A Rock and a Hard Place: The Placement of Obstacles in Games
As much as I love a well structured plot, there comes a time when randomness rules the day, and you have to throw in obstacles which have little rhyme and reason and let the players help you make sense of them all.
Before I present my examples, I’d be curious to hear any tales you may have to tell of doing this yourself (and how things worked out).
Until next time, I bid you, dear reader, adieu!
3 Notes on, A Rock and a Hard Place: The Placement of Obstacles in Games
Alex
I was playing keep-the-kids-and-myself-entertained-during-errands-by-RPGing-off-the-cuff the other day (this game didn’t use dice but did use guess a number between 1-10 for the random element) and the random encounter that began with rustling noises in the trees was easily filled by the kids yelling out ideas without prompting (is it a Goblin? Is it a cat? A unicorn?).
Sean Preston
Love it!
J Gregory
I’ve done this a few times in our current game (in the spirit of Raymond Chandler) but was beginning to wonder how I could do anything logical with all of the loose threads. Then, in a flash of inspiration before last night’s game, it came to me how I could weave them all together into a killer twist in relation to the goals of one of the PCs. Then, of course, during the session, the PC died… Sigh….