Casting Shadows

I trust that you have no reason to disbelieve that this is the sixteenth day of #RPGaDAY2025 and that overcome is our prompt today. I like to think that we have come a long way together, Dear Reader, and that you have learned to trust that I won’t get stuck on yesterday’s prompt and deceive you. Because it is the sixteenth day, this means that we have crossed over the perceptual barrier that separates the first half of this social media event from its second. We have completed the prompts for 1 of 2 the illustrated shelves. We have posted about gaming in one way or another for as many as 16 days. We have left two weeks of posting behind us and have fewer days of posting ahead than behind. It means we have hit our stride, we don’t require sailing to China to do laundry, and we are capable of continued movement. When you think about it, it means we have overcome a lot and have it within us to overcome the rest.

Day 16: Overcome

For the purposes of working through a campaign pitch, at a certain point (and why not today?) we need to consider what conditions need to be reached or challenges passed for us to consider the campaign ended (if it is the sort with an end), and what steps along the way between the start and that potential end would count as the sort of landmarks which warrant celebration – if any.

I usually do open-ended campaigns, so for fun and variance, let’s consider that this one has a clear endpoint. It’s easy enough to imagine: breaking the cult and ending its influence over the government. There might be several routes to this end, such as outing the secret leaders and their numerous sins, triggering a revolt within the duped ranks of the cult, or causing such an uproar among the upright citizens of the nation, that the villains are driven out. This goal also leaves us with room to resume in the future if we like, either in the face of a revived cult, or in the need to drive the battle closer to the Sleeper – perhaps to N’Kai itself.

Goals along the way are harder to imagine in this state we occupy now where there are neither a group of characters nor players, and no actions have been taken toward anything. Ubiquity as a system has well-tested advice about the pace of Experience Points to award, and has many other features, such as Patrons and Resources, which help characters grow in their roles as proactive agents of change and resistance, but from time to time over the course of a campaign I find it is helpful and perhaps even necessary to make note of special victories, losses, and important circumstances – much like people do in real life – and commemorate them in some way. That might be just among the players as a time of explicit praise and feedback about their play so far, or it might include the characters as well. That might entail some bonus Style points, a change in a Flaw or Motivation, a temporary Resource like a monetary award, or even a permanent Resource such as an increase in Rank or Status.

These goals might be simple and in numerous small stages, such as working through each of the obfuscating layers of secrecy that protect the leaders of the cult on the surface, then learning of the hidden masters below the surface and starting that peeling away of mystery bit by bit. Alternately, it might be more profound and infrequent changes, such as the defeat of specific members of the cult and the foiling of their plans.

Such things are determined by the makeup and preferences of the group. Selecting the group and advocating for this pitch are challenges we do not yet need to overcome~

Day 8-16 Quick Overview Short!

See you tomorrow for Day 17: Renew