Among the many things the beginning of 2025 has found me doing is helping to administer another play-by-post iteration of the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game, about which I’ve made some comments now and again. So much is to be expected, of course; I am a big ol’ nerd, after all. (As if that wasn’t already abundantly clear.) And I have expressed my love of the game more than once previously; it shouldn’t be a surprise that I would go back to something that has given me years of enjoyment when the opportunity presents itself–as it does (in and around occasional platform problems, but those are surmountable).

With the game–which is not mine; I’m helping–I’m reminded of one of the things that I like to do when I set up events such as factor heavily in play-by-post gaming. In such events, players are typically asked to make a series of rolls (experience suggests that three is a good number), usually with some success threshold on earlier ones influencing results on later ones, to arrive at some level of success in the event. Outcomes are then typically compared across participants, with the player doing “best,” as defined in the event, receiving some reward. Such constructions do allow for variety in design and performance, and they can allow players who build characters to do some things well shine while not necessarily preventing victory by those who are less focused.

They can, however, also result in players watching their characters fail the tasks presented to them, and while an occasional failure can (and often does) make for an interesting springboard for narrative–there is an art to failposting, and it is a wonder to see done well–a series of failures becomes disheartening. It becomes even more so when the failures accrue on rolls players build their characters to do well. I know as much because I’ve seen it on both sides, as a player and as an administrator for such games.

Consequently, when I build series of events, series where it can be the case that someone does badly across the lot, I build in what I call a “backhand” prize. In one game, for instance, the focus was on the creation of a series of artistic objects, with the artist performing “best” across the board receiving an exalted social position. Given RPGs, the threshold for victory was clear enough. What I made sure to introduce was a provision that, should a character somehow fail all of their rolls to produce art, the sum of their creations would be strangely harmonious as an installation, with the character in question being lionized in milieu and receiving rewards that would have been helpful had there been other games in that vision of the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game. (Alas, as happens, real life intervened. That campaign, that series of linked games, ended. But lessons were learned, and good has come from it.)

The game I am helping to run now is ongoing. It is possible that players in it will see what I write. (I hope they will, actually; they will see that I think them a good bunch, and I benefit from wider readership.) So much means that I won’t say whether there is such a prize in the present game or what it is if there is one. But it is the kind of thing I like to do, and I think it is a good idea for others to take up, as well.

Got some game narrative needing attention? I can help! Fill out the form below to get started!

Or you can send your support along directly!