Advancement triggers.
I MCed few one-shots of UW and now I’m part of a mid-length campaign. In one-shots we didn’t put much attention to advancement triggers, but in campaign we do and here is my question.
Who is really in control over advancement triggers – are they an action or a plot hook that players should try to achieve or are they ideas that MC should try to introduce at the next session or is it everyone’s job to try and trigger them?
Some examples to talk about:
A bold act fails spectacularly – this seems like a task for MC when players miss on a roll, but players have to position themselves to do something boldly.
A conspiracy is uncovered – again this seems like an idea for MC, but players should position themselves like hang out in a bar where something might happen or try to hack some installation so that MC can jump forward with some unexpected plot twist.
A piece of junk proves pivotal – this one seems a lot in player hands and tools they use.
Thanks for answers on how do you approach it when you play and MC.
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Advancement Triggers are signals to the MC from the players: This is what I would like to see during the session. The job of the MC is it to set the stage for the event to happen and the job of the players is it to to look out for opportunities and to use them.
Example from the game I ran yesterday: The three triggers were: Betrayal, improving a piece of equipment and studying an alien culture.
The last one was easy. Previously their ship had crashed on a dyson sphere. Rather than just getting away from the object the trigger told me that the player were interested in exploring the structure. During the crash one of the thrusters broke off, so the player improved the performance of the remaining one. The betrayal happened at the end of the session when a passenger (a bounty hunter one of the PCs fell in love with) revealed a compromising truth about the party to a hostile faction.
I don’t look at it as a control issue as much as a promise between the MC and the players. “If we set this up, here’s the pay-off” kind of thing. I had a blast working with the players to do this in my story arc. I loved the fact that it needed to be a collaboration. That often took the story in unanticipated directions for everyone. This is also why MCing UW is such a joy for me.