Benchmarks and Story Arcs
Standard Benchmarks
Here are Issaries' instructions to the authors of the Sartar Rising!
scenarios that concern the Benchmarks. This same level of play applies to
all subsequent materials that Issaries will publish. Authors should read
this, and adapt the cultural specifics herein to their own setting.
These guidelines are for a limited type of player group. The general concepts can be
applied outside of this context, but Narrators will have increasingly difficult work
if they vary from these assumptions.
The group is of 4-6 players, all with a single hero of common origin from
friendly clans. All of them work in a cooperative hero band. One or two of
the characters need to be of leader quality (i.e., with up to two abilities
at 12w2 or three at 5w2; plus several at 15w-18w; and with appropriate
companions). The other characters are, at the start of the campaign,
beginning characters generated using the rules in chapter 2 of Hero Wars.
Leader characters are significantly more powerful than beginning characters.
Narrators should assign these characters to players if:
- A player is a leader (by virtue of age, position, or knowledge about the
game or setting); and
- The group can role-play the power difference without jealousy; and
- The players so chosen can play without dominating everything.
If these conditions aren't met by the players, then the leaders should start out
as narrator characters. These charactersare Patrons and serve as role models ("I
want to be like him."), help character objectives ("I want a job like his"), and
help direct scenario and campaign play by allowing the narrator to give suggestions
to the players and act within the episode if the player heroes need assistance.
Leaders and Followers
It is a fact that society is organized into leaders and followers, and that even
nature seems to arrange us so. Such inequality is sometimes contrary to the spirit
of play for a group of nominally equal players. A group may form a leaderless band
where they act together on all things. We don't care about the actions, even if
they are aberrations, of a particular player group. They are one small group, and
exceptions to anything are always possible. The critical factor is that the rest
of the world will operate according to this kind of organization and relationship.
As narrators, our task is to present the world and its challenges as they are, and
to work with the player group to allow them to fit in or to find a way to get by.
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Normal Play Level
Heortling society has four levels of powerful and influential individuals. Their
importance is measured in their personal prowess, their individual power, and
especially in their influence over other people. This last measure usually equates
to be their level of leadership:
- Ordinary leaders are found everywhere, and are not directly addressed by
these guidelines. This level includes ordinary clan chieftains, for example.
- Important leaders are common. This level includes every tribal leader,
every full-time priest or priestess, and every hero band leader who has a
significant force behind them. We expect the normal player band to have a
leader at this level.
- Great leaders are rare. Ten or so exist in the land, some by virtue of
their following, others by virtue of their divine connections, and others
because they are movers and shakers. We expect the significant player band
leaders to achieve this level.
- Unique leaders. The greatest leaders tend to be singular in their presence.
A High King or a great champion is such an individual. Narrators may allow a
hero to achieve this level, such as being the Argrath.
The Hero Wars Campaign
There is a larger Hero Wars Campaign. The books will state that time passes at
the rate shown in the story arc, but that narrators are welcome to slow things
down by adding adventures, etc.
I don't think this is the place to discuss stuff about having children, getting
old, and so on. (That stuff is theoretically to go into the Hero Wars Campaign
supplement.) We here just say, "The World is going on into the Hero Wars."
Our campaign timeline assumes that a couple of adventures occur each Gloranthan
year. Each winter the player bands retire to their clans. Or not, as they decide.
Ordinary Stories
The objective of the campaign is to give the player heroes a chance to lead their
own ordinary lives, as signified by their relationships with their clans; and to
participate in the grand epic events that are going on around them.
In a limited space, I propose the following scheme be used to present the scenarios.
First, though:
We will NOT attempt to explain everything that is going on. We need to give A LOT
of information about:
The adventure/story right in front of the players.
The background (clan interaction) story, as desired.
We need to give ENOUGH information about:
The local larger scale events going on.
We need to give only EVOCATIVE amounts of information on:
Larger scale and distant events.
Events that must happen a certain way, regardless of what the player heroes might do.
The Background Stories
These are not the emphasis of the written adventures. These are handled with:
- Things like the Heortling Clan Generator, a list selection, etc.
- Example/Trainee scenarios of "What XX People do," which serve as models
for later similar actions (possibly in other episodes) that have greater
meaning than a clan event.
- Close up, in the form of a story adventure.
Story Arc: The Set Schedule
Some things occur according to the calendar. The battle of Pennel is in 1624. The
Dragonrise is in 1625, and so on. These are presented as opportunities for the
players. Information is given at a level only sufficient for the Narrator to cobble
together a playable set of events. [Short-form Events.]
The Epic Arc
A series of stories are given in more detail than the Short Form events. These are
the actual close-in adventures for the player heroes. Some of these are everyday
activities, but in general only the earliest ones are ordinary.
These adventures give opportunities for the player band to gain recognition and
power as appropriate for this society. The magnitude and social level of these is
at the participation level that I think most players will expect and enjoy. That
is, they are not the main character in the land (that is usually a narrator
character), but neither are they nobodies. They have a chance to participate in
the greatest events, and to do less epic stuff as well.
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