Choose a central, open-ended moral dilemma  #

A Society of Rafa Scenario is not a medical puzzle. Many players assume based on mechanics and subject matter that their role as a Rafa is to diagnose a problem, apply a skill to fix, and hope to have fun along the way. However, these are merely what happens, so a satisfying story enhances this with who and why via moral dimensions.

Give players agency by creating a dilemma with complex moral issues and personal stakes without a single, “correct” solution. Players should not feel railroaded into a predetermined resolution, but they won’t always understand this freedom intuitively. Perhaps they’ve been trained in other games that their toolboxes are limited, or that they are only responding to clues laid down by those leading the game. Often, Society of Rafa Storytellers convince players of their own agency by seeding enough complexities and ambiguities that players pick which threads to care about and resolve.

A good Society of Rafa Scenario is like a two-stage journey. First, the Storyteller guides players to a stunning vista worth exploring, after which the players scan the horizon and signal to the Storyteller whatever points of interest they want to traverse to. Reaching the destination, then, is a cooperative effort between players and Storyteller: that magical interaction of the medium of tabletop roleplaying.

Society of Rafa is about more than physical healing, but particularly community healing. How can Rafas help their patients’ repair trauma they have experienced or perpetuated? How can players account for complex competing needs between themselves, the spirits, and nature? What hard—sometimes imperfect—decisions do they need to make? How can they bring people together for the betterment of the community? Because Society of Rafa is focused on good living and healing, its dilemmas trust players to create meaning by approaching the scenarios humanely.

Potential Themes #

Here are just a few examples of themes to spark your imagination:

• Conflicting needs between spirits and humans 
• Preventing infectious diseases 
• Conflicts between patients’ values and their medical needs
• Family conflict 
• Trauma and persecution 
• Bodily autonomy 

Brainstorm ways that players might try to solve the scenario. #

Anticipate potential solutions, so you can be prepared to roleplay them fluidly. Having a preset list can help you adapt to player actions quickly by recognizing their intentions, but often Storytellers only need to daydream to keep up with players, instead of over-preparing with complex flowcharts or decision trees. Also, be mindful of societal conditioning and worldbuilding that will flavor player approaches.

Brainstorming also helps Storytellers pace scenarios. What information do you want to withhold early on? If the solution relies on persuasion, how might the Rafas need to build trust with their patient or other NPCs? 

So how should Storytellers know a solution works while responding to players? Think of each scenario as a story: 

• Does the solution make sense thematically? 
• Do the players themselves feel closure like they’ve resolved the dilemma? 
• Is it a reasonable, just, or sustainable solution?
• Is the solution too easy? Would it benefit from a complication?

Decide which solutions will not work.

It is most important to know what solutions will not work. What solutions make the scenario too easy or ignore important dimensions? Or do they not fit thematically? Defining your no’s beforehand makes it easier to block these routes during play without making an arbitrary block on players’ agency. 

As a general rule, relying long term on symptom relief is only a good solution for chronic issues. One key mechanic for pacing is symptoms of the patient that reduce their energy, so while players may use skills like Energy Boost to stabilize the patient, it is best practice to assume that couldn’t work forever. While energy bending is quite powerful, as a random dice mechanic, it often expends more energy from the Rafa than the patient receives.

Mysteries within Moral Dilemmas  #

While mysteries are not the core of most successful Society of Rafa scenarios, many scenarios do contain them.  The most common mystery is “What is making the patient sick?” Like with puzzle boxes, making the mystery too rigid, decreases player autonomy. 

Center the moral dilemma over the mystery. #

Reveal the core of the moral dilemma rather than dragging out mysteries for their own sake. For example, there might be many layers to how a dysfunctional relationship between neighbors escalated to such an extent, but that core of mutual animosity does not need to be hidden—for example making it seem that only one family is at fault until a twist at the end of the scenario that reveals both are at fault. Players do their best solutioning if primed with all relevant context earlier on, and then develop nuance from complexities surrounding that core.

Guide your player through the mystery with flexible hooks. #

With mysteries,  you may want to reveal information overtime. Therefore, think through how your scenes connect together. What information does your player need to solve the mystery? Make your hooks obvious. Maybe there is a trail of blood to an injured spirit. Or an NPC mentions seeing an injured Hoopoe bird fly off.

Do not create puzzle boxes. #

Avoid making a puzzle box with a complicated prescriptive solution. Providing clues only when players act in expected ways often leads to a brittle mystery. Provide multiple avenues for the players to uncover the mystery through observation, whom they interact with, and partially inevitable clues baked into the narrative.

For example, say that a player has the skill Talk to Ghosts and you expect the player to talk to a Dybbuk about their motives. Maybe the player does not use Talk to Ghosts as expected. Consider untraditional ways to respond without the skill, including graffitiing on the wall or destroying a symbolic object–anything that points to the relevant information you would have simply revealed in dialogue. 

If players are having difficulty figuring out a mystery, find creative ways to point them in the right direction.

Choose your NPCs  #

Find or create NPCs that help tell your story. Make two lists: Key Characters and Optional Characters. Key Characters should include your patient, their close relationships like family members, friends, adversaries. etc. Optional Characters should include characters that your players may want to bring into the scenario. For example, if there is a political component, the players may want to talk to a Kahal Counselor.

Medical Records #

In many ways the medical records were built for Storytellers. They provide you with prebuilt NPCs with relationships, personalities, professions, and ages. The details and implied conflicts can provide fodder for your story development. 

Of course we encourage you to also create new medical records or modify existing ones. Once you decide on your NPCs and their medical records, combine them into one document to share with the players during the impetus.

Book of Spirits  #

Spirits can also be among your NPCs. Use the Book of Spirits as inspiration for Spirit Characters and even moral dilemmas.

Write your setting & impetus #

Where will the players start the scenario? Where might they go during the scenario? Browse through Kahal’s Landmarks for inspiration. What time of year is it? Are there any upcoming Festivals that you want to integrate into the story? During the impetus what details will you include to set the feel of the season? If your story takes place during the Festival of First Fruits, maybe there are gift boxes filled with oranges in the House of Healing Library.  

How will you get your players involved in the action? Does the Apothecary ask for help finding a rare herb? Or does a patient’s family member come for help? 

Define your Major Malady #

List the following components:

• Patient’s major symptoms
• Patient’s starting Current Energy
• Patient’s Max Energy 
• 4 Side Effects (related to the d4 die) and hit point impact
• Root cause (& potential solutions)

Draft your key scenes  #

Write out a few scenes that are likely to happen, such as when the Rafas first meet a patient. Plan out some of the key NPC dialogue. Think about what the players hear, see, smell, and taste. What are minor NPCs doing that build the feel of the scene? Are kids dancing or playing? Is it overwhelmingly quiet or dirty because the patient lives alone and is exhausted?

Think about the information you want to reveal in each scene. That way even if your players do not do what you expect to reveal that information, you can find other ways to provide the information. As discussed in the mystery section, create hooks to other scenes. 

Avoid planning extended dialogues between your NPCs. Extended NPC dialogue both decreases players’ autonomy and, frankly, it is hard to have a rich conversation with yourself. It’s fine to more heavily orchestrate while setting up the Scenario, but avoid reliance where players can’t drive any action.
There will be times in play where players may back you into a corner because they expect two non-player characters to talk something out. Take a minute to brainstorm how to pull a player into these conversations as much as you can before launching into your acting.

Brainstorm an epilogue #

Is there a particular way you would like to end the scenario or give the players an opportunity to interact in the world? Avoid preplanning epilogues that explicitly rely on particular resolution of an open-ended central dilemma, for the obvious reason that players haven’t resolved it yet. The distinction there is planning an epilogue based on observance of a holiday, vs something assuming that your patient was treated in a particular way (or even survives).