Roleplaying Systems

[Polyedit2000]

Section 10.5: Flags

Remember when I talked about writing endings and bad ends?  I would like to expand on that to include good paths and even worse paths.

You might have heard the term "Flag" used in some games.  Flags would be events that represent a choice like marked paths on a hiking trail, some of them simply changing relationships while others can alter the game greatly.  

Design the Path

A RP is a story told by the players and GM, so first determine how you want the story to go and how strict you want to be.  Ideally, defeating the Dark Lord would be the ideal goal.  That's not to say all your ideas would be used or that players may decide to run off and fish, but at least you as the GM know what you want the players to strive for.

The first flag you may think of is the Dark Lord's defeat, which is not the battle of the Dark Lord itself.  The default ending is that "peace prospers throughout the land", but what if players decide to spare and rehabilitate the Dark Lord, or what if the Dark Lord was powered by a Cursed Crown which can be looted by the player, or what if the Dark Lord promises to return stronger from death and sealing seems to be a viable option?  After that mental exercise, you can move to deciding what happens if the Dark Lord does win (and the setting of the next RP in this place); while "suffering plagues the land" seems like a go-to option, there's also the idea that the next characters may either continue the quest or the players will serve under the Dark Lord.

However, you don't have to diverge the paths too far, as one trick you can do to preserve your path is to merge the choice back in.  For example, say that you plan to introduce the Darker Lord after the Dark Lord flag.  Assuming a win/lose Flag against the Dark Lord, you can a) have your party go after the Darker Lord due to their adventuring ways or B) have the Dark Lord send the party after the Darker Lord.

Flag Conditions and Effects

While you can make the story linear in a sense, it'll be pretty boring to give the players choice after choice, which is why some Flags are known to lock out players from certain decisions while some Flags require certain conditions.

For example, a summoner is doing something with a book and you just so happen to be looking for a book, so you might be thinking one of two thing:  fight him for the book or make him mess up his ritual.  There is a third option:  if you had done some skimming and found out that the summoner was a hero from long ago, you may have vital information that causes the summoner to point you to the correct book behind him.  From this example, you need "information" (and maybe not insult the summoner) to convince him as lack of information would not deter him as effectively.

Of course, once you get the book, you're not likely to meet that summoner again, so whether you fight or convince him may matter very little.  But if the information you found out reveals that the summoner was actually maintaining  a barrier to keep some monsters from entering the realm, that talk could prevent some monsters from appearing in battle.  Let's look at Undertale as another example.  If you decide to kill every monster you meet, you lock out of the "Pacifist" route may head towards the "Genocide" route , but the game still has you going from the ruins to the king's castle.  

Punishment

Speaking of Genocide, some GMs don't like "murderhobos", and that's understandable if the game works on good vs evil with the Dark Lord occupying the evil slot.  Now, while you can have discussions with the players about acceptable behaviors, there are ways to get the game back on track without resorting to bans or kills.

For example, if the players decided they wanted to kill a town for a boat, then it's only natural that a king orders an "Avenger" to track the players down.  In an example I heard, this Avenger is much stronger than the players and will break their equipment as well, but they won't end the game by killing them.  Instead, the Avenger will act as "moral oversight", that they will keep an eye on the party and will step in should they step out of line again but otherwise has no desire to help the party for obvious reasons.  You can compare this Avenger to some of the Genocide-only bosses in Undertale, a Flag that appears only for the unmoral.

Sequence of Endings

Another purpose of the Flags, other than player decision, is how those decisions affect the world.

From the sequence of things we discussed so far, this is an example of how an ending can go:
-Defeat/Lose the Darker Lord (who writes the epilogue)
-Defeat/Spare/Lose the Dark Lord (What he does)
-Defeat/Be Nice to the Summoner (What he does)
-Meet the Avenger (sets the tone)

Of course, not all endings in a game may use that structure, ie if you destroyed the world, but this is a way to remember which Flags you set up and chose or to add more flavor to the ending.