Otherworld TRPG Game Master chapter 11

11 – S1. The Prince, the Flower, and the Resistance -1 (GM’s Perspective)

If asked what is most important in a TRPG, it is motivation.

I firmly believe that players must have a strong motive. Even if you plea, “Hey, Hyesoon next door got captured by a giant squid…” why would someone intervene when, logically, you’d call the police if the neighbor’s kid was taken by a monster?

It’s human nature to become indecisive about intervening until it’s Hyesoon, the town’s top beauty, whom you’ve been sweet on, and the police are too incompetent to even consider responding.

In that sense, there is no better motivator than the threat to one’s own life. When a huge monster is about to tear me limb from limb, it naturally instills a sense of desperation.

Now, I have to set up an impromptu session for the second prince.

What kind of session will I create? What will be the central conflict? How will I establish the motivation?

If I had known about the second prince’s visit a week earlier, I could have prepared various things. I would have done some background research and finely tuned the session atmosphere to match his personality… but it’s an unexpected visit.

The order has been placed, and it’s time to serve the dish to the customer.

Let’s check the ingredients I have on hand.

The fantasy modeling is more or less complete. The martial arts theme is far from ready for actual play, and there are some reservations about thrusting the modern setting on the second prince. After all, what would the prince get from visiting the modern world other than indulging in culinary pleasures?

Additionally, there’s a critical issue with basing it on the contemporary world.

Well-trained subculture readers are quite savvy about clichés. If a pocket watch suddenly stops, it usually means death, and when someone says, “There’s no way so-and-so could lose! They’re the strongest!” it means either that person will fall or lose.

So everything clicks into place with ease. If I introduce a beautiful girl into the session, they’ll think, “Ah, this friend is going to be a major character!” They understand it right away, and when I hint at dark clouds gathering and a gloomy atmosphere approaching, they’ll prepare themselves mentally for whatever is about to happen.

“But the second prince is no layman, isn’t he?

I decided we needed an intuitive plot.

“This is time travel plot.”

“Ti, time tra-travel…?”

Martapju, laying on the massage chair, gurgled with a trembling voice. This… place… is the control room. A virtual reality room where we manipulate virtual reality. Here, we move NPCs, narrate, et cetera.

While munching on popcorn, I swished through my virtual reality controls. First, I transported the second prince into a secluded forest. I needed to buy some time.

Since we anchored the plot around time travel, I thought the future might be a good idea.

It was timely that I had conveniently crafted a steampunk future city. The Sky Tower, with its impressive models, immediately stirred feelings onlookers. The city’s name was ‘Nightwatch.’

I pasted a steampunk city next to the secluded forest.

Since the Sky Tower was high, it would be easy for the second prince to locate it. As soon as he looked up and saw the majestic tower piercing the sky, he might be enticed to leave the secluded forest.

At the thought of steampunk, I couldn’t resist another addition.

“Martapju?”

“Hmm?”

“Could you model an airship for me? 10… “

“Huh?”

“9… 8… “

“???”

“7… “

Immediately Martapju Yuna rose to carve out an airship model. As expected, the great magician possessed terrifying speed. She skillfully disregarded the interior and focused on carving the exterior.

Pushing urgent tasks aside, I focused on the monitor. Seeing the second prince studying the tree model, I felt an urge to explain everything with gestures.

– It seems you have realized something. Is there something special around you?

Second Prince: “This tree species is a native of the imperial capital’s vicinity. It was acquired under the orders of the alchemists to commemorate the fifth Emperor’s birthday.”

What?

“Martapju modeled this tree, right?”

“Yes I finished the airship model! Oh, uh? Yeah, I did it.”

“But the prince mentioned it only grows in the imperial capital.”

“Yeah!”

So, we can’t use the ‘Nightwatch’ steampunk future city.

From Noble mtl dot com

I gently slapped Martapju, who failed to include an explanation on the tree model.

“Ouch, ouch!”

Sure, I can write about a steampunk future city named ‘Nightwatch.’

Even though the player has brilliantly deduced some aspects, I might say ‘It’s not all correct~’ and go on to establish another city in place of the imperial capital.

But that’s far removed from my style in writing for tabletop role-playing games.

If a player has made deductions, and if it makes sense, it should be true. If they are wrong, it’s unpleasant, isn’t it! I erased the tower in the sky before the second prince could even turn back.

I cleared away the ambitious city of ‘Nightwatch’, hastily loaded the model of the imperial capital, and attached it. I implied in various places that it’s a future time period.

I made visible distress to the fortress walls, and added meaningless clockwork and steam engines to the buildings.

“The tower is absent, so they can’t be led towards the city?”

“Ugh…”

“Summon the airship, take off now! Sail all the way to the city!”

I led the second prince using the airship, which has a suspiciously slow speed. And here, at this moment, is when I can make full use of illusion magic.

In reality, it only took 5 minutes to traverse the forest, but I used ‘time perception slowdown’ to make it feel like it felt like one hour, a.k.a military training base drillmaster. This way, I can skip mundane details while still maintaining a sense of reality.

It finished reworking the model of the imperial capital during those 5 minutes. I swiftly produced a sentence to replace the imperial flag. It seemed plausible enough when I haphazardly mixed three statements from other kingdoms.

We can’t have a sense of crisis just by visiting the future empire.

Crisis, very important. It would be tedious without suspense and action. I, who even considered inserting an incident while showing the Korean scenery to the second prince.

Crisis. Crisis. Crisis…

“Prince, name a few things that come to mind when you hear ’empire.'”

“Boreas Petite Boku Maje?”

“Ah.”

I let that be.

“Slavery regime, militarism, the royal family actively intermarrying with nobles?”

“Okay.”

Then we will proceed to a world turned upside down.

Let’s degrade a blonde symbolizing a royal bloodline into slavery. I incited NPCs to shoot a look of ‘Wow… a blonde? A slave?’ The second prince’s expression heated up at first receiving such a glance.

While the second prince was waiting in the passport control queue, I wrapped up the plot tightly. The main theme, a world of reversals. And… a success story? That should hold up well.

He was born grasped to everything already. He has likely never had the experience of starting from scratch. I wanted to let him taste the catharsis of climbing from the very bottom to the very top.

For that to happen, he needs to be pushed all the way down first.

– “Stop. Show your identification. Where is your master?”

– “If not a slave, are you some domesticated animal? Look at you: blond, prim and proper.”

– “Unlucky slave. Do you mistake your master’s authority as your own? I don’t know how high a position your master is, but you are just a lucky slave. Understand?”

We threw words that hit like a punch. And that was ferociously powerful.

Pressing down on my forehead with my index finger.

At the company, when I’d been screwed over like this I nearly flew into a rage. It seemed to work quite well in this world too, as the second prince came out full force.

Second Prince: “Guard, mind your manners! I am the empire’s second prince, Irid Crown!”

It was a hard call. The balance between discomfort and delight had to be perfect.

I’d have to leverage a sweet-potato-to-cider strategy, and not start off by killing off all of the player character’s relatives, friends, and lovers. Otherwise, I could trigger the player’s anger and get socked.

Scrape only to the point where the player doesn’t actually feel discomforted, then immediately pour in the cider. That’s how you make this tactic work. So, I refrained from using any slurs stronger than a bastard.

I should scrape a bit more—just a bit more.

– “The cause of you imperial citizens living like slaves, grovelling and struggling, is none other than the Fallen Emperor Irid!”

Isn’t that an interesting setting? The idea that the character’s future self would become the last emperor of the empire.

Although this is a later part of the setting, the Fallen Emperor and such were simply slanders by the ‘Kingdom Union’. It was the Kingdom Union, who colluded with the dark wizard, that spread these words after occupying the empire.

“……”

“Uh, um, there. The Second Prince’s face… it’s like a dead fish…?!”

“Uh, oh dear.”

“Is, is it okay?!”

No, it’s not okay. It’s gone to hell.

I didn’t mean to hurt him this much!

I thought he was arrogant and therefore scratched him hard, but was his self-esteem actually lower than it seemed…? This is a mistake. Perhaps I was too hasty just because it’s a TTRPG.

“It’s a fiction, Prince. This is fictional…”

I have to let him know that this is all an illusion, just a game.

But directly explaining it isn’t a very elegant method.

I lowered the pain stats for the second prince NPC by beating him down.

It should only feel like a gentle patting.

Look, isn’t it strange? It just feels like slight taps even though it’s a beating with a club. Doesn’t make sense, does it? In this way, I indirectly let him know it was fiction.

– You… are dazed like a shell-shocked person. Even as the crowd of guards beat you with clubs, the echoes in your head aren’t of pain, but of countless ‘whys’.

No, it’s not that the character wasn’t feeling pain from being shocked; he actually wasn’t feeling any pain at all.

Really, he wasn’t feeling any pain! How can one have random thoughts while being beaten with a steel club?

This won’t do—I should launch operation ‘pat him down’ immediately.

————-

This bastard is so damn good at dodging events.

An event about a high-pride retired soldier taking the second prince away after seeing his eyes -＞ as soon as the retired soldier appears, the second prince runs away, failing the event.

—

To give him some money to enjoy a good meal, an event was created where a plump wallet was summoned in front of the Second Prince =＞ Failed because he was afraid it might contain tracking magic and walked past it.

‘Free Bakery Event’, where bread is given to passersby =＞ Failed because he thought he would be hit with a baguette.

Setting up wealthy and kind-hearted noblewomen at every corner to support the Second Prince =＞ Failed because he suddenly jumped over a wall and ran away.

“Is he a runaway?”

Did he just want to suffer on his own?

Is he avoiding all the events prepared for his amusement even though he clearly knows they are illusions?

But seeing his deadpan expression, it seemed that wasn’t the case…

“…Sigh.”

I had to use my trump card.

Using a beautiful girl.

The ‘boy meets girl’ is an age-old cliché with high impact.

She’s a pretty girl serving at an inn, with a touch of commoner’s charm.

Spawn a water bucket. Create a deluge…

– “I-I’m so sorry! I didn’t know someone was there…”

There, a mistake by the pretty girl. Now start a sweet event to apologize to the soaked Second Prince… and he runs away again!

I quickly add to the setting. She’s not actually a serving girl at the inn.

She’s a resistance fighter disguised as a serving girl. I increase her physical specs significantly.

I made her slide down the wall pipes and fall.

Has he noticed the subtlety of this move?

A delicate girl, seemingly too weak to lift a pink dumbbell, is actually bold enough to jump from the third floor – a stark contrast.

And moreover,

Beneath the fluttering skirt, unexpectedly mature underwear that contradicts her innocent appearance!

This is perfect. Look up quickly. Look up and be thrilled, Second Prince Ilrid! This is the underwear modeling I’ve crafted with my soul…!

“Ah!”

Why is he turning his head away…!

I collapsed in frustration and injustice right there.

And the Master of the Magic Tower looked at me with pity…