Hustle, a BBC tv show, succeeded and potentially tied in with the US tv show Leverage, is about con artists. Although there is some action (more so in Leverage), it’s about charm, intelligence, and the art of the con. It’s slick, sexy, and fun... and can unsurprisingly make for a great game or campaign. After all, not everyone want to be crazy and head into abandoned tombs full of undead and golems, or deal with murderous warlords with their weapons. But when everyone's playing a non-combat character, how do you make that fun? Well, it means opponents who resort to combat at truly dangerous, rather than run-of-the-mill. You want to make the danger in being discovered as a liar, or losing ground on your deal, not just hit points. You also need players to “buy into” the world, and giving them limited narrative of “stuff they prepared earlier” can be a lot of enjoyment for everybody, as long as you’re all on the same page. Letting people pull off the robbery of the century from a brutal warlord coming into the city to make an arms deal might be even more fun than just killing them and taking their treasure! You want to involve intrigue, various layers of scheming villains, and double-crosses. For a brilliant example, Scott Lynch’s Gentlemen Bastard sequence is well worth a read! (Originally posted on Game Masters Stash on 9 August 2018) Categories All Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
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