Confession: I like Plot

[Paka]

Words like plot and story get us into trouble, I think because at the gaming table they mean different things to different people.

I don't want plot so much as situation.

• The players are orc whose horde has been decimated and they are now stuck behind enemy lines, deep in elven lands.
  
• The duke in the north is attempting to usurp the throne from the young king.
  
• The elven etharch just died and the throne is up for grabs, who do you support?

I want something for the players to grab onto while they are making characters and stuff to for them to be driven to do and react to.

 

[Wombat]

Plot is important to my games -- though there is a difference between plot and railroading. The important matter is to get a balance between having a general plot and a purely settled on.

Many times the "plot" of my campaign is only really determined after 4-5 session -- I have a generalized notion of where I want to see the campaign go, but I then I want to see what interests my players, what is the Shiny Thing they want to carry on with. With that, I have sort of an "evolving plot" that is shaped by the group collectively.

As a side note -- I do use dreams in my games ... but my players also come to realize that not every dream is prophetic, that some of them are simply dreams...

 

[Janx]

I like plot. I've written a numbe of blog entries on plot.

The trick is to make plots that the players and their PCs will pursue. Just writing up a ton of plots is a waste of energy. Write a plot that you KNOW the players will go for. Best way to do that is to find out what they want to do in generic terms.

Like Rel, my first session with the party is usually a "there's only 1 problem in the village, go solve it" mission. This is intended to get the party together, test their mettle, and see what opens up.

I usually try to have all the PCs be connected to each other, if only by Kevin Bacon. Such that PC1 knows PC2 who knows PC3. This means introduction goes pretty quick.

Our gaming group usually has the meta-game rule that the group finds the plot-hook and bites it. The sub-clause is that it has to be logical for the party to do so. No screwing the party just because they HAVE to bite the hook. No making the mission be "assassinate the good king with your party of Paladins".

Its important to recognize the differnce between making a plot, and plotting the story. An over-arching plot is "the BBEG has a number of hench-parties pursuing specific tasks to enable his complete victory. The party should discover these and have adventures stopping them".

That kind of plot gives me material for a number of sessions, and it is so nonspecific that I can write each session based on the results of the last.

As opposed to writing up 3 specific evil parties and their tasks, only to find out the party is ill-sutied to deal with the first adventure, and such.

Loose-plotting good. Tight plotting bad.

 

[Ariosto]

Loose-plotting good. Tight plotting bad.

I would say that one can look to the original Dragonlance modules for egregiously bad examples; my gang washed our hands of that exercise in futility midway through the second installment. Vecna Lives! is a noisome pile I actually bought only to rue the day (although some of the background material might be worth salvaging).

Don't get invested in "scenes". The scheme of one thing after another that absolutely shall happen to the player-characters -- or to which they absolutely shall be spectators -- is deadly.

Call of Cthulhu scenarios typically involve the investigation of some mystery; that recurring plot element really characterizes the game more than the affect of horror. Players' acceptance of that, "buying in" to the premise, is fundamental to success. It should be no more (nor less) an issue than accepting that an old-style D&D game is about underworld and wilderness adventures (i.e., the Dungeons in the title are a likely place to find fun stuff the Dungeon Master has prepared).

A mystery scenario pretty necessarily entails following a trail of clues to a solution. It may be a false solution, the investigators deluding themselves, but if the trail goes cold then the "plot" tends to fall apart and the game turn dull.

I put "plot" in quotation marks because a linear series of ordained events is not needed. There ought to be plenty of possible paths through the scenario, the GM's concern being simply to make sure that the players never stray so far from all the paths as to get bored.

Experience at dungeon design is good practice for constructing such event-driven scenarios, because a dungeon map is in essence a flow chart of possible encounters.

 

[pawsplay]

"Plot of an RPG" is a phrase very similar in meaning to "bucket made out of paper." If you want to use the term plotting in an RPG, and I don't because I think it confuses the issue, you can usefully

- identify future events that will come to pass if the PCs do nothing
- devise encounters that can occur even if the PCs do something
- base future events on past occurences to suggest a kind of thematic sense to the whole thing

The one thing you cannot do is hang your entire campaign on getting the PCs to the volcano.

 

[awesomeocalypse]

The best way to come up with a plot that works is this:

At character creation, have each of your players explain to you what motivates their character in the longterm e.g. getting revenge on the villain who killed their father, freeing their homeland from the control of some dark lord, becoming the world's greatest wizard, winning the heart of a princess, etc.

Then take those motivations, and construct your plot in such a way that the singular goal you create for your party will somehow advance each of your players goal.

For instance, using the examples I gave above (revenge, freedom, power and love), you might create a story where the villain who killed the first pc's father is actually the right-hand man of the dark lord who conquered the second pc's homeland. And perhaps that dark lord is widely known as the world's greatest wizard, a title that many have died trying to take (but which the 3rd pc is determined to wrest from his hands, by any means necessary). He has just declared war on a neighboring kingdom, and to stave off absolute destruction there are rumors that that nation's king may be forced to betrothe his daughter, the most beautiful woman in the world (at least according to the 4th pc who has admired her from afar), to the dark lord.

Suddenly, however different each of those pcs are, they all have a compelling reason to follow the plot you lay out for them. Railroading isn't necessary, because you've built the story around their desires.

 

[AverageCitizen]

The best way to come up with a plot that works is this:

At character creation, have each of your players explain to you what motivates their character in the longterm e.g. getting revenge on the villain who killed their father, freeing their homeland from the control of some dark lord, becoming the world's greatest wizard, winning the heart of a princess, etc.

Then take those motivations, and construct your plot in such a way that the singular goal you create for your party will somehow advance each of your players goal.

For instance, using the examples I gave above (revenge, freedom, power and love), you might create a story where the villain who killed the first pc's father is actually the right-hand man of the dark lord who conquered the second pc's homeland. And perhaps that dark lord is widely known as the world's greatest wizard, a title that many have died trying to take (but which the 3rd pc is determined to wrest from his hands, by any means necessary). He has just declared war on a neighboring kingdom, and to stave off absolute destruction there are rumors that that nation's king may be forced to betrothe his daughter, the most beautiful woman in the world (at least according to the 4th pc who has admired her from afar), to the dark lord.

Suddenly, however different each of those pcs are, they all have a compelling reason to follow the plot you lay out for them. Railroading isn't necessary, because you've built the story around their desires.

This.

I think that the characters and the plot are inseparable. Either the plot needs to be made to fit the characters or the characters need to be made to fit the plot. My group has done it both ways, and usually I write the story at the same time they make their characters. Either I say, "I have cool idea for a story, roll up some new guys," or one (or more) of them will say "I made a cool character, will you run something for him?" That way we have focus.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

The one thing you cannot do is hang your entire campaign on getting the PCs to the volcano.

I disagree. You CAN, it is just distasteful to some people. I'm rather the opposite. If the campaign doesn't hinge on us getting to the volcano it feels unfocused and random to me. I also like plot.

I like the idea that we are playing though the campaign to find the powerful artifact to defeat the evil villain to save the world. I like knowing that at least certain milestones are planned out and will almost definitely happen unless we do something so horrendously unexpected to completely remove the plot from the game.

 

[Thunderfoot]

<SNIP>
The one thing you cannot do is hang your entire campaign on getting the PCs to the volcano.

Very true, but be sure not to just let it slide, in the example, the well known halfling keeps the ring, kills the ugly creature and returns to his hole - what happens then?

I remember a story (I think Monte Cook told it but I am unsure) about a party that was running through the "Temple of Elemental Evil". They found the "Decanter of Endless Lemonade" and instead of finding the stopper, they just threw it on the ground. Flash forward 3 campaign months later and a group of druids want to speak to them about their environmental mess they left around the temple - it seems the DM made a note of it and now the temple was surrounded by a sticky, festering, lemonade swamp.

Railroading is bad, (I'm in no way saying you must do A, then B, then C or else the bad guy wins, there are ALWAYS options) but keep in mind, this is what happens when something is just forgotten - consequences. I think the idea of "teleporting treasure" (as stated in another thread) that 4e purports (ie the treasure/monster/situation doesn't exist until its found by the party) stands in the way of consequences such as these. It isn't wrong, per se, just not necessarily very smart. What if the party doesn't go to "Old Montgomery's Farm" and find the sword of dragon slaying, but another party does? When the party can't deal with the threat of a later incursion of dragons in a village but another group of adventurers shows up and can, it makes for an interesting role play opportunity.

Yes, plot is necessary, but it should be fluid and consequential.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I like plot (and story) in D&D. However, I like for it to evolve out of play and interaction, rather than predefined paths or scripts. I usually DM. As DM, I have a good idea about possible plots and stories that might come up (just because of the situation and the hooks I've planted), but I like a pretty free-form (and player-driven) game, so I often get surprised at the way things turn.