[Twilight Time] Mid-Adventure Plot Twists in RPGs

[Heather Grove]

December 1, 2004 -- Mid-Adventure Plot Twists
Volume 5, Issue 5

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Good morning!

It's been a slow time output-wise, and some of the projects taking up 
my time aren't finished or aren't for the site, so I haven't put up a 
whole lot latelely.

However, I recently posted a review of the "Stargate SG-1 RPG;" you'll 
find the link after the article as usual, along with links to a couple 
of other things (such as an outline for writing up scenes when putting 
together RPG adventures). I was going to do an article on one-on-one 
gaming (one GM/one player) as that's what my husband and I have been 
doing since moving to another state, but it ended up being too long for 
an email article. Either it'll go up on the web site or I'll break it 
up for multiple issues. Instead today, I have something a little bit 
different than usual.

Have a great day!
Heather



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Mid-Adventure Plot Twists


One of the major ways to keep adventures and missions in roleplaying 
games (RPGs) from becoming stale is to vary them. Most exciting plots 
aren't entirely straightforward. While some game masters (GMs) 
introduce excitement primarily through raising obstacles in the obvious 
plot progression, many introduce plot twists as well (and often the two 
end up being the same thing). Sometimes a plot gets turned entirely on 
its head!

You can do this in small and large ways; you can use one plot twist or 
several. Twists are one major way to ratchet up the tension and drama 
toward the climax of an adventure.

Sometimes, however, it can be tough to keep coming up with plot twist 
and complication after plot twist and complication. Particularly when 
you want to make sure you surprise your players--RPG players are 
usually accustomed to puzzling out complex plots and are often one step 
ahead of where you expect them to be.

For the most part I'm not a random chart generation kind of person. I 
like coming up with a good story, and often that doesn't jibe well with 
tossing together the results of a handful of die rolls. However, I do 
believe that random generation of things like plots and characters has 
several benefits to offer.


The Benefits Of Random Plot Twist Generation

1. Sometimes it's just plain fun and different. Doing something fun and 
different can get your thoughts moving when you're feeling a little 
worn out or burnt out.

2. When you can't come up with something it's a way to get the creative 
juices flowing. The most creative person in the world has moments of, 
"uh... what should happen next?" There are all sorts of kinds of 
inspiration you can use at these moments; lists and random charts are 
just one method.

3. If you find you have trouble coming up with things that surprise 
your players, perhaps randomly generating a plot twist will help you to 
come up with something they aren't expecting. Sometimes you just have 
players that think like you and you need a little help in making things 
exciting for them.


Things To Keep In Mind

1. Be willing to twist, torture, and toss out chart results as 
necessary. This doesn't mean you should throw out anything that doesn't 
immediately seem plausible, but if you just can't make it work or it 
leads to a boring, silly or otherwise unusable plot, then don't push 
too hard. Re-roll or pick something else.

2. Give unlikely results a chance before trashing them. One of the best 
ways to come up with surprising twists is to end up with a seemingly 
impossible (or very unlikely or odd) result and ask yourself, "what 
events or circumstances could make this possible?"

3. "Random" plot twist generation doesn't have to be random. A chart 
can be used as inspiration instead of a random generator. Sometimes you 
just need a reminder of the wide variety of plot twist types that are 
out there to get you going again, rather than a specific suggestion; 
having them in list or chart form is simply a convenient way to access 
them. You can easily hand-pick something that you like.

4. I think the best random generation charts are ones that you keep in 
flux and continue to add to. Be on the lookout for new ideas and 
incorporate them into your chart(s) as necessary. If you use a plot 
twist several times and it's becoming stale, remove it from the list 
for the time being or mark it in some way so you remember not to use 
it. Each time you use a twist you might also consider lowering its 
probability of being selected if you're using die rolls.

5. If a twist doesn't seem exciting or time-consuming enough, pick 
multiple plot twists. You can combine them in odd ways or use them at 
different parts of the adventure.

6. Remember that you might have to go back and change other things to 
make them work with the new plot twist. Try to pick your plot twists 
early on to avoid too much of this, and make sure to look for any plot 
holes created by the changes. As long as you can fill and fix them, 
you're okay.


Sources Of Plot Twists

One of the best sources of plot twists, in my opinion, is a list of 
plots. After all, one of the best ways to surprise your players is to 
have a plot turn out to be an entirely different sort of plot than it 
seemed at first. Or to have additional plots pop out of the woodwork 
when least expected. So look for (or create) lists of plots. Print them 
out and cut up the paper so you have one plot or plot idea per scrap of 
paper. Put the scraps into a box or something similar and draw one out 
without looking at it. Or, number them and roll dice. When using the 
"Stargate SG-1 RPG" I sometimes roll on the mission generation chart 
and adapt the result for a plot twist rather than an initial plot. One 
great online plot list is "The Big List of RPG Plots:"

http://www.io.com/~sjohn/plots.htm

Another source of plot twists is writers' prompts--they're meant to 
inspire ideas, after all. Again, print out lists and cut them into 
scraps, or open a book of prompts at random, or number them and roll 
dice. Here are a few online sources for writers' prompts (we also have 
a small handful in the writers' resources section of the Burning Void 
site); you can find more with a google search for "writer" and "prompt" 
(it also helps to add something like "spark," I found, to make the 
results more relevant):

Writer's Digest's daily prompt:
http://www.writersdigest.com/writingprompts.asp

Writing Fix's Random Daily Prompt Generator:
http://writingfix.com/dailypromptgenerator.htm

FictionAddiction.Net's daily writing prompt:
http://www.fictionaddiction.net/prompt.html

There are plenty of free online sources of inspiration, but if you'd 
prefer a book there are also a couple of good books containing hundreds 
of writers' prompts each (disclaimer: the links provided are affiliate 
links and help to support this zine and site):

"The Writer's Block," by Jason Rekulak:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0762409487//burningvoid-20

"The Writer's Idea Book," by Jack Heffron:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/158297179X//burningvoid-20


A Quick List To Get You Started

This is the quick list I put together for myself recently when I wanted 
it. It's skewed for a mission-oriented science-fiction game and for 
some of my plot preferences, but it's adaptable; change plot points and 
percentages as desired. It comes with numbers for a percentile (or 
d100) die-roll in case you want some randomly-gerated inspiration:

[1-2] The PCs' destination (planet, dimension, country, whatever) 
possesses exotic conditions that could make life complicated or 
interesting (exotic plant life, animal life, atmosphere, gravity, 
temperature, weather conditions, past man-made disasters such as 
extreme pollution or nuclear war, etc.).

[3-5] The population at the PCs' destination has been affected by 
unexpected conditions (religious wars, political upheaval, seclusion or 
segregation, invasion by outside forces, disease, starvation, etc.).

[6-15] Something happens to change the mission into a totally different 
type of mission. Choose a new plot. If you use a standard plot 
generation chart, use it again to determine the new mission. Otherwise, 
print out a plot list, cut it up or number it, and choose a plot at 
random.

[16-24] Something happens to add a new mission onto the characters' 
responsibilities. See the previous item for methods to determine this 
new mission.

[25-26] The enemy has fewer or greater resources than expected.

[27] A non-player character (NPC) expected to be absent is present, or 
vice versa.

[28-29] An unexpected sacrifice must be made in order for the mission 
to succeed, or for the characters to survive or return home.

[30-32] The characters find their way home barred, removed, destroyed 
or otherwise compromised.

[33-34] The characters lose communication with their forces, allies or 
commanders.

[35-43] The characters come across someone (individual, group or 
civilization) in need of rescue or aid.

[44] The characters stumble across a situation that is easy to 
misunderstand, and thus they may act inappropriately to the 
circumstances.

[45-47] The characters' headquarters, home base, families, or whatever 
are under attack, taken over or otherwise placed in danger.

[48] The characters' forces have been infiltrated.

[49-52] The characters are exposed to something dangerous--radiation, 
poison, disease, a drug, etc.

[53-57] The team is stalked or attacked (this could be the equivalent 
of a random encounter, or it could be a part of the plot).

[58] The characters stumble across unexpected guards or sentries and 
stand a chance of alerting them.

[59] A player character (PC) or major NPC ends up in a hallucinatory, 
hypnotic, feverish, or similarly altered state of mind.

[60-64] Equipment or information important to the mission is destroyed, 
stolen, or captured.

[65-68] A location important to the mission has been overrun or 
occupied by hostile forces or dangerous creatures.

[69] A natural cataclysm has changed the landscape and somehow 
interfered with the planned mission.

[70-74] Someone important to the mission dies, gets captured, or 
becomes injured.

[75-77] The team stumbles into someone else's problems and gets caught 
up in them.

[78-83] The team uncovers evidence of hostile activity beyond the scope 
of their original mission. (For additional complication: due to lack of 
communication, other events or time pressures they cannot call home to 
get new orders or aid and must act on their own.)

[84-85] Someone isn't who or what he says he is.

[86] An NPC disappears or leaves without explanation.

[87] Someone is being coerced or co-opted (blackmail, threats, 
seduction, mind-control, etc.).

[88] Exotic plot twist--a one-of-a-kind alien encounter, a major 
character develops amnesia, the team finds out they're trapped in a 
virtual reality device, a major character disappears or retires, or 
something of that level. This slot is reserved for those plot twists 
you can probably use only once.

[89] The team discovers that missing or presumed dead allies are being 
held captive.

[90-91] The characters were misled about details of the mission.

[92-93] A supposedly safe or innocuous location has been compromised. 
Its location is known, it's been bugged, there are troops waiting in 
ambush there, etc.

[94] The mission (or some portion thereof) is a ruse intended to 
capture the characters, get information from them, or something similar.

[95-96] Someone is attempting to use the characters for their own ends.

[97] Someone believed dead turns out to be alive. (This might deserve a 
second complication layered on top, such as that person having new 
allegiances, not remembering who they are, being captured by the enemy, 
having new resources if they're a villain, having been off doing 
something interesting, etc.)

[98] A natural disaster occurs, is about to occur, or has just occurred 
(volcano, flood, tornado, hurricane, earthquake...).

[99] Someone ambushes, betrays, or gives away the characters 
(intentionally or by accident).

[100] An enemy turns out to be an ally (or at least a potential 
partner), or vice versa, either temporarily due to specific 
circumstances or more permanently.


Hopefully this list will give you a few ideas to start with in coming 
up with something more appropriate to your own game and adventures!


What's Your Opinion?:

Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic 
requests? Drop me a line. 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; otherwise I reserve the right to print them in future issues 
of the zine.

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SITE UPDATE:

Burning Void: resources for roleplayers and writers
http://www.burningvoid.com/

A review (posted on epinions) of the "Stargate SG-1 RPG:"
http://www.epinions.com/content_162219986564


Scene outline for roleplaying game adventures:
http://www.burningvoid.com/rpg/2004/sceneoutline.php


Stargate SG-1 RPG chart quick-reference listing:
http://www.burningvoid.com/rpg/2004/sg1chartlist.php


A review (posted on epinions) of the "Air Force Officer's Guide:"
http://www.epinions.com/content_155157630596


We did a major overhaul to the site earlier this year, and I'm still 
slowly working my way through converting individual articles. Please be 
patient...


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