I am usually a lurker, but a lot of stuff here made me wanna blather, so.
TL;DR: I like when STs communicate clearly, when I have an idea of stakes, I prefer all large obstacles be accompanied by smaller obstacles which have their own conesquences, and when the story’s obstacles are relationships the PCs have, that can change and is nuanced - and I like multiple relationships.
@Testament said in What makes for satisfying story obstacles?:
sometimes the obstacle doesn’t have to mean a conflict that needs to be overcame.
That idea is the lynchpin for a lot of plots I’ve felt comfortable in. In fact, one of the best lessons an ST ever revealed to me was that a satisfying story obstacle could be as simple as ‘trying to get your NPC barkeep friend to open up to YOU for once.’ or ‘Get the long sofa up through the apartment staircases’ - and ‘simple’ isn’t always easy. That barkeep’s been keeping a lot in. I know the discussion is probably about antagonists, but obstacles and challenges can be positive, too, for those sunshine-and-happy-fun people.
But generally, I’ve felt the most satisfied in plots where opposition isn’t always as clear-cut and simple as WIN OR LOSE, but about how much progress you make or how the relationships shift.
This means what I hate for big stories is just, ONE BIG OBSTACLE THAT MUST BE OVERCOME AGAINST ALL ODDS AND IS ALL THAT MATTERS. We do not want our entire city to unequivocally be wiped out if we don’t stop McMonsterbutt by 8:15 on Friday, even if we do love a monster of the week. (Which- sometimes you want an obvious enemy mook along with any big bads). I prefer a lot of challenging small obstacles setting up or feeding into a higher-stakes one. A lot of STs do this naturally:
We couldn’t (A) kill McMonsterbutt before it got to the city and destroyed downtown, but we (B) got a lot of people down to the subways so we still saved a lot of lives, and we (D) kept it away from the orphanage even if it took out the (E) hospital - three small challenges (BDE), one big challenge (A); two gains (BD) and two losses (AE).
Knowing an ST takes into account and communicates good and bad consequences and tells them to you (when relevant) is satisfying - even when the relationship persists as the obstacle is now finding out where McMonsterbutt came from or what to do with that carcass downtown.
The following is probably more player-side explanation of feelings, not sure if it’s helpful or not, but. Regarding communication:
I am dumb. Not in like, a low self-esteem way. But while I am probably not the exact person Roz had in mind, the volume was particularly heightened when they popped up with
@Roz said in What makes for satisfying story obstacles?:
This also comes out re: nervousness about how to engage in plot/story, which is often from players not feeling confident about their options and worrying that they’ll make the wrong choice due to OOC ignorance, and that will then reflect on their character IC. Players IME feel much more secure about making choices when they understand the full context and implications on an OOC level.
Because I am:
- Often incredibly confused about my options and worried about disappointing/holding other players back (yes I know irrational, doesn’t mean it isn’t there) if STAKES are suddenly involved,
- Someone who can easily miss the obvious. The ST could be like, ‘There’s a body on the floor, with circle-shaped wounds’ I absolutely could trip over a smoking gun, pick up the smoking gun, remark, “Wow, this gun is warm, weird.” and STILL be like, “Circular holes? How sharp is the fire poker??!!” because obvious implications are still implied.
- Someoen who knows all this about myself, still hates feeling stupid.
An ST who is like, ‘Well the wounds are CIRCLE SHAPED and beyond that, it’s YOUR CHOICE you just DO WHATEVER and I’ll lay out the consequences’ doesn’t really help my satisfaction levels: it just makes me feel dumber, doesn’t make the obvious thing I already missed any more obvious, and makes me more worried about getting things wrong, so now back to point 1, and by now I’m overwhelmed. Overwhelmed is not ‘challenged’, it’s feeling overwhelmed, and now I’m more worried about ruining everyone else’s fun to be satisfied or have fun myself.
Sometimes it’s as easy as expectations up front, furthering communication, and saying ‘bullet wounds’ or at least putting forensics up to a roll of the dice.
I hope you have been out there, doing awesome, because you were (are??) absolutely awesome.