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<     Episode 2456: Rice Kryptos: Scrape, Crack, and Pwn     >

Episode 2456: Rice Kryptos: Scrape, Crack, and Pwn

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Giving the players some control over the setting or their adventures is a good way to encourage engagement in the campaign world. This doesn't have to be metagamey or disruptive.

One good method is to write an adventure but leave some details nebulous. Someone is going to hire the PCs to break into a mansion in the rich part of town and steal something. You don't have to decide ahead of time what it is. Come up with some options, all interesting in some way, and then in the introductory scene you can ask the players what the target is. Perhaps offer some choices.

The man in grey offers you 500 gold coins to break into the home of the Patrician. He wants you steal something. What is it he wants you to steal?

  1. A mirror that traps the life force of those who gaze into it.
  2. A coffer of exploited taxes that the residents want back.
  3. Documents that incriminate the Patrician in a plot to murder the king.

What guards this and makes it tricky for you to get?

  1. Fiendish traps with razor sharp blades and other deadly obstacles.
  2. Magical wards that remove your will to live and make you susceptible to suggestions.
  3. A demon bound to the Patrician's servitude.

Run through a series of questions like this and have the players briefly discuss and decide what challenges they face. This gives them more buy-in to the premise of the adventure, and also serves to let them have some idea what lies ahead, so they can prepare. You just flavour it as the contact giving them the info when hiring them for the job. But of course, while you should adhere roughly to the answers, there can still be unexpected surprises and twists along the way!

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

Hah, and here's a great example of why you can never fully trust enemy equipment without completely disassembling it to examine it first! And even if there aren't any malicious physical devices to the equipment, there's still the code that needs to be checked. Heck, even if the cereal box bracelet is a ruse, there's still all of that spy equipment Finn was trying to dispose of before Rose found him. Here on Earth, we've had some really out there hacks on equipment; imagine what a really focused Star Wars hack could look like. Surprise about the details aside, I'd expected that Pete would have known better than to completely trust someone else's computers.

That said, I would have to assume the bracelets don't have tracking devices, or aren't that strong of a tracking device. Otherwise Luke's tropical planet would have gotten a mention as something known as well. Or perhaps that comes later as yet another revelation for Pete to be surprised by. Hmm, even just claiming to know where the planet is could be useful. If the Resistance thinks there's a chance Luke could be captured, then they'll have to act on that, which could reveal the planet's location just by trying to prevent the First Order from getting Luke.

Transcript

Kylo Ren: Your journey nears its end.
Rey: Yeah, it’s a big ship, but presumably this lift has to stop somewhere.
Kylo Ren: We know that General Leia Organa is out of action.
Kylo Ren: We know that even if the Resistance fleet manages to escape our current chase that its plan is to regroup on Crait.
Kylo Ren: We know that your comrades have an ill-advised plan to attempt to overload the First Order shipping systems with fake orders.
Rey: How do you know all that?! You’re not metagaming, are you?
Kylo Ren: Did you really think that using a secret decoder bracelet found in a box of Nute’s breakfast cereal would be secure?
Rey: Wait, that’s a ridiculous detail that Jim and Corey and you invented!
GM: Right, I’ve never let you invent any of the setting details before...


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Published: Tuesday, 23 April, 2024; 02:11:02 PDT.
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