TELLING STORIES
GMing means you create, not just a series of fights, but a storyline with a beginning, middle, and end; giving PCs a clear goal and a struggle against villains with conflicting goals; and featuring a supporting cast of NPCs who can hinder or help the players.
The Genre |
| A genre refers to a distinctive kind of story, such as mysteries, Westerns, romances, or fantasy, usually used to distinguish it from general, or mainstream fiction. Readers of these genres quickly point out that there is wide variety within each one. But there are certain similarities among them that are worth discussing here. Why is this important? Because to tell stories you should understand the rules by which they work. |
Elements |
| How do you turn all of
these ideas into an adventure? How do you mix elements of plot,
characters, settings, surprises, and goals, present them to your player
characters, and turn their responses into an exciting story?
Premises: These are the springboards for stories or adventures. A premise provides a situation, a goal, and reasons to try to reach the goal. Goals: In a story, the player characters work toward genuine goals. "Find the evidence that will clear a PC hero of this murder charge." "Locate and rescue the Mayor." There are many goals, all of them having real effects if the heroes reach them or fail. Make your story's goal one the characters care about, and that motivates them to act heroically. Settings: In a story, the environment is important. It can determine the course of the plot, and it does more than anything else to establish the tone and atmosphere of the story. Think about Times Square. Or Congress Hall. These aren't just maps with numbered rooms, they're places where people live or work, with unique features that set a mood. A low, smoke-stained ceiling with shreds of paint still clinging at the corners. Hot, bright incandescent lights hanging low over green baize tables that smell of grease and dust. The cue ball clicks against the shiny black 8. Big guys in cammo vests or flashy suits look for shots. Now and then a police siren wails across town, and half the players start, looking suddenly guilty. Mumbled bets, crinkling bills, ice cubes clacking in shot glasses, hazy warm air. If you give your players these details, they'll know more about this story than if you said, "There you are in a sleazy pool hall." Conflict: It's not a story unless something prevents the heroes from achieving their goal with ease. Maybe bad guys are chasing them, only a stretched footstep behind. Maybe the person they're sent to find doesn't want to be found, or works to sabotage the heroes, or has been kidnapped. Or a tremendous disaster has endangered the city, so the heroes must spend valuable time rescuing innocents. Obstacles to success make exciting adventures. They come not just from villains and henchmen, but from the environment, misunderstandings, or neutral NPCs with conflicting goals. And not all obstacles can be removed with a haymaker or repulsor ray. Suppose your heroes need to catch a taxi to Queens, so they can warn their aunt that a villain is headed her way. The only taxi around is occupied by a stuffy rich guy who wants no truck with rowdy muscular guys in funny suits. He's got bodyguards and powerful connections; he can probably outbid the heroes; and if they punch him out, they'll ruin their reputations. This conflict forces PCs to think around a problem. Even though nobody has swung a fist or destroyed a building, the story is exciting and involving. Try to put many kinds of conflict in stories. Non-player characters (NPCs): Some NPCs are interesting allies or villains, with their own skills and goals. Others are faceless threats, like thugs or monsters, who are just there for the heroes to overcome. Both kinds fill essential roles in your plot. Surprises: What comic reader doesn't like a good twist in the narrative? When players are acting without much thought, because they think they know what's coming next, make sure they're wrong. Any story offers chances to make the players have to readjust their expectations with a sudden lurch. Maybe the heroes are trying to rescue an ambassador's teenage daughter, who has been kidnapped by terrorists. The PCs cross the city to the terrorist hideout, sneak in, silence the lone guard, and wake the young woman. She lets out a screech and calls for the terrorists! It turns out she's allied herself with them to rebel against her father and create a new life without him. The players, having proceeded without thinking, must suffer the consequences. But when the players are alert, think matters through, and plan intelligently for likely turns of events, don't shove in an arbitrary surprise just to mess them up. If the plan they offer would work as you have arranged matters even if it isn't the way you had figured it would be-it deserves to succeed. In this way you reward intelligence, and players don't start thinking, "Why bother planning when we're going to get blindsided anyway?" Sometimes when the heroes execute a plan flawlessly, with no drawbacks, the success itself surprises the heroes more than any failure you could invent. The grand finale: A story's excitement should build to higher levels, and then be resolved in a single dramatic confrontation. More often than not, this is a slugfest with the main villain. In this climax, the main story elements should be resolved, main goals reached or lost, and most important characters dealt with in some fitting fashion. Maybe the chief villain escapes, surviving to fight again ... but for now, no one has to worry about him or her for a while. You can't always know your story's climax when you design the adventure, because players can act unpredictably and send the plotline careening off in new directions. But as you judge the adventure, be alert for ways to resolve the story in a dramatic final scene. |
Storytelling |
| Length: Have a rough idea
of how long the whole adventure should take.
Of course, players always do unexpected things that affect the length of time a story takes to complete. They take a few days off to earn money or date their girl/boyfriends, or they accidentally stumble on the high-tech item that destroys the villain in one turn. You can't plan for this, but you ought to have some notion of how many evenings everyone will have to keep open to finish the adventure. A short scenario, with an immediate goal and one or two obstacles, can take a few hours-one play- session. An extended adventure, lasting many days of game-time or ranging across a wide area, with lots of fights or chases, can take many sessions of several hours each. In planning an extended adventure, try to break down the story into session-length "episodes" or installments. Each episode should offer certain features in its own right, such as action and an opportunity for each player character to do something useful. Otherwise, the adventure may drag, and some players can grow dissatisfied. Episodes are discussed further below. In a campaign, it is often a good idea to alternate extended, multisession adventures with shorter, "one-shot" stories. The short breaks provide light relief from the rigors of a lengthy adventure, in the same way you might take a break from reading multi-part graphic novels to browse a short story. Getting underway: First, make sure you have all the game materials you need, such as pencils, dice, and "paranoia notes" (slips of paper the players use to pass private messages to the GM). And set out plenty of food, role-playing is hungry work! Then everything is ready. Before the adventure begins, get each player to introduce his or her character to the others. The player should describe the character's appearance and perhaps some background. Starting an adventure can be a problem. The goal is not only to present a situation, but to involve the players in it-to get them emotionally committed. The "Adventure Hooks" section later in this chapter gives specific ways to pull players into the story. But here is one point of general advice: Consider starting the heroes right in the middle of everything. Tell the players that their characters received an urgent summons from a police stoolie; when they went to rescue him, they stumbled into a Maggia ambush. The gunmen are firing. What do the PCs do? Already players can make interesting choices, they're headed in a clear direction, and you begin to establish the tone for this adventure. When the action lets up for a moment or two, convey the premise and goal of the story, and let the heroes charge onward. Pacing the story: Once they're charging, how fast do they get where they're going? As fast as possible, of course. Keep things rolling along, and don't get bogged down in detail. If you are not sure about a rule, invent something reasonable and continue; then you can check later, and reverse your earlier ruling if it's still necessary and feasible. And players shouldn't make things drag with rules questions, either. Their characters don't have time to flip through rulebooks in the midst of heated exertion, so the players shouldn't either. If you make it clear to players that you will treat them fairly and that a finicky rules question won't govern the success or failure of their mission, they should be willing to surrender to the moment and play the roles, not the rules. |
Narration |
| Use many senses. Describe
what the PCs see and hear, but also include interesting smells, the
temperature, when it's useful, and the way the scene makes the
characters feel: "The Hudson River is wide, slate gray, and smells
like the oil in an old gas station. A stiff, cool breeze blows toward
you. A few derelicts are staggering along the waterfront. You feel as
desolate as they look."
Use sound effects. As mentioned above, don't hesitate to "bang! kaboom! zam!" all you like. Don't be shy-you're the Judge, so you can do anything you want. If the players make fun of you, throw an incredible superpowered villain at their characters. That should hush them up! Design dramatic entrances and exits. A major character's appearance or departure is worth playing up. It's okay to say, "There's Doctor Destroyer, and he springs to the attack." But you increase suspense and interest if you say, "The only sound in the warehouse is the buzzing of a fly. It flies down in front of you-and suddenly a metal tentacle lances down and grabs it out of the air! Overhead, Doctor Destroyer shouts, 'I have you now!' " Melodramatic entrances and exits can be overdone, so be careful. Listen to your players. If they sound primed to expect a big splash, consider catching them off-guard by having the villain slip in quietly. "You searched the city for the Beetle, but you found nothing. After several hours, you get tired and go back to headquarters. You head for the kitchen to make a cup of coffee ... and he's waiting for you at the kitchen table." Describe powers vividly. If your PCs fire power bolts of Amazing intensity, make them sound amazing. "Orange fire builds around your fingertips. For half a second you wonder, as usual, whether this time the power really will incinerate your hand. The energy builds before you can blink your eyes, and you launch the fireball in a blaze of yellow light." This makes players feel super human in a way that "You hit him with your flame bolt" just can't. |
Episodes |
| When you create a long
story that players can't complete in one session, give thought to
breaking up the plot into episodes.
Each session of play should be interesting in its own right. Otherwise, after a dull stretch, the players might not come back for the next one. And it's a good idea to break off a session either (a) at some natural pause, such as after a big fight, when the players and their characters would naturally unwind; or (b) at a dramatic, cliff-hanging moment, such as just before a big fight, when your players can hardly wait to see what comes next. This way you know they'll come back for the next session! An exciting episode of your story should include a lot of the ingredients of the whole story: a clear goal, interesting characters, maybe some mystery, And the episode involves specific plot elements, such as (one or more of) these: - fighting - a chase - high-tech superscience or magic - investigation, if the story is a mystery, or if the goal isn't clear - comedy, such as interaction with NPCs or weird twists of the plot. Don't let the laughs undermine the importance of the fight against evil; but don't get so solemn that nobody has a good time. The most important rule: In plotting an episode of your story, think about all the players and their characters. Ask what each character can do in this episode. Each player should feel his or her involvement is important. Maybe only one character speaks the language of your important NPC, while another knows how to infiltrate a villain's master computer. A third is the only one who can detect that magical trap, while the fourth has a weapon perfect for foiling an ambush. Make sure everybody gets to show off at least once. That's one of the prime attractions of roleplaying. |