Pacing 5 - Example

This post is part of a series on pacing.  See the other posts, below.

• Pacing 1 - What can Pacing do for You?
• Pacing 2 - The Elements of Pace
• Pacing 3 - The Three Act Structure and the Hero Cycle
• Pacing 4 - Eight Quick Techniques
• This post, Pacing 5 - Example

This post was severely delayed for a few reasons.  One reason is that I found myself writing an entire module for an example.  I figured that was a bad idea for two reasons:  First, I doubt you guys would read it all.  Second, I might as well finish it and sell it for a buck on DriveThruRPG or something.  

So instead, I’m going to describe how an existing RPG module fits the 3-act structure.  A friend of mine had me run The Tower of the Serpent by Brennan Taylor in Fate Worlds vol. 1, Worlds on Fire, by Evil Hat.  It was a great example of the three-act structure, and it specifically calls out references to the Conan story Tower of the Elephant, which is neat.  I liked it.  Get it here http://www.evilhat.com/home/fate-worlds-volume-one-worlds-on-fire/

Note that this description will contain spoilers! 

The two PCs in this game were an assassin and a burglar.  The game was run as a one-shot, but in Fate, there's really no such thing.  The character creation process led them through their prelude story where they earned the enmity of a wizard king, and they entered this module with that powerful plot hook.  They left this module with awesome campaign hooks.  So while it was a one-shot, it felt like the middle of a campaign.

I will label each scene with its place from the Pacing Planning Sheet (go here to learn more and download it) as I recount the session.  The Tower of the Serpent was a good module for demonstrating three act structure in an RPG.  

The Revelation was not baked into the module itself, but came as part of the general system.  Fate lets you concede in conflicts, which gives you a chance to regroup.  Fate also lets you prepare a lot of aspects with free invocations (uses of those aspects to get bonuses) with the Create Advantage action.  If you give your players a hard fight as a Second Act Twist, and they concede and retreat for their Darkest Hour, they can build up some aspects with free invocations, it creates a quick Revelation scene.

I think the climax of the story in The Tower of the Serpent was supposed to come after escaping the tower, when the different factions come hunting for the PCs to claim the Idol, but my PCs were creative about setting up Samar, and using Hugo to help them do it while getting on Hugo's good side at the same time.  

As this is not primarily a review, I won't give you much assessment of the book or module.  We had fun, and it was constructed well.  There were typos, the Ape should have had Notice at Fair or better, and I would have liked some call-out or reference to the weird elephantine alien being from Robert E. Howard's Tower of the Elephant (which this story pays tribute to) but otherwise I give it an "A."

Act 1

You Have One Week.  

Introduction (Exposition):  My players had created characters who were wanted by a wizard king from a distant land, so they fit the module’s intro well, since they had fled to Riverton and were hiding in Darkside trying to make enough money to continue their flight.  I read the introductory text (the exposition) and instantly compelled them:  “As you are both on the run from the wizard king, you need to make enough money to get out of Riverton, and you only have one week to do it.”  This put the time pressure on them, and hooked them into the hired thieves story of Tower of the Serpent. 

Geshon the Mouth

Introduction (Opportunity):  Next, I introduced Mama Sabba’s and Geshon the Mouth, the stool pigeon who brings the PCs into the adventure.  They realized this old drunkard could get them a job that paid well enough to get out of Riverton and continue their flight from the wizard king.  Geshon pumped them for a little coin as “collateral” to get his trust – after all, if they betrayed Samar, it would be his ear if not his head.  Then he took them to see Samar.

Remember:  Opportunity scenes are when the players decide to go after something, and the GM responds with a challenge between them and their objective.  Threat scenes are when the GM creates an unexpected challenge.

Negotiating with Samar

Call to Adventure (Opportunity):  At Samar’s, the merchant offered the PCs the job, but held off on specifics until they accepted.  I used their earlier compel to create a contest.  Samar offered them a chest of silver to do the job, which was nice, but not enough for their escape from the wizard.  They decided to negotiate him up.  They burned a lot of Fate points haggling with Samar and Bloody Nikka; they didn’t have high enough skills to compete without the Fate points.  Eventually they won and Samar laughed and said, “Oh this?  This is just the down-payment.  There are three more chests when you bring me the Idol.”

This Guy is Nuts

First Act Twist (Exposition):  The PCs then had a half hour while Samar got something ready and could give them job specifics.  They went to the market and used Contacts to get more information on him.  They learned that he was in the Cult of Tranquility, and learned about the Cult (I said they could know everything that’s in Fate Core about the Cult of Tranquility – it’s neat that Tower of the Serpent is set in the example setting). 

The Job

Call to Adventure (Exposition):  They returned to Samar, somewhat less confident about taking the job.  He laid out the details, explaining that the wizard will leave for a night in two days’ time on the new moon that coincides with the Spring Equinox.  They learned about the magic ward on the front door, and got the wand to dispel it, and they got a physical description of the idol.  They saw the mad glint in Samar’s eye when he discussed it, and knew he was lying when he said it was valuable to him because “It is an ancient work of art, made of solid gold and set with jewels.”  That’s not what the legends said – the legends said that the tower held a magic artifact of great power, and they were starting to get suspicious.

What do they Want with Us?

First Act Twist (Threat):  The PCs then left Samar’s camp and started heading back to the gates.  They saw city guards following them, and split up to escape.  One PC, the assassin, was caught at the gate and brought to see the Governor.  I used a compel there, too:  “As you Need a Reason to Kill, and these guards aren’t here to hang you, naturally you would surrender rather than draw your sword, and they would capture you.”

A Better Offer

First Act Twist (Exposition):  The Governor and Helen Thirdcoin knew that Samar was hiring thieves to steal something from the Tower, and she did not want them to have it.  She offered the assassin ten times what Samar initially offered (so about 2.5 times his final offer).  The assassin, knowing Samar was a mad cultist, agreed.  He went free, and told the burglar about the offer. 

We're Pretty Popular Tonight

First Act Twist (Exposition):  The PCs got back to Darkside, where they were accosted by Little Har and some of the Silk Triad goons working for Hugo the Charitable.  They brought the PCs back to one of Hugo’s houses in Darkside, where Hugo paid them a small amount to tell him what Samar wanted from them (I decided it was a test, to see how trustworthy they were), then matched the Governor’s price when they told him the truth.  The PCs agreed to Hugo’s offer, too.  They felt pretty screwed when they left.

The First Act Twist in Tower of the Serpents goes on for a while, because it complicates the job tremendously, but it cements the PCs’ desire to get the idol, because the only thing worse than having one faction pleased and two factions (and a wizard king) mad at them, would be slipping away without any coin and having all three factions mad at them, and no money to get away from the wizard king!

Act 2

Act 2 in Tower of the Serpent coincides well with Part 2 of the module.  It's almost like they meant it that way!

Ditching the Watchers

Gather Resources (Opportunity):  The PCs cased the tower in their 2 days down time, establishing aspects with Create Advantage.  During this time, they decided to shake the tail that the Governor had set on them.  Thirdcoin’s goons stood out in Darkside, but it was still a tough contest, but only because they didn’t want to spend any Fate points. 

Casing the Place

Gather Resources (Opportunity):  The night of the new moon, they went up to the wall and scouted around.  They saw Hugo’s men watching them, and made themselves an escape path through the junk in the area around the tower’s outer wall to get past them if they needed, then climbed over.

Sneaking Past the Ape

Rising Action (Threat):  The ape in the garden posed no threat to the PCs.  The ape has +0 Notice, and these PCs had good stealth and there were plenty of aspects to help guarantee they beat the ape’s stealth.  I did not use a compel to start the fight, because we were a little behind in time (I wanted to finish in one session), but I could have.  Instead I just made them each make two overcome rolls with Stealth against the Ape’s Mediocre Notice.

Looting the Tower

Gather Resources (Opportunity):  The PCs used the wand and their Good Burglary skill to pick the lock and get into the tower.  Inside, they poked around a little, and turned dangerous magic in their favor.  I used compels here.  Though the burglar took some mental stress, he acquired a crystal decanter of some worth, and a magic sword that had the aspect “Otherworldly Sword that Cannot Be Seen” – as long as he didn’t look at it, it wouldn’t curse him.  This was the result of a refused compel.  This is where I realized that a character is never more badass than when he refuses a compel (the consequence was getting stuck with a cursed sword – his refusal cost him a Fate point but got him a cursed sword that didn’t curse him, and with an awesome aspect he could use in his favor).

The Trap

Rising Action (Opportunity):  The PCs eventually got to the top floor, where they sensed the magical trap guarding the Idol.  They tried to disarm it using Samar’s wand of disruption, hoping to modify it to work on this ward, too.  But they failed. 

Defeat!

Second Act Twist (Threat):  The trap went off, and they took a lot of damage.  They both suffered stress and moderate consequences.  Then the spirit guardian attacked.  I described it basically as a spirit naga from D&D.  Over about four rounds of combat, it beat the snot out of the burglar and assassin, took the Idol back, and nearly killed them.  They were out of Fate points, had their higher level Stress boxes all filled, and had one 6-point, two 4-point and two 2-point consequences between them.  They were bleeding and poisoned and one hit from extreme consequences or being taken out.

Run Away!

Darkest Hour (Threat):  So they conceded the fight.  A concession in Fate is a loss for the protagonists of the story, but it can feel like a win for the players.  They get some Fate points, they avoid being hacked apart by the opposition, and they get to narrate how they get defeated.  No matter how they narrate their defeat, they still have to give the opposition what they want.  In this case, the spirit guardian wanted to recover the Idol and chase them out of the tower.

I explained that the Guardian had got its Idol back, but it was still going to chase them.  They had to narrate their concession in such a way that they got to a place that was safe from it.  So they narrated that the burglar grabbed the sorcerer’s grimoire off the table and ran, flipping frantically for notes on the spirit guardian.  The assassin ran out the door and held it shut while the burglar found a passage on the guardian and worked a quick spell to hold it off. 

Hold That Door or we're Done For!

Darkest Hour (Threat): I started a new scene, having them make Overcome rolls to keep the spirit guardian from beating the door down to get to them.  The assassin used Physique to hold the door and the burglar used Lore to bind it with a spell.  They succeeded, so they held it off.  But they were still almost dead, and the Idol was in the room, and the spirit guardian was going to bash that door down any minute…

Act 3

There has to be Something we can Use!

Revelation (Opportunity):  But all was not lost!  I let them take time to Create Advantages while the spirit banged on the door.  They realized they had the resources to beat the spirit, if they sorted them out.  They had the grimoire and a magic sword, and had a scene to take time to stack up some advantages.  The burglar gave the Otherworldly Blade that Cannot Be Seen to the assassin who used Mediocre Lore to give himself a free invoke when using it against an Otherworldly Spirit guardian, with the realization that its magic could disrupt the spirit guardian.  The burglar used his Lore to flip through the grimoire and find a spell of binding that he could use on the spirit. 

Sword and Sorcery to the Rescue!  Literally!

Climax (Threat):  Then they let the conflict start again by backing off of the door.  The spirit’s action was to bash down the now-unblocked door, so they got to act first.  They flubbed some rolls on round 1, and the assassin took even more damage (they both wound up with nasty 6-point consequences).  But on round 2, they stacked all their advantages on top of a good roll, and the Spell of Binding and Otherworldly Blade combined with the spirit being Mystically Disrupted helped them hit it for 8 shifts of damage, taking it out.

A Cunning Misdirection!

Climax (Opportunity):  The spirit guardian is only a physical threat.  The PCs still had to figure out what to do with the Idol, now that they had it.  They decided to forge a note from Samar, the mad Tranquility Cultist, bragging about how weak the defenses were and how he was going to use the Idol to bring about the Prophecy of the End Times.  They left Samar’s disruption wand (that they used to dispel the ward on the front door) in the crystal case that had held the Idol.  The climax can’t be easy!   So I compelled the burglar, who was doing the forgery, “Since you’re the kind of guy where, Once I Start, I Can’t Stop, you would naturally overdo the forged letter, leading the sorcerer to suspect that it was a misdirection.”  And he once again paid a Fate point to avoid the consequence.  So not only was there a forged letter, the sorcerer would not suspect it was misdirection!  Excellent!  This gave them a plan…

We're not Fighting That!

Wrap-Up (Threat):  The PCs left the tower and had to sneak past the Ape again.  They succeeded.  I could have fudged the Ape’s stats and given it better Notice, but I decided to Compel them instead, right as they got to the exit, and have the Ape appear.  But they just decided to concede as soon as the Ape appeared (since it had Mediocre Notice, they got to go first).  I narrated that the Ape wanted to chase them out, and they wanted out anyway.  Really, at this point, we were in wrap-up, and I just wanted to show them the Ape in its full roaring glory.  It didn’t matter to me that they didn’t fight it.  Having them flee over the wall in a panic, in tatters from their earlier fight, was enough for me.  It highlighted how much of a trial this was for them.

Note:  It could have gone differently

The Tower of the Serpent is divided into three parts, with Part 3 starting right here -- after the PCs leave the tower.  That hints to me that the designers intended the Darkest Hour of the story to begin when the PCs got out, and had to deal with three factions chasing them to get the Idol, in a situation where they were pretty much doomed to piss off two of them.  In theory they would come up with a plan to escape the factions' wrath, and get out of Riverton with their skins, then execute it in a climactic heist scene.

My run-through was different:  The PCs had their Darkest Hour and Revelation in the middle of the fight against the Guardian Spirit (probably because there were only two of them and I think the Spirit was designed to fight 3-5 PCs).  But then they had a creative idea for resolving their three-factions problem, so all in one room, in a quick series of fast-paced, super-high-stakes scenes, they completed the Climax.  

If they had defeated the Spirit easily, or fled from it with the Idol (they failed at that -- the spirit took it back from them), I would have caused more problems for them with the three factions, so as to give them a Second Act Twist within the city.  I might have even used the appearance of the sorcerer as the Second Act Twist, if they deftly avoided all the factions' goons.

I could also have forced them into another twist (then another Darkest Hour and another Revelation and another Climax) by making their plan to set up Samar go awry somehow; but I like the simplicity of the basic three-act structure, and I let Part 3 of the module become my Wrap-Up section.  

I was also aiming to complete the entire module in 6 hours, and it would have added another hour of time to create another twist.  Being aware of real world time constraints is a part of pacing, too!

Our Heroes Tell Hugo their Plan...

Wrap-Up (Opportunity):  Next, they decided not to use their escape route, and just walk up to Hugo the Charitable’s men.  They asked to see Hugo directly, so they were escorted to Hugo’s safehouse, where they explained their plan:  They gave Hugo the idol and explained that Samar wanted it so he could use it to end the world or something awful, so he would pay desperately for it.  Hugo had enough might in the city to bleed Samar for all he was worth without any consequences for doing so.  But he had to do it immediately, because when the sorcerer returned later tonight, he would discover the forged note and planted wand, and probably go after Samar.  Nobody had to worry about Samar destroying the world, as long as he didn’t do it in the few hours between buying the Idol from Hugo and getting trounced by a sorcerer.  The Idol would go back to the tower, and Samar would be a smear of ash in the market square.  There was a tense moment where Hugo considered the plan… then he laughed and said, “I love it!  For your cunning, I will pay you as promised, and I promise you if you ever need a favor in the future, just call on me.  I’d better go, though.  Time’s wasting.”   The PCs asked him for healing, and he offered to kill one of his three captive unicorns for them, repaying the favors he owed them by giving them its horn; but this horrified them, so they settled on mundane bandages.

They're Here Early

Transition (Exposition):  I decided to compel their hunted by the wizard king aspects again for a transition scene.  “As you’re both hunted by the wizard king, you recognize the arcing blue lightning in the early morning darkness that heralds the arrival of his sorcerer minions.  Turns out you didn’t have a whole week…”  They took their Fate points and fled. 

Note that Transition and Wrap-Up sort of blend together in a typical RPG adventure, since you’re tying up the loose ends of the story while tying some of them back to the larger campaign.

Oh Yeah, the Governor...

Wrap-Up (Threat): The Governor and her lieutenant, Helen Thirdcoin, were the only faction that the PCs did not placate or set up.  So naturally, they were not about to let the PCs get out of the city.  I decided that the goons didn’t know that the Idol had been recovered – they were just keeping an eye out to pick up the PCs when they left Darkside.  Near the gates, the Governor’s goons were searching for them, so they had to stealthily evade the guards.  They created a distraction and succeeded with style, managing to get away clean.

The Sorcerer's Revenge

Wrap-Up (Exposition):  As they fled the city through the market, they saw a black tornado of magic appear, and saw the shadowy figure of the sorcerer stalk toward Samar’s camp.  They didn’t stick around to find out what happened next.  They were suitably impressed.

Lasting Impact

Transition (Exposition):  I created some location and campaign aspects, even though this was a one-shot.  The module gives good guidance here, and the structure of the adventure gives you plenty of lingering hooks and loose ends to choose from.

• Wanted in Riverton (Riverton Location Aspect):  The only faction they didn’t destroy, evade, or please was the Governor, so that’s going to be trouble if they ever come back to Riverton.
• Bloody Nikka is Out For Revenge (Campaign Aspect):  I decided that the Sorcerer took the Idol back and killed Samar, but Nikka survived, perhaps badly wounded.  And while Samar is done for, Nikka has become an enemy of the PCs.  This is a slight variant on one of the suggested aspects in the module.
• The Mother of Silence is Nearly Defeated (Campaign Aspect):  Given the setting’s big issue of the conflicting prophecies in the Cult of Tranquility, I decided that the Mother of Silence was one of the two factions, and the loss of the Idol, enmity of the Sorcerer, loss of all their money, and death of Samar would put her on the ropes.