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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5395448" data-attributes="member: 42582">That's part of what I mean. To give an example. One of the PCs in my current game is a Drow rebel who worships Corellon (the Elven god of magic). He is also a sorcerer who draws power from the Elemental Chaos and the Abyss. At night, by the campfire, he sings ancient Drow lays of when they lived in the surface world beneath the stars and beside the waters. And his long-term goal is to reunify the races of Elvenkind.Now that's character backstory and goals. It's not a plot per se. But what it tells me is that this player wants adventures and encounters that enliven these various elements: from small things, like his fluency in Elven making a difference, to big things, like having to choose whether to draw power from the Abyss even though that may strengthen the hand of Lolth and thus reduce the propspects of any unsundering of the Elves.As I build these sorts of opportunities for that player into the game, I define more and more of the backstory of the world. The player's responses to those opportunities - which are influence by how they tie into the backstory and are likely to shape the development of the world - make the game unfold.By "the plot" of my game I would generally mean the thematically relevant backstory, plus the choices the players have made for their PCs in response to that backstory, plus the immediate consequences of the resolution of those choices, plus the stuff that is likely to come next in the game in response to what has unfolded so far.This last part of "the plot" - being oriented towards the future - is of course provisional, even in some cases conjectural. But I still have it in mind when I design encounters/adventures/backstory - I want what is happening in the game at present to at least be consistent with, and at best be supportive of, the destination that the game seems to be heading towards. For example, I envision one element of the culmination of this Drow PC's Epic Destiny being a confrontation with Lolth (who is statted out in the 4e MM3), and I always have that in the back of my mind when designing adventures and encounters at the moment. But if it turns out that this isn't going to happen (eg maybe at some stage the PC will change his mind and become a Lolth worshipper) then I will have to respond to those changes in further developing adventures, encounters and backstory.</blockquote>

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