Do you plotweave?

[apocalypstick]

The Scene: Our heroes are riding to Drammath Keep, the home of their erstwhile ally in the Royal Court, Lord Cecil Braden.

Fighter 1: "Aargh! I told you guys we should've looked into what Lord Braden's son was doing in Andellmeir! But nooooo... 'we already paid for the passage to Caithonel.'"

Fighter 2: "I didn't think he hated his father so much that he'd kill him!"

Cleric: "Uh... guys? I hate to tell you this, but you see that flag flying beneath Ser Gregor's?"

Fighter 2: *groans*

Fighter 1: "So that's where the Cult of Nerull's been getting all their money from..."

Fighter 2: *groans again*

 

[s/LaSH]

Always. There are Things Happening, and there are factions doing them, and the PCs happen to be affiliated with one such faction (the Venetian Republic), which sends them off to interact with other factions. But in the meantime, other people are doing other things, and every so often they cross paths with the PCs.

In other words, there's one main storyline, but a lot of the adventure comes between points A and B as the heroes come across people doing stuff they just have to interfere in. Maybe half of it's story related, but other bits keep cropping up.

And huge, huge chunks of story are invisible to the players...

 

[rounser]

"Plotweaving" as defined here simply sounds like "not railroading". I can have several villains doing their thing at once, but their schemes are usually relatively straightforward and don't overlap much.

I agree that concurrent adventures work, especially in having consequences for PC actions; if PCs spend too long foiling villain A, villain B may succeed elsewhere. That seems to wow players more than having a subtle, convoluted plot that they can't follow, and means that PC actions write the story arc for you (villain A may join with villain B after his forces are ruined, for instance).

 

[gunter uxbridge]

I like to take an "x-files" approach. About every other session or adventure or so is related to the "big story arcs" and the rest are more self-contained. But even those have foreshadowing and hints in them.

This is exactly what I am doing right now. The group will be involved in an arc that could conceivably take them to 20th level, but will only rear its head every few sessions. Even better, there will be times when they don't even realize they are in the main story, and only when the end comes will they realize how everything ties in togther. I'm dropping hints like a madman, and if they are clever enough they will start putting together things ni the next few months. Right about 10th level I'm going to turn their world upside down.

I also like throwing out red herrings from time to time. Little things like finding a note or whatever on a body that seems important but is really just day to day garbage. Players can make the biggest mountains out of the smallest molehills if you give them enough time.

 

[jester47]

I do, but I do it episodicly. I present a standalone adventure, and drop in indicators of other plots. This way the world does not seem to revolve entirely around the PCs and the plots can twist without tying up gaming resources.

Example: In two separate adventures I can put two parts of a broken sword. While the story of the sword is not central to the adventures it does make the PCs wonder how one part of a sword got so far from the other. Then there might be an adventure that ties somthing related to that sword in to the main plot but not the sword itself.

This keeps me sane and lends versimilitude.

Aaron.

 

[Imperialus]

in a campaign I hope to start soon all the characters are children in various nobel houses allied together as the kingdom teeters on the brink of civil war. I have the first half dozen or so adventures planned out and I don't think they once end up in a dungoncrawl... unless they do something really stupid and literally end up in a dungon.

 

[Eosin the Red]

I do but I am running a Birthright PBeM where there are literally 4-5 dozen plots running around with only a third or so of those being mine. I run my home game off of the PBeM so it is an instant plot generator.