Template:Setting Goals
Setting Goals
Players tend to pursue the activities that lead to rewards within the game. If the rewards are all based around defeating opponents then it should be no surprise when players ignore diplomacy or stealth and just get down to battle. The best goals have a distinct objective to complete, but no required method for completing it.
Goals may also change or be replaced. For example, a creature has kidnapped a local victim. If the victim was popular or important the goal might be to rescue the victim. If not, or the situation seems hopeless, then the goal might be set to stop the creature. If the victim is rescued, but someone else is then kidnapped a rescue goal would be the same, the band wouldn't gain anything but focus for accomplishing it. Likewise if the victim turns up dead a rescue goal has failed, but a goal to stop the creature now becomes apparent. Both rescuing the victim and stopping the creature could be apparent goals from the beginning, or could be revealed as the situation changes. And note that killing the creature will certainly count as stopping it, but depending on its motivations there may be other options.
Long term over-arching goals seem like they should be worth more than goals that can be resolved in a single game session, but actually they should tend to be linked or layered. A big plot should have smaller short term goals that form a path towards the eventual conclusion. A climactic battle could resolve two or more goals all at once, giving it extra dramatic weight. Clearly broken out goals can also give you a feeling for levels of success. For example, the goals when facing an invading army could be:
- Turn back the invasion
- Cripple the invading force
- Eliminate the invading leader
- Key allies survive the invasion
The final test of a goal is if it worth recording on the band history or boasting about to other adventurers. Saving a farmer's prized animal from a predator will surely earn you the gratitude of the farmer (and the animal), but unless the predator was extraordinary it likely won't count as achieving a goal.
