[Twilight Time] Plots from Relationships

[Heather Grove]

November 18, 2002 - Plots from Relationships
Volume 3, Issue 16

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Good morning!

Please forgive the lack of activity on the site in the last few weeks. 
One of our cats had a medical emergency (a severe allergic reaction to 
a vaccine). And we already had colds when we stayed up all night to 
watch over her and rush her back and forth to the vet, so we ended up 
staying sick for a while. Then after all that our stove died and had 
to be replaced. (Gaaah!) As a result, not a whole lot has gotten done 
around here. The important thing is that Selene is fine - thanks to 
the late-night efforts of our wonderful vets - although after all the 
stress she did catch a cold.

Also due to the unusual circumstances, this is one of our shorter and 
simpler articles. We hope you find it useful nonetheless.

We won't be doing a lot of catch-up until December, as we'll be 
spending the next week or so cooking for our annual Turkey Day feast. 
We kind of go a little crazy and make way too much food for the number 
of people coming. I guess that new stove will get a real workout. 
Here's hoping that you all have a wonderful month!

Have a great afternoon,
Heather

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Plots from Relationships

One of my favorite ways to come up with plots for roleplaying games is 
to create people, see how they relate to each other, and then come up 
with plots out of those relationships. No, I'm not talking about some 
soap opera mix of love plots, missing babies, and evil twins. What I 
mean is that most plots arise, in one way or another, out of the 
interactions between people.


Step 1: Make Some Non-Player Characters (NPCs)

Use your game world to help you come up with a bunch of nifty NPCs. If 
your game uses random generation for character creation, then use that 
- roll lots of numbers and see what sort of characters emerge. If your 
world has lots of interesting in-game groups, then come up with some 
representatives of those groups.


Tip 1: Create NPCs in Clumps or Groups.

Make about 3 to 7 NPCs at a time who are all related to each other in 
one way or another: they work together, they're kin to each other, 
they're all part of the same group, team, or organization, etc. Many 
games provide a clear way to do this. In "Werewolf: the Apocalypse" 
you'd create one pack of werewolves at a time. In "HackMaster" you 
could create one adventuring company at a time, or one temple of 
priests to a certain god, etc. Give each NPC a clear personality and 
one or two goals to accomplish or projects to work on. Also give group 
goals to each group.

Tip 2: Keep Things Simple

You don't have to go into huge detail on this unless you have lots of 
spare time & energy. One-line goals and brief personality descriptions 
are fine for now; you can even use a tarot card or three to figure out 
what each character is like, particularly if you're running low on 
ideas. Later, when you figure out which NPCs are likely to play the 
biggest rolls in your game, you can flesh them out. Consider using the 
Bright Spots of Detail method of NPC generation:
http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/npc-questions.html


Step 2: Delineate Group Relationships

As you create these NPCs, ask yourself how they feel about working 
with each other. If you've given each NPC a clear personality and 
specific goals  this should be pretty easy. Remember to play with 
group dynamics as a whole, not just one-on-one relationships. Who 
squabbles? Who's fanatically loyal? Who follows whom with blind 
devotion? Which followers fight each other madly for their leader's 
approval? Who back-stabs at every opportunity in order to get ahead? 
Who has ambition that can't be fulfilled by his group's goals? Who 
tries to keep things "just professional"? Who wants revenge for some 
past hurt? Who tries to protect his co-workers or friends?


Step 3: Look for Holes, and Fill Them

Either you'll find yourself doing this automatically as you go along, 
or you'll probably need to wait to do it until you have several such 
groups of NPCs sketched out. As you work out the details of NPCs, look 
for convenient holes that need to be filled. For example, you write 
down under one NPC that he's an ambitious fellow hampered by an active 
conscience, who wants to find someone totally unscrupulous he can use 
in his rise to the top (after all, his conscience won't bother him if 
he uses someone who's corrupt, right?). Well, there's a hole to be 
filled here - now you need an NPC who fits the description of that 
unscrupulous pawn-to-be.

Look around the other NPCs you've come up with. Does someone already 
fit the bill? Could someone fit the bill if you tweaked him a little? 
If not, look at any notes you have about NPC groups you still want to 
come up with. Is there a specific place such a character would fit 
into well? If so, then make that the next group you write up.


Step 4: Ask Questions

Ask yourself what's keeping that ambitious soul from fulfilling his 
ambitions. Is it another person? Can you turn it into a plot that 
could involve the player characters (PCs)? Look at the goals each 
group has. How could the PCs get involved in, help with, or obstruct 
those goals? What consequences would it have? How can you flesh that 
out into a plot?

Look at the various group dynamics you've detailed. How will those 
loves and hates affect the groups and what they're doing? How can they 
influence your plots? How can you turn a love between two NPCs into a 
fatal flaw that the PCs can exploit in the pursuit of their goal? How 
can you turn a rivalry into something the PCs can exaggerate and take 
advantage of? Or, how could you turn the results of that rivalry into 
a plot the PCs need to clean up after?


NPCs and their relationships can tell you all sorts of things: who's 
easy pickings; who has powerful friends; who won't give up until he 
wins or gets killed; who might be convinced to betray his allies; who 
might run to the PCs for help, and so on. Put together a handful of 
small groups, even in simple terms, and you'll have more than enough 
to work with!


What's Your Opinion?:

Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic 
requests? Drop me a line at (heather at burningvoid.com). If I pass any 
of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG 
resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you 
don't want me to use your name and/or comments!

The next issue is coming in just a few weeks - mid-December.

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SITE UPDATE:

Burning Void Roleplaying Resources:
http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html

http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/ccmethod.html
An Introductory Survey of Character Creation Methods
An article for players on some of the methods of character creation 
out there, as well as their advantages and disadvantages.

I'm afraid that's it for the last couple of weeks!

Burning Void Writers' Resources:
http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/resources.html

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