Storytelling about Leveling Up: Two Examples

[canyonwalker]

Earlier today I wrote about how I handled leveling up recently in my D&D game. To make training part of the story without bogging down in minutiae— or, as one player put it, using up group time on four solo adventures— I tried giving the players a storytelling prompt. Think of 1 bad thing (challenge, adversity, setback) that happens and 2 good things. With those elements I'd help craft a narrative for each character, à la the "training montage" device you see in a lot of movies.

I'll share two of the montages we came up with. One came from a great prompt response by the player. The other started with a player who wasn't sure what do to, but when I proposed a challenge, rolled with it and created some entertaining roleplaying moments.

Oh, but first here's an update to the picture of the group leveling up:



In the previous picture, the party's rogue was actually the spy they captured and killed. "Why's the spy leveling up with us?" players demanded to know. 🤣 AI slop. And while I was prompting AI to correct that I figured, "Herran never goes anywhere without her horse...."

Now for two of the training montages.

The Cleric's Unenviable Assignment 

Hawk led off because she had a pretty good prompt response for her adversity. "Kiarana checks in at the temple of her faith... and the high priestess there is a Berenar!"

House Berenar is the ruling family in the realm. The party has gotten itself associated with House Tashara, who are ruling coalition partners. While these noble houses are partners there's also rivalry. Think of it like the Montagues and the Capulets... or, as one player calls it, the Harkonnens and Atreides. In the most recent adventure the party killed a member of House Berenar who organized an attack against them. Berenar couldn't punish them directly for that, since the party's actions were lawful, if grim; but members of House Berenar have learned about it and are hostile.



So Kiarana faced a hostile local leader in her faith. She was assigned scut duties for her training in the temple. That meant, for example, ministering to the poor in Fisherman's Bottom, a seedy district of town authorities are happy to ignore. But that was also really cool because it gave me a place to set the hook for the next adventure, which takes place in Fisherman's Bottom.

The Mage's Strict Tutor

J., playing the mage, was unsure what to use as an adversity element. "Maybe it's hard finding a tutor because they don't like where I'm from," he wondered.

"How about this," I shot back. "You find a tutor easily, and she respects your educational pedigree. She even knows of your first mentor by reputation and is impressed. She adds historical context that you're eager to learn. But she's strict and won't teach you the spell you most want to learn, Fireball."



J. accepted the idea but kept trying to write Fireball on his spell list. I kept reminding him that his tutor refused to teach him that spell. I had fun roleplaying this impromptu NPC as something of a female Severus Snape. She snapped at J. not only about the fact that he'd learn Tiny Hut instead of Fireball but verbally slapped him each time he acted indecisive or forgetful.

BTW this picture I created on my own, no AI, using a found image for a stern-looking woman wizard and adding my own text.

BTW2, when I was roleplaying with J. his harsh task-mistress I didn't just snap at him in character. At one point when I proposed a self-serving trade to him and he worked out that it was an unfair deal, I coached him that he could push back against her. "No," J. said dejectedly, "That'll just make things worse." 😂