Atalia’s Adventure – A Heartfelt RPG Narrative – Part 5

The next morning Atalia gets up with a happy feeling, even though her whole body is aching, hungry, feeling dirty and still quite tired and sleepy, at least the situation seems to be moving towards a scenario of stability, with her firefly still by your side. She then decides to look for a branch with which she could fit her hoe tip and offer her services in exchange for a little food.

• Test time! Atalia walks through the vegetation, looking on the ground or in the trees for a hard piece of wood that would fit that hoe, which despite never having used it, she imagined how its handle should be. From 0.01 – 0.10 she searches very carefully all morning until she finds a branch that is very dry and straight enough to fit that piece of metal, from 0.11 – 0.50 she searches all morning but the most she finds is a branch not so straight that it would fit that hoe tip, from 0.51 – 0.90 he searched in the morning until he found a branch that would fit the hoe, from 0.91 – 1.00 he gave up looking after a short time of fruitless searches: 0.28.
• Result: Atalia spends her entire morning struggling until she finds a crooked branch that fits her hoe tip. Its fit was firm, but its grip felt awkward, making it a little difficult to use.

He then followed his survival routine, looking for food, hydrating himself and keeping his wounds clean until he saw any sign of other people passing through the region. In the late afternoon, she hears the sounds of horses, and runs with her makeshift hoe to the road to meet passers-by. In the wagon there were many empty boxes, and two men who were surprised by Atalia’s appearance. She then explained that she would like to offer her plow services on their land in exchange for some food.

• Test time! It was evident that Atalia’s hoe was improvised, and her filthy and skinny appearance indicated that she really was in a desperate situation. From 0.01 – 0.15 the men are moved by Atalia’s situation and are willing to help her immediately. From 0.16-0.40 they become fearful, and propose to help her through her service in her lands. From 0.41 – 0.80 they decide to interrogate the girl further, to assess the situation, from 0.81 – 1.00 they dismiss her and leave: 0.87.
• Result: They are afraid of what could have led that girl to such a precarious and desperate situation, and decide not to get involved for fear of bringing more problems into their lives with her.

Atalia returns to her makeshift tent feeling terrible, all that hope that came in the morning seems to have left an emptiness in her chest even bigger than before. She kept reviewing what she said, wondering what she could have said that would make those people give her a chance. It made her feel guilty and deeply regret her situation. She thought it had been a mistake to leave her home, that perhaps all that confusion could have been resolved through dialogue, through conversation, perhaps her mother would help explain what had happened that day. Or even that the coachman could help her be forgiven, and that she would go back to her old life, with the horses, in the stable, sleeping well and eating well.

• Test time! Atalia unmotivated and depressed, she stood there while the last beams of light passed over the horizon, in her sadness she felt in the deep void that feeling of death that she had already felt several times in the last few days since her incident in the stable. From 0.01 – 0.20 Atalia seems to see a kind of bluish glow coming from the ashes, from 0.21 – 0.50 Atalia feels a chill as she remembers the bones she found there the day before and senses that there has been a murder there, from 0.51 – 0.80 Atalia feels a chill related to the bones she found in the ashes the day before, but doesn’t understand what it could be, from 0.81 – 1.00 Atalia feels a gloomy air in the air, but does not distinguish it from her own sadness: 0.49.
• Result: Atalia felt a sudden fear, amidst the darkness that began to dominate the environment, she remembers those bones and looking for them again amidst the ashes as it got dark, she felt one and was very afraid to continue her search.

With that bone in hand, he began to breathe heavily in the face of the fact that someone had died there. Maybe murdered. Probably murdered. He didn’t know if he was a person, or there were more people, his head was troubled by that. He didn’t know what to do, whether to stay there, whether to leave, but where to go? He didn’t remember the way back, nor did he know if he really wanted to go back.

• Test time! Atalia tries to calm down, huddled in the corner while holding that bone, trying with difficulty to organize her thoughts. From 0.01 – 0.15 she manages to force a state of calm, enough to rest and think about it calmly the next morning, from 0.16 – 0.40 she remains tense, pensive, anxious, with racing thoughts, from 0.41 – 0.80 she has a panic attack , fear, insecurity, despair and dread, from 0.81 – 1.00 get up and run away: 0.21.
• Result: Atalia has a long, tiring night, until sleep overtakes her involuntarily.

STATUS

Name: Athalia, daughter of Galieu from the region of Farhes
Appearance: Mixed Indian/European
Age: 16 years old
Profession: Wanderer
Equipments:
body clothes
Blanket
makeshift hoe
mystery bone
Situation:
poor health
Features:
strong odor
don’t feel disgusted
Not bothered by odors
uncommunicative
likes to be alone
strong health
Affinity with animals
agile and flexible
language of the dead
Reanimate Coleoptera
Enemies:
Duchess of Mancini

Plot rhythm

One of the biggest challenges I’ve encountered both playing RPG and Storytelling adventures for multiple players is keeping everyone present in the plot with similar levels of interaction. Separating the characters from the players in an adventure, in my view, is really problematic, as the actions are no longer joint, while one group lives a context the other watches in silence, and then they switch. Even more complex when the amount of risk actions in these plots vary, for example, in “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”, when Gandalf went to confront Balrog and they fell together into the abyss, for the rest of the group that continued to flee, the actions were simpler and shorter than those of Gandalf, who was involved in a long physical and spiritual confrontation, returning as Gandalf the White Wizard.

In adventures this is also a problem, as some characters may simply be involved in long-term actions, such as Atalia looking for a suitable branch in the vegetation around her, while other situations may involve decisions in very short intervals, such as a confrontation, an escape, a negotiation. As a player, this idle time can be problematic, as you watch other players live and adventure, while feeling your own adventure reduced to very basic and emotionless actions. In this case, I’ve seen it (mastering) and I’ve acted like this (playing), this can encourage the player to go in a chaotic and destructive direction, simply to “pull” a little action at his side. Picking up an unnecessary fight, getting into trouble, or doing something just plain stupid that will have troublesome consequences for you, or everyone else. It is difficult, however, for the adventure master to realize this idleness, because as the pivot of the players’ actions, their attention is generally distributed and throughout the session, they almost never stop mediating actions.

In this context, I think that instead of creating barriers that force all the characters to remain together in the same environment, or that tries to distribute a series of problems between the characters in different places (which will still distribute the leisure time of each one), it is interesting to think about maintaining the group as an initial combination, pre-disposed to each character in their own objectives. That is, before creating a character, or importing it from another scenario, make it clear that this connection must exist, which keeps them united as a group. In the case of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the common goal of destroying the ring was this goal, and yet the adventure splits with Gandalf falling into the abyss, Frodo abandoning the party, the hobbits being kidnapped.