Flashback session - Rewards and advice?


Advice


Hello my fellow GMs

In my group, we have two new players, who really enjoy themselves in the game, which is great. Since they don't have the general knowledge of the standard RPG tropes, I have begun making them a compendium of common knowledge for their characters. They both asked, if it could include some additional info about their (self-written) backstories, as they weren't sure what they could put in it.

That's when I had an idea: Play key parts of their backstory in a one-on-one session. That would give them an opportunity to experience their backstory and be part in the creation of the additional details.

So I have two questions:

  • Does anyone have experience with Flashback sessions? Can you keep it interesting when, it being a flashback, the outcome is already known?
  • Any idea on how to give awards for such a session? XP and cool gear would then have to materialize in the 'present' day to be much of a reward, so what else could be rewards?

if relevant, these are the two particular scenarios I thought of running:

1) The Elven Bard lived a privileged life, making pranks on her community out of boredom. One day a man with two eye colors challenged her to steal a valuable scroll, which the man promptly left with. Ostracized by her community, she now travels to find the man who tricked her, and retrieve the scroll.
My plan was to play the original theft of the scroll, giving her some info on the man and how she would be able to find him in the future

2) The Gnome Druid, who was raised by panthers alongside her sister, is searching for her sister, who has been kidnapped by slavers.
I planned on playing through the events that led to her being separated from her sister, to establish some character traits of and relationship with the sister, to give some clues on how to search for her.

ADDED BONUS QUESTION: The Gnome player is a druid with a strength penalty, and what little she did write of the sister in her backstory is that the sister is the brawn to her brains. Then what would be more interesting to play the sister as? A barbarian, strong but untrained wilderness girl, or a monk, having her have martial enlightenment as a counterpoint the player's divine enlightenment? Or is there another option which would be more interesting/fitting for a brawny gnome raised by Panthers?

That was a lot of question, but I want to say thanks in advance for answering them ^^

Sovereign Court

It sounds like fun. The elephant of the room of course is: what if events in the flashback don't go "as planned"? For example, if someone is supposed to have run away during the flashback but gets tripped and beaten unconscious. That sort of thing can happen if you actually play it out.

That's not a disaster, as long as you and your players are okay with it. Just say that what was previously "known" may be the version the PC likes the remember, while what exactly happened wasn't quite the same. Maybe the PC is ashamed to tell that after being captured he was interrogated and betrayed some secrets, but later managed to escape.

The trick then is to keep your flashbacks short enough, and have some offscreen time between the flashback and current history, so that there's time in which all that can have been fixed.


Lucky for me the scenarios that I have to make flashbacks over is very open. And all of them has at least several years between then and present

For instance, the only things that are in the Elven Bard example is the man with different eyes, the scroll that gets stolen, and the man getting away, with it being blamed on the bard. Plenty of room for the details. Maybe it wasn't actually stolen by her, but she got framed and took the fall.

I am actually looking forward to this, like a lot :)

The only thing I still need to decide is what class the gnome druid's sister should be


How about bloodrager for the druid's sister?

Jufo wrote:
Does anyone have experience with Flashback sessions? Can you keep it interesting when, it being a flashback, the outcome is already known?

Why do you intend for your flashback scenes to be one-on-one? When I've run flashbacks, I've done it with the whole party present. Obviously, that puts some restrains on the scene - it can't be very long since that would be boring for the other players. But the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

Rigid, rules-heavy games such as Pathfinder don't lend them self easily to narrative tricks like flash-backs, as you've discovered. They are, however, possible to play out.

The outcome being known doesn’t need to be a problem. Look at Montsegur 1244. The whole game takes place during the siege of Montsegur, inevitably ending with everyone inside - including the PCs - having to choose to convert or die for their heretical religion. The outcome is set from the beginning, and yet they managed to write a whole game about that. There's plenty of other examples, within our hobby and outside of it (how many times where you surprised when James Bond managed to survive and beat the bad guy? Yet that don't seem to spoil the films for the audience).

Sometimes the journey is more important than the outcome. Flashback scenes can be an opportunity to establish a character, develop her personality, motives and quirks. It's paramount to run such a scene with everyone present. Sure, the player can need a chance to flesh out her own image of the character, but those who really stands to benefit in their understanding of a fellow PC are the other players. Sure, you can tell everyone that you're looking for revenge for the murder of your brother. But show is better than tell.

A flashback scene can be very short. They need not contain much action. They can be a single conversion, where an NPC, played by the GM or another player, makes inquiries about something that has happened - or is planned to take place - for the PC. The player gets a natural way to explain her PC with her in-character-voice.

Getting clues and contacts are not out of the question, though. Let's tale your first idea.

My plan was to play the original theft of the scroll, giving her some info on the man and how she would be able to find him in the future

If I where to GM this, I'd do it right at the start of a normal session or in a break in the action in the middle. I'd tell the player: »you where challenged to steal a scroll, describe where that took place.« I might run that scene through, playing the man issuing the challenge. The theft is rather uninteresting, it has taken place. The player could describe how that went.

But the important part is the PC being an outcast and her quest for the man. So I'd tell the player »You once came across an old sage who you thought had information about the man who tricked you« and I'd play out the conversation between the PC and the sage. Thus, I can both give clues about the man and get the PC to show her colours - the sage can ask questions about why this scroll-business is so important, the sage can withhold information - pushing the player to show how the PC solves problems etc.

Jufo wrote:
Any idea on how to give awards for such a session? XP and cool gear would then have to materialize in the 'present' day to be much of a reward, so what else could be rewards?

XP don't really materialize in the present day, do they? At least, they don't need to be thought to do. Unless the character gains a level directly after, the XP can easily be seen as having existed all along. I would nonetheless not give out XP for a flashback scene with a single participating PC, since I like the party to be on equal level.

Actually, I wouldn't give out any reward for a flashback scene at all. The scene should be a reward in it self. Although, contacts and clues established during a flashback can be seen as rewards, and I'm all for that.


Bonus traits might also be a good reward for a flashback, or story feats.


Blymurkla wrote:

How about bloodrager for the druid's sister?

That is a good idea. This is definitely on my list of considerations now.

Blymurkla wrote:


Why do you intend for your flashback scenes to be one-on-one? When I've run flashbacks, I've done it with the whole party present. Obviously, that puts some restrains on the scene - it can't be very long since that would be boring for the other players. But the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

I forgot to mention that the reason for it is that my party is currently at a very tense moment (betrayal, drama and such happening between the characters), but not all the players will be able to show for the next session. So I offered this as an alternative for the available players and they seem excited about it.

Blymurkla wrote:


Sometimes the journey is more important than the outcome. Flashback scenes can be an opportunity to establish a character, develop her personality, motives and quirks. It's paramount to run such a scene with everyone present. Sure, the player can need a chance to flesh out her own image of the character, but those who really stands to benefit in their understanding of a fellow PC are the other players. Sure, you can tell everyone that you're looking for revenge for the murder of your brother. But show is better than tell.

Absolutetly, and many of those reasons are why I am going to do it. My players, new to PnP asked me to flesh out some details of the backstories they themselves wrote, and I saw this as an opportunity to include them in the process as well, since it is their backstories. I think a more accurate version of my question about tension would be: how do I keep the players engaged in the choices they make(made?) when they know the certain outcome? They could technically bee-line for the 'objective' because they can't fail, rather than play on the intelligence and abilities their characters otherwise posses. But now rereading that after I just wrote it, it does sound a little distrustful of my player's abilities to roleplay, and I know they are way better than that, so now I feel a little guilty and stupid for even asking (My apologies to my party, who I know do not visit these forums at all)

Blymurkla wrote:


A flashback scene can be very short. They need not contain much action. They can be a single conversion, where an NPC, played by the GM or another player, makes inquiries about something...

I think you are completely right, I have just never used them before, but I think I might just try it sometimes now. Thanks for the good and thoughtful feedback :)

Lathiira wrote:


Bonus traits might also be a good reward for a flashback, or story feats

That's a fantastic idea! I only got books for that, and really got into how they worked ruleswise after we begun, so this would be a perfect time to bring them in. Great suggestion :D


I second the Character Traits option, though some of them may be difficult to implement with their current flavor; still, it shouldn't be too difficult to alter what that flavor actually is to suit the needs of your campaign.

For example, a lot of people joke that the Reactionary character trait, which most everyone takes, makes everyone a child who was bullied when they were younger, and just ran, based on the flavor text "You were bullied often as a child, but never quite developed an offensive response. Instead, you became adept at anticipating sudden attacks and reacting to danger quickly."

I'd prefer to think of that as an anecdotal example of why you developed such quick combat intuition, not something that should've actually happened. Though this is one of the easier ones to reflavor; others require more planning and consideration.

I'd also consider the Story Feats, especially in relation to current events that may involve the character's background (i.e. they caught up to the jerk who stole the Elder Scroll), here. A lot of them are usually in relation to a character's background, so when they complete their respective background sessions, I'd consider tossing them a story feat, and if they end up resolving whatever issues that cropped up from their background, give them the completed effect of their chosen Story Feat.


The only possible reward you have to offer is information. Let them find something out, and frame it as someone telling them what happened. That also allows you to use the El Shaddai and Dragon Age II solution to things going wrong: The one telling the story says "No, that was not what happened." Note that you really are not in a hurry to do this. Let the PCs explore something of what would have happened first. Done right, you can give them something they had no idea about, that makes the scene more complex.

Sovereign Court

If only a few of your players are there, you can also give the other players NPC roles to play. Having a few people subbing in as NPCs allows you to portray conversations between multiple NPCs and the PC with much less schizophrenia. Plus, some players really get into it.

This works better for RP-heavy stuff of course, because you can just tell them "you're so and so, known for [something], and you want the following in this scene" and let it roll.

Grand Lodge

I'd try giving out specific narrow bonuses, kind of the equivalent of potion, scroll, or limited favored enemy.
"You have +2 on all checks to see through the schemes of the man with different eyes."
"As a swift action, gain the effects of See Invisibility, but only to detect the tMwDE."
"Re-roll one save/attack/SR check against tMwDE."

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