RPGaDay 2021 - Day Nineteen

 DAY 19 - THEME - STORM - STYLE - PATRON

I have come to like campaigns where the group has some sort of PATRON or someone to give  them sone sort of “marching orders”. It could be that they work for some sort of larger organization (Law Enforcement, Military, THE INQUISITION, etc) and are given specific cases or mission. OR they could be self-employed (as, say, private investigators) and their clients, which may be different from adventure to adventure) are their “patrons” who give them cases to solve. OR they just have some sort of powerful or influential figure that they work for (whether through pay or extortion or whatever) - the king or a wizard (like Gandalf was for the Dwarves in the Hobbit or the Fellowship in Lord of the Rings) or an old-school noble or senator in the Roman Republic or Empire (as in Eagle Eyes or o=possibly Cthulhu Invictus). The Patron can give the group a focus and a mission to accomplish. It doesn’t have to e railroads - the player characters can have considerable leeway in HOW they accomplish the mission or objective.

Ideally I’d LIKE to run campaigns, with PATRONS that are highly episodic in STYLE - where in one session players are given their mission and can complete said mission in that session and “return to base” or whatever by the end of it. I like this idea because the campaign is less disrupted by the absence of any particular player, which I feel happened more and more as… y’know… adults are busy people… NPC replacements can be brought in for a session to substitute for missing team members that have skill that would be vital to the success of the mission.

I have tried to do this… but it hasn’t often worked - adventures take MUCH longer than I anticipated and drag out to two or three sessions… But I like the IDEA!!! 

One place where I feel this DID work for me was running largely combat focus Savage Worlds tabletop games (which were played with a number of different THEMEs or settings). Players were generally given a mission in the first scene, there might be a scene or two of role-playing their way to the final battle - either literally getting there through a hazardous environment or just following up leads and clues. They might be given Lead #1 in the “mission briefing”, that is followed up and the encounter/discussion/interrogation role-played out gives up a clue  as to what going on and/or who is doing it or where or how, etc, these might lead to a second lead/clue and more role-playing, which ultimately leads to the final confrontation where things are set up on the tabletop and played out. But sometimes It might just be a mission briefing, and then set up the tabletop and let them run through the maze of terrain shooting and/or stabbing (or blasting with magic/supernatural abilities) until the bad guy is taken down or the mission is otherwise resolved and everyone is home in time for tea. Ideally… I mean, it works for 20-40 minute TV episodes, how can it not be played out in a 3-4 hour game session! 

I do find it works out easier with simpler systems that focus on keeping the narrative moving along rather than getting bogged down in details.