How to Twist Plots

Heh. I forgot about my new .sig. Kind of hard to look clueless with that hanging around the bottom of my post, isn't it?

I had the main villian of the campaign turn up (via a lackey) at the hero's stronghold and tell them all about a second nasty villian (that the first guy wanted out of the way), and that 'cause they were the "great heroes", etc, they should really do something about it.

Even though they knew it was a set up, they couldn't very well let villian #2 stomp around the countryside, so they took off after him, cursing the whole time and hating villian #1 more and more. It was great!

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Hehe. Nice. Helping a villain for some greater good is always a nice twist. Or harming a good person to prevent a great evil...

Hmmm.

I guess this could be called a twist on a regular plot. Left my PCs very, very upset (and very nearly executed).

Low level and unknown, they are suprised upon entering a major city, to which they have never before been, to be met at the gates by a nobleman's servant.

Apparently he's been waiting specifically for them, as his master wants them to perform an important mission. They get a formal letter telling anyone they meet that they are on official business and should be given any and all aid, and are told Bad Guy X has stolen a family heirloom. Said Mr X was last seen at Inn Y. They get a large downpayment for their services, and the offer of much more upon their success.

After asking a couple questions at Inn Y, and finding Mr X to be recently deceased, a group of adventurers come through the door loudly asking for the notorious and underhanded Mr X.

The two groups get into discussion, and one PC is informed he has been poisoned, and must return with this adventuring party for the antitode. He is subsequently tortured for information, especially with regards to the letter.

Escape, conflict, another group hunting for the same heirloom etc... and finally jail for the PCs after a few deaths.

In the end, it is discovered that the three groups hunting for this heirloom have been hired by three young noblemen who make a habit of hiring unknown adventuring parties, setting them all the same task, and betting large amounts of cash on who will hire the successful party.

That's Just Plain Evil...

SableWyvern said:

In the end, it is discovered that the three groups hunting for this heirloom have been hired by three young noblemen who make a habit of hiring unknown adventuring parties, setting them all the same task, and betting large amounts of cash on who will hire the successful party.

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SW -

That is priceless! Now, how do I work that into my campaign!

~ Old One

In the end, it is discovered that the three groups hunting for this heirloom have been hired by three young noblemen who make a habit of hiring unknown adventuring parties, setting them all the same task, and betting large amounts of cash on who will hire the successful party.

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Ooh, elements of "Bait & Switch" and "How Many?" there, SableWyvern. Good show!

I'm sure certain plot twists get old a lot faster than others. How many of you have had a party immediately assume the kindly wizard hiring them is up to no good? Or that the person they're rescuing doesn't want to be rescued?

mmadsen: I know I've had the opposite happen - a party that couldn't come to terms with the fact that their employer was evil, while he was in the process of torturing them for information.

They kept trying to tell me that I wasn't roleplaying properly, that this particular character wouldn't do that, this isn't something good guys do etc...

Unbelievable.

SableWyvern said:

They kept trying to tell me that I wasn't roleplaying properly, that this particular character wouldn't do that, this isn't something good guys do etc...

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Bwa-Ha-Ha! My players have finally figured out that one of the key building blocks of my campaign is that nobody acquires power unless they're cold-hearted bastards out to dominate the world. So there are no good guys.

Right now, the party is attempting to restore the soul of one Tsing Kwan, former grand poo-bah of some secret order. This order is trying to prepare the world for the coming of a seriously nasty undead queen, but unfortunately a hundred years ago their grand poo-bah was not only killed but had her soul shattered -- done specifically to prevent the order from contacting her after death, as they would normally do.

Okay, so restore the soul of grand poo-bah, fairly straightforward plot. First twist is kind of an "Upside Down" manuver -- the party is not asked to do this by the order (they actually don't even know it's possible) but instead by one very scary vampire sorcereress named Yuek Man Chong, who tells them that restoring Tsing Kwan's soul will tear a strip off ANOTHER scary sorcerer named Matai Shang, since he's the one who shattered her soul. So already it's getting kind of iffy.

Second twist -- they soon discover that Madame Yuek is in fact the one who killed Tsing Kwan in the first place. She used to be enslaved to Matai Shang but is much better now. No, really.

Third twist -- they also learn that one of their own members has a fragment of the shattered soul in their head. The only person who can see these fragments is an insane ghost who's in love with the chap carting the soul fragment around. Was that one twist or two? Hang on, now it starts to get complicated.

Fourth twist -- the secret order of which Tsing Kwan used to be grand poo-bah has been largely subverted by Matai Shang and so whenever the party approach them for assistance in this whole venture, they get captured and tortured for information.

Fifth twist -- since it was their erstwhile patron, Madame Yuek, who killed Tsing Kwan, even those members of the secret order who aren't now working for Matai Shang are terrified of her and won't speak to the party once they realise they're involved with her.

Sixth twist -- Madame Yuek falls desperately in love with one of the party members and is actually trying to reform her incredibly wicked and depraved ways. She claims she wants to restore the soul of Tsing Kwan so she can apologise for the murder. Oh, and the subsequent destruction of the entire city. The rest of the party are sceptical, to say the least.

Seventh twist -- oh well, never mind. It gets much worse. Turns out there's more secret orders, more cabals within those secret orders, more ghosts, a djinni, a fairie kingdom, a boat and more torture, death and horror than any of my players can shake a stick at. Heh. And of course some hot girl-on-girl action. Cause, well, do I really have to justify that?

I don't know how all those slot into Col. Hardisson's categories or if they do. My method of twisting a plot is very simple. I come up with a simple story, something everyone knows, and then I choose one detail and ask myself, "What if this isn't true?" I then keep doing that until I get dizzy and fall over. If I can still understand what's actually going on at that point, I keep going.

I always listen to the ruminations of the players as they view the plot unfolding. Adding some of their thoughts makes them think they figured parts of it out; and sometimes their ideas make more sense than the original.

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So true, Zhure. So true.

Hahaha

For an example of the above, check out this thread on the Aquerra boards - It is my players doing just that, much to my glee!