad Guy want X
2: To start with Bad Guy kills Bob to get Y
3: bad guy then uses Y to get A
4: Bad Guy uses A to get X and wins!

I then decide that 1 and 2 have already happened, 3 will happen in 2 days. Give the players some clues and see how badly they screw it up. Essentially have a semi realistic plot for what the bad guys are up to, give them a motive to get up to it and then let your players lose trying to sort it all out.

I usually have basic pre genned NPC's if required and a few key locations worked out.

Most of my games run from my head, it usually works for me.

Ian
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Haxar · Joined: 03 May 2009 Posts: 57

Not sure I have the experience to give much overall guidance on crafting plots or NPCs but I can offer these pieces of advice:

1) Don't fall into the trap that adventure supplements from nearly every publisher seem to, and write the adventure based on what choices your players could make. If you think there are two choices they could make in a scene and write two more scenes that follow on from them, there are actually four other choices and they'll take one of those. I've found it's far better to work out roughly what the important NPCs are going to do and why they are doing it, this will help you react to what the players do.

2) Playtest the combat system if possible. You'll get to know what works and what doesn't, and get quicker at running it which can only help a game.

3) One that's useful for most games but very useful in Scion, see if you can make a brief list of the options available to the players during character creation. Scion has a lot of options for starting characters, which is a good thing. But if you've only got one copy of the core rules, this means one player gets hold of it and keeps it for the next hour while they flip back and forth, picking all the powers they want while the other players get bored or distracted. Believe me, I learned this one the hard way Razz

If you've got a brief list of all their choices like deities, knacks, boons and birthrights plus a short description, you can hand out pages of that, players can note down what they like the sound of and look them up when it's their turn with the rulebook. Copying and pasting from this wiki page will probably work fine.

Hope that helps.
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I'm a Matt. The sarcastic one if that helps.

dead · Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 10:37 pm Post subject:

52 · Joined: 25 Jun 2010 Posts: 11

Hmm, it doesn't seem overly complicated but that doesn't mean much. Can anyone suggest an easy system so I can try getting my feet wet?

Also is it worth looking at supplements for some ideas or should I just avoid so I don't pick up bad habits, like with the railroading?

dead · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 11:07 am Post subject:

Supplements are an excellent way to start, but get very familiar with it before hand so you can answer unexpected questions or situations.

ian

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No good deed goes unpunished