The party is charged with escorting a princess to her wedding on a neighboring planet, island or whatever. The point is that the party is trusted with the safety of a princess and the integrity of a treaty which is to be sealed with her hand in marriage. The trouble is that she secretly loves another. Thus we have the makings of a moral dilemma.
The bridal party is followed and attacked by "bandits" of an unusual nature. It turns out the bandits are led by her secret lover. Once this fact is discovered, the party will need to decide to let love take its course (and perhaps decide what "course" that entails), or to continue toward the destination where they may discover that a dastardly fate awaits the princess bride. Perhaps the groom is a monstrous vampire who eagerly awaits his latest ...er victim, and who will not take lightly to being stood up at the alter of state. The jilted vampire will dispatch his minions to fetch his wayward bride and the party may have to defend her once again. The vampire may even decide that a breach of bridal treaty is cause for war with her country. It could all get very complicated and promises to be great entertainment as the players debate their course of action.
Put simply, it is the job of the referee to set the stage, to present the players with an interesting challenge, one that will cause them to take sides in the struggle between good and evil. Often their deciding what action is good and what is evil is half the fun. Finding out where it all leads is why we play the game.
There are many ways to re-skin a situation. The McGuffin... er bride can be recast as a mermaid sent to secure peace between her people and some land lubber nation. The attack can come from pirates. The moral question can then involve assisting in the imprisonment of said mermaid or setting her free and suffering the consequences.
What if our crafty referee replaces the princess bride with a demon assassin in disguise. Our seeming "innocent" is now a harmful weapon aimed at the unsuspecting groom. The "bandits" that attack the escort party are now members of a secret society of "do-gooders" who wish to intercept and derail the attempt to deposit said demon into the bridal chamber. Our unsuspecting and powerful groom awaits his bride and will most likely take it poorly if his betrothed doesn't arrive, possibly taking the insult as a cause for going to war. What to do?
The moral question can come in a number of forms and may not involve a bride at all. Perhaps it is whether or not to raise a dead hero in time of need? The details are what makes the story unique, but the moral question makes it interesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment