I had a conversation with a player recently, about how fucked they are. I actually have a lot of these conversations, because a lot of people feel like their characters are in grave and inescapable peril (and, well, they are), but this one in particular struck me... because the player didn't seem to accept it. From that player's perspective, they have to power to save themselves. Which is a great thing: except for the fact that they're probably wrong.
The reason they're wrong isn't because the storyteller is rail-roading them, or refusing to let their actions. On the contrary, the storyteller is making sure their characters have agency, and determine the story. The trick is that the actions that matter are the months of mistakes made in the past, when the character didn't realize what they were doing, and not a last ditch, quick fix effort to avoid the consequences.
Let's say you're a farmer, and also an adventurer. In April, you go off to court to play at intrigues, and in May you go off to war. In June, the voice of God (in the case of Lloegyr, me) mentions you should worry about your crops, and you spend a week or two in June tilling your fields. Then you go off on a quest in July, and spend most of August with your friends in the next city over, and then in September, when I tell everyone "famine is coming" you spend another week or two in your fields. When October hits, the crops are going to fail, because you didn't tend to them... and I'm going to show you ever single starving peasant I can to drive home your mistake.
The trick is that you don't know what you don't know... until it bites you. Mistakes are made over time, and the fixes aren't easy or fast. And sometimes it's too late. And that's by design in Lloegyr, because it's the defeats that make the victories matter, and the victories that make the final tragedy of it matter.
I once said Lloegyr is about kicking down your sandcastles. That's only partly true. Sometimes, I see a puppy and I have to kill it. But more often, I watch the tide slowly creep in, and keep you distracted with that really fun game of volleyball until the waves are upon it. And then I point to the sand castle getting washed away, and focus on your attempts to save it after it's too late. And the best part for me is that it's usually another player who's doing it to you. All I have to do is place the emphasis.
The reason they're wrong isn't because the storyteller is rail-roading them, or refusing to let their actions. On the contrary, the storyteller is making sure their characters have agency, and determine the story. The trick is that the actions that matter are the months of mistakes made in the past, when the character didn't realize what they were doing, and not a last ditch, quick fix effort to avoid the consequences.
Let's say you're a farmer, and also an adventurer. In April, you go off to court to play at intrigues, and in May you go off to war. In June, the voice of God (in the case of Lloegyr, me) mentions you should worry about your crops, and you spend a week or two in June tilling your fields. Then you go off on a quest in July, and spend most of August with your friends in the next city over, and then in September, when I tell everyone "famine is coming" you spend another week or two in your fields. When October hits, the crops are going to fail, because you didn't tend to them... and I'm going to show you ever single starving peasant I can to drive home your mistake.
The trick is that you don't know what you don't know... until it bites you. Mistakes are made over time, and the fixes aren't easy or fast. And sometimes it's too late. And that's by design in Lloegyr, because it's the defeats that make the victories matter, and the victories that make the final tragedy of it matter.
I once said Lloegyr is about kicking down your sandcastles. That's only partly true. Sometimes, I see a puppy and I have to kill it. But more often, I watch the tide slowly creep in, and keep you distracted with that really fun game of volleyball until the waves are upon it. And then I point to the sand castle getting washed away, and focus on your attempts to save it after it's too late. And the best part for me is that it's usually another player who's doing it to you. All I have to do is place the emphasis.
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