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‘Winning’ In RPGs Part 3 of 3
In Part 1, I outlined the definition of a “win moment” and what most games use as methods of securing a win moment. In Part 2, I outlined the pitfall of “win moments,” as well as several common behaviors which are looked down upon, often committed by people seeking win moments. Today, I conclude with how to produce win moments which encourage the desired style of play.
Wizards of the Coast released a supplement in July of 2005 called Weapons of Legacy, introducing the concept of Legacy Weapons and Legacy Items, magical items which grew in power as the play did. This provides an opportunity to give a player an immediate win moment in the acquisition of a unique magical item, and a series of win moments following as new powers and abilities were unlocked from the item and new ones were discovered, all while preventing unbalance from creeping into game play.
Everquest introduced a similar concept years before, items which simply had a level requirement to wield, or abilities with a similar requirement. This allowed players to experience two separate win moments, the initial when they acquired an item which was most likely considerably more powerful than what they currently had, and a second when they themselves became powerful enough to use it.
Far-reaching consequences also provide an opportunity to spread a series of win moments out for players. News often travels faster than adventurers do, and they may find rewards or recognition waiting for them for an event months prior, whether it was defeating a terrible enemy, saving a leader from assassination, or delivering a moving speech. Be careful not to employ this tactic too often, however, or it may encourage PCs to rest on their laurels.
Allowing players to tell stories of their own adventures is another way to provide additional opportunities for win moments. In my Oerth campaign, there is a tavern run by a master Dwarven Brewer who sells his drinks primarily to rich adventurers and dilettants. Being an avid enjoyer of stories, however, he will allow adventurers free drinks in exchange for regaling him with stories of their exploits. This not only encourages players to relive their previous adventures and win moments, but to re-create them in their telling, making themselves even more glorious in the eyes of their listeners.
It is important to provide a variety of ways for players to achieve win moments, so as to match their differing styles of play. One of my favorite ways to introduce logic and puzzles into the mix is by pitting the players against a Logic Golem, a creature which is sufficiently to kill or greatly weaken the party, but will always engage in a logical discussion if not locked in combat, and will accept a line of logic which it is unable to refute. This puts the party’s lives in the hands of the clever players who will engage in problem solving and logic, as well as those of the role players who need to engage NPCs.
Ideally, win moments should be repeatable, and ideally not affect the balance of game play anymore than the system calls for. How do you introduce individual win moments into your game? How do you introduce repeatable ones?
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I’ve been reading the last couple article about “win moments” and a few thoughts occurred.
MMORPG’s have likely contributed to this need to power-level. They’re all about the grind — getting that new piece of equipment, powering up, and basically getting the bragging rights associated with all that money, power and gear.
This is the death of traditional table top roleplaying and I think should be avoided. Constanly rewarding the players with bigger, more powerful “lewtz” will kill one’s campaign quickly.
I really like the story-telling idea and will try to incorporate that the next time I GM. The legacy weapon concept sounds like a neat idea, but I don’t know enough about it or seen it used such that I could comment.
One thing that might extend win moments are game breaks. After the conclusion of a smaller adventure arc, or an obstacle overcome in the overall plot, take a week off. Play a one-shot in another system, a board game or just give everyone an “off weekend”. It will make it feel like they concluded a chapter in part of the overall campaign. It will also give the GM a moment to consider what the long term affects of thier victory and possibly incorprate it into the larger story arc.
The following week, they will be re-juiced and excited to get back into it and that break will become a “bookmark” in their game memory. If they also then see the effects of their victory reflected in the larger game world as play progresses (because the GM had the time off to think about it), it will make that event feel more significant, rather than just being another minor villian the party off’d on it’s way to the big encounter.
Commenting on part 2:
One of the other reasons I think players tend toward power-leveling (or munchkinism) is that they may not feel as involved in the story so the only metric they have for progress in the game is their stuff.
An idea to create “win moment” for those players might be to have mini-adventures or sub-plots centered around one player’s particular character. If everyone in the game gets to have some moments in the spotlight to pull them into the story more, they may not be as focussed on gaining the loot. You just have to be careful that it doesn’t feel like one player is getting more of this kind of attention than the rest.
Sometimes the best way to achieve this is to pick on “the quiet one” first (and by “pick on” I don’t mean in the negative way). Every group of players has a mix of stronger, more leader-like personalities who tend to put themselves out there, as well as the quieter follower types who just go with the party, but aren’t as verbal. Since the quieter players tend to not get as much spotlight, giving them a sub-plot might get them more actively involved. If they’re invested in the story, they might not spending as much time thinking about how to min/max their character sheet.
If the GM is really good, he or she may be able to weave all the various player’s sub-plots into the larger story arc so that everyone has story-based goals beyond just the “get more stuff” objective.
Your mileage may vary.