MacGuffin
We live in a world full of complex socioeconomic challenges. Strategies for long term infrastructure development seem elusive; our increasingly long-lived population must wrangle with increasingly expensive medical costs; the question of gender parity remains unresolved; terrorism is a looming threat; the ice caps are melting; kids today are growing up without adequate access to Led Zeppelin. These are all important global issues, and there’s no easy solution. That’s why fantasy is so cathartic. Sure there are dragons and wizards and magical shavers that can turn you back into a human after a shitty role on the reincarnation table, but for me the most alluring fantasy of all is the idea of there are clear and obvious solutions. No matter your problem you’ve simply got to go consult a sage, find an ancient map to the lost temple of MacGuffin, and grab whatever artifact you happen to need this week. You might have to fight snake cultists and dodge pit traps along the way, but that’s only physical danger. Knowing that you’re STRIVING AGAINST THE ODDS and that your CAUSE IS RIGHTEOUS is enough to make up for it.
Of course, not everybody likes a power fantasy. Escapism has a bad rap even among gamers, and mature storytellers tend to eschew the “find the item that can save the kingdom” story line in favor of more complex plots with lots of difficult decisions. So I ask you, my loyal readers: Do you prefer moral certitude in your games, or do you like plots that reflect the difficulty of real world problems?
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As my preference is for sandbox games where there is no true “main quest”, I guess that makes me lean towards the more “realistic” side. But really, I’m fine either way… as long as you keep your rails to yourself or at least put a bit of effort in disguising them.
Also gotta say, think you got the details for that artifact just right. By which I mean, that one object alone is probably all I need to destroy practically any setting. =P
The full version of the artifact rules are up over on the accompanying FB post: https://www.facebook.com/handbookofheroes/?fref=ts
For future reference, the post is dated July 8, 2016.
I get real world problems in real life. An occasional dilemma is fine, and I get that other players enjoy this kind of thing, but at least give me one group of solid white hats I can count on being good guys, and I usually try to play fairly straight white hat types myself.
Though to be honest, I’m more likely to run into problems with that from other players than the DM, in my experience. Most moral dillemas the DM throws at you, you can basically do the right thing if you’re willing to give enough up, kind of like real life, only your sacrifices are fictional, and a good DM will rarely ask you to give up something your really having fun with that isn’t game-breaking. But when your sorcerer buddy starts robbing and murdering and you’re playing a lawful good type, then suddenly you have to balance real world and in game obligations and come up with all these rationalizations for why your guy would still hang out with his guy and wondering if maybe it wouldn’t be best if you just had your guy wander off and rolled up something Chaotic Neutral with a low Int. Sure, if you know the other players well enough and talk with them about their characters before the campaign starts you can tailor yours to fit in with the group better, but you can never account for everything and it’s still kind of an immersion killer for me.
White hattery is my go-to as well. Every time I hear those stories about, “I had to make a choice: stab my possessed mother or let my paladin fall,” I just feel happy I’m not in that game. I can understand drama, and I can understand getting into a grim-dark setting. But holy crap is that heavy stuff for the gaming table.
In theory, I’m somewhere in the middle. I like complex tales that reflect reality without getting quite that grim.
In practice, I have to settle for MacGuffins and megalomaniacs in TRPGs, and turn to video RPGs for complex storytelling. Whether it’s Planescape or Disco Elysium, VRPGs have the advantage that your taste
in RP and plot complexity doesn’t have to be balanced against half a dozen others.