Like the obstacles in a standard RPG, conflicts in World vs. Hero
can be as detailed as the World Player would like them to be. In fact,
one could forgo the ease and casual composition that is prepping for a
game of WvH and, instead, get down with his or her bad rules lawyer-y
self and pump up the qualifiers with insane abandon!
Consider the following standard Moderate Impact entry on a Conflict List for a stereotypical fantasy dungeon Adventure Location:
4. A large, heavy door, possibly locked or stuck due to rust, prevents continued passage.
Pretty simple stuff and perfectly useful for a storytelling game that embraces spontaneous creativity.
Now,
let's take the same concept of a big door blocking the way, and let's
add a truckload of conditionals and qualifiers to the description:
4. IRON DOOR
- 150 year-old portal erected at the time of the dungeon's creation
- 18 inches in thickness, crafted from beams of iron fused between with
two single 7' tall solid sheets of 3" thick Flint Hall iron panels;
magically enchanted to ignore damage from energy spells.
- Reinforced hinges have partially rusted due to underground humidity, but are not diminished in resiliency.
- Locking mechanisms are engaged and slightly rusted, rebuffing any
attempt at lock-picking actions of less than High Impact; the lock may
be broken with an implement that is adequately narrow and long and is
constructed of material stronger than wood.
- Actions of a physical nature intended to damage any part of the door
will require Moderate Impact or better on particular parts of the door
for two or more turns to achieve an effect.
- Spells of time acceleration cast on specific parts of the door will
make those parts vulnerable to actions of a physical nature of Low
Impact.
- If the Heavy Door
conflict is increased in impact through the use of additional cards in
the Tableau, increase all previously-stated impact requirements by one
level.
I'm sure that, had I not already started to get bored by the fifth
bullet point above, I probably could have continued with the detailing
of the door to a tenth bullet point or more.
But, why bother? It's just a big door. As a matter of fact, I think that would make a perfectly suitable Conflict List entry!
Personally, I like the above option the best for both World vs. Hero and a traditional RPG. I thoroughly enjoy the flexibility
afforded by an open-ended conflict for a number of reasons:
- I want to leave myself open to sudden inspiration; rather than impeding
spontaneity with imagistic cues or fixed notions, I prefer stimulating
possibilities so that I'll invent something when needed in a way,
shape, or form that I could never have thought of prior to the game.
- I trust my own creativity; I'm confident that, in the moment, I'll
devise something that is situationally appropriate given the story's
movement, the heroes' behavior, and the Conflict List entry's intention.
- I trust my opponent's creativity; we don't often engage with the
imaginations of others, even those with whom we spend most of our waking
hours, but when that engagement happens, we are frequently amazed by
what our family and friends can invent when given the encouragement.
Witnessing their flights of imagination is a rare and wonderful moment
that should be embraced rather than stifled under the weight of
rules-heavy complications. Storytelling games are unique because of
their independence from restrictive quantifiers. For the sake of the
opponent, keep it that way.
Lately,
what I've been doing with my Conflict List entries is keeping it simple
- as in the case of the "Big Door" - but I've also been tagging each
entry with an additional word or phrase that is evocative of the setting
or provocative toward a hero. For example, a door entry for a horror
setting might read like this:
4. Big Door
- the figures of fiends in aspects of menace
What exactly does that mean? Right at this moment, I've no idea.
However, when I'm in the midst of the context of a taut tale of Gothic
terror, the phrase might just be enough to inspire me to make the moment
of the door's conflict something very special and very much out of the
ordinary.
The above phrase attached to the "Big Door" is a random
excerpt from Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum." Extracting that nugget
of eeriness and attaching it to something as simple as a door blocking
passage will aid me as the World Player to imagine beyond the simplicity
of a boring rusty hinge. What if the door is embossed with the shapes
of fiends? Or what if the entire door is shaped like a fiend? That's
cool, but can we take it further? Is the door handle in the shape of a
fiend? Could it injure the user if touched? That's getting a bit more
interesting! Of course, who says the "door" is even LITERALLY a door?
What if the heroes have come upon a large demonic beast that embodies
the conduit to another realm, and the creature must be duly beseeched or
subdued? I had never thought of that when I first listed "Big Door" for
the Adventure Location, but I'm glad I left myself open to developing
the concept in the most imaginative way possible.
Ultimately,
you, the World Player, are free to craft a Conflict List in whatever
way you would like, but do consider some of the points above. They will
definitely make your set-up time faster and your playtime richer!
