Natural 7

GLÅUGUST 2026 - 3

This is a continuation of my entries to the GLÅUGUST 2026 challenges. You can review all previous posts here:

If you want to follow along, you can read the Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2026 challenges here.

Challenge the Third

2 - Perpetual motion

This prompt reminds me of Momentum in Ironsworn. This mechanic builds as you play, portraying the general progress you are making towards your goals. Positive momentum is good; things are working as they should. Negative momentum is bad; everything that could go wrong, is going wrong.

Momentum is a mechanic in Ironsworn because it propels the game forward. It keeps things interesting and presents prompts for solo players (the primary focus of the game). Most roleplaying game sessions would benefit from some kind of pressure that guarantees something is always going to happen: your quest is going to finish spectacularly or the enemies are going to unleash havoc upon you. You move on and pick a new quest or find a way to survive uneven odds.

I think that as GMs, it's part of our responsibility to incorporate some mechanism of perpetual motion in our own games. We should focus on the here and now, the current session, and make sure that things are happening that players can deal with.

Here's an example of non-perpetual motion:

The party has a goal, it's to kill a wyvern outside the town. Every NPC and their mother tells the party not to fight the wyvern yet, it's too dangerous. No one offers a better solution. The players don't know enough about the setting to ask who might know how to beat the wyvern. They feel as if they should be able to beat it, they are adventurers, after all. You know that a wyvern is far too challenging for their characters right now.

There isn't really a great way to present forward motion here. The players don't have the options necessary to change the situation. The GM isn't presenting opportunities for actions to be taken other than shots in the dark about what might work (and, of course, just running out and fighting the wyvern).

For most of my tables, this situation would lead to an hour and a half of bickering about how to progress their goals.

When we start to hear these types of questions, we need to present choices. We need to get the ball rolling forward, maybe on a skewed path, but it has to start moving somewhere. Present answers to these questions:

OK, now motion is back on the menu. No more guessing and backtracking and fiddling about. We have some choices about how to progress our quest. As the players begin to make their choices and take actions, we can throw additional boons or banes in their direction:

Momentum. Pacing. Motion. Forward. Backward. Setback. Progress.

Consider these as you run your games, and whether the heroes are in motion or at a standstill.

Final Thoughts

It was quite fun to think of ways in which a GM can present forward and backward motion to their players. I find it increasingly important to have ideas ready that can help advance or stall goals when my players are tired after a day's work at the Long Day Factory. Sometimes they need a little edge in deciding what to do, or how to do something, so a simple set of choices gets the ball rolling a lot faster than saying: "OK, let's all play in the sandbox!"

Working on improving the pacing and obvious chances for forward motion is a great way to get people to return to your table. When they know something is going to happen that furthers their character's goals, it's inspiring and compelling. Focus on maintaining motion in your games. It's okay for the group to backslide. It's not okay for them to stay stagnant, with nothing to do and nowhere to go.

Thank you for reading!

Things on my radar: