Campaign: Backstory of the Saga of the Ruckers

The six Ruck Masters look down upon their upcoming disciples awaiting to gain knowledge and wisdom. They patiently await as you enter their presence. You carefully choose your first master, who bestows all of its wisdom onto you and says

Let the insight of ROLE be fruitful in your upcoming adventure. Return to us when you seek new insight from us!

You gain 5 levels in your chosen role. Though you are confused on how to use this new insight and go back to the masters.

That is quite silly of us not to bestow the activation ritual. To activate your insight you will need to do 25 burpees.

You are both surprised that there is a ritual and that it is a whopping 25 burpees!

You question yourself, what does the master mean by the ritual, and go back to the master.

As soon as you are about to speak, the master breaks your train of thought and says,

All future questions can be directed to the my disciple, the Game Master, also known as the GM, but sometimes new players, call them the PM, the pain master.

Looking around, you see a person that does not look like the other masters, you assume that this is the GM. You go up to them and ask,

Are you the GM?

You only get a nodding response.

I have a question about this ritual. How can I picture this ritual and how does it work? What abilities do I gain from it?

The GM explains,

The ritual is doing 25 burpees. This means each time you want to activate one of your Insight of the role you chosen. You’re required to do 25 burpees. After that, you get the power of the insight, and you can enact it.

The player questions further,

Enacting power of Insight? How can I picture this?

Imagine this. You are out on an adventure, and you are tasked to do an exercise. This exercise requires weight movement, distance, and struggle. You, as your role, will look upon the exercise and think to yourself. I cannot do the exercise as prescribed to my best ability. Therefore, to make my life easier, I will change up the exercise in such a manner that both me and my party will spare some sweat and tears.

You think to yourself, me and my party?

What do you mean party? I am only here alone.

The GM replies,

Although you’re all alone here, there are many others like you who are participating in the struggles put on to them by the Ruck Masters. You don’t see them, but you’ll feel their presence, their knowledge, their engagement, and their keen sense of constantly striving forward.

At the end of the week the player goes back to the Ruck Masters and complains

How in this world am I supposed to do 25 whopping burpess per Insight. It is obnoxiously high and doesn’t seem like it’s physically possible to do everything that’s required for the me.

The Ruck Masters hear the pity, question it, and say

We hear you, we know it’s hard but this is what it takes to be as strong and wise as we are.

The player grumbles,

This is not what I signed up for, it’s way too much.

No response comes from the Ruck Masters, the GM suggests an alternate calculation, which rewards the player if they do all the required tasks per session.

Initial count = 25
Total role level count = RLVL
Total completed weekly WODs = WCNT
Priming of Insight with burpees = BURPEE
---
BURPEE = 25 - WCNT * RLVL
---
With a minimum of 1 burpee.

The Ruck Masters look at the proposal, think for a minute, and just give a head nod.

The player comes back to the Ruck Masters and being stumped, questions

I just don’t feel the presence of the other participants of my party, am I doing something wrong?

The Ruck Masters reply

You are one of many players who has come to us. We are not at fault if you fail to communicate to your team.

With frustration the player is about to ruck off when the GM interjects

As a team you should feel the other team mates. Thus at the beginning of the week, each of your mates are permitted to give you one free Insight of their choice that counts towards their burden and are required to prime for it.

The player goes back to the Ruck Masters and comments

I was finally able to experience the presence of the party. One thing I have noticed is that every time I do a WOD the random encounters become more difficult to succeed. Why is this and can I influence it some how?

The Ruck Masters pointed out

See we told you last time that communication is key to get the benefits from the WODs. And to answer your curiosity, each time you do or do not do what you are suppose to we notate it. This influences how we decide what kind of discipline is required to learn the underlying lesson. If you do not act to our standards you and the party get an infraction, thus it is in your best interest to motivate both yourself and the party to meet the standards!

The player is shocked to learn that each of their actions has a cost factor accompanying it. The GM explains further in details

Severity is the measurement used to evaluate the amount of infractions. When a player does not fulfill their weekly duty of doing the WOD, the severity increases. If all players complete the weekly WOD and their Challenge(s), then the severity decreases or stays the same. Thus motivating your party is key to the success of the adventure.

With these informative words, the player continues to push themself and is eager to motivate the rest the party to do the same.

The player comes back limping to the Ruck Masters and in a weak voice says

I do not understand how that workout was suppose to teach me discipline!?

The Ruck Masters reply

You had two opportunities to learn. First you could have picked up the ruck pace of the initial 2 miles and thereby you would have encountered less random encounters, this is return could have reduced the rounds of exercises. And second if you party achieved to do the required WOD and Challenge(s), then the severity would have decreased. This shows us that your party has the will power to better themselves.

The player thinks to themself

How could I have missed that tactical mistake of speeding up the initial 2 miles.

The Ruck Masters acknowledge the player’s agony and in a comforting tonality

You are not the first player that has faulted on such circumstances. It has happened to the best of us and that is why we train to pick up such trivialities.

Continuing in a encouraging voice

Next you should learn about carrying your own load. In a team lead event you are responsible to carry your own load and at the same time pick up the slack of your team mates to accomplish the task at hand in the set time frame. This means occasionally/frequently you will be required to carry more than your load. To not become the burden onto the team you should be training at least with event weight.

The player is shocked that they are getting sympathy from the Ruck Masters and now has more respect towards them. Before the player trots off the GM shares

Before you go out and train as if it were an event, remember only to train as hard as possible to stay injury free. Even small injuries will steal the growth potential of upcoming workouts.

The player takes in the cautious word of the GM before returning to the training grounds.