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100% GMing
Treasure Tables is dedicated to game masters, offering GMing advice and ideas since 2005. I'm Martin Ralya, and I've been GMing since 1989 and writing for the RPG industry since 2004.
The Want, Challenge, Cool Factor Method of Scenario Creation
Sat. October 7, 2006
Whether you’re mid-campaign or just starting out, consider giving this a shot: Ask each of your players to request a scenario idea built around three components of their choosing. Then follow up on their requests.
The components are: Want, what the party wants to get out of the adventure (a reward, accomplishing a story goal, etc.); Challenge, what stands in the party’s way; and Cool Factor, the elements that make the scenario unique and memorable.
Players could choose to come up with their ideas separately or as a group, although I can see major advantages to doing it collectively (just as there are with group character creation).
With those basics in hand, you flesh out the actual adventure — making sure to deliver on each of the requested elements. Let’s call this the Want, Challenge, Cool Factor method of scenario creation (or just WCCF).
As a player, when I think of something nifty that I’d like to do in a game, I can’t always find a way to work it into the adventures at hand. That’s the genesis of this method, and for me it usually starts with the cool factor.
If this option were available to me as a player, I’d jump on it in a heartbeat. And as a GM, it would provide me with some great fuel for scenarios, each of which had premade buy-in from at least one player — and buy-in is always invaluable.
I’ve never tried this, but it seems like a sound concept. There’s almost certainly room for improvement. What do you think of this idea?
More posts about: Players, Scenarios
Comments
7 Responses to “The Want, Challenge, Cool Factor Method of Scenario Creation”
This sounds like a great way to make a pick-up game or one-shot on the fly. I’m not sure I’d want to try it in a regular game, but like you say, the player feedback/insight is great.
I want to see some fabric bracelets mass produced that say WCCF on the side.
OK, sorry
I wouldn’t be so quick to rule this out in a long-term campaign. I’m running Dungeon Magazine’s Age of Worms campaign right now–if I run it “by the book,” is that fair to my players? Surely, I can try to find out what they want to do and incorporate it into the story.
Lord…. Every time you post something new, it REALLY reminds me how much I need to write my DMing is like acting article.
T
I think I get it, but I suspect I’m also reading something into it. So, could you give an example of its use in, say, a D&D game with 3 players and a GM?
Since tsuyo didn’t link up his article about how GMing is like acting, I will: The Actor’s Advice to the GM. Interesting stuff — I always like finding similarities between disparate activities. These two aren’t really all that far apart.
Scott: You’re probably not reading anything into it.
An example:
- You’re the GM, running D&D. You have 3 players.
- You ask each player to come up with the seeds for a scenario — specifically, what they want out of it, what stands in their way and what makes it cool.
- One player might say “We want to take over a bandit fort; the bandits will, of course, try to stop us; what makes it cool is that the fort is built into the side of a mountain.”
- At some point in the campaign, you write three scenarios — one for each of their WCCF contributions.
That’s pretty much it.
I’m all over this idea like…uh…let’s see, what’s good? Weird on a mutant? Yeah, that’s good.
Although one time I tried this out, years and years ago, and one of my players said, “that’s like knowing what you’re getting for Christmas”. Maybe it’s just him; I dunno.
Dr. Rotwang: No, I can see some players really not liking the idea of knowing what’s coming. I’d liken it to watching behind-the-scenes stuff about a movie before it comes out — some folks hate that, others love it.