Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[JackAce]

Here's another option:
Let the players come up with the preparatory tasks themselves!

Again taking Markus' Gambling Mafia example, start the campaign with a few missions given to the characters by The Don. Some of these missions will involve the use of brute force, while others are of a more delicate nature. And some of these missions will go horribly wrong, forcing the players to come up with working auxiliary plans quickly.

After this has been going a while, The Don calls the characters into his office and tells them: "You've done some good work until now, and I see the potential for more in you. Now I wanna see how good you do on your own. I want to take controll of all the illegal gambling houses on the west side. And I want YOU to come up with a plan how to do that."

If the players now come up with the Tommygun Plan, have The Don laugh out loud and say "OK, that was a good one, now tell me about your real plan..."

Since you, the GM and Plot Point Author, have already thought through this plan, you'll probably be prepared for most of the ideas the players will now suggest. If they come up with something you didn't expect, then you'll still have enough Plot Points prepared to buy you time and create a new one based on the players' idea.
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[starwars1138]

The thread keeps getting better I must admit.

Someone made the comment (too lazy to backtrack to it right now) that writing a plot point campaign for a commercial book that is to be run by various GMs with varying parties is much more difficult than writing one for YOUR own group. I think that is a very valid point. It should be much easier to tailor something for your own group than for "any" group.

Someone else (again... lazy) also said that allowing for lots of off-point adventuring is key as well. Something that is much more linear like Evernight might not be nearly as flexible as 50 Fathoms. To me, Evernight is more like a setting book with a huge adventure campaign included than say Low Life, which is much more like what I think of when I use the term plot-point.

The fact that a plot point campaign can be used to cause the party to explore specific areas and things within the campaign setting is interesting as well. In a way, the Star Wars movies follow this path. It is implied in the movies that things happen in between episodes. And from this line of thinking, I can't help thinking that George Lucas had all these locales and scenes he wanted to "visit" (Tatooine, the snow planet of Hoth, the pod-race) which helped the audience get a feel for the world he wished to create.

I don't think I am really saying anything profound in this reply, just thinking out loud about some of the things that have been mentioned.

I have an end-point for the Firefly campaign that I'd love to run sometime. The "end" would be the start of another civil war against the Alliance (it being nice if somehow the group became involved, intentionally or inadvertently).

I'd want to start the series at about the time the Message goes out. Let the group bounce around doing whatever jobs they can get for a while, and as the rumblings of rebellion increase, they can take whatever role they wished in the uprising. There would be plenty of chances to become involved and if they decided not to take them and remain apathetic, then it would be up to me to figure out a way to motivate them to do so, without railroading them into the whole thing. Kind of like the unwilling Rebel/Han Solo theme.

I guess in hindsight, there really isn't any need for a fleshed out plot-point in my case. The rebellion can happen whether the party chooses to participate at all. If they do, then all I need is maybe some pre-thought-out ideas about how to get them involved. But if they don't, then they can just float around like leaves on the wind, like the aforementioned 50 Fathoms group.

Sheesh - sorry about my verbosity. Sometimes I think I type just to hear the clicks of the keyboard...

Anyway, great thread! I am getting lots from it
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[Flynn]

Since I started the thread, I guess I could work through an example to see if I have the process down right. This being a public forum, of course, I can't use the work I create here on my own players, as they might read it here and thus will be expecting it. However, anyone else is welcome to pick it up and run with the results.

I suppose that the core to any Plot Point is essentially the outline of events that follow the main storyline, which can be fleshed out into adventures as needed. Therefore, I will start with the basic outline and build from there.

Using a suggestion from a previous poster, I'll outline the Plot Points of a famous movie of our youth, Star Wars, and convert the results to a fantasy setting in the hopes that the players will not recognize the plot immediately.

Star Wars As Fantasy: A Plot Point Example

The setting here is a series of islands in an archipelago, where sailing on a ship between islands takes the place of starships traveling between worlds.

Background: A great Dark Warlord in service to an Evil Archmage has drawn up military plans to expand the Evil Empire. Spies of a growing rebellion against the Evil Empire have stolen the military plans. The plans end up in the hands of a young diplomat who is seeking out a former Warlord who might serve as a general in a battle to overcome the Dark Warlord, slay the Evil Archmage and remove the yoke of the Evil Empire from the archipelago.

However, the Dark Warlord's ship catches up with the Young Diplomat's vessel, but a Humble Scholar devoted to the Young Diplomat escapes during the battle after memorizing the plans, taking a rowboat to shore where he is then captured by tribesman.

Point One: PCs meet Humble Scholar and end up with him. Either you could present the PCs with an opportunity to buy him from some slave pens, or better yet, they are involved in a separate adventure to rescue another captured slave, and end up with the Humble Scholar among those they free in the process.

Point Two: Humble Scholar enlists PCs to help him find Hermit Warlord. Once the PCs have met the Hermit Warlord, they learn of the battle plans and of the capture of the Young Diplomat at the hands of the Dark Warlord.

Point Three: PCs, along with Humble Scholar and Hermit Warlord, travel into port city to find transport to the Young Diplomat's island, where rebel contacts await the battle plans. They must avoid Evil Empire military in the process.

Point Four: Employing the services of a Dashing Smuggler, the PCs make it to the Young Diplomat's island, only to find that it has recently been conquered by the Dark Warlord's forces, which are still present. Their ship is captured. If PCs hide, then they are free to move about on their own stealthily. If captured, they must break out.

Point Five: While in the clutches of the Dark Warlord, the PCs discover that the Young Diplomat is still alive. The Humble Scholar begs them to rescue her. Hermit General gives his life in sacrifice as a diversion, allowing PCs to escape with Young Diplomat. There should be a good chase scene here, as part of that escape.

Point Six: Under the direction of the Young Diplomat, the PCs travel to another island where the rebels have established a secret base of operations. Humble Scholar reproduces the battle plans he has memorized, and PCs can either be involved in plans or not. Before too long, however, the ships of the Dark Warlord are sighted off in the distance. They've been followed! Big mass battle potentially coming up.

Point Seven: If the PCs want the Mass Battle to go well for them, they have to take out the influence of the Dark Warlord, so they must play through a final confrontation with him, either slaying him or forcing him to flee to safety, removing his influence from the Mass Battle's resolution. Then the PCs jump in on the Mass Battle, and hopefully the rebellion wins. If they do, they up and move their base of operations, before reinforcements can come.

Okay, we have seven Plot Points, it seems. Each of them could be fleshed out into adventures in their own right (some inspired by the movie while others may be inspired by creative thoughts formed in the process of conversion as the story starts taking on a life of its own), and a number of side adventures could be added along the way.

How should we flesh this out?

More In A Moment,
Flynn
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[Wiggy]

Just a brief explanation of the terminology we use in-house and the most basic design method.

1) Think of the Plot Point.

A Plot Point is the overall campaign; the Big Picture, if you like.

When designing the PP, you should be able to sum it up in a single sentence with no clauses or conditions--"Liberate a city," (Necropolis) or "Destroy the Sea Hags," (50F), or "Save the world from alien invaders" (EN or NE) are all examples of a Plot Point.

If it takes more than a sentence or uses clauses or conditions ("Collect four items and destroy the Sea Hags," for example), you're starting to think in terms of episodes.

2) Plot the Episodes.

A Plot Point episode is an individual, important part of the campaign--a single ST that progress the overarcing PP. It's sole purpose is to keep the PP moving forward in the desired direction.

When designing episodes, you need to think about the questions raised by the PP idea. For 50F, the obvious big question is, "What do the party need to accomplish to destroy the super Sea Hags?" When you decide it requires gaining some relics, this big question then breaks down into related questions, like, "How do they learn of the items' whereabouts?", "Where are they located?", and "How do they acquire them?" Answering these questions helps form the PP episodes.

Separating the PP idea from the episodes which make up the story should be the first step.


Wiggy
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[Flynn]

Okay, I suppose that I should now take the basic outline and see what other adventures I could place in and around it to flesh it out more. While this originally began as a fantasy conversion of the Star Wars plot, here is where we start to make it our own story.

Point One, above, sounds like it would be make for a better adventure (and a more subtle lead-in) if the PCs rescue the Humble Scholar as a secondary part of another adventure, so let's figure out why the PCs are raiding the tribesmen to rescue slaves.

The Evil Empire has recently arrived at this frontier island's port (having just taken the Young Diplomat's vessel), and have temporarily become a big presence in the city as they search for the Humble Scholar. This background gives the GM a chance to introduce the Evil Empire. A local merchant who has lost his son to the tribesmen begs the Evil Empire soldiers to go rescue his boy, and is slapped down for it. The merchant will then approach the PCs to go rescue his boy from the tribesmen. While there, they may recognize the Humble Scholar as the man the Empire is looking for, or they may just run across him in the course of the adventure, and he either begs their help or offers them a reward, whatever it takes to motivate your PCs.

In support of Point Two, there's not a lot of support details or other adventures that need to be created. Finding the Hermit Warlord could be an investigation or an endurance adventure, or both, but I don't see a lot that needs to be done here.

While Point Three is written from the perspective of translating the movie's events, this point could be redone to reflect any particular challenge that the PCs must overcome to gain transport off the island, since the Evil Empire is blocking ships from entering or leaving. Here, we could develop a local Rogue's Guild that will grant transport in exchange for another item, which is a side adventure the PCs have to undertake. In the end, the Guild turns on them and tries to sell them out to the Evil Empire, but the Dashing Smuggler offers them a way out, because he is an enemy of the Rogue's Guild, too. Have fun with it.

There can be any number of adventures between Point Three and Point Four, probably location-based to help the GM introduce the world to the players.

Once the PCs arrive at Point Four, they should likely be expecting this adventure arc to come to an end. The presence of the Dark Warlord's forces overtaking the bay port of the Young Diplomat's island puts a crimp in those thoughts.

Perhaps the PCs sneak to the island to meet the rebel contact, only to find out that the contact has been slain or captured. Worse, it's a trap, and this is how the PCs end up in the clutches of the Dark Warlord. This also gives the GM the opportunity to introduce the Dark Warlord personally to the PCs, before he throws them into the slave pens with the other riff raff. The PCs should be impressed in some form or fashion with how evil the Dark Warlord is, because this should hopefully motivate them later to free to the Young Diplomat once they know she's nearby.

By now, we've re-written Point Four, but that's okay, since this is its own unique gaming experience and the results have grown organically from our exploration of the core Plot Point outline.

The PCs escape through a dangerous series of events, perhaps not at the Young Diplomat's island, but at another island that is serving as a depot for the Evil Empire's forces this far out from the frontier. Whatever the circumstances, the PCs should make it almost out, before they discover that the Young Diplomat is captured. Maybe they are heading to the boat when they see the Dark Warlord escorting her back into the depot as a prisoner. This leads in to Point Five, the daring rescue of the Young Diplomat.

Alternately, the PCs escape, have an adventure or two, and then learn of the Young Diplomat's plight, where they go to save her as Point Five.

Between the rescue of the Young Diplomat in Point Five and their arrival at the rebel base in Point Six, there's room for further adventures. Indeed, this may allows the GM to drop hints about how the Evil Empire is tracking the PCs back to the rebel base. Maybe the PCs do something that runs afoul with locals, making enemies that point the way for the Evil Empire to follow. Maybe there's a secret band of Evil Empire ninjas following the PCs, which could lead to an adventure or two and introduce a new element of the milieu to the players. The choices are myriad here.

Point Six is the set-up for the climax of this campaign arc. The rebel base is in danger, and the PCs can see that there's no hope unless they step in and act as a diversion to remove the Dark Warlord from his forces temporarily or permanently so that the rebellion can either fight or flee. Probably, it might have been better to make Point Six the confrontation with the Dark Warlord and Point Seven the final Mass Battle, but either way, the two do kinda go hand in hand. I don't see a lot of opportunity for adventuring between the two, but you could throw in a quick one as some sort of preparation for either Point, such as getting supplies or a magic item or something to help with either one.

Now, unless you can come up with a reasonable way to save the Dark Warlord for future Plot Point arcs, you can probably count on the PCs slaying him. In this scenario, if you wanted to translate future Star Wars movies, you would probably need to have the Evil Archmage maintain a small elite cadre of battle masters to have replacements for any Dark Warlords that die off. For the sake of consistency, the GM may want to mention them occasionally in the background, to plant seeds for the future.

Anyway, this is what I've got so far. What can be done with it? It's really at its core only a small handful of adventures, and it will be hard to give this the grandeur of a larger Plot Point campaign without further development.

What are your thoughts and suggestions?

With Regards,
Flynn
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[Flynn]

[Flynn]

Okay, here is an effort to translate my initial thoughts into the outline format suggested by Wiggy, capturing changes in the overarcing plot along the way.

Plot Point: Deliver military plans to the rebellion. (This could be expanded by integrating the influence of Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi to "Overthrow the Evil Empire.")

Episode One: Rescue Humble Scholar from tribesmen.

Episode Two: Find Hermit Warlord, who hires PCs to help Humble Scholar and Hermit Warlord to get to the Young Diplomat's island to meet rebel contact.

Episode Three: Deal with Rogue's Guild, only to be turned in, but rescued by Dashing Smuggler.

Episode Four: Upon arriving at Young Diplomat's island, locate rebel contact, but discover it's a trap.

Episode Five: Escape the clutches of the Evil Empire.

Episode Six: Rescue the Young Diplomat. (Hermit Warlord sacrifices himself as a diversion.)

Episode Seven: Uncover the existence of Evil Empire ninja-spies and attempt to elude them.

Episode Eight: Deliver Young Diplomat and Humble Scholar to the rebel base.

Episode Nine: Make a secret assault on the Dark Warlord himself. (Removing a d12 Knowledge (Battle) is a Good Thing (tm) for the Mass Battle that will follow.)

Episode Ten: Fight mass battle to overcome Dark Warlord's forces, so that rebel base is not destroyed.

Hey, It's A Start,
Flynn
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[Wiggy]

[SlasherEpoch]

That sounds good, but shouldn't there then be filler episodes in between the plot points?

It seems right now that existing plot point campaigns wait for the PCs to be at the right place at the right time or things simply don't happen until they've grown more powerful.

What I noticed in Plot Point Campaigns is that the world still moves without the PCs meddling with it. How does the Star Wars model apply to that?
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[Flynn]

[Bill]

Part of the issue is that you are constraining yourself with how the players in the movie did the "End the Evil Empire" overarching plot. Try working backwards:

To "End the Evil Empire" something(s) must occur:

1) The Demon Ship must be destroyed
2) The Armada must be countered
3) The Young Power must Defeat the Old Power

Then take 1) and ask "How can this be done?"
1a) Sabotage from within
1b) Discover a secret flaw and exploit it
1c) Capture the Demon ship
1d) Destruction through superior firepower

Each of these might have a series of sub-plots (episodes) starting at a particular point. Once done you may have a fairly large tree but the adventures taken by the players will slowly shape the campaign the way they want it to go, rather than a single path.

Anyway, this is kind of what I do, then eliminate the plots that are unworkable leaving fewer choices set not in time, but in when to offer.
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[JackAce]

[DerFinsterling]

[manifold]

Keep in mind that a plot point isn't a plot; it's a plot seed. The actual plot happens as the game unfolds. You can lead and entice the players, but you can't make them do anything.

one thing that would make a plot point successful is a hook to one or more other episodes. In 50 Fathoms, the first episode provides a hook to the second. The second provides hooks to the next few, and so on.

Also, while some linear structure may not seem organic to some, I don't see how you can get away from it entirely. In stories, one thing leads to another; or at least one thing happens first. Some events don't happen until conditions are met that make them dramatically (or even realistically) appropriate. I don't think you can do this successfully by trying to keep each episode completely granular; rather, I'd suggest a loose web of episodes with lots of room in between. Otherwise, the plot goes from rail road tracks to a series of random encounters with a common theme, which isn't really a plot; it's a collection of short stories--which is what you're already running. (Nothing wrong with that; short stories are good.)

Realism, btw, is over-rated. Some sense of a living world outside the adventurers' influence is good, but only because it makes the game more fun. If they are totally unimportant and insignificant, what's the fun in that? It may be realistic to say "You know what? Really gung-ho Storm troopers might have left a few thermal detonators with proximity fuses around the Lars farmstead." But then, we'd have no heroes and no story. "Aunt Beru! Noooo.."Booom! Let the plot point seed a plot. Some things do lead to other things. Some things don't happen until you have the widget or you're ready for them...in stories. Granted, some challenges sneak up on you and tear you down and you have to rebuild yourself, and that can be cool too.

[Flynn]

Okay, so what I'm gathering is that I did it wrong. Could someone post a basic example as a demonstration of how to do it right?

With Regards,
Flynn
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[GreenTongue]

[Meren]

Flynn,

You didn't do it wrong, as Wiggy said eairly on in this thread the style of plot point used depends on your adventure. With your Star Wars example you're going with a HUGE world changing adventure. You don't have to always scale back where the world goes on if the characters don't act. Now, you do want to set it up for what happens if the characters skip something or fail at something, but keep in mind they'll eventually get there...the points are just bits of story to hit in order to achieve the big goal....

There doesn't have to be a filler episode between EVERY episode...my main exposure is Rippers and there are several points that occur one right after the other with no space for filler.

I think the question now becomes how would you run it? We see how your basic structure is but how would that actually end up falling into the grand scheme of things, where would you throw in distractions (we don't need to know what the distractions would be, just where you would put them)

Personally, right now I'm writing a PP right now and while you can fit filler between most of the episodes there are some points where filler is required (I'm making charts so people can roll adventures and probably going to setup a setting specific mod to Shintar's really nifty system without explaining how to use it)

[Wiggy]

[SlasherEpoch]

[TeknoMerk]

Man, this is a great thread!!!

I know I'm jumping in late, but here is some campaign-writing wisdom I've learned the hard way or from others over the years. Some comments reinforce what has already been mentioned in this thread. Anyway, here's my 2 cents.

In a recent podcast Dave Arneson distilled his advice for a fun RPG into three points:

1. Design multiple ways for the players to win.
2. Create a captivating storyline.
3. Don't offer just a bash-fest.

Jim Ward echoed the same thoughts on the Metamorphosis Alpha forum and added a few other good nuggets about the adventure design process.

1. Design the final adventure encounter first and spend most of your time working on it.
2. Write the intro hook and intervening encounters that provide clues for the final encounter.
3. Add some puzzles, curiosities and other items of interest.

Next are some things I’ve learned and incorporate what Dave and Jim summarized.

1. Keep Player Interest
Begin with the end in mind. Design the overall campaign outline, fleshed out with a few details for engaging the players into the story. Break the overall story into chapters -- these become the adventures or mini-campaigns. Adventures are broken down into scenes. Each adventure has its own mini-story, but must also contribute to advancing the overall story. Occasionally, there may be “background stories” that paint a more detailed picture of the setting without advancing the campaign, but like adding spice to food, must be done sparingly.

Provide clues to solve the chapters and overall story. Allow for multiple ways to resolve the story (good or bad). Listen to player ideas; that may provide even more story resolution ideas or new threads. A linear story is okay, but a multi-threaded story is intriguing. Story threads can intertwine to form interesting combinations.

In my Metamorphosis Alpha (4th edition) campaign the goal is to repair and re-take control of the starship Warden after an asteroid collision and radiation damage. Therefore, I have a list of about 20 major items that need repair or replacement on the starship. However, this is not a shopping trip game! To accomplish many of these goals, the players will need to access various levels of the ship where they currently do not have access. Dangerous places will be entered like, between decks and a few spacewalks. Most of all the players will be required to interact with the various factions (mutated, alien and otherwise) to finish their overall mission. This interaction, whether making alliances or enemies, involve them (willingly or not) in other story threads and mysteries. More importantly, the players do not know that this is only the beginning story. As the players go along, they eventually learn several things that affect the campaign:

* The asteroid collision & radiation was caused by aliens
* Before the Warden’s launch terrorists sabotaged one of the android vats such that the Law of Robotics is ignored. The Killer Androids have developed their own agenda.
* The Warden’s purpose for being in this part of space is because the ship responded to the distress call of another colony ship, the Bonnie Brown (which lies within a shuttle trip of the Warden).
* Once the players control and repair the Warden, a previously received distress call from Earth (alien attack – guess who?) presses the players to find a way to detach the ship from the asteroid. Now adventures can take place on the asteroid, Bonnie Brown and some stops along the way to Earth.
* Various other minor villains abound, each with their own small stories.

1.A. Mystery! A story has to be revealed slowly and in a non-obvious manner or it becomes boring. Turn a story on its side. Do the unexpected. Tease the players. If the GM can answer the “Five Ws (Who, What, When, Where, Why)”, then it makes his job easier and the adds more fun for the players when they find out there are real reasons for events.

Not every one the players meet has a strong sense of morality. They are not always good or transparent. There are secret agendas, fears, good NPCs haunted by past mistakes and bad NPCs looking good to make a quick score. The players may discover that they are allied with and helping the wrong side. This particular device totally shocked my group when we play tested the Bonnie Brown campaign.

Lastly, there some more mundane GM device that can add spice along the way and break up combat scenes.

* Allies
* Bribery
* Puzzles
* Scavenger hunts
* Curiosities
* Tricks
* Traps

1.B. Props

Miniatures, props and maps help players and the GM visualize the world they are in. It also helps reduce bookkeeping. Paper miniatures can eliminate tedious hours of painting if one is short on time.

2. Player Freedom
Give the players freedom to choose their own path. Providing clues to the overall or sub-stories in appropriate places allows the players to choose how they want to interact with the story. If the players pursue a story thread that the GM knows is over their head, let the players find out themselves -- even the hard way. If anything, the players will learn the two gaming maxims: “Recon, Recon, Recon” and the “Five Ws”.

Allow players to make bad decisions. Mistakes can lead to new adventures. For example, players damaged a major water filtration system that threatened to affect their allies with flash flooding and lack of fresh water unless it was repaired. If the PCs make enemies, that only adds spice to the campaign. Their sworn enemy can show up at inopportune times to make their life interesting. Vanquishing a sworn enemy will really charge up a group of players (if it’s built up slowly). Like in a good book, villains do not rise and fall too quickly.

3. Dangerous World
This can be summed up in one word – realism. The victory is not sweet if it's not earned. Help the players understand that actions have consequences with people and items. Players can die foolishly or heroically. The fools (hopefully) learn wisdom and the heroes create stories and inspire others. Even dying can be fun.

For example, a player decided to randomly push an actuator on an artifact they had not figured out yet without regard to precautions. The item just happened to be an old artillery shell where the player just activated the fusing mechanism. That was the last thing that PC randomly tinkered with. Luckily, no one else was standing nearby….

On the other hand, the adventurers located a hard-to-find logic matrix for the repair of the Level 16 artificial intelligence. While heading back to the AI main control room through a factory area, the party was ambushed by Killer Androids wanting to destroy the AI component. All the players were very tense and worried that all their hard work would be ruined. The PC carrying the component was knocked back from an attack and about to fall over the edge of a 3rd-floor catwalk. A heroic PC was able to save the other PC and component, but could not save himself. There were lots of gasps and groans throughout, but everyone, including the player who lost his PC, were joyfully shouting at the end. The PC died, but the cause was saved!
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