In many stories in books, on television, and in the movies, the protagonists are often dealt one or more setbacks before the story reaches its climax. In these cases the writer crafts specific events with an intended purpose and outcome. In Role Playing Games, we GM’s often rely on the players to create their own setbacks during a session and within a campaign through bad rolling and impulsive decision making, but there are times the GM wants to write a setback into the game. Depending on how it is written and executed, the setback session can be a great story building tool or it can bring down the ire of your players. What are the components of a good setback session, and how can you avoid the pitfalls that surround this story style?
Succeeding With A Serious Cost
This week’s article comes right out of my current Fate of Elhal campaign. In the Campaign, one of the characters was searching for clues of a lost heir to the throne, and while translating a tome they failed their Lore check. Since it is Fate, the player can fail or they can succeed at a serious cost. This time around, the player opted for succeeding with the cost. We decided that he was able to translate the text and learn of a lost Princess who was exiled to a far away kingdom. Rather than realizing that her fate was grim because of where she was sent, however, he became convinced that she was likely safe and alive in the care of the Giants who live near that kingdom. So now, he and the rest of the party are heading into the valley of the Giants to find her, in hopes of re-establishing the royal line.
From a game level, the player knows nothing good can come from searching for the Princess in the Valley of the Giants, but it was the choice he made rather than failing, so he has to see it through. From the GM side, I now need to create an adventure in the Valley of the Giants that ultimately ends with the character not getting what he is searching for, and make it fun and enjoyable for all of the players.
The Setback As A Story Device
The setback is a great story tool. It is used for a number of reasons, some of which are:
- To stymie progress of the protagonist towards completing a goal
- To slow down the pace of the story
- To cause the loss of resources
- To show the protagonist is flawed or not perfect
- To build up negative emotional investment in the antagonist
- To build up sympathy in the protagonist as they struggle through adversity
- To introduce a twist in the plot
In a story, the author determines – deliberately or through discovery – the reason for the setback, crafts a scene or chapter to achieve that objective, and then continues on with the story. We as the reader are then a passive viewer watching the setback and hopefully feeling the emotions which the author intended to evoke.
Don’t Tread On My Character
Creating setbacks through the actions, inaction, and bad dice rolls of the players is a fairly straight forward activity, and one that does not often upset the players – after all it was their idea or their roll which caused the setback. Lets call those spontaneous setbacks since they were not planned for in the GM’s prep, and were capitalized on at the table. These are not the focus for today’s discussion.
When we look at planned setbacks, the kind which are prepped by the GM as part of a session, they can generate a very negative effect in the players. The most common reasons for this negative effect are that the players feel as if the GM has railroaded them into failure, and that the GM is actively working against the players desires to succeed (i.e. the antagonist GM).
Tips for A Good Planned Setback
Understanding the feelings of being railroaded and of the GM being “out to get them”, how then can we create a session which is a true setback and yet avoids the negative feelings of not succeeding? Here are some ideas to incorporate in the design of your setback:
- The silver lining – The characters do not achieve their goal, but they discover something along the way that makes the session valuable.
- Two steps forward, one step back – The characters progress forward in their main objective, but a side plot or goal has now become complicated by their progress.
- Close one door and another opens – The setback has ended progress in the direction the players intended, but in doing so a new path of progress, one that was previously unknown, presents itself.
- Allies in adversity – The setback has ended progress, but in the suffering of the setback new allies are made.
- It’s a growing experience – While the characters fail to progress, they learn something about themselves and each other.
Like most things, the setback is also a device that needs to be used in moderation. Players can handle the occasional setback, but to place one setback after another creates a very dark tone for a game (see the first season of Battlestar Galactica in 2004). If your setback is being used as a pacing device, consider mixing it up with other pacing devices rather than running multiple setbacks one after the other.
The Fate of the Princess
In order to not spoil what I am going to be doing in my upcoming setback session, here is an example of a possible setback I could introduce:
The heroes venture into the Valley of the Giants. After fighting one group of giants to gain information, they find a second group of sympathetic giants who explain to them that their evil kin executed the Princess years ago (setback), but before she died she wrote a letter which they kept. The contents of the letter detail the location of one of her sisters (close one door another opens).
Why Do We Fall Sir?
The planned setback is a powerful tool which, when used properly, can moderate a fast moving plot, as well as raise emotions in players. When done well the setback is not a total failure, but comes with a consolation prize that allows the players to accept the bitter taste of defeat, while at the same time preventing the story from hitting a dead end.
Do you use planned setbacks? When have they worked well for you? When have they blown up at the table? What are your favorite techniques for softening a setback?
Interesting article, and a great example. Thanks! You just gave me some good inspiration for a World of Darkness game I run… but I’ll have to tread lightly, since the players already complain I am out to get them! (I really am only about half the time — the other half it’s just, well, a World of Darkness game.) I am thinking about going with the “allies in adversity” route.
Great article. I love the breakdown of the set back as a series of options to use ala Powered by the Apocalypse games. I also enjoyed the advice for a planned set back. It’s not something I generally think about as I’m so focused on the emergent play aspects of gaming but I can see the advice of “Don’t put a block in the players way unless there’s some other option.” and once again it’s broken down ala PbtA style which makes it easy to digest and use.
@Aaron Ryyle – Why do your players think you’re out to get them?
Because half the time I am! No, just kidding. But to make an antagonist believable, to make them scary, the antagonist has to really be trying to kill the PCs (assuming that you have an antagonist that notices the PCs at all, which is not always the case…).
And to make the fights/challenges/whatever meaningful, there has to be a chance of failure for the PCs. Both put together means that the ANTAGONIST is really, truly trying to kill the PCs — and when you play the antagonist right, sometimes the players are going to see the GM as out to get them…
Great article.
Without setbacks, the players go from one success to the next. This may be fun for a while, but soon the tension will leak out of the game. Oh hum, we win again. What’s on TV?
Some games are designed to keep the challenge low enough that even a string of bad rolls doesn’t threaten the players with failure unless the string is very long indeed. I enjoyed how you created an entire session out of one bad roll and one interesting player choice.
For planned setbacks, the hurt has to be temporary. For one downbeat the player(s) react, crap, the GM is out to get us. In the next beat, they find a way to reverse their fortunes.
I’m playing Numenera at the moment, and noticed the rules include a silver lining for setbacks. If things have come to the point where it really would be best for the players to have a setback, say surrender to the bad guys, you can soften the blow. Offer the surrender (or whatever setback) as a group GM intrusion. Each player that accepts gains an experience point. Handy for the breakout scene that should come fairly soon.
Great article, though I don’t think you addressed the one form of setback I use most frequently in my game: the partial victory. The group fails to achieve their big goal but they do accomplish something good, and they have the chance to pursue the big goal again later.
For example, the PCs set out to apprehend a bandit gang that has been preying on traders traveling between two remote cities. They do manage to draw out the thieves and snare them in a trap, but in the midst of the fighting the ringleader and his top enforcer escape. The party has succeeded in that they’ve interdicted the gang, captured or killed a dozen wanted criminals, and recovered some of the recently stolen merchandise. But they failed in that the two biggest criminals escaped– almost certainly to commit new crimes in the near future. They’ll have to try again to catch them. And now both sides have more information about each other.
When I craft a scene I consider two important questions. What happens if the characters succeed? What happens if the characters fail?
Failure does not mean a dead end, but simply a new fork in the road. Every encounter provides the opportunity for success or setback and both make for good storytelling.
awesome article, one note though: a setback doesn’t always need to stop the players from achieving their goal. a setback can be a major complication or obstacle. they may have been progressing towards the goal, but now something happens that halts that progress. it may seem like they can’t accomplish the goal or it is almost impossible. set back doesn’t automatically translate to failure, it means you are set back from where you thought you were. you thought you were close to achieving the goal, but you are set back so you have a lot more to overcome first.