The elements of plot building?

[randomling]

I'm pretty much still a novice DM, and admittedly, not a great one. Among my many problems (of which more in another thread) is that I don't have the faintest idea how to make a plot work. Now, people on the boards have been great at helping me with plot ideas and structures, but I need to be able to figure out the rudiments of plotting by myself.

So what are the elements of plot building? What are the steps to building a good plot, and how do you get ideas in the first place?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Crothian]

There are different ways to build plot, it really depends on what you are trying to do. A good mystery builds slowing with introduction of the crime, the supsects, and then the clues. An action seqwuence can be simple once the badguy is introduced, fighting happens. You can have any sort of plot lead up to that. There are the short plots that get dealt with in a session, the side plots that get dealt with when the PCs feel they need to devote time that, way, and the campaign plot that slowly builds over a year or so. It's a lot like story writing, one builds to the climax.

 

[Kyramus]

Think of your campaign to be a web.

Each plot is a thread that holds the web in place.

the big bad guy/gal is in the middle of the web. to reach it, you have to have criss cross several different avenues.

PC A gets hired by NPC A
PC A defeats Enemy A and finds out NPC A isn't what he portrays himself to be
PC A returns and confronts NPC A
NPC A unleashes Minnions A B and C
PC A fights Minnions A B and C while NPC A escapes.

expand NPC A to report to Baddie A
Baddie A gives NPC A some more troops and goes to report to Despicable A

etc

 

[Buttercup]

The thing that works for me is to create the geography of an area first, and then ask all the questions I can think of.

Let's say it's a collection of 4 or 5 villages in a fertile valley, at the northern end of which sits a keep. Why is the keep there? Who lives there? Are they good or evil? How long have they been there? What is their relationship with the various villages? What are the relationships between the villages like? Are the villages walled? If yes, against what? Have things changed in the valley? Why? Who holds the economic power in the valley? How far is the nearest market town? Are there any ruins nearby? If yes, what is the story behind them? Do any wizards live in the valley? Druids? Rangers? Is the valley on or near a caravan route? The migratory route of a tribe of orcs? I could go on here, but you get the idea. Once I have answered these questions, all sorts of plots suggest themselves.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Plot building is not too big a deal. I find that it largely tends to happen on its own.

I will assume that you have either had or already have some ideas for one or two adventures. Save the princess, storm the Wizards Tower. Whatever. Those details are not too important at the moment.

Plot building starts to matter after you have run your first few adventures in your campaign. Lets say that the players slew an evil wizard, but his apprentice escaped. What will this apprentice do now? Will he plot revenge? Will he try to assume his former masters power and complete the evil scheme himself?

All you need to do is take a look at who survived from the previous adventures, and decide who will pop up again. Then you decide why. Perhaps the Evil wizard was trying to awaken a sleeping dragon because he belonged to an evil cult. Maybe the surviving apprentice can finish the ritual.

After running a few adventures, usually about 3 or 4, you will have built up enough back story material to have future adventures feed off of it. Is your next adventure an assualt on an Orcish Dungeon? If it is, and the players realize that the Orcs are wearing the same battle standard that the players saw on the Wizards tower, it will get their attention.

All you have to do to build a decent plot is to make connections to your previous adventures. Even of they are strained and tenuous, if you are consistent enough, that will not matter.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Sagan Darkside]

So what are the elements of plot building? What are the steps to building a good plot, and how do you get ideas in the first place?

Hmm. This is a tough question. To me: outlining and pacing are the two big parts of plot building.

My first thought is to turn to tv shows and movies your group enjoys- and begin to watch them as if you are watching an rpg game being played out.

Watch how the protagonists are introduced the machinations of the antagonists, and then the pattern for how that unfolds.

Different shows/movies tend to have different patterns.

Star Trek- TNG:
1) Become aware of antagonists (usually appears innocent)
1a) small side story begins, usually unrelated to plot, but runs parallel in theme and pacing to conclusion.
2) Conflict becomes apparent.
3) First attempt to deal with conflict fails and usually makes it worse, but leads to option for second attempt
4) Conflict spirals to near defeat of protagonists until second attempt succedes.

Simpsons (I love this example):
1) Simple short story of exploration or dealing with initial weak antagonist.
2) During the conflict- the protagonists begin to deal with true antagonist that has no ties with #1
3) Dealing with the major conflict takes the protagonists in a total unrelated direction from #1, and becomes the bulk of the adventure
4) Resolution tends to finish second resolution and the first (if it is outstanding)

Once you find a basic pattern that appeals to you- then you can begin to put ideas to it:

Simpson d&d adventure:
1) Players are sent to huge state-run library by their employer to retrieve book of family history, but the librarian will not hand over the book.
2) PC's run into distraught young woman who also is being refused access to a book she needs to save brother from the thief guild holding him.
3) PC's get involved in complicated plot to rescue a brother that does not exist- so the "distraught" woman can take advantage of the now weakened thief guild.
4) PC's get some recognition for (hopefully) dealing a blow to the thief guild, and can use some political leverage to get the book.

Now, I am not saying use this pattern every time. In fact, you should find a few patterns to try out and put aside a couple you can mix into a campeign.

Once you have the outline- you can then begin to flesh it out with encounters (combat and non). This leads into pacing- which is a touchy part of plot building. It only comes with experience- and knowing your style and the style of your players.

The last thing to keep in mind is that if you make an outline too inflexible (the players need to help the woman in the example abouve or the adventure is over), then the players will tend to break your plan. Not because they are being malicious, but because they don't always follow the dm's line of thinking.

You will need to think in terms of "what if" at times- when a pc decision is important. You can usually work branches of decisions back into the main story you have in mind.

For your last question- how do I get my ideas in the first place?

I usually steal them.

I buy many rpg adventures and supplements, and then pillage my way through the book for ideas I can use- perhaps just one room that I think is cool, or an npc I really want to use, or maybe a climatic battle I want to put the pc's in (this almost always backfires on me, heh).

A great source for ideas is the players- try to get them to write backgrounds for their characters and even summaries for adventures from their character's perspective. (I offer xp for both.)

Another way to use the players is once you have the rough idea of your world- lay it out for the players, and offer them the chance to write up parts of the world in exchange for xp. Religions, cities, countries, guilds, etc-

For example: I will usually come up with lists of countries, gods, guilds and etc- and put basic descriptions next to them. I will never write them fully out until I need them or a player wants to interact with them. So- if a player volunteers to write one up, then I have a resource to tap into.. and the player feels invested in the campeign when you use their creation.

Go read the Story Hour forum on this site. Just scanning them often gives me an idea I can use for adventures.

Good luck to you!
SD

edit: One piece of advice given to me by a great dm was that when running a campeign- keep track of what the players thing is going on. If they are totally wrong- but really excited with what they think is going on.. then go with it The players like feeling clever and it helps you to have them excited with a story.

 

[Silver Moon]

Plots

Hello again Randomling,

My wife and I both contributed to and closely followed your prior thread a month ago. It is good to see the two threads you began today. I actually have very little to add, as you have already received a great deal of excellent suggestions on both threads (Sagan Darkside's above would work well for you). I'd ignore the suggestion that was made about asking your players for a detailed critque (especailly given your prior comments about those players) as that would undercut your authority with the group and not help your self-confidence as a DM. Consider them coming back for more being sufficient as a sign of approval.

My main first recommendation for plot, which has worked well for me in the past, is to have a big picture of where you want the first three or four modules to end up. Don't go to the effort of writing the modules yourself, find several already published ones that might work together (Dungeon Magazine is an excellent source - several are also available online from various sources). Then read them all, ask "what are the common elements?" and "What order should these fall in?"

As you run the first module start to add plot elements to foreshadow the other ones, including NPC's from the later modules who can just make casual appearances earlier on, to add to the flow. In the course of figuring out the linkages you will also think of a few new elements of your own that will also add to the flow and possibly set the group off in different directions (and lead to future player-initiated modules). The end result will be a series of inter-connected modules with a natural flow to them as a unified campaign.

 

[Buttercup]

I'm pretty much still a novice DM, and admittedly, not a great one.

I meant to comment on this earlier, but it slipped my mind.

Randomling, I'll bet you are a much better DM than you give yourself credit for. You have been giving it a great deal of thought, trying to improve your skill, and that's a big part of what makes a good DM. I'm sure you are not as good as you will be after you've been at it for several years, but that is as it should be. We all improve with practice.

Believe in yourself, because we believe in you!

 

[randomling]

Hi everyone -- first of all thank you to everyone who's posted, it's always useful to get lots of different perspectives on the same issue.

Buttercup: thank you. I'm told my DMing skills are not that bad (though my rules skills are not great). And I'm posting threads all over the place on how to get better. You never know, one day I might be the next Piratecat! (Yeah... right.)

Silver Moon, particularly, thanks for your advice. In fact I'm going to change the direction of the thread now slightly. Can anyone recommend, say three or four good modules (preferably designed for 1st to 5th levels)? This way I can pick them up and try Silver Moon's advice and also get a rough idea of a "normal" adventure structure.

Thanks, guys!

 

[Buttercup]

Modules, eh?

I really like Wizard's Amulet/Crucible of Freya from Necromancer Games. WA is a free download from their website, and they also have a web enhancement for Crucible that you can't access until you have the code from the purchased module. There's enough stuff here to take a party of 4 to about high third level, and perhaps even to fourth, if they follow up on every lead.

Another option would be Root of All Evil/Forging Darkenss/Coin's End from Kenzer. These are set in the Renaria Bay region of Kalamar. I haven't actually run this trilogy yet, but as soon as I have a TPK (which given the recklessness of my players is only a matter of time ) I will be switching to Kalamar and using them. These will take a party of 4 from 1st level to mid sixth, I'd say. Kenzer modules even supply you with handouots, and tell you when to give them to the players, so they are at least worth a look.

Finally, the Freeport trilogy are excellent, if you can find them. The first one, at least, is out of print, so unless your local gaming store has a copy in stock still, you're out of luck.

I am deliberately not recommending the WotC modules which begin with Sunless Citadel, because I don't think they will offer you the plotting help you are interested in. They were made deliberately vague so DMs could fit them into their own worlds, but right now, that's not what you want. Also, I think Sunless Citadel's encounters may be too hard for a party of inexperienced players--they're likely to get creamed.