| Bill Nye 924 |
I'm running Kingmaker right now, and I've been adding in a lot of my own stuff to keep things interesting. One thing I'm planning on doing is, once the the party (referring to the party running kingmaker, which i'll refer to as the "main party") gets through Stolen Lands and have their first city up and running, I'm planning to introduce two other players as minor antagonists. They'll be run in their own session and kind of working for their own ends, which aren't necessarily against the party but likely to be at odds. They'll also mainly be working behind the scenes of the main party with me playing their (the antagonists) characters if the main party should ever encounter them.
Like I said, they're meant to be minor antagonists. What sort of limits, if any, should I place on them to be sure it stays this way? Currently they're both planning to play vigilantes, they haven't decided on their motivations yet so I couldn't tell you if they're out for their own brand of justice in the city, want to see it burn for some reason, etc.
I'm looking for limits for the antagonist party or tips on how I should handle it to prevent the players in it from derailing or flat out ending the main storyline (being that of kingmaker) for the main party, but at the same time not limit them so much that they can't be imaginative.
| Scott Wilhelm |
I think you should make everything clear to the players. Normally, when I sit down to play a tabletop fantasy RPG, I have the idea that there is 1 GM, and they players are all working together.
If you want a political intrigue campaign where they players are potentially in competition with each other, that's a different kind of game, and it is only fair to warn the players that this is happening.
Once you do that, let it happen. Everyone's a player, and there is no reason to put limits on some of them and not others. It can be great fun. I sat in on a large group gaming session of a Superhero RPG. The GM made half of us Superheroes, the the other half of us were supervillains, actually Idea Men: it was based on The Tick. Anyway, Evil won again. We successfully stole $59.63 from the Rive Droid Bank. In this game. The GM was not the storyteller at all. All the events that happened happened due to we players working with and against each other. The GM was barely involved with the storytelling. He was a referee between 2 opposing teams.
But, it sounds like you have some specific intentions in mind for your 2 new Players.
two other players as minor antagonists.... Like I said, they're meant to be minor antagonists. What sort of limits, if any, should I place on them to be sure it stays this way?... I'm looking for limits for the antagonist party or tips on how I should handle it to prevent the players in it from derailing or flat out ending the main storyline (being that of kingmaker) for the main party, but at the same time not limit them so much that they can't be imaginative.
If you want to keep a tight control over the storyline and not turn the guiding action over the the players and make it all about their palace intrigue and go all Game of Thrones, I think you should tell the 2 new players that they are not players. You should call them assistant GMs. You shouldn't let them play a single NPC that they get emotionally attached to and the party might kill just like any other monster while you limit their playing options as if they were 2nd class players. I'd feel a lot better about being a 2nd class GM than a 2nd class player. You should make them run any of a few NPCs and take the players away from the table when the party breaks up onto side quests or something. That way, your 2 new people will not come to the game with agendas different from yours: they will only want to help you run the game, or they will not agree to play with you.