After a read through of
Diana Pharoh Francis' essay,
The Importance of Tension and Raising the Stakes, in
Kobold's Guide to Combat, I can't say the question of how to raise tension and player's stakes was answered...at least not in a meta sense.
I don't know if Prof. Francis has a lot of rpg background, but her essay seems to be coming from strictly a novelists perspective. She goes into detail about characters in famous stories dealing with increasingly difficult situations and how the building tension creates a better story. I can't argue with her about any of that, but she seems to discount the aspect of a death as it pertains to a table top role playing game.
"You don't want to put them in a position where they might die all the time. For one thing, death is boring. It's over with and the character is out of the story or game and what fun is that?"
I'm not sure what games she playing in, but death is rarely boring. It can be one of the most poignant parts of the entire gaming experience.
She does go on to say that death isn't always a finality with magic and magic creatures, but typically it's the end (her opinion). In her defense, a lot, if not most, rpgs are ran to be survivable. It's safe to say, most of us have not had to deal with a total party kill or at least not very often. The modern rpg seems to have conditioned the DM and player, as well as the designer to some extent, that the player's initial characters will survive and be the hero of the story.
Early editions, some rulesets and the OSR movement don't always follow this idea of "character first". Deaths ever present and a player (as well as the DM) should expect characters to die. These games do have potential "casts of thousands" and no one should ever expect their favorite character will live past the next room of the dungeon.
So, if you're in the mindset that death should be around every corner, how do you increase the tension for the player in the long view, if the expectation is that the player's character will most likely die?
I'm thinking of a few ideas:
- Appeal to the player's (not the player's character's) sense of decency.
The player's heroic fighter may have died and the player rolls a new character, a crafty thief looking for the next bag of gold. The thief may not care about the approaching horde of orcs ready to burn down the orphanage, but the player may feel the need to save the children.
- Appeal to the player's greed.
The dragon's lair is right around the corner and you know how dragons like their gold. I don't care if my most favorite character just died. I need to see what that wyrm has stashed away.
- Appeal to the player's sense of mystery
The shadows hold deadly threats, just as your stalwart cleric has just found out. But, you know there is something just beyond the dungeon hallway.
As I write these ideas, I notice they are more just carrots for the players, just future rewards for more effort and not necessarily "cranking up the tension". Maybe the question isn't so easy to answer.
Does anyone have any ideas to bring the player into the intensity of the adventure while not relying solely on the player's character as the vehicle? What do you do to maintain and develop tension for the player, even if their favorite character dies?
This mace is created from a whole skull of a charmed baboon
attached by enchanted sinew to a thick branch stolen from a great tree in the
jungle protected by dryads. When the weapon is swung, air rushes through the
open mouth of the skull and creates a loud shriek. When a creature is hit, that
creature takes an extra 2d6 necrotic damage. Any creatures within a 30’ radius
of the mace and that can hear when it shrieks must make a WILL DC 13 or become frighten
for one round.
