7.6.0 Achieving the Goal

Once the PCs have piled up enough Renown and lowered the difficulty enough to actually make it feasible to achieve the goal, they need to take the final steps necessary to complete the work. For a minor goal, this might be a simple matter of describing how they take care of the details, while a vast campaign of effort might culminate in several brutal, perilous adventures.

The time this change takes will rest with the GM’s judgment. If the PCs have been working on the project for some time already this effort should be taken into account and lessen the time required.

For mundane changes or changes the GM doesn’t really want to focus on, the PCs simply declare that they’re spending their Renown and using their own good name, personal prowess, and accumulated friendships and contacts to pull off their ambition. They might give examples of some of the ways they’re working to achieve the goal and specify what allies or resources they’re deploying. The GM then describes the outcome of their efforts. They may not be completely successful and events may not work out exactly as they planned, but they’ll get the substance of what they wanted.

For changes that push through opposition instead of subverting it, those that just pay the price for the opposition multiplier, the GM might make the PCs deal with consequences of that unquelled opposition. The kingdom might outlaw slavery, but if not all the opposition was defeated there may remain small pockets where the law doesn’t reach or the populace refuses to accept the freed slaves as fellow citizens. Solving these remnant problems might require their own projects or adventures.

For magical, impossible, or truly epic changes, the GM might oblige the PCs to face some culminating adventure or challenge before their ambition becomes real. They might’ve marshaled enough force and enough allies to depose the wicked king, but now the day of reckoning has come and they must face the tyrant and his elite guard in a pitched battle within the capital city. Some heroic changes might require several such adventures, with failure meaning that their efforts somehow fall short of complete success. If the tyrant is not slain, he might escape into exile to foment further trouble, or he might flee to a province he still can control.

Once the change is successfully achieved, the GM should take a little while to consider the larger ramifications of the event. Who in the surrounding area is going to take notice of the events, and what are they likely to do about it? What allies of the PCs might be strengthened by the change and able to push their own agendas further? What are the longer-term consequences of their actions, and how might these show up during future adventures?

The ultimate point of changes like these is not simply to make marks on the campaign map, but to create the seeds of future adventures and future events. The actions of the characters create reactions, and the deeper they involve themselves in the campaign setting, the more that setting is going to involve itself with them. This is ultimately a virtuous circle for the GM and the group, as it helps to generate adventures and events that matter to the players and spares the GM from confusion or uncertainty over what kind of adventuring grist to generate.