Splatbook*

Setting the scene

After the setup questions have been answered, start play in Stonetop. Your goal is to establish what mundane, daily life looks like, so that you can drop the hook right in the middle of it.

Work backwards from the hook. What time of day will the hook happen? What do you want to be happening in town? Where will the hook drop? Where should the PCs be when it does?

Frame a scene to support all that. Tell the players the time of day, what's going on, what the weather's like. Zoom in on a specific place in the village or just outside it, either by dictating a place or asking the PCs where they are.

Next, ask questions that establish details and explore daily life. What are you doing? Who's with you? What are you eating? What are you looking forward to? Whose eye do you hope to catch? If you can, work in questions that reinforce the setup and/or foreshadow the hook. "What loss is felt here, caused by the crinwin's last raid?" That sort of thing.

Once the scene is set, spend some time making homefront moves and seeing how the PCs react. These GM moves are discussed fully in the Homefront chapter Homefront, but for now, work off this list:

  • ä Introduce someone interesting
  • ä Reveal simmering tensions
  • ä Present a want or need
  • ä Show how others really feel
  • ä Draw out their feelings
  • ä Change a relationship
  • ä Oppose their wishes
  • ä Remind them of their obligations
  • ä Start a conflict or crisis
  • ä Play them against each other

Avoid serious conflicts or dramatic reveals. It's okay to have a PC argue with their spouse if that's something they often do, but don't, like, spring the fact that the spouse has been having an affair! You're establishing daily life (including daily drama), not setting things on fire. Not yet.

For preparation, jot down:

  • A sentence or two describing the scene(s).
  • The questions you intend to ask.
  • The homefront moves you plan to make, with whatever details you find useful.

These aren't the only things you'll say or ask, and you can adjust them as needed, but they'll give you a solid starting point.

The trapper should stagger into town in the morning, giving the PCs some daylight to work with. The trapper and his son would have set off at first light, and the attack would have come a couple hours later. So, the trapper would get back to town midmorning. That's when I'll set the scene:

"It's mid-morning. Farmers till the fields and folks go about their chores. It's another fine, clear day, still cool but likely to get warm."

To play up the "unexpected bounty," I'll zoom in on Caradoc—he's the tanner's apprentice.

"Caradoc, you're at work, hides and furs all over.

  • "What unsavory task does Sawyl have you working on this morning?
  • "Are you glad for the all the work the trappers are bringing in, or annoyed?
  • "Aside from the gore, entrails, and noxious fumes, what's the worst part of this job?"

Maybe I'll make some moves here, play out an interaction with Sawyl. I'll wing it.

Next, I'll ask the other PCs the following:

  • "Where are each of you this morning? What task or chore are you working on?"
  • "Who's with you and what are you talking about?"
  • "As you look about, what do you each see that you've seen a thousand times before?"
  • "Who or what do you encounter that makes you think of the missing children and the recent crinwin raid?"

I'll ask follow-up questions and improvise based on what they give me, but I definitely want to make these GM moves:

Remind them of their obligations: Tegwen (Blodwen's mother), nags her about not attending to some mundane thing.

Play them against each other: Eira, Rhianna's lieutenant, complains to her that Vahid has been creeping on her.