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One of the toughest questions in assembling a TTRPG group has to be "why are you all working together?" The usual random assortment of races (some of which hate each other,) classes and goals can make it hard to understand why this team doesn't just split the spoils and got their own way after the first big score.
I'm going to discuss one of my favorite methods, and I was inspired to do this after being reminded of the story of ibn Battuta, a 14th-century scholar and lawyer from Tangiers who set out to spend a year or two doing the Hajj and came home 26 years later having seen much of the world. You can see an amusing take on his adventures in these videos. The idea of the traveler in distant lands isn't a new one, we do have Marco Polo and Pánfilo de Narváez as excellent examples of this sort of adventure.
But it rarely shows up in TTRPGs for some reason. This is a shame because you can have so much fun and take the player-characters to new lands where new and interesting things will try to eat them! Or enslave them or get them involved in a plot to overthrow the evil snake people. . . you get my drift.
I'll admit that his sort of game does require a bit more world-building than mapping out yet another dungeon, but there are so many good, detailed settings, not to mention the real world, that the diligent GM just needs to fill in the blanks on the map. Pick a starting point, pick the initial endpoint, and add in a few side trips and you're off!
As an example, using the real world, let's say one player, a low-level cleric in Aachen, is charged with carrying a case of letters from the Archbishop to a church synod happening in Constantinople. This is when Session Zero becomes very important. We need to add each character to this group and give them a reason to join the trek all the way to the end. A fighter might be attached to the Archbishop's guard and be sent as protection. A ranger might be hired to scout the way. An arcane magic use might be friends or related to one of the established characters, you see how this is going.
The best part is you can use these character motivations to establish side trips along the way. The Wizard might offer her services in exchange for a side trip to Prague, City of Mages, so she can call on her order's home and make a report. Which becomes an adventure in itself! You can do this for each character, which gives each of their players starring roles as you go along.
What happens when the party finally reaches Constantinople and delivers the goods? Well, after some adventures in the Queen of Cities where they foil a plot to kill everyone at the synod, they might learn that the Princes of Rajputana are offering money, titles, and land to anyone who comes to help them finally end the threat of the Rakshasa Lords.
Of course, once they accomplish that, they'll be shown an opportunity to travel even further in pursuit of a greater goal, and so on.
Running this game almost cries out for a flow chart, as you can use it to track not only each stage of each journey but also those lovely side trips that are going to be half the fun. Using a flowchart lets you plan for how to move the party back on track, and how to maneuver them into places you need them to be without railroading them. If the next major waypoint is the City of Screaming Statues, does it matter if they walk in, arrive in a stolen pirate ship, or emerge from a cave after sacking the Derrow stronghold?
You can also build in something that is very important: stumbling blocks. All three of the great voyagers I mentioned gained and lost as they traveled. That needs to happen to the party. They are shipwrecked, and all their armor and ger except for a few precious items are lost. The Mad ilKhan imprisons them, and they escape with nothing but the clothes on their backs and few spears. Steal their money, steal their goodies, and leave them to figure out a way to climb back on top again.
Also plan for the players to pause for a time, especially if they get good jobs. The DMG has good rules for this, but wintering in a fortified inn, or waiting out a religious festival are other reasons to slow them down if need. Illness, war, and insurrection are always good, especially if they trigger an uprising against foreigners (guess who our characters are in this instance?)
Finally, one great strength of this type of game, is it allows players and characters to come and go with relative ease to the ongoing story. If Mike is tired of playing his Rogue, that character announcing he's from the city they are in and retires. Easy enough to introduce a new character in the next stop on the itinerary.
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
I'm going to discuss one of my favorite methods, and I was inspired to do this after being reminded of the story of ibn Battuta, a 14th-century scholar and lawyer from Tangiers who set out to spend a year or two doing the Hajj and came home 26 years later having seen much of the world. You can see an amusing take on his adventures in these videos. The idea of the traveler in distant lands isn't a new one, we do have Marco Polo and Pánfilo de Narváez as excellent examples of this sort of adventure.
But it rarely shows up in TTRPGs for some reason. This is a shame because you can have so much fun and take the player-characters to new lands where new and interesting things will try to eat them! Or enslave them or get them involved in a plot to overthrow the evil snake people. . . you get my drift.
I'll admit that his sort of game does require a bit more world-building than mapping out yet another dungeon, but there are so many good, detailed settings, not to mention the real world, that the diligent GM just needs to fill in the blanks on the map. Pick a starting point, pick the initial endpoint, and add in a few side trips and you're off!
As an example, using the real world, let's say one player, a low-level cleric in Aachen, is charged with carrying a case of letters from the Archbishop to a church synod happening in Constantinople. This is when Session Zero becomes very important. We need to add each character to this group and give them a reason to join the trek all the way to the end. A fighter might be attached to the Archbishop's guard and be sent as protection. A ranger might be hired to scout the way. An arcane magic use might be friends or related to one of the established characters, you see how this is going.
The best part is you can use these character motivations to establish side trips along the way. The Wizard might offer her services in exchange for a side trip to Prague, City of Mages, so she can call on her order's home and make a report. Which becomes an adventure in itself! You can do this for each character, which gives each of their players starring roles as you go along.
What happens when the party finally reaches Constantinople and delivers the goods? Well, after some adventures in the Queen of Cities where they foil a plot to kill everyone at the synod, they might learn that the Princes of Rajputana are offering money, titles, and land to anyone who comes to help them finally end the threat of the Rakshasa Lords.
Of course, once they accomplish that, they'll be shown an opportunity to travel even further in pursuit of a greater goal, and so on.
Running this game almost cries out for a flow chart, as you can use it to track not only each stage of each journey but also those lovely side trips that are going to be half the fun. Using a flowchart lets you plan for how to move the party back on track, and how to maneuver them into places you need them to be without railroading them. If the next major waypoint is the City of Screaming Statues, does it matter if they walk in, arrive in a stolen pirate ship, or emerge from a cave after sacking the Derrow stronghold?
You can also build in something that is very important: stumbling blocks. All three of the great voyagers I mentioned gained and lost as they traveled. That needs to happen to the party. They are shipwrecked, and all their armor and ger except for a few precious items are lost. The Mad ilKhan imprisons them, and they escape with nothing but the clothes on their backs and few spears. Steal their money, steal their goodies, and leave them to figure out a way to climb back on top again.
Also plan for the players to pause for a time, especially if they get good jobs. The DMG has good rules for this, but wintering in a fortified inn, or waiting out a religious festival are other reasons to slow them down if need. Illness, war, and insurrection are always good, especially if they trigger an uprising against foreigners (guess who our characters are in this instance?)
Finally, one great strength of this type of game, is it allows players and characters to come and go with relative ease to the ongoing story. If Mike is tired of playing his Rogue, that character announcing he's from the city they are in and retires. Easy enough to introduce a new character in the next stop on the itinerary.
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
