An Action-Adventure Ritual for CMWGE
I wanted to share a Ritual XP Action for resolving Action-Adventure scenes in an otherwise Pastoral game. Iâve run 23 chapters of The Glass-Makerâs Dragon and weâve used this Ritual to resolve naval conflicts with pirate ships and a ghost ship, explore a ghost ship, compete in a deadly obstacle course race, and fight several encounters with supernatural enemies. This Ritual Action is modeled off of the âBattle Modeâ Ritual described in The Techno Player's Guide.
The goals of the Ritual are:
Provide turn-by-turn structure, allowing every player to act and take the spotlight
Create a suspenseful scene with limited time and limited choices
Encourage players to work cooperatively
Encourage players to stay connected to their characterâs emotions during the scene
There are five core player actions available in this Ritual:
Action: Take an action utilizing an Intention or Miraculous Ability. Pay any appropriate Willpower or MP cost.
Friends: Take an action with another player. You must both actively participate in the action and you can both utilize a suitable Intention or Miraculous Ability. You both must pay any appropriate Willpower or MP cost.
Ask: Ask a âYesâ or âNoâ question to the HG and they must respond truthfully (preferably in reference to the game).
Observe: Describe something your character witnesses. This can be elements of the setting or the actions of someone/something else.
Emote: Your character emotes what they are currently feeling.
Structure of the Ritual (In-Person Gaming):
The Ritual is triggered by the HG or player when confrontation or conflict becomes inevitable and wonât be resolved by a single action.
Write each of the five actions on separate index cards if you donât already have them.
Pass the 5 cards to the player who triggered the Ritual or the player of the HGâs choice.
That player chooses an action from the 5 choices, resolves the action, and passes the remaining 4 cards to the next player.
Players continue choosing actions from the remaining cards, resolving the actions, and passing the cards until there are no cards left.
When no cards are left, the HG describes the actions of the NPCs. The HG does not reveal the results of the playersâ actions directly, though they may be inferred based upon how the NPCs act.
The HG may remove one action/card from play and pass the remaining cards to the next player (I recommend only cycling the same number of actions 1-2 times before removing one).
When the HG has removed all but one action/card, each player takes a turn taking the Emote action.
After every player Emotes, end the Ritual and assign Wounds as necessary. Describe (or donât describe) the ending.
My thoughts on concluding the Ritual:
If your players clearly won, then the end of the Ritual should feel like a victory. It might have been hard fought and everyone might have been Wounded, but they won. The players should be rewarded appropriately. Iâll leave that to you.
If your players are used to endless deliberation and timid action it is very possible that they will âloseâ the Ritual; that the Ritual will come to an end before they actually achieved their goal or defeated their enemy. It happened in my group the first three times and I think it made for a better story. In this case, I recommend jumping forward in time to a point when all of the characters are in the same location and can discuss what happened. This place might be a dungeon, the deck of a ship, or back in Fortitude at Grannyâs Ice Cream and Tea Parlor. You can suggest what happened, but let them explore the outcome.
My GMD campaign has 7 players and my typical structure for this ritual is: two rounds of 5 cards, two rounds of 4 cards, two rounds of 3 cards, two rounds of 2 cards, and 1 round of Emotes. This gives every player 4 actions plus an Emote.
I typically remove Ask first and then Action or Observe, though my choice generally depends on how lost the players seem.
Observe is the most âpowerfulâ of the actions as it can let players describe the failings or injuries of NPCs. Iâm generally fine with this application and remove it early if it feels too abused.
Watch out for players using Emote to actually Observe. I had players try to do things like âI emote awe as Jasper kills several ghosts with her sword.â when Jasperâs last action was to climb up a cargo net.
Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions or comments!
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