Based on a discussion with Frank Tarcikowski.
This is a very humble chapter, I’ll just recount an adventure scenario I wrote a couple of years ago for TSoY on the forums. Frank was asking for ideas for his campaign, and I got carried away.
I don’t usually play such adventurous scenarios in TSoY, but I like the sword & sorcery thing, so I tried to make this work with lots of excitement, but also sympathy. Hopefully this’ll be useful for those readers who want an in-depth example of how Story Guides prepare material for TSoY.
This whole scenario is written with a completely character-based paradigm: I the Story Guide look at the Keys and other important facets that characters have, and then produce content that resonates with those elements. This is a particular method for creating adventures, and not the only possibility; it’s a good one, however, and educative to present here.
When working with this sort of Story Guiding philosophy, there’s an useful word: a FLAG is any clearly signaled plan or wish a player has for the game, especially one that is written down and presented clearly to the Story Guide. The Keys are, of course, all flags, and other crunch might be as well.
As it says on the box, this sort of adventure is tailored to the specific characters to some degree. It’ll be hit and miss whether it’ll suit a different set of protagonists. They often do (people aren’t that different), but it’s not guaranteed.
The City itself is just your run of the mill ruined fantasy city; the Story Guide can improvise the narrative details of something like that easily enough. What makes the scenario are its specific elements:
The Community and Goblin flags are pinged by a goblin tribe living in the city. They’re really primitive, and pathetically grateful to any civilized being who treats them with kindness. However, they want any benefactors to join their Tribe of the Crystal by swallowing a sharp, fist-sized crystal chunk broken off a mysterious building. They’re quite insistent. The thing is, a non-goblin would surely die from swallowing the sharp stone. Goblin anatomy on the other hand adapts, ousting the crystal halfway, leaving it stuck on the goblin’s tummy as a tribal symbol. Being that humans usually die when they try to join the tribe, the goblins tend to be skeptical about them.
The Glittering Gold flag is pinged by the crystal itself: pieces are really valuable, but they’re also sacred to the goblins, and dangerous to get (a giant lizard lives in the building with the crystal, for example), and you have to be a master artisan to polish them, unless you harvest directly from live goblins, whose stomach juices polish the crystal into an ethereal shine.
The Magician and Elf flags are pinged by the elf Nether, who was trapped under the City in the calamity that ruined the place. Nether was a member of the CI unit and has been stuck under the city ever since; either he’s afraid to die, or he gets reincarnated in the same place due to a Zaru curse, or he’s just too stubborn and committed to die and leave FORMULAE TRIANGULI ZUONIS CONDITA, the incomplete book of integrating Zu into Three-Corner magic. Whichever the case, Nether would promise almost anything to anybody who freed him. Nether is a MAGUS of the Academy, meaning that he’s mastered multiple arts; one of those is spirit shamanism, which he uses to walk in the city in spirit and seek help, desperate for human contact.
The Bloodlust flags get pinged by the aforementioned large lizard. It was a pet of a CI unit member who died here, and it’s been living and growing here ever since, solitary and forlorn. It’s huge and nasty and quite able to follow adventurers out of the city, should it be necessary; it still remembers Nether and while not humanintelligent, it is faithful and patient.
More Glittering Gold is found in the city as ancient Zaru coinage; the gold was used to buy off barbarians and trade. The trick with the gold is that it’s being guarded by a number of ghostly sasha, ancient Zaru elders (those forehead guys in flowing robes). They’ve trapped the elf under the city ruins, which keeps their sashas intact through the ages, waiting for a worthy hero who’d take the gold and use it for Zaru liberation.
The Impostor flag is amply serviced by the elements above: the goblins would be happy to be misled, the elf is desperate for sweet promises and the ancient Zaru ghosts are as gullible as only three centuries old pacifists in bathrobes can be.
Finally, Renown comes into play in the form of an outsider: a cocky Khalean or wily Ammenite adventurer has followed the player characters into the city. He’s eager to help, faithful in action, and a total glory-hound after the fact, willing to lie about his actions. If he’s allowed to stick around, he’s going to steal the glory from the character who’d be gaining the sweet xp otherwise.
As can be seen, this stuff is totally purposeful; I don’t dwell on fictional detail or poetics at this stage, I just pull out concepts that have significant interaction with what and who the player characters are. The same method would work no matter what the flags, as long as the premise of the game is to have player characters arrive and explore a new environment, learning as they go.
Note that even while this is a Zaru city, I do no more than hint at the Zaru signature magic, Zu. The goblins, the elf and the ghosts all hold Zu, add it liberally.
Also note that I’m listing these advance preparations as KEY ELEMENTS in the crunch. I rarely use Key Elements myself in play, but that’s just because I don’t often do these preparations on paper; if I had more than some scattered thoughts in my head, I might well use Key Elements as well.
I don’t always prepare more than one or two compelling SITUATIONS (called BANGS in many games) explicitly, but it’s a good practice if you find yourself searching for content to proceed with in the middle of a game.
For this material, there are many obvious interactions that can be brought to the fore whenever the action is lagging and the Story Guide needs to propose something. Like so:
Note that the situations are not in any order and do not represent a plot plan; they are just obvious imperatives, based on what the different characters in the scenario want.
Situations are useful to list in that they might help to remind you in the middle of the game about the different issues in the story. You can cross them over as you introduce them into the game, and when everything’s been both introduced and dealt with, the adventure is over. This is a very general model of Story Guiding work: prepare material, throw out material for the players to deal with, close the books and send everybody home after getting through your material. Simple.
Some mechanical notes, the way I would prepare them.
Goblins: The best are EXPERT (2) savages, Pool around 2-4. Typical goblin crunch, plus each has at least the crystal, and possibly a Zu word for it.
Nether: A MASTER (3) wizard from the antiquity, Pool at 5. Knows all Three-Corner and significant other traditions at my whim.
Ghosts: Most are MASTERS (3), with Pool from 3 to as high as 7 if a personality and agenda gets to develop. Zu crunch, wide knowledges, some walozi stuff.
Giant Lizard: A GRANDMASTER (4) beast, Pool 3; it’s high on the fluff alone, but I didn’t mention there that I see this as a basically unbeatable relic of a former age; approach at your own risk.
Adventurer: EXPERT (2), Pool set in play.
As you can see, it’s easy to write this sort of scenario; Story Guiding it in practice is slightly more difficult, mainly because the players can make it easier or more difficult for you. To ease your work, keep the AUTHORSHIP VEIL that develops for the Story Guide as low as possible: make sure the players are continuously aware not only of their vast rights under the SOLAR SYSTEM, but also of their responsibility towards you as a co-player. Do not walk into the trap of pretending immunity; show it when the other players confuse you or play in ways you don’t appreciate.
Still, assuming that the group communicates well and the Story Guide has actually understood what he’s supposed to do with the prepared elements, this method can be a powerful tool for you. To repeat, here are the technical steps in a nutshell:
| Secret of the Crystal |
|---|
| The character integrates with a crystal from the First City with a successful ADAPTATION (V) check. Failure causes a MAJOR (4) Harm, success only a MINOR (2) one. The crystal is plainly visible on the character’s skin, collecting sunlight. The crystal allows the character to receive/steal and store a Zu syllable, and use it without the ZU (R) Ability: the crystal sounds the syllable when pressed correctly (by the internal muscles of the character, or by somebody else manipulating it). Use MUSIC (R) checks instead of ZU (R) when working through a crystal. This character pays the Pool costs, no matter who manipulates the crystal. The same character can have many crystals, but the required success level for the integration rises by one for each. |
| Requirement: Be a goblin. |
| Formulae Trianguli Zuonis |
| This Secret, learned from a book by the same name, represents the collective knowledge of the Three-Corner Academy on the Zu syllables and their use. A character with this Secret can use Zu syllables as part of Three-Corner magical workings: CREATION (V) is used for the Declarative mode, ENTHRALLMENT (R) for the Imperative; Optative cannot be currently handled by Three-Corner. Syllables can be used in Spells, in which case the Syllable does not have to be mastered by the user of the new Spell; however, should the syllable be in use elsewhere while such a spell is in effect, it ends immediately. |
| Key of the Prophet |
|---|
| The character has met with the ghosts of Zaru elders, who have given him a new purpose. |
| 1xp: Speak of the elders. |
| 2xp: Act on their will. |
| 5xp: Achieve goals set to you by the elders. |
| Buyoff: Stop serving the elder spirits. |
| Nether’s Key |
| The character has befriended the elf Nether, a traumatized but wise wizard from a more arrogant age. |
| 1xp: Nether teaches you. |
| 2xp: Nether is clearly out of touch with his racist, sexist, colonialist, academic or otherwise inappropriate attitudes and understanding. |
| 5xp: Help Nether learn about and cope to the current world. |
| Buyoff: Judge Nether. |