Step 4b for Writing Super Hero Adventures: Roleplaying Encounters!

Hello heroes! Welcome back to my writing super hero adventure series. I hope your day is going well wherever you are logging in from. Today I am continuing Step 4, which revolves all around encounter design. Last time we talked about combat encounters, so today we’re going to pivot to something a little more peaceful. Roleplaying encounters are one of my personal favorite scenes to incorporate into an adventure. These can be quiet moments for the players to interact with one another, interrogations of NPCs, negotiations, fact-finding missions, and anything in between. Roleplaying is right in the name of the game genre, so it is important to make sure you account for it when outlining your adventure.

I start designing my roleplaying scenes by asking myself what the goal of the scene is. Am I trying to give the heroes a chance to react to a major plot reveal? Is this a mediation of a dispute between two parties? Is it just a chance to joke around and blow off some steam? I typically describe my roleplaying scenes with the following labels: Role-Play Shenanigans, Negotiation, and Interrogation. Role-Play Shenanigans is kind of a catch all category involving the characters getting the chance to ham it up or practice their acting skills. Negotiation is a discussion between parties for a specific good or service. Interrogation is any scene in which the PCs primary goal is to attain information, either from hearing out a kindly benefactor or intimidating a captured hench-person.

Role-Play Shenanigans

I don’t do a lot of planning for Role-Play Shenanigans, aside from setting the gametime needed. The players generally handle the ebb and flow of those scenes. I tend to take a backseat when they get into it—see my article about Listening as a GM for more on this idea—and I only weigh in if there is a NPC they drag into their shenanigans. It’s important to be present in these moments as GM because you don’t want the heroes to go on for too long, unless they’re having a great time. Keep an eye on the energy in the scene, or if the heroes are beginning to repeat their conversation beats so you can push them along as needed. Running a Role-Play Shenanigans scene is just about paying attention to everyone’s vibe and transitioning to the next scene when it’s appropriate.

Negotiations

Negotiations and Interrogations require a little more work on your part, but they are still fairly easy to prepare for. I start by listing the parties involved in the scene, for example: The PCs and their benefactor. Once I have the parties, I set aside the PCs because they are going to be responsible for themselves. If it’s a Negotiation, I take the NPC parties and I come up with three pieces of information: Goals, Offers, and Collateral. The Goal is what the character wants from the conversation. Some examples listed below:

I want the heroes to do this task for me.
I want the heroes to leave me in peace to do my nefarious plan.
I want the heroes to surrender this prisoner over to my custody.
I want the heroes to bring me a priceless bird statue.

The Offer is what they want to pay for the Goal. Think of it as the opening offer and the party’s best case scenario. Again, some examples below:

5 million galactic credits per hero.
An upgrade to their secret base.
A cool new vehicle that unlocks the ability for the heroes to travel into space.
The location of a key clue in the heroes’ ongoing investigation.

The Collateral is how far the character is willing to go to achieve the Goal. This is the extreme version of the Offer and isn’t always as magnanimous. Some examples below:

10 million galactic credits per hero.
I will attack the heroes to take what I want from them.
I will abduct their loved ones to coerce them into cooperating.
I am willing to accompany the heroes if that convinces them.

These three pieces are the foundation of any negotiation. I don’t ever write a script for the characters involved, but having these key sentences written down helps me guide them through the roleplaying segment. This is more important than coming up with a fun voice or body language for the character, and it’s something anyone can do to make their lives easier.

Interrogations

I approach Interrogations in a similar manner to Negotiations. I break down the parties involved, but instead of Goals, Offers, and Collateral, I come up with Topics, Intel, and Resilience. It’s important to note that Interrogations don’t necessarily have to be an aggressive activity. Someone offering the heroes a job or a victim they interview at a crime scene are still being interrogated when the heroes ask them questions.

Topics are subjects about which the character is knowledgeable. Some examples include:

Navigating the Kettle Nebula.
Eyewitness to the bank robbery.
Expert on obscure ornithology.
Magical item identification.

Intel is what specific information this NPC has access to. It’s a deeper dive into the Topic, but importantly Intel is information that the PCs can actually use to inform their decisions:

The Kettle Nebula is known to disrupt ship electronics and nav-computers, but I’ve been scouting out a shortcut.
The villain that tore open the vault had sand powers and went that way with the money.
These birds are known for their beautiful plumage and supposedly their tears can cure wounds.
This magic item gives its wielder the ability to shrink down to the size of a fly and speak to frogs.

Resilience is how difficult it is to get the information from a certain NPC. This can be a resistance to interrogation techniques, or an ulterior motive to keeping the information secret. Some examples below:

I don’t want the heroes to publicize my shortcut before I’ve had the chance to.
The villain is my sister and I don’t want her to get captured.
The bird is endangered and these costumed crimefighters might put too much stress on its heart if they try to capture it.
I don’t identify magic items for free.

You might notice as we’re building these scenes out that Interrogations often lead to Negotiations and vice versa. That’s a natural progression of events so don’t feel too locked into one type of scene or the other.

Other Things to Consider

I included the “mechanical” stuff I do to prepare for a roleplaying scene above, but there are some more esoteric things to consider when actually bringing the scene to life. Your job as Gamemaster is to portray a LOT of NPCs. Making them all stand out and feel unique is a challenge, even for gifted Gamemasters. I find that having the mechanics sorted out helps with this challenge, but I’m including a few tips below that I use to further flesh out the actual roleplaying part:

Voices – I know it’s sort of a stereotype for the GM to use a million different accents and voices for their characters, but it is effective if it is something you can do. I think a lot of GMs get in their own way when it comes to voices. They get nervous or self-conscious and don’t commit to the bit. I promise your players will match your energy. I have personally found that if I can fake confidence usually the performance will follow behind. I don’t always get it right, but I do always commit. Voices don’t have to be funny accents either, they can just be lowering your tone, speaking faster or slower, mumbling or over emphasizing your diction. Think about certain phrases or words and only use them for that specific character. Your players will catch on and will appreciate the effort.
Energy! – Like I said above and I’ve said in other pieces of GM Advice, be energetic, be excited, and set the tone you want your players to give you back. The players are looking to you to help them know what sort of scene they’re heading into.
PC Focuses – One thing I find that helps me, especially with improvising, is writing down how a NPC feels about each individual PC. I try to make them favor one PC and dislike one PC in the group while being relatively neutral about the others. I write these down and play up those feelings of camaraderie or animosity any chance I get. It helps make the NPC feel more like an actual character in my experience and gets the PCs chatting about them, even when the NPC isn’t around.

I think that is plenty to get you started on your roleplaying scenes. These can be some of the most fun encounters you design and can lead to whole sessions where the heroes just get to act like their characters and possibly not even roll a single dice. I’ll be back soon with another post talking all about Challenge Sequences, but until then, thank you for reading and have a wonderful rest of your day!