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. 

Yet Another Way to Make Your Elfgame Have Feels

I'm working on a BIGHUGETHING; so, in the meantime, I'm reposting some older stuff that was never posted on this blog. 

This one was written for my 4E historical game set in dark ages (yes I know that term is out of favor) Britain, but it's usable in any game with a meta-reward system (XP, Fate points, whatever). 

The sample flaws are very churchy; use as-is, interpret liberally, and/or replace with your own.

5E MATH NOTE!

1/5 of the XP value of a creature with CR = your level is ~10% of the XP you need to level. 

CHARACTER ARC

If you take a character flaw, you'll get some extra XP, your character will change, and your character will experience comedy or tragedy. If you don't want that possibility, don't take one.

There are three things necessary to make this work:

(1) A goal the PC strives for militantly. This should already be baked into the setting. In Against the Pagans, it's the conversion of England. You can have an additional one personally if you want.

(2) Someone you care about. Ideally, this is someone else. But it may be a community or an ideal.

(3) The flaw itself. This is either (a) your goal, if your goal is problematic, harmful, or if you are conflicted about it, or (b) something else that could lead to your severance from the thing(s) you care most about.

This can be freeform, or, for the sake of ease, you can roll a d8 on this table (of the 7 Deadly Sins plus one):

1. Lust (sexual, or for power)
2. Gluttony (intemperance / addiction)
3. Greed
4. Sloth (anxiety / depression / guilt)
5. Wrath
6. Envy
7. Pride
8. Error (in doctrine or apprehension of another's character)

Here's the thing, then. These are generally player-facing. They usually only come into play when you want them to. But, every time they do, you get 1/10 of the XP needed for the next level:

1. In 4E, that's XP = a standard creature of your level
2. In 5E, that's XP = 1/5 the XP value of a creature with CR = your level (or just [next level XP - this level XP] / 10)

Here's what I mean when I say "come into play." I mean I'll say, hey, show me how this is making everything terrible for you, or you can let me give you some ideas; I'll also tell you if something is weaksauce. Then you say it and get the XP. And it has to get worse each time; it has to escalate. You can set these situations up for yourself, or you can ask another player (including the DM) to do it for you. If you've played Fiasco, this is similar to the "Frame or resolve?" question.

At the end of every scene in which we see your issue killing you, save vs Tragedy (i.e., make a 4e-style death saving throw, unmodified by anything except your accumulated Save vs Tragedy bonus, if any).
In order to overcome your flaw, here's what you need to do:

Roll a 20+ on a death saving throw before accumulating three failures.

That may seem steep. In order to improve your chances, here's what you do:

Hear someone giving you advice, counsel, or comfort about the issue. Whenever you do this, gain +1 (cumulative) to save vs Tragedy.

Whether you accept it or reject it is up to you. The important thing is that you hear it and then show how you're responding. You can seek this out yourself, or another player (including the DM) may give it to you unsolicited or at your request.

If you do roll a 20+ before getting three failures, then you may choose to have a comedic outcome, where you overcome (or, if you're not tired of your issue yet, at least take a major step toward overcoming) your issue, and you get an XP bonus = 2x the XP value of a creature of your level. If you choose a tragic outcome, or if you fail, you get an XP bonus = 3x the XP value of a creature of your level. Note that you can always choose tragedy, and you get more XP if you do so, although things will of course be worse for your character.

You can deal with your issue in these mechanically significant ways once per "day," i.e., between extended rests. The GM can force dealing with an issue in this manner according to the same schedule.

So, to min-max your character, make a ton of really bad stuff happen and then tell me to make stuffeven worse, as bad as possible.

Dramatic Techniques: Example—Dissatisfaction

Alright people we're just going to do it:

PC: Volk, cleric of the Silent Gull of Seven Eyes. 

Situation: Volk and party are residing in Trondheim, raiding the megadungeon a few days to the east. So far all is standard D&D. 

1. Dissatisfaction 

I need to know what Volk is unhappy, desperate, sorrowful, or otherwise dissatisfied with in his life. If I already know, great: just have to let all the other players see it. If that's been shown in game already, great, I can skip to #2. But let's presume we just started at the dungeon and these guys don't have personality other than race/class/alignment and whatever dialog  has been uttered so far.  

You can also just use random tables for this part and consider it part of chaacter generation. Simpler, less customization. 

(I'll be addressing the character when I'm talking to the player for simplicity. GM text in bold, player text in italics.)

So Volk, what's wrong with you? Or are things going pretty well for you right now?

I dunno man I just showed up. 

This is the likely case, and we'll proceed therefrom; however, for the sake of thoroughness, you have basically 3 situations at this point:

1. I dunno

2. Oh, I know! [and it's suitable]

3. Oh, I know [and it's not suitable]

1. I dunno. In this case, you start asking questions and making suggestions. You don't have to get a firm answer yet. If this is the very start of the game, maybe see how the PC responds to events that invite judgment or decision or self-revelation: invitations to religious services, witnessing crime or cruelty, invitations to go on a date or hang out or help with a project, NPCs who ask as part of friendly chatter what hobbies you have, where you're from, hostile NPCs that interrogate you. 

Really, you should be able to tell (if you don't know already) from the player's reaction if they're even interested in this sort of thing. Maybe coming up with fictional stuff is stressful for them. 

So here's what you do, if you ask, and keep getting I dunnos, offer suggestions. You can have a list; you can come up with ideas in the moment; you especially can ask the other players to come up with something. 

If the player still doesn't engage, they're just the wrong audience, sorry. They will just be a supporting cast member, and that's fine. 

2. Oh, I know [and it's suitable]. Great. Go with it. 

3. Oh, I know [and it's not suitable]. Look, it's your game. You do the work. If someone's great idea is going to seriously harsh your mellow for real and you're not just being a control freak, say, hmm, I don't think that's a good fit with this campaign. Can you think of something else? Etc. Repeat until (1) or (2) obtains. 

Anyway

Back to the example at hand. Our player hasn't thought about it. That's fine. Question time. 

Is Volk the really devout and evangelical type?

Oh yeah. Really annoying about it. 

This is the kind of stuff you want to see. Now you think, what would make this sort of person unhappy?

Do you think maybe he's been trying to convert these pagans to the worship of the Septuply Blessed Gull and been having no luck and is really bummed out about it?

I'm trying to isolate a source of deep dissatisfaction. If the player doesn't like it, we can counter propose, get the other players in on it and such, but for sanity's sake:

Totally. Nobody can stand him here. 

Now we are ready to show the PCs dissatisfaction. I'll frame a scene in which we can see his efforts to evangelize, the reaction of the villagers, and the PCs reaction to that in turn. 

So you guys get back to town, get washed up, whatever. Volk, how do you usually try to evangelize the people here?

Oh, he just finishes his meal and gets up on the table and starts preaching. Extremely sincerely. Like, Know ye not that the wind against thy faces cometh from the downy underwings of the Wondrous Gull of the Seven Oceans, that kind of stuff. 

So that happens. Everyone's kind of turning away from you, laughing at you, or being extremely annoyed. This one huge guy with a mullet just locks eyes with you and keeps banging his cup against the table. When you finish your spiel, the innkeep comes over and says, alright, let me have it. He holds out his hand—y'all have some kind of arranges where you can preach for a silver a night. Do you give it to him? 

I don't have a silver…

Then what do you do?

I don't have it, sorry, but I'm good for it—

I'm adding it to your tab. He heads off, and people are looking at you only to laugh. How does Volk react? This bums him out right? It's not supposed to be this way. 

I think he goes to his room and self flagellates, making squawking apologies to his god. 

Wonderful. I'm seeing his back and the blood pouring down and soaking into the cracks in the floor. 

AND CUT

Yes, fairly tediously described, but I wanted to convey the sense of what actually goes on when using a technique like this. While this particular example was just made up, I've seen many similar scenes where, at the end, I've got chills from how good the interaction between the players and the fiction is. It can be like watching a really great TV show with your friends that you are making up in the spot. 

Now, I'm not going to go into the rest of the 10 agenda items because it would be a big pain. But if anyone requests an example for a particular one, I might be persuaded to do so. 

Dramatic Techniques: Q & A

In my previous post in this chain (http://detectmagic.blogspot.com/2014/07/how-to-make-people-tell-story-without.html) I brought up 10 beats or moves or agenda items that should be addressed if you want a dramatic narratives for your PCs. 

I'll reprint them here and then go into the lightweight techniques you can use to knock them out. 

THE TEN THINGS

1. The PC's dissatisfaction, despair, or discontentment with the status quo. 
2. What the PC's wants
3. Why the PC wants it
4. What made the PC this way
5. What concrete plan of action the PC will take to get they want
6. The PC's escalating dissatisfaction, despair, sorrow, or discontentment in failing to achieve what they truly want (repeatable, ideally 3x)
7. The PC's escalating reaction to challenges to their way of thinking (repeatable, ideally 3x)
8. The PC's ultimate decision to change mind or remain steadfast 
9. The moment of truth, when things will go ultimately poorly or well for the character when viewed in retrospect
10. The aftermath, where we judge the PC and his actions and convictions by seeing the effects they have and the presentation of those effects 

TECHNIQUE

The techniques are actually very easy. They're not tied to any particular system or cycle, although they could be a game or exercise in themselves. 

There are two types of tech here:

1. Active 
2. Reactive 

ACTIVE TECHNIQUES 

1. Ask questions, then frame scene. So is Gregor a pretty happy guy, or is there something wrong with his life in a big way? Maybe just in a malaise? Oh, his wife is being unfaithful? And so what is he doing about that? Nothing? And he wants to stay with her? Okay, let's see what it's like for him right now. Do you think he'd just be sitting at home while she's out with whomever? What's he doing while he's there? Etc. 
2. Frame scene to have NPC ask. You as GM want to know why the PC wants what he wants. So: you hang out at the Blue Moon right? Well, you're there, and it's kind of quiet, when Igrild comes over and sits beside you. …
3. Frame scene to twist. PC wants to convert home base village to his religion by building a giant shrine out of the bones of the monsters he's killed. He's just put the capstone on when a mob of old liners comes to destroy it; what do you do? Let all your progress be destroyed? 
4. Frame scene to judge. Let's say that the PC from above stood his ground and drove off the mob. You can frame a scene to judge by having he funeral profession of he single person who died in the scuffle go very very slowly near the PC, old women spitting at him, etc.
5. Create incentives. If you need to get your players to pursue the things their PCs want (and you may not need to; simply saying, "his is what you're supposed to do; this is what the game is about" maybe be enough), come up with some incentive system that ties into the game elements. Like Quest XP for taking the next step (whatever it happens to be, not a predetermined thing) toward the PC's goal. 
6. Settle on resolution mechanism. You may need some way to finally resolve the issue, although resolution may be obvious from the fiction. If you do need a mechanism, I like ones that tie into player skill at the game. Implementations of such a mechanism are beyond scope for this post 

REACTIVE TECHNIQUES

1. Have NPC ask. "Why are you doing this? Why won't you just give in?"
2. Have NPC judge. PC has set fire to rival suitor's farm. Reluctant accomplice says I can't be a part of this anymore, leaves. 
3. Show outcome that invites judgment. PC and PCs family have refused to convert to the imperial religion despite knowing the dangers of non compliance. He comes home to find parents distraught: brother has been martyred by the empire. Then,
4. Ask "How do you react?" The alchemist tells you that your little sister asked him about how much narxal root it would take to kill someone. [Player knows sister is suicidal.] How do you react?

SUMMARY 

You are either:

1. Asking the player information directly, and framing scenes using the info they give you
2. Having NPCs do your work for you, asking questions, presenting conflicting perspectives, showing the PC things that might make then reconsider 
3. Playing out the effects of any mechanical support you've got going on behind the scenes

There's not one technique for one agenda item; you just need to get the agenda done, and the techniques are concrete steps you can take to get it done. 

WHAT THIS IS NOT

This does not involve planning outcomes or moving through explicit acts or anything like that. As the precious post says, the players need not know you are actually performing techniques upon them. They're just answering questions and reacting to things.