Creating a Game (Part 14) - Variant Threats

When I run games, I often have a vague understanding of the various forces in play and how they will react when certain things might occur. I like the agency to be in the hands of my players, and like to make sure a lot of the events in the world happen as reactions to their choices (or to their lack of choices). The FUBAR system faciliates this sort of play. We don't necessarily know whre the story will end up. Instead it is divided ito four acts: context, complication, climax and conclusion. 

The context phase allows exploration of the world, and once enough trigers have been activated (or once adequate worldbuilding has been established for the session) play moves to the complication phase of the game. During the context phase, there isn't a lot of token movement, one or two minor threats might come into play, but they don't really seem to have a lot of impact on the deeper story for the session. This isn't entirely true, the minor threats probably work best as hints of something deeper, or the surface symptoms that are more noticeable while the underlying causes will be addressed later once the characters have begun to understand what's going on. Not every element introduced during the context phase will be linked to the major problems of the session... some might end up being linked to issues in later sessions, other might not be linked to anything at all. The narrator of the game doesn't necessarily know where things are heading, they're just contextualising the actions taken by the characters, and working with the players to create a story that generally makes sense.

The complication phase is where more prominent threats come into the story. Easy options to introduce such threats might be with foreshadowed elements that were mentioned earlier. Maybe its mentioned in the context phase that there are no cars on the streets tonight, the major threat that comes into play is suddenly revealing that there is a curfew on the town, or a military enfored quarantine. It could be just as possible to have a minor threat from the context phase return with reinforcements...or if that minor threat was killed, maybe their friends come looking for vengeance. Remember that this is intended to be a game about choices and consequences... doing nothing, or hiding, is a choice with it's own consequences. 

What are the threats?

I've aready established that I like my games to have a range of threats. Not everything confronting the scarecrows in this gam should be connected to the Dullahan corporation. I'll be developing a few potential threats that could be thrown into a session, but I also like to create basic systems that can allow players and narrators to develop their own story elements. That's just a part of the way I design. I try to create a framework, then provide examples that work within that framework.

Generally in the game, a minor threat should be something that a single character should be able to confront witout major threat to their lives or livelihood. In FUBAR, a single story token can be used to force a character to make a test, increase the difficulty of a test they face, or add a trait into the scene that causes complications until it is removed.

If a character is introduced with one of these tokens, there is usually no need to give them a name or any major defining features, the character is just an obstacle on the way to something, a single successful action can eliminate any probems they might be causing in the story. Such characters add flavour and context, but rarely make an impact unless a player decided to form a bond with them, in which case they may start to develop a name and traits of their own.  

Let''s start by defining a couple keywords that might be applied quickly and easily to threats:

Connected - A threat introduced later will have knowledge of the characters and what happened when they confronted this one.  
Draining - This threat has the ability to drain the enchantment that empowers a scarecrow. It may do this as a regular action as long as it is touching the scarecrow. (or at a single level of penalty if not touching the scarecrow, but within a few metrres)
Gifted (X) - This threat is considered to have one (or more) of the gifts that can be found among the scarecrows. Using this gift, designated by the "X", finctions exactly the same way it would for a scarecrow.
High Profile - Sacrifices against this threat tend to draw the attention of other threats in the area, such as the local authorities (or the Dullahan corporation)
Mystical - Any mundane actions against this threat have their successes reduced by a degree.
Negapsychic - Any use of gifts or mystic effects against this threat are at a penalty. 

Predatory - This threat begins hidden, it will attack the characters if it sees an advantage.
Protected (X) - This threat is protected from a certain type of condition, the first time this condition is applied to the threat ignore it. A threat might be protected from injury, fear, confusion, etc. as designated by the "X".
Scary - Sacrifices gained while confrotning this threat cause a character togain the "scared" condition.  

Slow - Every action taken to adress this threat takes 15 minutes, sacrifices may cause another 15 mintes to be wasted.
Talented (X) - This threat possesses one or more non-core traits, as designated by the "X" ()two traits each time this is selected)
Transforming - This threat can change it's form between two different appearances. 
Tricky - There is a seperate negative trait that mus be overcome before this threat can be addressed. 
Vicious - This threat cannot be reasoned with, and will attempt to harm the characters during each of its actions.  

Threats aren't necessarily the driving forces for the story, they are mere elements that help contribue to the wider narrative. A good threat isn't always killed or neutralised, and a careful or clever character could turn a threat to their side, and then possible use it to their advantage later in the story.

Now we'll look at the levels of threats and see how those keywords might work in context. 

Minor

A minor threat is introduced into the game by spending two tokens, so it makes sense that this level of problem would be twice as bad as a typical inconvencience. So we can probably assume that it could cause long term inconvenience, and might not be obvious initially, or maybe there will be some kind of issue that means direct confrontation is slightly harder than first expected.

A minor threat is roughly equivalent in power to a single player character. In fact a minor threat will have a name and probably a couple of traits to indicate what theyare good in (and what areas they might be weak in). Some minor threat characters could have a character sheet generated up for them that can be used in play to present it's potential against scarecrows.

A non-character minor threat could be something that causes minor complications across the whole setting of the story, potentially cause a short term injures or penalties a group of scarecrows, or a long term/major problem to a lone scarecrow. The scarecrows will generally face about as many minor threats as there are characters in the game.

Minor threats will typically have 2 keywords associated wth them. If the threat is a character, at least one of these will be of the "Talented" type.  

Examples:

The characters find that the next clue in the store is in a secure location like a bank vault, safe, or known by someone currently locked up in a psychiatric ward. It will take at least one fifteen minute slot (probably more) to get that next clue, or risk injuries/notoriety if you try to do it quicker. (Keywords: Slow, Tricky)

A police detective (or private eye) is looking into the same things that the scarecrows are. While the detective remains active, the characters suffer an ongoing penalty to their investigation rolls if they want to maintain a low profile and avoid detection by the mundane citizens of the world. (Keywords: High Profile, Talented (Allies, Knowledge))

An animal enchanted by the fey has been causing problems, and will alert the mundane authorities to the presence of the supernatural if it is not dealt with quickly. Chasing down this animal will take a couple of fifteen minute time slots. (Keywords: Mystical, Slow)

A strange plant is growing on the outskirts of town, it seems to be preventing other plants from flowering or fruiting. (Keywords: Mystical, Slow) 

A storm has swept into the area, any actions occuring outdoors have a penalty associated with them, and there is nothing much the scarecrows can do about it. (Keywords: Tricky, Vicious)

A security guard starting to learn to much (is he a member of Dullahan) (Keywords: Connected, Talented (Awareness, Firearms))

(A minor Dullahan threat might be a company surveyor (starting a chain reaction of escalating consequeces if he is allowed to finish his survey, or calling in bigger Dullahan threats if anything bad happens to him) (Keywords: Connected, Talented (Appraisal, Knowledge)).

Major

A major threat is introduced into the game by spending four tokens, so they should probably be twice as dangerous (or problematic) as minor threats.

Major threats should provide some kind of connection between the reguar events happening in the aream and the underlying issues that the faeries have awakened the scarecrows to address. They shouldn't necessarily be too much of a threat to the characters, but should take at leasts a scene or two to resolve, and should case some injuries and problems for the characters as they learn more about the issues unfolding around them. The scarecrows will generally face no more than half as many major threats as there are characters in the game.

Major threats will typically have 4 keywords associated wth them. If the threat is a character, a least two of these will be of the "Talented" type.

Examples:

A pack of wild dogs is roaming the area (Keywords: Scary, Talented (Awareness, Hunting, Intimidation, Savagery), Vicious)

A street gang is vandalising property in the area (Keywords: Connected, Predatory, Talented (Intimidation, Melee, Stealth, Survival))

A power outage has caused the local community to be on edge. (Keywords: High Profile, Slow, Tricky(x2))

A number of people have started reporting ghostly apparitions in their houses, theyve started alertig the authorities to this and that can't be a good thing. (Keywords: Draining, High Profile, Mystical, Scary) 

A major Dullahan threat might be a security guard with a team of company troubleshooters. They have an idea that something dangerous is in the area but aren't sure what.(Keywords: Connected, Protected (Injury), Talented (Appraisal, Firearms, Survival, Occult)) 

Monstrous

A monstrous threat is introduced into the game by spending six tokens, so they're another degree more dangerous. I'm not sure if we should do this in a linear manner (in which a monstrous threat is three times as danerous as a minor threat, and 50% more dangerous than a major threat), or whether I should do it in an exponential manner (in which the new level of threat is twice as high as the prevous one, therefore making a monstrous threat four times as dangerous as a minor threat and twice as dangerous as a major threat). I guess the actual implementation in the game is going to be a bit fuzzy anyway, so trying to work out specifics is never going to be perfect.

Monstrous threats will generally be the climax of a session, these are the reasons behind the problems in the world that they have been awakened to address. The scarecrows will typically face a single monstrous threat in the session, but may encounter a second one (somehow related to the first, as a campaign head toward it's final climax). 

Major threats will typically have 8 keywords associated wth them. If the threat is a character, a least three of these will be of the "Talented" type.

Examples:

Property developers have been behind the problems in the area, They are organising to get some prime parcels of land signed into their name in the next few days. (Keywords: Connected, High Profile, Talented (Allies, Bureaucracy, Intimidation, Negotiation, Persuasion, Wealth), Tricky(x3))

Paranormal investigators have been stirring up issues that would have been better left untouched, and this has caused many of the night's problems. (Keywords: Draining, Negapsychic, Talented (Allies, Awareness, Luck, Melee, Occult, Ritual), Tricky(x3))   

A temporal distortion is sweeping across the region, and gradually consuming all mystical energy in its wake. The problems in the area have been a backlash against this effect, but only now is its true appearance becoming apparent. (Keywords: Draining, Negapsychic (x3), Slow, Tricky (x2), Vicious)

A monstrous Dullahan threat migt be a robotic abomination that the company leaves in reserve to take out threats of an otherworldly nature. Once this things hits the story, thing will get messy. (Keywords: Negapsychic, Predatory, Protected (Injury, Fear), Scary, Talented (Hunting, Intimidation, Savagery, Stealth), Vicious)

So far, the idea seems to be working. I guess it's just going to take some playtesting to ensure things actually do work the way I'm envisioning. But something is missing...