How I run Primeval 2D6

In my last post I wrote up a summary of a Primeval 2D6 session that I ran, and I got a lot of great feedback and a lot of questions about how I run a closer-to-freeform/FKR rpg. I wanted to write a follow-up post to kind of explain the how I did as well as clarify a few of the questions I received.

So to start, everyone who I was playing with were part of a group that regularly plays different kinds of RPGs together. So we’ve played OSR games, minimal games, story games, chunky games, etc. I have also blabbed to them about the kind of game Primeval 2D6 is, and I was able to draw comparisons to Risk/Impact in FitD games as we are currently in a Scum & Villainy campaign.

I opened with the pitch of the campaign – sword & sorcery magical mystery, decadent Moon Empress, scandal, demon crow, etc. This is based loosely on a Kull adventure hook, but almost all of the details have been rewritten by me. So all of the info I prepped was the character creation info, a relationship map containing most of the NPCs, and 4 node maps of environments (the palace, palace dungeon, wilderness, and tower). I also had a small d6 table of wandering encounters, where the 6 was unique to each of the above locations.

So I led them through this pitch and onto character creation, everyone rolled a positive trait, negative trait, virtue, vice, homeland, and then a title to a pulp story. They then used this story to pitch a little novella their character appeared in, and the character of the player to the right of them was featured in that tale and helped them out of some kind of jam they came up with. They used this story to develop a unique quality to their character – could be a magic item, or sorcery, or really anything. I proceeded to ask some setting and character questions, and encouraged them to ask each other and fill in details.

After this we started the adventure, they were in the throne room being addressed by the Empress and I asked how they looked when they were meeting nobility, what preparations they took, etc.

Next it was pretty open investigation – they chatted, had suspicions, things they wanted to prepare, NPCs to talk to. I pretty much had every NPC wear their intentions on their sleeve. I didn’t have any player roll for social stuff as they did pretty good about providing leverage, tricking, etc. to the other NPCs. If they asked if an NPC was being fishy, I pretty much would tell them that it seemed so, but I wouldn’t outright confirm lies and left that up to the players to decide.

Characters pretty much succeeded at what they intended to do – they were heroes after all. But if I ever thought there was a risk, I’d tell the player, say why I thought that, and ask their intent.

Sometimes they would negotiate, say like “oh I’m not trying to convince this NPC to believe me, I’m just trying to take their full attention while the other character messes with this item they brought on board” and I’d say “oh, in that case that just happens as they take an interest into your subject and what you’re doing.”

Other times we may renegotiate – a player didn’t realize that the hyenas were so dangerous in a pack, so instead of trying to running kick into one she decided to play defensively with her blade.

And other times we agreed – They would accept the Risk and I would tell them the Impact I think they’d have based on what they were doing, stuff written on their sheet, stuff in the scene, etc. We’d roll and if they were lower I’d say what happened, if they were higher they got to say. And when we were close (within 1 pip in this case) we’d come to a compromise – they pinned the thief down but the magic jewel he had went flying, a player struck a large hyena but lost control of her blade.

I do run a few procedures – I like rolling an overloaded encounter die for resources, encounters, etc. The hyenas were a wandering monster check. So it was like 1 for monster, 2 for monster mein, 3 for resource getting strained, and 4+ for proceed as usual. I don’t roll this every number of minutes or necessarily every number of days, just when I think is appropriate or when I want to spice up the game with some potential randomness.

Also the whole underground of the tower and the Jackal character were improved. The players were really wary of entering directly into the tower, they didn’t want to climb it, and they mentioned that it might have another entrance. I’m always a fan of caves and filling them with weirdos, so Jackal popped into my head and I thought it made scenes and could be a cool location for a scene, so it was added on the spot.

I run in a very negotiation-oriented way. Not really debating, but just saying “this is how I see what’s going on here’s what I think could happen”, and if the players imagined something different or maybe I didn’t explain something well enough (or I misunderstood), we’d quickly chat, no more than a few words and we’d be on page.

I think we had about 5 rolls over the game, and maybe 2 or 3 possible rolls that the players found out ways to circumnavigate around through cleverness or funny uses of traits. One of the rolls was also PC vs. PC – a character went to chop off the hand of another that was wielding the cursed jewel, and the attacking character made sure it was ok with the other player that she maimed him. That definitely made me happy (the check in, but also as a fan of drama and gore, the chopping :P).

Overall it was a really smooth game, everyone seemed to have a good time and I got a lot of good feedback. We’re intending to play a follow up session so I have a few ideas I may want to try out.

Anyway, thank you for reading! Let me know if you’re interested in this style of gaming or have questions or anything.