How to Twist Plots

el-remmen · Apr 8, 2002

I don't think it is meta-gaming at all - I think it it is based on in-game experience. . .

The adventurer's life is full of hazard and chance - how many traps or cursed items does it take until you are cautious?

If first level characters are being that way I can uderstand that it is meta-gaming. . I'd expect inexperienced adventurers to rush in and grab the gold. . .

But leaving it to deal with when things are safer and resources can be reasonabley expended makes sense to me

mmadsen · Apr 9, 2002

One of my favcorites is using the "Upside Down" technique to swap the good guys and the bad guys, and let the players see their enemies and friends from a different point of view...

What if the orcs are raiding the outlying villages because a dragon has killed/chased off all the game in their Hunting Grounds. The orc tribes came to ask for help from the villagers so that their orclings wouldn't starve. But the humans, with their usual prejudices, drove them away with arrows and spears. Now that winter is coming, the orcs are forced into stealing cattle and sheep to survive... The ultimate solution being to kill the Dragon (who is only collecting the food for her imminent clutch of hatchlings) so the orcs can go home, and everyone leaves everyone alone.

I like it, Jack. Nice.

mmadsen · Apr 9, 2002

I don't think it is meta-gaming at all - I think it it is based on in-game experience. . .

Right, but there's no clear line between the two. The player can (and will) draw inferences that make sense while playing a game that the character wouldn't draw while living his life -- but both the player and his character are running off of in-game experience.

For instance, the character might say, "No one just leaves a pile of treasure sitting out. Look for traps!" But the player might say, "I know nemmerle, and he wouldn't just give us treasure. I guess we look for traps. No traps? Screw it, I'm sure it has to be some kind of set up."

Again, it's a fine line between the two.

mmadsen · Apr 9, 2002

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.

I would've responded to this earlier, but I was speechless. Still am. Unbelievable -- in a very entertaining way.

mmadsen · Apr 10, 2002

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.

Good advice, barsoomcore -- and a very cool sample plot.

mmadsen · Apr 10, 2002

For example, the giant ants are terrorizing the locals and must be dispatched, but first you must find a way to neutralize the poison they secrete before you can get to the queen, but this requires finding an herbalist who has been kidnapped by goblins.

I've always found that the D&D mechanics work against this kind of thing, with such catch-all spells as Remove Curse, Remove Disease, and Neutralize Poison. As DM, you end up hand-waving away the power of these umbrella spells. "Sorry, but Neutralize Poison doesn't work! This is super-special poison!"

mmadsen · Apr 10, 2002

Create a situation where something is not as it seems by using magic, mental powers or technology as the means. You can orchestrate the twist so that it is suddenly revealed and the players are shocked, or you can turn the scenario into a series of clues and the players are rewarded for successfully deducing the truth (Scooby Doo style).

I think we all went through a phase where we seriously overdid this one, right? Dopplegangers everywhere, illusions over bottomless pits, etc.