Day 7:
How can a GM make the stakes important?
Today I’ll keep things
shot.
One thing that has
frustrated me when I was a player was feeling that my actions had no real
consequences. If I saved residents of a town, only for them to be killed a
couple sessions later that destroys the sense of stakes.
That’s why I always
make the thing the players do matter, what they do affects them, sometimes negatively,
and that gives the world a sense of stakes. Of course if players felt like they
could live through any encounter then any real sense of stakes would evaporate.
That’s why I will put them into situations that could potentially get a
character killed. Sometimes even a near brush with death will have lasting
consequences for a player.
Of course you can’t
overdo it. If a put your players in life threatening situations and constantly
kill them off it has the opposite effect, making nothing matter.
It’s a balance that
must be found, but if you find it your players will be wholly invested in your
world.
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