How and Why to Make PCs Suffer

This weekend I'll be playtesting a couple games I've been working on. If all goes well, there should be some interesting post material gained from that. And if all doesn't go well.

In the meantime, here's a table that's common to both of the games I'll be playtesting, as well as pretty much any game I run in the future.

It's six ways that you can make people suffer. This is good. You want to make your PCs suffer for their commitments—to people, to institutions, to ideas, to their own flaws, to ambitions—and see if they change.

WILLIAM BLAKE, illustration of the book of Job

(Man, Job is ripped in that pic. Must have had the juice hookup in the land of Uz.)

SIX WAYS TO MAKE THEM SUFFER (actually or potentially)

1. harm (physical, emotional)
2. isolation (social, physical)
3. dissonance (they see something that contradicts what they believe)
4. betrayal 
5. loss (of goods, relationships, status)
6. humiliation

Example: Bard Wants to Train Under the Master

Our bard wants to take it to the next level. Everyone knows the only way to do that is to learn from the hand of Master Hovenbeet. But every time our bard seems to make progress in his lessons, he suffers for it:

1. rival students threaten to beat him up (threatened harm)
2. rival students actually beat him up (actual harm)
3. the master insults him before the whole class for making a single mistake, says he'll never be able to make it (humiliation)
4. one morning he finds himself unable to play the simplest tune (dissonance)
5. one evening he hears the master himself playing, but as many notes are off as on (dissonance)
6. rival punches him in throat; he can't sing for the recital (harm, loss)
7. master breaks the bard's mandolin (humiliation, loss)
8. none of the other students sit with him at mess (isolation), even his friend (betrayal)

Will he keep it up, or will he break, or will he decide that he was wrong to want this in the first place? 

How will he react? Why?

That's what we want to find out. 

That's where the story is. 

The Best GM Advice Ever

If I were to go give two pieces of advice to new GMs, these would be those two pieces.

1. How to Make and Run NPCs

John Harper nailed it in half a paragraph in his new game Bootleggers, which I recommend you check out. It's pay what you want, and you should drop him some cash for it probably. 

Give each NPC a desire and preferred method of action. What do they want? What will they do to get it? Describe two visual details about them (very tall, smokes a pipe. weather-beaten face, scruffy clothes. big eyes, walks with a limp).

Those two adjectives are all you need. 

Re: the NPC's desire, following the advice of Apocalypse World, make it simple, obvious, and have the NPC focused on it absolutely. Better to go too far in this direction than not go far enough. 

Giving NPCs a single, strong desire (a) invites an emotional/intellectual response, identifying, judging, what have you; and (b) it gives the PCs a hook. It's obvious what this person wants. Presumably there's some he reason he can't get it; and that's a service the PCs can probably provide in service of their own ends.

Which brings me to:

2. What to Say Now, and Next

If you don't know what to say, be a machine, and spit out a risk and/or reward. 

Either give them the risk/reward itself or a lead to it.

The character of these will depend on the kind of thing we're playing, but, if we're playing the version of D&D where you get XP for killing things mostly, guess what you should do if you're at a GM-loss?

Give them things to kill. Either up in their face right now, or give them information on where things to kill might be lairing or having snacks. 

If you're playing a game where you get XP for treasure, give them a glimpse of treasure, unguarded or not. Give them a treasure map. Give them a rumor. 

Let's say you give them a rumor. "There's gold in the hills." So one of them says, "Let's go to the hills." The next thing you say should be a risk or reward. You are going to the hills when monsters. Run or fight. Or, you are going to the hills when you see a caravan loaded with goods (reward) beset by bandits (risk+reward). 

Or let's say you're playing a game where they win by getting their character's dramatic issues resolved. So the next thing you say is either an opportunity to resolve that issue or something that stands in the way of that issue. 

All your prep (including the assembling of modules, generators, tables, etc) is simply to give your brain a rest and to make sure you say things that are interesting and true to the game. 

Make Yourself an NPC Generator

Inspired by the principles and moves of Apocalypse World and this post from False Machine, I present unto you a way to make yourself a random generator of NPCs. 

NPC Generation

When you need an NPC for more than like five seconds, you need to settle these (memorizable things) in your mind (in addition to their name) in order. Their: 

1. Purpose: one of the GM moves (which see)
2. Presentation: some stereotypical or exaggerated behavior, appearance, or affect 
3. Passion: something they really want or are into 

Explication

By "GM moves", I mean the kind of things you say in your particular game to make things interesting for the players as players of a game. If you're playing D&D, that at least includes monsters, traps, weird stuff, and treasure. For my thieves guild game, I've got, at least:

1. Show them an enemy
2. Show them a mark
3. Show them a scandal
4. Show them a score (dangerous or easy)
5. Show them a mystery (that leads to another item on this list, ++reward)
6. Show them an ally
7. Show them an opportunity to take advantage
8. Show someone asking them why
9. Show them someone judging their behavior and/or motivations, presenting another way
10. Show them one thing that looks like another

And some principles:

1. Be direct and obvious sometimes
2. Misdirect and obfuscate sometimes
3. Alternate between grim and playful
4. Take a second to imagine what this person would actually be like

The three items above are for the "first pass," the first impression or first encounter with the NPC. As the players get to know the NPC or spend time around her, you have more options:

• Complication: show something unexpected or paradoxical given what we already know
• Confirmation: show the NPC being very consistent with what we already know
• Virtue: show the NPC doing something admirable or suffering something pitiable
• Villainy: show the NPC doing something that invites judgment or retribution

Examples

I'm doing these off the top of my head:

1. A shopkeeper: immensely rotund, has 12 cats he treats as his children, has a common enemy of the PCs and will shelter them (show them an ally)
2. A gang member: wears all white, looks like Bon Jovi, wants to be an architect but is short tuition (show them an enemy)
3. A militia member: dyes the horsehair of his helmet fuschia, totally macho, exercising in every dull moment, wants to win the legion's bodybuilding competition this year, not above paying PCs to poison the rival (show them a score)