I am playing D&D 5e using the Arkadia setting, I got to the Labors of Fate, and then went a bit off piste. This is not a problem because, although I am trying to play a published adventure, I also want to see if I can go my own way for a while, and then pick up the adventure pretty much where I left off. So far, yes, I can.
What I learned last week relates to flashback scenes. I like flashback scenes. I limit my flashbacks typically to a single scene, and a maximum of a single skill check. I like them because they imply the character’s existence before the start of the adventure, and I am make use of my character’s backstory without having to make it a big issue.
This is where tutors and mentors can come in. Typically, I would use flashbacks when I improvise something that has consequences. For example, on Monday, I scout out a place I am planning to sneak into later that week. I get a good idea of my plan, and then on the day, an oracle check suggests that there are guards where there were no guards before. It makes me think, well, if I had known they had armed guards, then I would have done this, this, and this. If I am playing a professional with an 18 intelligence, they are going to be better prepared than Peter, who is neither a trained insurgent nor has an 18 intelligence. Infact, Peter had to type intelligence two or three times to get the spelling right. So, I run a flashback to last Monday, now I know there is a barracks, how will I deal with them? Do I make a Perception test to get a good idea of their patrol pattern and find a moment when I will be able to sneak past, or do I try to befriend one and attempt a persuasion check to have them turn a blind eye when I want to sneak in? That is a single scene and a single skill test, which then, when I snap back to the present, can change my options. Am I trusting my new friend? Is the expected gap in their patrol where I expect it to be? To add to the tension here, I can choose not to roll the persuasion check until right now, so I don’t know if my flashback was successful or not. It is only when I try to sneak past that I find out if the guard turns the other way, or gives a signal to his captain, and they spring a trap to catch me.
So that is how I typically do flashbacks.
But what about tutor or mentor flashbacks? I am reminded of the 70s TV series Kung Fu, where the central character would flashback to moments when supposedly great wisdom was imparted that informs the star’s choices and decisions right now.
This is the classic “Patience, Grasshopper!” wisdom of Master Po. Or, how about a deceased Obi Wan telling Luke to “Use the force.” These are tutor or mentor flashbacks.
The first time I used one, I was kind of cheating-ish. I had enough experience to level up, but I was in the middle of an adventure. The difference in levels was really just an additional spell slot of the levels I already knew. There was no major step up in power, so a tutor flashback, where a lesson they had taught me in my youth, suddenly takes on meaning, and the enlightenment allowed me to access more of my potential. That was my logic, thus justifying the leveling up and gaining that spell slot.
Mentor or tutor flashbacks are a good way of earning a do-over for a skill test. It is entirely possible for a solo adventure to create dead ends. Imagine you walk into a room and the door closes behind you. You ask if it was a one-way door, and the answer is yes. OK, so that means no going back there. So you ask, are there any other doors? Negative. Are there any windows? Negative, are there any vents or hatches? Negative. OK, so this is starting to look awkward. Does anyone come and check on me, as if this were a trap? Negative. OK, so I search for secret doors. You roll a one, and oops, you are not going to find anything even if it was there. This would be a good time for Obi Wan to tell me to use the force, and then have a second crack at finding that secret door.
The question is, what could these influential people from your character’s past tell you today, if they could pass on one more pearl of wisdom, and if you can answer that, then you wrap it up so that they told you this bit of philosophical gold years ago, but it never made sense to you until this moment.
The technique gives you another voice to add to your game, at a time when maybe you are lacking in options.
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