Do MCs keep track of inter-PC Debts? I find I have so much to keep track of that I struggle to do so or use that information to much effect. It seems more of a matter for the players.
Do MCs keep track of inter-PC Debts?
Do MCs keep track of inter-PC Debts?
When we have run con scenarios the gm has asked me (as a player who also knows the system) to keep an eye on the debts which has worked quite well.
I generally only keep track of debts that PCs owe to NPCs. Then I push the PCs to keep an eye on their sheets: “Do you have any debts that would be helpful here?”
Thanks. That seems best, and consistent with playing to find out what happens.
Only debts from the PCs to the important NPCs 🙁
We use a big table shared on Google Drive for this subject. It is a long list of entries if the form: Character 1/Character 2/Amount of debt/Reason or Summary.
For example:
Victor owes Mr. Night 1 debt, because he pulled back from a deal.
This list is updated after every session. Using the tables we can easily sort and group the data to know who owes how much.
Cool. There’s no doubt that they can be tracked in that way in one place, instead of people just separately tracking who owes them (which seems the default).
I am more interested if that first method is a valuable use of my time and focus as MC. As MC, I am only going to initiate moves around the debts that the PCs owe to NPCs after all.
I also use inter-pc debts to drive the story forward. The hunter has nightmares featuring he wolf, who killed his uncle (as established by the debts during character creation). I will probably have the uncle come back as a vengeful spirit to put some spice into their relationship.
But this comes naturally in a group with one hunter and 3 monsters 🙂
Thanks. I would use the PCs history in this way in my own game TBH. But I don’t think I would specifically reference the related debt, though the two players might use the debt in the resulting interaction.
Luke Walker that is true, i also do not mention the debts, although it often becomes obvious why some scene is set up in a certain way. I just wanted to mention that i use the big list of debts also as a kind of abbreviated campaign log because we keep the cause of the debt in the list.