Based on my recent post “Do the events of the game inspire creativity from you, or do you get creative just to keep the game going?“, I wrote up a small game session.
It was a small one so as to make it a small gamble. Basically I got some old board sections from the first D&D basic game, got some of the D&D minatures game I’d bought, and then looked them over, to see if they inspired anything (so I put them to work, to a degree, to inspire creativity, rather than just draw upon myself in whole).
I’d also envisioned what I wanted to do before that, and had decided there would be searching spots – look in the right spot, and it gives you information against the enemy. This gives you ‘Add’ points…that’s all I have as a name for them. It’s just a pool of points and after you’ve rolled, you can take points from the pool and add it to the roll. You search after a battle, getting two tries per room, each giving you 7 Add.
But otherwise there was no AOO, most special abilities/attacks were removed, so it was just roll, roll, roll. Yes, that’s not amazing to think about…and? If I invest creativity to make it more interesting, the game has to pay back that back in inspiration. I’m rather tired of gambling like that.
Also I designed it so it could/would be run multiple times (the monsters just pop back/respawn afterward). That way I could get more out of it, in terms of any inspiration to be found.
I played it with my eight year old son – I liked it alright. I’d written it so I was a player too. It was a bit like snakes and ladders with more handling time, but in compensation, with much cooler figurines and boards involved. And the searching was good (though I didn’t do any, because I determined them).
In other words, I’d play it every so often, but it’s not terribly compelling. I’d say it gives a little inspiration over time, in recalling it. Not a big payoff, but a bit of a pay off.
In terms of spending that inspiration, I was thinking as well as the search spots, I might also have something where the player can, once per room, describe how something in the room helps the villains plans. I’d either, GM style, give this a reward of 1 to 3 Add points, or perhaps something else? Perhaps it gives 1 point by default, but as a player I can opt to risk one of my add points to give him another. Like say I roll 1D20 and if it’s a 1, I lose my add point and the other player gets nothing. But if I roll anything else, he gets another add point and I keep my point too.
That’s a tricky way, because it still rewards trying to do well on the description, because who wants to gamble on a weak description. I think I’ll use this!
