Complications

You’ve designed an adventure with a compelling hook, a clear goal, meaningful stakes, appropriate opposition, and interesting locations. The player characters are engaged and making progress. But what happens when things don’t go exactly according to plan? What injects tension, forces difficult choices, and makes the world feel truly unpredictable and reactive? The answer lies in Complications.

Complications are unexpected difficulties, twists, setbacks, or new problems that arise during an adventure, altering the situation and forcing the players to adapt. They are the monkey wrench thrown into the works, the sudden storm on a clear day, the betrayal by a trusted ally, the realization that the initial goal was based on false information. While the core opposition represents the known challenges, complications introduce unforeseen variables that test the characters’ resourcefulness, adaptability, and resolve in new ways.

Effectively using complications is a key technique for elevating an adventure beyond a simple checklist of tasks. They prevent scenarios from becoming too predictable, create memorable moments of tension and improvisation, and reinforce the idea that the game world is a dynamic place where actions have consequences and not everything goes according to plan. This section explores the purpose and types of complications, offers guidance on designing them effectively, and discusses how to integrate them into your Alacrity adventures.

Adding Spice and Realism

Introducing complications into your adventures serves several important functions:

• Increasing Tension and Stakes: Complications inherently make achieving the goal harder or riskier. A sudden cave-in traps the party, the artifact they seek is stolen by a third party just as they arrive, the villain reveals a hidden defense – these moments raise the tension and make success feel more uncertain and hard-won.
• Forcing Difficult Choices: Complications often present players with dilemmas. Do they press on towards their primary goal despite the new obstacle, or divert resources to deal with the complication first? Do they abandon a secondary objective to handle an unexpected emergency? These choices reveal character priorities and create engaging decision points.
• Encouraging Creative Problem-Solving: When the straightforward path is blocked or altered by a complication, players are forced to think outside the box and utilize their skills, equipment, and Effects in creative ways. Alacrity’s flexible skill system shines when players need to improvise solutions to unexpected problems.
• Making the World Feel Reactive: Complications can be direct consequences of player actions (or failures). If the party botched a Stealth check earlier, a complication might be reinforcements arriving. If they angered a powerful NPC, a complication could be that NPC actively working against them later. This reinforces that their choices have repercussions.
• Adding Realism and Believability: The real world is full of unexpected problems. Introducing complications makes the fantasy world feel less like a curated theme park ride and more like a living, breathing place where things can genuinely go wrong, plans can fail, and unforeseen factors can intervene.
• Preventing Predictability: If players always know exactly what to expect, adventures can become formulaic. Complications introduce surprise and unpredictability, keeping players on their toes and making the experience more exciting.
• Providing New Adventure Hooks: Dealing with a complication might sometimes lead the characters down entirely new paths, spawning side quests or even shifting the focus of the main campaign arc in interesting ways.

However, complications should be used judiciously. Overusing them or making them feel arbitrary and unfair can lead to player frustration. They should ideally arise logically from the situation or player actions, serve a narrative purpose, and present a challenge that can be overcome, even if it requires significant effort or sacrifice.

Sources of Unexpected Trouble

Complications can arise from many sources. Thinking about these categories can help you brainstorm ways to introduce twists and challenges into your adventures:

1. Environmental Complications

These arise from the location itself or changes within it.

• Examples: Sudden weather changes (blizzards, flash floods, thick fog rolling in), natural disasters (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides), structural collapse (cave-ins, bridge failures, burning buildings), discovery of unexpected hazardous terrain (quicksand, toxic gas pockets, unstable footing), loss of light sources in darkness, failure of essential environmental controls (e.g., air supply in a sealed tomb).
• Impact: Often force immediate reactions, test survival or navigation skills (Survival, Navigation, Athletics, Acrobatics), damage equipment, separate the party, block paths, or create time pressure.

2. Social / Political Complications

These stem from interactions with NPCs, factions, or societal structures.

• Examples: Betrayal by a trusted ally or quest-giver, discovery that an NPC contact lied or provided false information, intervention by a rival faction with conflicting goals, arrival of authorities investigating the party’s (perhaps illegal) activities, outbreak of civil unrest or rioting in a settlement, imposition of new laws or curfews that hinder the party, a key NPC being arrested, killed, or disappearing.
• Impact: Often require social skill solutions (Persuasion, Intimidation, Deception, Insight), force changes in alliances, create new enemies, restrict movement or access to resources, or change the adventure’s objectives.

3. Antagonist Actions / Escalation

These complications result from the direct actions of the adventure’s primary opponents reacting to the party or advancing their own plans.

• Examples: The villain sets a trap specifically for the party based on their known tactics, reinforcements arrive at a location the party is infiltrating, the antagonist achieves a key part of their plan while the party is occupied elsewhere, a captured enemy escapes, the villain reveals a previously unknown ability or powerful ally, the antagonist changes location or moves the objective.
• Impact: Directly increase the difficulty of confronting the opposition, create time pressure, force the party to change tactics, raise the stakes by showing the antagonist is proactive and dangerous.

4. Resource-Based Complications

These involve the unexpected loss, depletion, or failure of essential character resources.

• Examples: Key equipment breaking or being lost/stolen (rope snaps, thieves’ tools break, map is destroyed), running out of crucial supplies unexpectedly (food, water, lamp oil, ammunition, healing potions), magic items failing temporarily or permanently (perhaps due to anti-magic fields or specific counter-effects), mounts being injured, killed, or running off.
• Impact: Force players to improvise solutions, find alternative methods, rely on different skills, or undertake side quests to replace lost resources. Highlight the importance of preparation and resource management.

5. Moral / Ethical Complications

These introduce difficult choices that challenge the characters’ values or force them to weigh undesirable outcomes.

• Examples: Discovering the “monster” they were hired to slay is actually sentient and perhaps misunderstood or defending itself; realizing that achieving their goal will cause significant harm to innocent bystanders; being forced to choose between saving one ally or another, or between completing the mission and saving innocents; learning that their quest-giver has morally reprehensible motives; being asked to perform an unethical act to gain a necessary advantage.
• Impact: Create powerful roleplaying moments, test character alignments and beliefs, potentially cause intra-party conflict, lead to long-term narrative consequences based on the choice made.

6. Unexpected Twists / Revelations

These complications fundamentally change the characters’ understanding of the situation or their goal.

• Examples: Discovering the artifact they seek is cursed or has a dangerous hidden function, learning the person they rescued is actually the villain, realizing the “invading monsters” were summoned or controlled by someone they trusted, finding out their entire quest was based on a lie or manipulation, uncovering a secret about a character’s own past that recontextualizes the current adventure.
• Impact: Can dramatically shift the narrative direction, change character motivations, create major plot reversals, force players to re-evaluate their alliances and goals. Should be used carefully to avoid feeling like arbitrary GM manipulation.

7. Consequences of Failure

These complications arise directly from the party failing a previous check or challenge within the adventure.

• Examples: Failing a Stealth check alerts guards who raise an alarm or summon reinforcements. Failing a Thievery check triggers a trap with lasting effects (poison, injury, blocking the path). Failing a Persuasion check turns a potential ally into an obstacle or enemy. Failing a Navigation check leads the party into dangerous territory or wastes valuable time. Failing a Magic roll critically (backlash) injures the caster or causes unintended magical side effects.
• Impact: Directly link challenges to outcomes, making skill rolls feel more meaningful. Reinforce the idea that failure isn’t just a dead end but creates new problems to solve.

Using a mix of these types keeps players guessing and ensures challenges arise from various aspects of the game world.

Making Twists Work

Not all complications are created equal. A good complication enhances the adventure, while a poorly implemented one can feel frustrating or arbitrary. Consider these principles:

• Relevance: The complication should ideally feel connected to the ongoing adventure, the location, the characters’ actions, or the established world elements. Random, unconnected problems can feel jarring. A sudden blizzard during a mountain climb makes sense; a random dragon attack during a simple city investigation might feel forced unless dragons are known threats in the area or linked to the plot.
• Impact: The complication should genuinely change the situation and require the players to react or adapt. A minor inconvenience isn’t a true complication; it should present a real obstacle, threat, dilemma, or shift in objectives.
• Player Agency: While complications introduce unexpected elements, they should ideally still allow for player agency in how they are dealt with. Present a new problem, but give players choices and opportunities to use their skills and wits to overcome it. Avoid complications that completely shut down all options or render player actions irrelevant (unless that’s a specific, intended outcome in a very bleak scenario).
• Plausibility (Internal Consistency): The complication should make sense within the established logic and tone of your world. Why did the bridge collapse? (Rotten wood, recent flood, enemy sabotage?). Why did the ally betray them? (Greed, coercion, secret loyalty?). Providing even a brief internal logic makes complications feel less like random GM fiat.
• Appropriate Scale: The severity of the complication should generally match the scale and stakes of the current adventure. A minor side quest probably doesn’t need a world-altering complication, while the climax of a major campaign arc might warrant a significant twist.
• Foreshadowing (Optional but Recommended): Sometimes, subtly hinting at a potential complication earlier can make its arrival feel more earned and less random. If players hear rumors of unstable tunnels, a later cave-in feels less arbitrary. If an NPC ally seems unusually nervous or evasive (Insight check opportunity), their later betrayal might feel foreshadowed. However, some complications work best as complete surprises.
• Don’t Overuse Them: Too many complications, especially arbitrary ones, can make players feel constantly punished or that their plans are pointless. Use them strategically to enhance tension, introduce twists, or react to player actions, not just to make things difficult for difficulty’s sake.

Timing and Triggers

How and when do you introduce complications?

• Planned Complications: You can design specific complications into the adventure structure from the start.
  • Mid-Adventure Twist: Introduce a complication partway through to raise the stakes or change the direction (e.g., discovering the “rescued” merchant is actually a smuggler).
  • Climactic Complication: Introduce a final twist during the adventure’s climax (e.g., the villain has a hidden escape route, a third party intervenes during the final battle, the artifact has an unexpected side effect when activated).
  • Setbacks Tied to Location: Certain areas might have inherent complications (e.g., the swamp releases poisonous fumes at night, the ancient tomb is prone to collapses).
• Triggered by Player Actions: Complications arise directly from player choices or failures.
  • Failed Skill Checks: As discussed earlier (failed Stealth alerts guards, failed Thievery springs a trap). Make the link clear.
  • Aggravating NPCs/Factions: If players insult, threaten, or steal from a powerful entity, a complication might be retaliation later in the adventure or campaign.
  • Ignoring Warnings/Clues: If players ignore clear signs of danger or disregard important information, a complication might arise from their lack of preparation.
• Triggered by Timed Events: In event-based structures, complications might occur if players fail to act before a certain deadline (e.g., reinforcements arrive because the players took too long, the ritual progresses to its next dangerous stage).
• Improvised Complications: Sometimes, the best complications arise spontaneously during play based on the unfolding situation or a sudden GM inspiration. Perhaps a stray shot during combat starts a fire, or an NPC reacts unexpectedly to a player’s comment. Use these judiciously to enhance the scene, but ensure they feel logical within the context.

Alacrity Mechanics and Complications

Alacrity’s system provides tools for handling complications:

• Skill Checks: Overcoming complications often requires new skill checks using a wide range of abilities (Athletics to climb past a collapse, Persuasion to deal with unexpected authorities, Medicine to handle sudden injuries, Survival to navigate unexpected weather).
• Difficulty Ladder: The GM uses the Difficulty Ladder to represent how hard it is to deal with the complication. A simple obstacle might be Challenging (-10%), while a major disaster could impose Hard (-20%) or Very Hard (-30%) penalties on relevant checks.
• Action Economy: Dealing with a complication often requires spending valuable Declared Actions, potentially forcing players to choose between addressing the new problem and pursuing their original objective, and incurring multi-action penalties if they try to do too much at once.
• Resource Drain: Complications can deplete resources – HP/SP from environmental hazards or unexpected fights, MP used on utility Effects to bypass obstacles, physical gear lost or broken.
• Conditions: Complications can inflict Conditions (Blinded by smoke, Restrained by falling debris, Frightened by a sudden betrayal) that impose mechanical penalties.

Conclusion

Complications are the grit in the oyster, the unexpected storm that tests the sailor’s skill. They transform straightforward adventures into dynamic, unpredictable experiences. By thoughtfully introducing relevant and impactful complications – whether environmental, social, antagonist-driven, resource-based, moral, or narrative twists – you create tension, force meaningful choices, reward adaptability, and make your Alacrity world feel alive and reactive. Use them not merely as roadblocks, but as opportunities for creative problem-solving, dramatic roleplaying, and memorable moments that arise when plans go awry. A well-placed complication can be the difference between a routine adventure and a story your players talk about for years to come.

 

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File Created: 05/07/2025
Last Modified: 05/12/2025