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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arrgh! Mark!" data-source="post: 3977837" data-attributes="member: 14559">If I remember Kung Fu -This may seem a little wacky, but the flashbacks in Kung Fu very rarely involved 'present day' characters. They did highlight a lesson or a learning experience for Grasshopper; what about a flashback as a simple encounter or 2 encounter segment with little chance of obvious failure, but failure not meaning death - basically, both failure and success showing 'skill learned or gained.'Instead of starting off a character at a high level, as he reflects on his past give him experience. A much more wholesome experience storywise, and gives the character a lot more depth. Story plot for flashbacks go like this - 1. Character interacts with problem, and deals with immediate issue.(Sean McCloud comes across a girl being abused by some Mafia thugs. He kicks them about.)2. Character has a flashback to a previous (similar) experience, where he learned something.(Sean McCloud remembers back to the 16th century where an organised group of pimps are deliberately using women and using drugs/deliberate use of gossip and more brutal tactics  to force women to work for them. Sean McCloud now finds the seed of how to undo the crime gang; expose them, assassinate the leader, or whatever. The key here is he finds THE WAY TO DO IT.)3. In the modern world, Character attempts to apply his old experiences. They work in the most part, but not quite, forcing a bit of improvisation and a bit more learning. (Sean McCloud hacks all the mafia guys down. Corrupt cops find him and imprison him under false charges.)4. Due to the mix up of the previous scene, the character sorts out the problems that arose from the previous scene.(Sean McCloud gets the dirty on the cops and reveals the whole thing; he has learned that some experiences are not the same.)5. Flashback to the old sequence, where he has a happy ending or not due to his previous experiences; he leaves town or is a hero or whatever. Regardless, SOME HINT OF THE MIX UP IN THE PRESENT SHOULD REVEAL ITSELF. (Sean McCloud gets the dirty on the pimps and hacks them to pieces; a corrupt cop tries to interfere but Sean has too many witnesses/whatever/ that the corrupt cops ploy won't work, or it only takes a little bit to work.)6. The "what have we learned" scene. PCs talk to one another and resolve the issues - due to their present and past experiences they have grown to become even better than before.</blockquote>

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