Month: May 2017

A couple issues have snagged onto the most recent campaign of BitD I’ve been running, and I could use some help with exterminating them.

1. Gathering Boredom: My group absolutely HATES the way we’ve been doing Gathering Information, so let me describe it to you. Downtime finishes, a score is decided on. A couple players decide to gather info about how to best to approach it. They usually use contacts on their sheet, and I tell them what they learn from that contact that’s of use. The players ultimately feel uninvolved and disinterested but like gathering info is a necessary evil, whether the scene is played out or glossed over.

Their proposed solution to this problem is being able to decide what they learn instead of me telling them, and then having me complicate/constrain afterwards as necessary. Is this viable? What issues could arise from this method? Has anyone tried this before? How does your group handle gather information actions pre-score, and have they gotten your group excited?

2. Constriction of Freedom: My group has offered the criticism that they feel constricted by some of the fiction/consequences I’ve put on them. Specifically, they feel that they’ve been forced into scores they weren’t really interested in.

One took an arcane “totem” from the Fog Hounds promising to use it to sabotage the Hounds’ rivals. When his player mentioned that he was probably just going to take the totem for his private use, I mentioned that would result in a loss of faction status with the Hounds when they realized the agreed task wasn’t being done. They then felt pressured to do the score.

In another instance, a player took a Devil’s Bargain that her (evil, wealthy, terrible man) father knew she was alive and active. I started a clock for him to kidnap their (nice girl) Informants claim. That clock filled and it happened, and now the crew feels obligated to take her back as a score before the evil father does something else, instead of doing some other cool score they have in mind.

Of course, then there’s also the fact that they were at war with the Dimmer Sisters for a session and felt obligated (mechanically) to take on a score to end that war.

I’m a bit worried that the consequences of their actions and Devil’s Bargains are actually making them have less freedom/fun. It’s also possible I’m thinking about this too narrowly. What can I do as GM to stop/alleviate the feelings of obligation that arise?

Thanks for any input!