>From: "frank_rafaelsen" <frank_rafaelsen_at_...>
>
>This is why I'm planning on mapping
>out a couple of possible solutions, and remaining open for other
>ideas. The only thing I will hold on to, is that killing LDoaH will
>not be enough.
I think you're on the right track generally. But what I'm saying is that, I too could give you suggestions about what I think would be cool stuff to happen here, like many of the other very cool ideas that people are tossing out there. But that won't get you any closer to where you need to be, because that's what I would do to create the ending.
This is hard to explain. But, basically, don't have any "possible solutions." Not one.
Now, that's not the same as saying "don't provide any constraints." I think you're absolutely right to limit things by saying that killing the LDoaH won't do it. That's precisely what you need more of. Details about the situation that make it interesting, and give stuff for the players to work off of. OK, we can't just kill him... what can we do?
So do prepare a bunch of stuff. Have NPCs involved, potentially very important and powerful ones from history. Does Arkat have anything to do with this? How about Zzabur? Don't be afraid to bring in the big guns - it's the end of the campaign. Does the fate of the Vadeli at all hang on this? What does it say about God Learnerism? Can anything be learned from Dormal in this regard?
I know I've probaby got the entirely wrong references - excuse my lack of Gloranthan scholarship. But the point is to figure out what all of the impacted factions and forces are. Figure out what the pressures are from all sides. And then have these things all fall on the backs of the PCs somehow. Such that their actions will be related to all of these things. Such that it informs their decisions, but does not make them for them.
That's the key. Give them horrendous amounts of terrifyingly important material to deal with, but let them figure out the resolution to it all. If you give them enough stuff to play with, they'll be able to come up with something all by themselves, and will not need a push to get to the end.
That doesn't mean you don't push, either. You just don't push towards one of the expected ends. Push towards whatever seems coolest at the moment, and be prepared to do a complete 180 if things change, and another path suddenly seems to be more interesting. Throw out options that match their seeming goals. But don't make any one obviously better than any other.
As soon as players sniff even a whiff of GM Plot Control it's all over. They're then suddenly informed that there's some goal that you're trying to get to. Even if it's not true. You have to allow for any option they choose to be as valid as the next.
So, again, I think you're thinking in the right direction. Just don't think about solutions per se. Just think about situation, and how to make it complicated. So that there is, in fact, no one easy road to any solution. Given that tough decision, then, it'll be the player's choices that determine the fate of the KoW, and make a satisfying end to the campaign.
To be really clear, how this would work in my game is that there would be a whole session where we sat around speaking out of character about possible heroquests that they could go on. Where we'd make up the myth in question needed to accomplish their goals. Not the other way around... no looking at what myths might exist and whether they'd accomplish the solution. There are lots of myths in Glorantha, and it's best in a case like this to simply assume that there's one that pretty much matches their needs, and just create the one they need.
Then I'd work it up, and play it the next session or two. Now, that said, I'd also mess the heroquest up so that there were still questions being asked of the characters on the way. With some punctuation at the climax. Again, I'm not saying that the Narrator shouldn't have any say in the outcome. Just that it should be in terms of what questions are asked, not what answers are given.
There are probably lots of other good ways to handle this, but I'm just giving you my methods. This is actually precisely what I did to end my last 80 session phase of play with HQ. And I think it was quite successful.
Mike
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