6. Stakes (optional)

Ask yourself some questions about the threat and the people affected by it. What do you wonder about? What do you want to discover in play? These questions become your stakes.

You can ask stakes questions about PCs or NPCs, about groups or places or things. They can be about big things, or small, personal things. Whatever you ask about, it should pique your interest and you should be genuinely curious about the answer.

Stakes questions should be about the future, not the past. What will happen, not what has happened. You might have questions about the past to fill in later, between sessions or during play, but those aren't stakes.

Some examples of good stakes questions:

• Will Vahid convince Eira to trust him?
• Will Elios rise to the occasion?
• Who will Mabyn end up with?
• Who will die in the coming battle?
• Will Tiwlip find her missing dog?
• Will the Claws accept Kiran's authority?
• Can Ergben be redeemed?

Stakes questions shouldn't boil down to, "Will this grim portent/impending doom come to pass?" You've already answered that! A grim portent or impending doom will come to pass unless the PCs prevent it. Ask about things that are uncertain, that haven't been decided.

Not every threat needs stakes. When you first introduce a threat, you might not know (or care) enough to ask them. That's okay! You can add stakes questions later, as the threat evolves or as you become interested. Or a threat might never develop stakes. That's fine, too.

For Sajra the Swyn, I wonder:

• * Will Brynfor's parents forgive Caradoc?
• * What will become of the stolen children, the ones brought under Sajra's control?
• * What brought Sajra to move into the Green Lord's tomb, anyway?

That last one, though, isn't a stakes question—it's a detail about the past. I add the first two to my threat write-up as stakes, and add a question about why Sajra arrived to the description.