#GM Scene Tools

Contents

A dark-side scene grows strong not through dark description but through a question that makes the player look again at their own choice.

#Opening Fragment — Three Props

Before the battle, the GM laid three props on the table.

The first was a bloodstained order. The second was a nameless memorial tablet. The third was an empty ledger.

"Who is today's enemy?" the player asked.

"I have not decided yet," the GM said. "I will decide by seeing which prop you pick up first."

The Shurado PC looked at the order. The Pure Land Monk PC looked at the tablet. The Zakkasho PC opened the ledger to look.

The enemy that day was one, but the dark side each of them saw was different. Before the battle even began, the scene was already splitting apart.

#The Basic Form of a Dark-Side Scene

A dark-side scene can be made with the following four lines.

Choice: the practical gain the PC can obtain.
Cost: who loses what by that choice.
Mirror: a figure who gives a different answer in the same situation.
Trace: the object, rumor, or change of place left behind after the choice.

With these four lines, the scene is not merely dark but becomes a choice.

#Scene Questions by Dark Side

Dark Side	Question
Hegemony	How will you treat the person outside this order?
Void	If you cannot save everyone, whose name will you hold?
Demon	What will you permit under the excuse of nature and instinct?
No Heart	Who is cast aside as the result of taking no side at all?

Choose only one question. Putting every dark side into one scene makes it blur.

#Prop Table

Prop	Fitting Dark Side	Use
Bloodstained order	Hegemony	Puts cause and harm into a single hand.
Nameless memorial tablet	Void	Shows that concrete suffering has vanished into a number.
Broken shrine rope	Demon	Shakes the boundary between sacred nature and human desire.
Empty ledger	No Heart	Reveals the loss not recorded as a price.
Key to a closed castle gate	Hegemony	Symbolizes safety and exclusion at once.
Burned-out incense	Void	Leaves the moment prayer stopped.
Bloodstained fang	Demon	Shows the boundary between predation and survival.
Half a contract	No Heart	Makes a gap between agreement and betrayal.

#Making a Mirror NPC

A mirror NPC is not a figure meant to scold the PC. It is a figure who gives a different answer to the same question.

Three lines are enough.

The same wound: lost something like what the PC lost.
A different choice: yet endures it in a different way.
A wavering: he too is not perfect.

A perfect saint makes a poor mirror. A person who is weak yet holds on makes a stronger mirror.

#A Session Structure Example

#Act 1: Gain

The dark-side choice gives a practical gain. One of information, a road, victory, followers, gold, or safety opens up.

#Act 2: Trace

The trace of that choice returns sooner than expected. The saved village grows afraid, the abandoned person goes to the enemy, or the sold information reaches an innocent.

#Act 3: Mirror

A figure who gives a different answer in the same situation appears. That figure may be weaker than the PC. What matters is the question.

#Act 4: Rechoice

The PC meets the same kind of choice again. This time they know more than at the start.

#Post-Session Questions

After a dark-side session, a short confirmation is better than a long discussion.

Was today's dark-side question vivid?
Among the uncomfortable material, is there anything to reduce or remove next time?
As what trace does the PC's choice remain into the next session?
Is there still a name or relationship you want to hold on to?
Whose mirror do you want to see in the next scene?

These questions are campaign maintenance. The more it is villain play, the more important the structure in which everyone returns for the next session.

#Uses to Avoid

Do not use the dark side to punish a villain PC.
Do not mistake discomfort for a strong scene.
Do not long sustain a state where a victim is used only as a prop and given no name.
Do not use a hero NPC only as the GM's deliverer of the right answer.
Do not emphasize only the strength of a fiend class and omit the path of corruption.

A dark scene is not putting out the light but choosing what to illuminate.