The Oracle feature

In most of my successful long lasting campaigns I have had what I'm going to call the oracle feature. I believe that this is in part the reason for the campaigns success.

First of all, what do I think of when I say the oracle feature. It could be said to be any power, entity or device that allow the character to ask for advice/guidance for a supposedly all knowing entity. I'll give a few examples:

WOD: The merit foresighted or oracular ability- allow the character to attempt to get a vision of the future.

D&D 3.5: The spell commune - allows the character to ask one or more questions, and get an answer, from a deity.

Any setting: A Oracle - a person/entity that the character may seek out and ask questions about the future for a price. This could also be a person that is not all knowing, but know significantly more than tha characters.

Why do I think this is so beneficial? I should be honest and say that they are a great fun, to play and just as funn to see the players ponder the answer. Well that was why I like them, not what they do for the campaign.

They function as a sort of emergency escape hatchet form prolonged deliberation or standstills. By that I mean that when the players are at a total loss of ideas for what they are to do they might seek out the oracle feature. Or when they can not decide which choice to make in a certain situation they can seek the oracle feature to help make a decision.

I have heard of games that have fudge-points or other game mechanisms for prompting the game forward*. These are as the oracle feature something that the player initiates. The main difference between fude-points and the oracle feature are that the oracle features also can be represented in the setting as a natural element.

Foot Note:
* I admitt to having used this once in Legend of the Five Rings. After achieving some great victory I awardws one player a Divinity Point that he could use to great effect. A few sessions later he cursed an entire city to insomnia. Well the curse was that those that had anything to do with the opiumtrade would be unable to sleep. Did I mention that the city he cursed was the empires center for opiumtrade? It was awsome. Having said that, the Divinity Point could have been an oracle feature if the player chose to, but he chose to use it to fule his curse instead.

Motivation: If giving does not work, maybe taking will...

In an earlier post I wrote about how I had problems getting the players to contribute. In particular I wanted them to write a short journal of what happened during each session. So I could use this information as reference in the future.

In different campaigns it has always worked to award the player XP, for doing this. But when I think about it this is campaigns were I was a player and not the storyteller. Maybe it's just me that is easily bribed with XP. After five consecutive sessions with no journal written by the players I decided to try something new. I wrote a short journal my self, which I always do if the players dosn't. I made a comment in a comment field of the wiki that their arch nemesis had been awarded 40xp for the journal entry. I made sure all the players saw the comment. The very next session a player wrote a journal....and gained the customary 2xp. The question is if there is a cause - effect relation or if it was a pure coincident.

40xp is alot, in OWD. Having said that, the storyteller usually is given the privelege of increasing the NPC's stats as he sees fit. The only difference now was that I informed the players that I did.

I hope the effect will last, but that remains to see.

Expectations vs Requirements

Have anyone other then me noticed that the "generic" gaming group has many expectations of the storyteller, and very few of the players? I'm a storyteller more often than a player (unfortunately) and have therefore given the topic some thought.

Players expect the storyteller to have made various preparation in advance of the game session. They expect him to be prepared, with at least a story or some interesting scenes. That he has some interesting people for them to meet and interact with. Some groups expect him to have prepared a neat puzzle or a mystery for them to solve. Last but not least they expect that their own actions are taken in to account.

What may the storyteller expect from his players? From experience I would say only that they show up, or at least let people know in advance if the do not. Aside from that players almost seem affronted if more are expected of them. I have on more than one occasion heard players say that they have had no time to think of the game since the last session. How would the game be if the storyteller did the same?

This leads me to requirements. I wonder if it might not be a viable alternative to stop expecting things of players and make them requirements of participation. Is it unfair to tell someone that in order for us to have a fun evening we all have to contribute? We all need to put in some effort in between the sessions.

I have plans for trying this requirement strategy with two campaigns. I'm very interested in seeing if this change who will participate. Will the people that usually go "I have been too busy (during the last two weeks to make room for even 30minutes of preparation) to prepare or even think about the game." not join or will they make room in their schedule? Also, it will be interesting to see if the required effort will produce anything beneficial. Will it lead to the players just doing the motions of preparation with out putting any effort into it?

The idea is that for the first campaign I will require a in character summary of last gamesession to be written before next session is planed. Either of the two players may write it as long as it is written.

For the second campaign I'm going to use a setting I'm creating. The game will take place in historical time in relation to the completed setting. I wish to flesh out certain details about the session by playing in it. The general idea is that we will play three weekends, and in between the weekends the players are required to write a contribution to the setting based on the game sessions. This can either be a historical record as written by a historian in the future (relative to the game time), a private journal for one of the character, a in character letter or some other such thing.

For both of them there will be the requirement to spend some time thinking about the game and your character. Especially formulating some goals for the character, and thinking through how the character should act and respond to various things.

Handouts?

I tried to GM Call of Cthulhu, without much success I might say, earlier this year. The issue I had problems with was, making the 1920's come alive. The Call of Cthulhu scenarios that I read were all very hand-out intensive, and I understand that this is true for most of the Cthulhu scenarios. This got me thinking about hand-outs and their effect on the game.

I have generally considered hand-outs to be beneficial for the game. For a player, it is exciting thing to receive them. In the past, I have used hand-outs where "blood" spots or missing parts of the parchment changed some of the meaning in the text, or made a text less certain and more open for speculation. This, I feel, is difficult to achieve without the handout, as it would be almost impossible to describe that some of the things are missing without emphasizing it too strongly.

In my Dragonlance campaign, the characters had obtained a piece of magical paper which contained information about some artifacts they where looking for. It was given to the players as a handout. The paper would change in accordance with what happened to the artifacts. So when the players destroyed one of the artifacts, the symbol for it disappeared from the paper. When the bad guy did some horrible sacrificial ritual with one of them, it would turn red and so on. After a while, the characters became obsessed with this piece of paper. It guided or maybe dictated many of their actions. I had intended the paper to be a motivator for finding the artifacts, but also a way for the players to know that there was a finite number of artifacts so that they would have a sense of approaching the goal. The hand-out did these things, but maybe it did it too well? Did it emphasize the plot line the GM had thought out too strongly, making the players feel they had no choice other than to search for the artifacts? Basically a fancy railroading-device?

One of the characters, or should I say players, got fed-up with the paper. He wanted to "liberate" himself from the obsession. So he took the paper, in game, and threw it into the camp fire. There, it burned for approximately 10 seconds, because the other characters used about two combat turns to get it out of the fire. I ruled that the magical item did in fact burn, against the objection of several of the players, and we threw the paper (the hand-out) into the fireplace. We left it there for 10 seconds, again against some objections, and took it out to look at what was left of it. I must say that, thinking back at this event, I remember that it was great fun.

After having attempted to GM Call of Cthulhu, I started thinking about hand-outs again. Because in the scenarios includes many hand-outs, that are essential to the story line.

I have started to wonder whether hand-outs are exclusively beneficial. For instance, in Call of Cthulhu, the players are rewarded for their research with a handout, when they are on the right track or at least on the track the scenario wants them to take. But when they are chasing the (wrong) red herring, I would not be able to summon any hand-outs for them, implicitly telling them that they are on a goose chase.

Does hand-outs make it abundantly clear that the GM has plans around some part of the story? I think this is an obvious yes. However, does it influence the players too strongly? Is giving out a hand-out a too strong indication that the GM wants the player to follow this particular lead, if yes is that bad?

Einherjar Saga, a few expiriments

I'm currently running a campaign in World of Darkness (The Old One).

Before we started this game, the players were given the following introduction:

Call it destiny; call it fate or the will of God. It chose to have a plan for these particular souls. Some would call them blessed as Odin's einherjar, some would call them cursed as Cain's children. Through the ages they will live, or at least exist. They will gaze on the gates of Jerusalem in 1099 just prior to a bloodbath that will be remembered for eternity. When Pope Innocence III calls the fourth crusade, they are destined to see a piece of the true cross on which Jesus himself died. In Paris, they will learn to fear the guillotine. In New Orleans they will meet Catharina, for they are Odin's blessed einherjarar. Let's start with the beginning, the place is Fossfjordgard on the west coast of Norway and the year is 754, and the five mortals are facing each other……

Furthermore each player was informed that he or she would roll a random destiny, which the world and its powers would conspire to make reality. Though they might, through their own actions, change the course of this destiny. Things included in the destiny were whether the character was to become a ghoul prior to embrace and, if so, when it would happen. What clan and at what time they would be embraced. Finally, for each chapter of the campaign, a special roll was made to see if the players would lose or gain any merits, flaws, backgrounds and so forth... The players did however not get to see the destiny, as it was to be a tool for the storyteller alone. The goal was to challenge myself to work the destiny into the story so that everybody had a good time and to spice up the campaign with choices or combination that I would never have chosen consciously.

I want to tell you about my experience so far with the destiny system. We have had 11 games sessions so far.

The Destiny
Knowing ahead of the first session who would be the characters' sire was a huge benefit. Over the first few sessions, I could introduce the various sires gradually. I think the players appreciated this too, since the NPC that would be their sire was not suddenly introduced just prior to the embrace, but had been present in the game from the beginning. This has given the game a sense of continuity.

At some point, one of the player got a indication through a wise woman (who presumably could tell the future) that she would live to be an old woman. The player reacted very strongly to this. I think the player realized (correctly) that what could otherwise have been taken as a off comment or a vague prediction that she would live long, was in fact a true premonition of what she had rolled for her destiny. At first the player strongly objected, she had no intention of playing an old gray-haired kindred. It took a bit of couching to get the player to try to change the destiny, or at least take her destiny into her own hands. This event played out to the benefit of the game because as a storyteller I was made aware that this event or chain of event was nothing that would fascinate this player.

Another aspect of the destiny is that it is highly unlikely that the players would be embraced or ghouled at the same time. This gave us an opportunity to have a mixed group for a while. The player that was first embraced wanted to keep it a secret from the rest of the players/characters. I had anticipated this, and already from the beginning of the campaign I had focused on events during the night. Since we started in Norway, having almost any event during the night was not a problem during the winter since the nights are so long. The kindred-player and I agreed on a few things we would do to avoid drawing attention to the change. For instance, when I asked if someone wanted their character to do something during the day she would often reply with some action she wanted her character to perform. This was a rouse for the other players, I would just ignore those actions. When in combat she faked the impact of her wounds so that her behaviour more resembled that of a mortal character. These things helped keep the cat in the box. We also did a few "mistakes" that let the other players onto the change. First of all we started exchanging more written (secret) notes during the game session. This had not been used a lot prior to the embrace so it was easily noticed. Second, as a kindred her social status changed, which also aroused the other players' suspicions.
All in all it worked nicely, a few players were suspicious that something had happened to the embraced character, but uncertain as to what. This was mostly caused by the notes and the change in social status.

At the moment I'm satisfied with the destiny experiment. However, I'm wondering if it would have been better not to inform the players of it in advance, and only used it as a tool for the Storyteller.

Predefined Chapters of the campaign
The players were informed that I intended them to experience a few different locations and events. I had decided upon some of them because I had recently bought a lot of oWOD books detailing them. So far this have not played any major part in the campaign, unfortunately. I had hoped to introduce characters from the prepared material as soon as possible. I thought how awesome would it not be to meet the prince of a city I know you are going to visit later when he is still a mortal? However I have found that many of the characters are not even born at the time I decided to start the campaign, and that it felt unnatural to introduce them while the players were stil in Norway.
I hope that I will be able to do this soon though, as it is one of the things I have high ambitions and expectations for.

System
I have made some changes to the system. Instead of the standard character creation system, I modified the existing XP system so that I could use this during character generation. I really do not like the fact that there is one freebie based system at character creation and another system (xp) for improvement during the game. It favours specialicing your character as early as possible, and my experience tells me that too many players come out of the normal character creation with skills or diciplines maxed out. It became a bit more cumbersome, but otherwise it worked as intended. None of the players have complained about it anyway (I wonder if I gave them too much starting XP?).

Hangtree Woods, a setting for Werewolf Wild West

PDF version can be found her.

Introduction

This is a setting I made (with help from others) to run a four evening mini campaign. We had a lot of fun playing this, and I hope others can enjoy it as well. You may use or abuse the contents of this document as you wish. It should be unnecessary to say: The content of this setting/senario is pure fiction.

You will have to do some work before you can use this setting yourself, but most of it is done for you through this document.

If you really enjoyed this document, or just have some money to spare, may I suggest that you make a donation to Wikipedia.org in my name http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

Credits

I (Marius F) wrote this document with a lot of help from Anne L. Also my players (Solveig L, Eli L, Stig M and Therese K) aided a considerably, especially with the two game resumes. Lars K, unknowingly aided this campaign in that I stole some of his ideas (Choking Death and Drowning Lake among other things).

Timeline

1829	Kingston lynching and abandonment of Summerville
1835	Rancher's rebellion in Alba and re-settlement of Summerville
1836	A small deposit of gold is found next to the lake
1837	Hangtree Woods is founded/named Mr. Cambel starts a large-scale mining operation
1839	The Cambel mining operation is abandoned after the workers flee, claiming it is cursed.
1846	Now!

Background and History WOODS

Summerville

In 1835 Summerville was but a ghost town. The former inhabitants had all fled five years earlier. Rumours had it that there were inexplicable things going on, and that the place was haunted or possessed.

Because all the strange things started to happen at about the time the Kingston family built a mansion here, many assumed that they were responsible. The situation got so tense that it resulted in a lynching of the family. Yet, the town had not seen the last of the Kingston’s.

The next night all the men in the Kingston family dug themselves out of their shallow graves behind the mansion. Enraged by the atrocity committed against their family, they entered town armed with shotguns and knives. Each night the living dead would return to haunt the town, they would scratch and scream until they had claimed at least one life each that they could bring back to the ban’s lair under their mansion. It was the banes here that had enabled the Kingston’s to raise from their graves. The inhabitants started to flee.

Charli Two-Hawk, an Indian living behind the general store, was too afraid to confront the Kingstons alone. He kept his distance, but when the Kingston’s maimed and killed his childhood sweetheart, Maylil, it all changed. After a prolonged fight he put them to rest a second time. This time he buried them in the cemetery next to the newly burned down church. He buried his childhood sweetheart on the opposite side of the cemetery. He could not bear to leave this place with all its bittersweet memories and was the only one to remain while all the others fled.

Hangtree Woods

Sam Irons was a reputable sheriff in Alba, until the spring rebellion in 1835. During the rebellion, four powerful ranchers overthrew the local government. The ranchers chased Sam Irons, his deputies and a few supporters out of town. They headed west, where they settled in an abandoned settlement near a stream seven hours west of Alba. The abandone settlement had once been called Summerville, but would later be known as Hangtree Woods.

Sam Irons and his allies decided this would be the perfect place to settle, as they reckoned that the town's bad reputation would keep intruders away. It worked for a couple of months, giving them enough time to rebuild the town and regroup.

During autumn, Alba sent a raiding party to the new settlement, wanting to crush the opposition once and for all. After a short and bloody battle, the raiding party returned home to Alba, their numbers greatly diminished. The bodies of their fallen raiders where hung from the trees outside the new settlement by the Sheriff and his deputies. Travellers or raiders from Alba would pass through these woods, and see the bodies of their dead friends hanging from trees in the woods, soaked in tar as a permanent remainder that they were not welcome. Travellers from other places would not need to pass through the Hangtree Woods[1].

While creating foundations for a fishing outpost next to the lake, north of Summerville, John Weems found a small deposit of gold. Believing that he had struck rich, he immediately travelled to Midway, two days south of the settlement, where he bought prospecting tools, paying for them with the gold nuggets. Rumours about gold near the lake spread like wild fire. By summer of 1836, a few months after John Weems found gold, the town was seeing a large amount of fortune seekers. New houses were erected at record-breaking speed.

Sam Irons became the self-appointed sheriff and mayor of the settlement. He maintained law and order throughout this period of expansion. Soon the settlement had a general store, saloon and brothel. Friday the 13th of January 1837, the two pranksters and immigrants John and Peter wrote “Welcome to Hangtree Woods” in pig's blood on their barn in the outskirts of the town. This sparked a discussion about the town’s name. Until that day it had been a nameless settlement, as only Two-Hawk Charlie remembered its previous name. The discussion raged for weeks, all the time the gruesome text greeted all who came to town, and it was de facto named Hangtree Woods. Every Friday the 13^th, the two pranksters rewrite their greetings on the outmost house of town.

Cambell Mining and Minerals

New prospectors had a hard time finding available places along the river. They expanded to the banks of the lake, and later up into the mountains west of the lake. Three prospectors Allan, Morgan and Jameson - found a large deposit of gold in the mountains on their claims west of the Lake. A few months later, in May 1837, agents of Mr. Cambell of Cambell Mining came to town and sought to buy the claims of the fortunate prospectors.

Morgan sold immediately, and bought a large house in town. Agents of Mr. Cambell tried to coerce the remaining two prospectors to surrender their claims, but was largely unsuccessful. Allan had an unfortunate accident, but no investigation was launched even though he had died under suspicious circumstances. His claim was taken over by Jameson in accordance with his will. After this, threats were made against the Jameson’s life.

Sam Irons had long since forsaken his honor and been corrupted by the power of his new position. He had taken Mr. Cambell’s money and was only so happy to look the other way. After all what had honor and honesty gotten him in Alba, when he needed the people of Alba to stand up for him and justice, they had covered in fear of the ranchers.

In the end, Jameson sold his claims, and fled town a week before Mr. Cambell arrived. No one ever heard from the prospector again.

Immediately after the arrival of Mr. Cambell, a large-scale mining operation was started in the mountains. Numerous Chinese immigrants were brought to town to carve the precious mineral from the mountain. Week by endless week, they dug deeper, oblivious of the corrupted heart of the mountain.

The spirit known as Chocking Death was bound in the mountain by shamans of four different native American tribes. This fact was long forgotten, but even if it had been known, the greed of man would have kept them digging.

Four Chinamen chocked to death in the deepest shaft of the mine in November 1839. This was the first incident in which the mine claimed more than one life in a day. The next day three more died in the same shaft. In the weeks that followed, a dozen Chinamen lost their life. In the end, none of the Chinese would enter the shaft, claiming it was cursed. Not even to retrieve their dead comrades would they enter. Feasting on the soul of the Chinamen, Chocking Death grew in strength. It was able to spread its influence throughout the mines. The spirit claimed more and more lives, until no one - not even the greediest miner - dared enter the damp tunnels.

The mining camp was abandoned shortly after. The buildings were left in a rush, equipment laying everywhere. Over the years, some poor fellas have claimed the tools for them selves and suffered a chocking death, some have even taken the planks from the mess hall and brought the curse home with them. But most of the buildings remain as hey were back in 1839, only in worse condition for the weather.

away from it. Those poor, white kids, they lived lives more interesting than they'd ever believe, but with my ability to bring forth a smile and a laugh I was always forgiven.

It was during this period that my mother taught me about the spirits and how to live off the land. The mother of the household taught me practical things that every woman should know, husbandry, housework and a little bit of first aid. The father for the most part let me do whatever I wanted to do.

Nothing lasts. All of 7 years I was happy before my world turned on it's head. One of those travellers that sought refuge with us died one night. He had fought for a long time, but to no avail... He was burned with his possessions but it was too late... Soon my whole extended family lay dying. The smallpox were without mercy, but I was never affected. I did as best I could to comfort them, but soon six newly dug graves were my only company. The animals had died while I tried to save those that meant the world to me. I gathered what belongings I could carry and left.

Life wasn't easy alone, but I got lucky. I had found a place with yellow rocks. I had learned that they were popular among the white population and now and again I would walk into one of the nearest cities and trade these rocks for food and clothes and other things I might need. I learned about alcohol and gambling and I learnt to hate how these things stole my control. How they got you to do things you'd normally never do. For 4 years this was the life I knew but then one day, the rage would come and I would learn that there was a new world out there.

I was on my way home from one of my trips to the city. It was night and I had made camp. I was awoken by a horse neighing and as I opened my eyes, I stared right into the face of a man.... and the muzzle of a gun. There where five of them with horses and weapons. They wanted my gold and I promised it to them... They wanted my body and I went berserk. My world turned into a red haze, a place filled with enemies and they all had to die.

I came to myself again. I felt strong, I felt powerful... I felt sick. I was covered in blood. Bits of intestine hanging from my fingers. Horses and men strewn about me. I closed my eyes and let out a long mournful cry... and it was answered.

I am Sequoia To-Tongues. Ragabash of Uktena and this was my life as a human.

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[1] Hangtree Woods first became the name of the small forrest outside the new settlement (placed on top of the old settlement of Summerville) later the settlement would also be named after the woods. At present there is two Hangtree Woods, the town and the woods.