Okay, our topic for today is Plot Layering. This can be pretty much described as arranging plot hooks so that they exist on multiple levels on any given time. It’s a tricky thing, and sometimes a GM has to make sure that the players know that there might be more than one thing going on at once just to keep them from crossing wires and associating clues or details from one thing to another.
Why layer plots?
Because sometimes events don’t wait to happen one after another. Much like in real life, we characters don’t usually enjoy the benefit of going up against one crisis first, before the next one happens. As a GM this is a tricky stunt to pull off, but there’s a lot to be said about keeping players on their toes. One reason to do this is to ratchet up the tension to ever increasing levels, without necessarily escalating the threat.
Considerations:
- Deadlines – Events and situations can end with or without player interference. As such, prepare a rough window of opportunity wherein a player may still affect the outcome. Sometimes, people can arrive too late. Remember though, just because a character is too late to catch this thread and only arrives to see the failed outcome, doesn’t mean that you can’t use their failure to develop character, or launch the next one.
- Maximum of 3 - I’m certain smarter GMs can actually juggle more than these at a given time, but I like to try and keep myself sane. Plot Layering is fun, but having 3 or so per character should be plenty busy. Too many layers and players and the GM might just get lost.
- Keep the Threads Different - Keeping your plot threads to hit different points makes sure that they don’t all end up looking alike. Having three of your rogues gallery trying to hunt your superhero down at the same time tends to lessen the impact. On the other hand, having a relative in the hospital, struggling with your boss in your job, then having a villain trying to hunt you down at the same time is the stuff that makes Spider-Man so interesting.
Plot Layering is fun, but it requires a ton of preparation. Consider your players, and make sure to go out on a limb and help them if it looks like they’re about to confuse one plot for another (unless that’s what you’re banking on all along.) For newer GMs, try to focus on 2 at a time, these plots don’t have to be world-changing, but they should mean something to the character. Once you get the hang of having 2 or so going on, then you can try experimenting with 3 or so. Keep your notes clean, and focused, and keep an eye out for new plot hooks from the consequences of your players actions.
Once you’ve got these pinned down, you should be able to keep players on their toes no matter if they’re just trying to get an honest drink at the inn, or if they’re in the Duke’s court.
January 30, 2009
Sometimes Real Life loves throwing a wrench in even the best laid schedules. I had intended to spend most of this week planning for a 3rd session of the Deadlands game, but I’m currently swamped with work, and surrounded with distractions. Because of this, I’m less prepared than I’d like to be in terms of my GM planning.
That said, there are a few tricks one can work with in order to come up with a good session, when real life has your schedule out of commission:
- Commute – Some of my best ideas come during the haze of the day’s commute. Between watching the scenery go by and looking out for people trying to pick my pocket, there’s plenty of brainpower to spend on figuring out where to take the campaign. Might not be so good though when it comes to statting out bad guys, but Savage Worlds makes that part a cinch.
- Shower – Another time when you’ve got lot’s of spare brainpower running around in your head is in the shower, and firing up the old brain cells during this downtime leads to some oddly clear thinking.
- In between work - taking a five to ten minute break from a day’s work, even for just coffee is another good way to sneak in some time to stat out a villain, or work out a scenario. Computers are great for this purpose, and I usually have a file in my pc for typing out ideas as they occur to me between working on a project. It provides my brain a break from tedium of work.
- Efficient use of downtime – Spare ideas? Note them down. Inspiration strikes at that oddest moments, and it’s best to write down your plot hooks on a GM notebook you can carry around. Once you’ve got the habit of doing this, you’ll have a small repository of plot hooks and things that you can work with even without having a lot of prep time.
- Use a Character Plot Hook - Efficient use of a Character Plot Hook, be it a villain, a habit, a disadvantage or an NPC is a great way to pull a story from nothing. Try to space out the use of these things, as putting this too many times might make players think that you’re picking on them.
Prep time is precious for GMs. We might not be always able to get it, but with a little bit of forethought and squeezing every bit of brainpower between sessions, we can usually make it through no matter how busy the week is.
January 29, 2009
One of the primary concerns I have for my Deadlands game is keeping the feel of a Western-era ongoing. I’ve resorted to a few techniques to keep the feel fo the campaign consistent, but I’m still looking at little things to add to it. Among the things I’ve tried already are:
- Accent – Thank you Call Center experience. I used to be a call center agent for a US Bank, and our “accent neutralization training” left me with some familiarity with the American Southern accent which helped a lot when I opted to run the entire sessions with as much of the western accent that I can (with occasional subconscious breaks.)
- Word Choice – Contrary to what most people might think, word choice plays a big role in GMing, especially since words are all we’ve got to relay the information, tone and atmosphere of the game. When running Deadlands, I try to pepper my descriptions using terms from Westerns, keeping an eye out to make sure that I don’t slip in a term or phrase that would appear out of place.
- Situations - I’ve gone through a lot of talk about Noncombat Encounters before, but it’s important to repeat that life isn’t all a series of fights and crises. A little focus on normalcy, commonplace activity, and some downtime is perfect for rounding out characters, and if I’m particularly sneaky I might even succeed in putting up a plot hook somewhere down the line.
Keeping a campaign closely rooted to the genre its meant to emulate is a fine way to keep people’s disbelief at bay, and lends that extra “texture” to your campaign that makes it memorable.
January 28, 2009
My campaign’s only 2 sessions old and I’m already looking under the hood and checking to see if everything’s running right. I’ve been told sometime before that I do far too much thinking about how I GM, and frankly, I can see why they feel that way.
Right now I’m really happy with how Deadlands is running, the Savage Worlds system is nigh invisible in play, only showing up a bit when it comes to combat. It’s because of this invisibility that the players and myself as the GM end up paying a lot more attention to what happens in the story.
It’s a golden opportunity for me to actually work on my story skills as opposed to my tactics. And so I’m currently working on my next session this weekend, taking notes, researching a location, and putting in as much as I possibly can given my busy schedule.
So far player feedback has been generally been positive, with a request for more character moments. I can’t argue about that request and so I’m currently plumbing my mind to come up with enough situations and interesting NPCs to do the following:
- Engage Character Backstory – Each of the characters has a backstory that can be milked, there are unresolved issues that can and should come into play in order to further their individual storylines.
- Play up Character Strengths - Challenges oriented against character strengths play up their abilities, and make them feel that their characters count. No sense in throwing a saloon girl in a wrestling match after all…
- Generate new plot hooks - As with most of my rpg sessions, I try to find a way to keep it generating plot hooks, unresolved npc issues, secret agendas and recurring villains are all good for this sort of thing.
This kind of calibration is vital to my personal take on running games, by keeping a pulse on the game by drawing feedback from players every session, I answer the question “What do my players want?” and can configure the game differently per session to keep my eye on the sweet spot and keep the game enjoyable for it’s 12 session run.
January 27, 2009
As a person of Chinese descent, I’d like to greet everyone a Happy Lunar New Year! It’s the year of the Earth Ox from here on out so wear red, vist your local Chinese community and treat yourself out to some Chinese food to celebrate the new year. Kung Hei Fat Choy everyone!
Oh, just in case people are curious about the traditional Chinese Horoscope forecast for the year:
The OX year is a conservative year, one of traditions and values. This is not a year to be outrageous. A slow but steady year.
This OX year will bring stability and growth where patience and diligence pays off.
This is a year of Harvest – when we reap what we have sown. Take care of business this year, do not let things slide.
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To celebrate this event, lets take a quick look at three games to check out for your fill of Kung Fu action:
- Qin: the Warring States – This beautifully illustrated RPG takes place in the Warring States Era, and is firmly rooted in the Wuxia Tradition. While you shouldn’t expect Exalted level martial arts and special effects, it’s a great system for simulating wandering swordsmen, cunning courtesans and wise sages in a time where China was still a very splintered nation. The system is interesting, allowing for some of the Wire-Fu effects without turning into Legend of Zu. Check it out here.
- Weapons of the Gods – Now say if you really wanted Legend of Zu, pick up Weapons of the Gods. Taking place in Mythic China, this RPG was born out of a Hong Kong comic book franchise of the same name. Mind-blowing special powers, brightly colored special effects, and unique mechanics make for an awesome Kung Fu game of supernatural prowess. Eos Press are the people to check out for this one.
- Final Stand by Tim Denee – Final Stand can be best described as “one part Tekken and two parts Kung Fu Theatre”. This 23 page PDF download contains one of the most amusing combat systems I have ever encountered in any game, amateur or professional. Set in a rather generic backdrop known as Big City, Final Stand has a five minute character creation process using Stereotypes from Chinese movies that anyone can immediately recognize. In fact, playing up the quirks of each stereotype actually rewards the Character with Chi that he can use in combat. You absolutely owe it to yourself to download this PDF.
I’m a big fan of the Wuxia Genre, admittedly, so I’m always more than willing to run a pick up game of Final Stand, and might actually be able to churn out a decent game of Weapons of the Gods or Qin: the Warring states (even if my ancestors seem to have lost that conflict.) Assuming of course, that I had the time to run it.
January 26, 2009
The second week of Deadlands rolls around with another harrowing adventure starring the Crew of Nine! Fresh from the victory of the Mardi Gras Float Heist, the team is then recruited by an old Mad Scientist contact to take on another job with higher stakes!
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January 25, 2009
Campaign structure isn’t actually something that most people put a lot of thought about.. especially if it’s a freewheeling ongoing campaign with no definite deadline. However, our gaming group is currently working on a rolling cycle of multiple “short” campaigns, of about 12 Weeks, or 3 Months long. This, along with splitting my group across 3 GMs running simultaneously gives players a chance to pick which game they want to run in, and yet still get a chance to play in 4 different games in a year.
That said, my current Deadlands: Reloaded! campaign just kicked off last week and is moving on to game 2 tomorrow. I’ve been looking at my current plan, and I’ve got some measure of an outline in place… and so Spoiler-Free here’s what I’ve got in terms of campaign Structure:
- Total of 12 Sessions.
- Divisible into 4 story arcs, of about 3 sessions each
- Each Story Arc should escalate the metaplot forward
- Each Story Arc should include a single session dedicated to playing up a character’s backstory and / or personality
- Each Story Arc should have a few scenes dedicated to developing secondary NPCs
These are my primary milestones. Scattered within these (which I can’t display just yet) are annotations as to Villains, challenges and other things I’m intending to throw at them. With any luck once this is over, I can actually go and review this structure and fill it out as we go, resulting in a completed campaign structure and outline that I can review, as well as my rationale for each session and what I was hoping to achieve, and if I was able to do so.
January 23, 2009
In my efforts to try and make sure that the games I run have very little in the way of Empty Scenes, my musing has brought me to the topic of noncombat encounters. These are, to put thing simply, encounters with NPCs or situations that take place outside the framework of standard combat. The D&D 4e Skill Challenges are an example of these, and presents a mechanical framework upon which to hang them.
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January 22, 2009
Factions are a must in any form of conflict. Whether it’s the standard Us vs. Them, to the more complex Us vs. Them, and Them, and Maybe Them too, factionalism increases the uncertainty level of a game, putting variables that the players have little to no control of.
It’s the uncertainty of the situation, as well as the mercurial nature of loyalty and agendas that gives a campaign an edge that only factions can provide to a game.
But how do you come up with good factions? Well, let’s go over the details:
- Agenda – Every faction is born from a purpose. People don’t band together in an organized manner for kicks, they do it for a purpose. Whether it’s pushing for a certain kind of change, the death of the reigning monarch or to play an rpg every Saturday, every faction’s agenda dictates their motivation.
- Resources - Factions also have weapons, money, influence or flunkies. This is how they apply pressure upon their target, whether by threats, disinformation, bribery or violence, a faction is always capable of enacting change in their own way.
- Operating Profile – Some factions are out in the open, while others rely upon stealth and discretion in order to survive. Not all factions have to be visible to the players, and it’s the invisible factions that usually end up being the most dangerous.
So how does one apply factions in a game? to properly discuss this, it is necessary to go back to a metagaming angle. As a GM, I try to pepper a scenario with at least 2 other factions, not including the party. These factions are usually aligned against the party or each other, and will take steps in the session to further their respective agendas.
These steps can take the form of bribes, deals or even attacks… it’s important that each of the factions recognizes that the players provide a powerful (or suspicious) new presence, that they might be able to take advantage of, or must destroy immediately.
This achieves 2 things… it provides something for the Players to interact with or fight, and it gives them the impression that the world recognizes them and that they can affect it at a significant level. The players therefore are treated as a potential threat, or a potential asset, which may color the interactions involved.
Once a faction is built, don’t forget to continue onwards with the changes, even while the game goes on. Every achievement, and victory on the part of the players should be taken in account, and the factions will pursue their own goals and change their plans accordingly. A particularly successful group of Player Character Mages, for example, might find offers for an arrangement for protection in exchange for access to knowledge or Mana, or on the other hand, they might be the targets of a rival group that’s unwilling to let a new group elbow in to their perceived territory.
Factions have long memories, and will take an accounting of the character’s performance. As an organization, Factions are enduring, and the friends and enemies that characters make will follow them through their entire careers, or even longer, if we’re talking about Vampires or other long-lived beings like elves.
January 21, 2009
I’ve noticed that a lot of my games are less about efficient builds and tougher monsters as they usually are about situations that require a resolution but involve multiple parties. Perhaps it’s from running too much Mage: the Awakening, and Legend of the Five Rings, but whenever I plan a session as of late, it always has to have at least 2 other factions involved, with their own motives and methods, aside from the players.
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January 20, 2009
