Making Fun RPGs

Fuente:

http://aom.heavengames.com/scendesign/basics/funrpgs

Información:

Making Fun RPGs

created 2/08/04

By jonathan1222

Introduction

RPG(Role-playing-game) scenarios/campaigns are no doubt the hardest to make, successfully, this guide will teach you how to make a successful RPG scenario/campaign. Credit goes to Artinald, HL_Reaper, Auron 2 and PseudoWalrus for suggesting stuff in this thread.

The Basics what makes an RPG campaign different from a normal RTS campaign? What makes an RPG scenario different from an RTS scenario? This guide talks about the basics of an RPG.

Name
A good RPG has to have a good name in order to be successful, you can't just name it My RPG, people like to see a good title for it, no matter what it is(as long as it doesn’t use profane language(swearing)). Character Like your RPG title, your character must have a name, a good name, that suits your idea of the character. In AoM:tT(Age of Mythology:the Titans) you can customize the name, amour, damage, hitpoints, population cost, and so on, using the Change name effect and the Modify Protounit effect, to customize your character. Infact you SHOULD customize your character using those. Furthermore your character must have a good personality to go with him/her, a history and a goal. If you want to go even more advanced you could add levels to your character, that improve stats based on unit kills and possibly unlock special abilities. See:This For more information

AI and Interaction
It is important and a must to add chat between citizens or whatever between your character and someone neutral or allied. Also, units should NOT stand still, move to point/move to unit effects or add and AI to that computer player.(note: this is assuming you have a village in your RPG) If the RPG your doing does not have a village in it, it isn't necessary to do this.

Objectives
Ok, you MUST have objectives in your RPG, and in any scenario nonetheless. This is what a playable scenarios purpose is, without it, there is nothing, NOTHING. Now it is good to also have side-quests in your RPG to complete for someone neutral(again, assuming you have a village/city in your RPG) if you complete, that person could give you an upgrade, unit, anything, even items you could mix at places to create healing potions, the list goes ever onward.

Basic Ideas gathered from weeks, to months to years ago for RPG's


-Food heals
-Gold for money
-Favor for magic
-Entering a shop teleports you to a buying area
Quests
-Kill dragon/monsters and "plant" teeth to make a army (Greek myth)
Realms that you teleport to and from
-Grassland/Mountains
-Desert/Islands
-Snowy/Caves
-Underworld
Military Arena
-Fight larger opposing army and win
Arena -Death results in loss of gold and teleported back to town last visitedSee: This, for more information

Gold
100% of the RPG's I’ve played needs gold, to buy food to keep your character alive, to by potions, upgrades, amour, weapons and so on, this is assuming you have a village in your RPG.

Map Design
First off, most RPGs use large maps or even bigger, say Gaurdian's KotM series used 512x512, to get such a map size, go to world->Map size in the editor. Next, you must include eyecandy to make your RPG enjoyable, manually add your trees from the object selection window is also a good idea. Add wildlife, rocks and anything else that suits the enjoinment your doing. Now the most important thing of map design is to mix terrains that suit your RPGs environment. Set your brush size to 1 and keep using different terrains, for more information, read this by Kumar Shah.

Story
An RPG needs a unique, fresh storyline to make it interesting, it needs problems and solutions, take it you were writing up a story at school. You could have problems that keep on getting bigger, that result in something bad. Objectives should go along with the storyline. An RPG does not need to be long to have a good storyline.

Atmosphere
A good RPG trys to have atmosphere, to get such, use terrains, music, unit animations, SFX, sounds from the environment, cinematics, and dialog to explain it.

Other
This is ideas that aren't necessary but are good add-ons

• Use day-to-night cycles. Basics cycles would use dawn,defualt,dusk,night, while advanced cycles could use Cheezy's World Map VX lightings.
• If you have this long path your character has to follow, make sure you have to follow it for 30 minutes max. Include multiple paths and/or puzzles along the path to make your RPG more interesting
• If you have puzzles in your RPG, make them challenging, no to hard to get, not to easy to get.
• If you have a day to night cycle add sounds from the environment and possibly SFX.

Quest Vars in RPG's BY Battlestar
Ideas By BattleStar000 to put your RPG above all others(who didn't read this)

Normal usage of Quest vars

For control over quests
Quest vars are, as its name suggests, also very important factor to control quests. You can use it for easier reference of quest progress to have greater control. A classic example (From an mmorpg, The fourth coming) would be: before you found the nomad’s letter, the old druid says the same thing to you every time you click on him; after you found the nomad’s letter, the old druid will ask you to get his staff back; after getting the quest and before you get his staff back, he’ll remind you about it every time you click on him; after you get the staff back to him he’ll thank you every time you click on him until another quest involving the same druid becomes available to you. Using quest vars you can easily control the druid’s speech since quest vars can easily identify before and after you finding the nomad’s letter, and also before and after you help the druid get his staff back. Using quest vars you can control multiple NPC’s speech as well.

In the RPG template, taking an example of the potion sellers, they will sell you potions if the variable “quest” equals 0 (you can change that of course). That means you can use the same potion sellers to deliver quests, and when you finish the quest, the potion seller will sell you potion as usual.

For randomization
Randomized rain, events, etc. using quest vars will add replay ability and more natural feeling to the map. Randomized enemy monsters are installed in the RPG template.

For rewards
As in the RPG template, if things are recorded on quest vars, you can use them to grant extra experience, skill points, stat points, increase a specific skill, etc..

For more advanced ideas

Extra options
In Geneforge, a turn based RPG, there is a skill is named leadership. At a certain situation, such as at where asking a thief to return a stolen item, you can ask it back safely by selecting “‘Of course you didn’t steal it, perhaps it was just lost in the grass’ and turn away” but the option is only available when you have enough leadership. You can use quest vars to recreate the example above. Make a trainer to buy leadership, record it on quest vars, and when you have enough points recorded on “leadership” variable; the extra option becomes available to the player. Doesn’t always have to be leadership either, it can be “luck,” where special things happen only if you had enough luck, or “wisdom”, “athletics”, etc.. Since the RPG template’s stats, spells, and skills etc. are recorded on quest vars, you can do this with it.

Conclusion
Overall, RPG's are very hard to make, for there is a lot of 'MUST' and 'DO' things, plus you need skill like with story writing and the editor. I encourage practice with Quest Vars and such. I hope you enjoyed my in-depth guide to making RPG's, make sure you credit me in your RPG for this guide as i took my time on writing it, add this to your favorites if need be. A class RPG template will be coming out in a couple of months, information on it can be found via My Links section .

I will be updating this guide with the latest RPG hints&tips for your convenience. Got hints or tips for my guide? tell me and all add them

Links
Battlestar00's RPG Trigger Template
Hero Levels by CodeLabMaster
Terrain Mixing by Kumar Shah
CheeZy's Guide to Objectives
Kumar Shah's Guide to Using the Elevation Tool
CheeZy demonstrates how to use Modify Protunit and Change Name(effects) and what they can do
godofexplosives of Tsunami Studios demonstrates 'Eye Candy Farms'
CheeZy teaches the Basics of Overlapping buildings
Advanced Overlapping by CheeZy
A guide/template to designing an RPG by BYRNZIE

Happy Designing!!

Back to the Basics Section

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Fuente:

http://www.ongoingworlds.com/blog/2014/01/mikes-beginners-guide-to-roleplaying-making-an-awesome-game/

Información:

Mike’s Beginner’s Guide to Roleplaying: Making an Awesome Game

Category: Character Development, OngoingWorlds guide, Play-by-post discussion, Writing tips Tags:Beginner's guide, help, Mike's Beginner's Guide to Roleplaying, roleplaying help, tips 2 Comments

This is the first in a series of articles that will make up Mike’s Beginner’s Guide to Roleplaying

When we come to Ongoing Worlds as bright eyed new members one of the very first things we want to do is make anawesome play by post roleplaying game of our favorite television/movie series, a game that we love to play, a book that we’ve read gazillions of times, or even something original that we’ve had in our head for years and never did anything with. So we rush to the Create a New Game tab and throw together a game, only for it to stagnate for months with little to no activity, leading to the abandonment of the game and eventually Ongoing Worlds altogether.

Now this isn’t how every game and new member ends up, but there is a large amount of games made by new members that don’t ever take off, and for a variety of reasons. In this article I’ll be covering a wide variety of reasons why games don’t take off, and how you can both better prepare for your game’s arrival, and ensure that it’s launch is successful. These tips are for members new and old, as they can greatly improve the odds of your game’s success. So PLEASE give it a read!

The Zone of Interest

The Zone of Interest is a principal I use in journalism, it’s looking at where the interests of your target audience (or in this case, roleplaying community) lie, and then seeing how you can write your article in a way that makes it interesting to them.

Now, How can you apply this to roleplaying? Think about it. There is a huge variety of people at Ongoing Worlds (or whatever site you might be roleplaying on), people with varying interests and opinions. It’s a good idea to check out what genres are popular on the website to see what the chances of your game (and it’s genre) taking off are. If there’s a few well populated and frequently posted in Star Trek games, that means there’s a large population of Trekkies at the site, and a Star Trek game might do well (see the next paragraph for the counterpoint). Also, because of the large Star Trek population Science Fiction will also be inherently popular. If there’s a few Harry Potter games but none have more than two-three members, and there’s little posts, it means that Harry Potter really isn’t what people on the site are interested in. It also means that maybe magic themed games might not be very popular.

Once you’ve conducted your poll, it’s time to decide if you think your game would be popular. If the genre are your game is popular, there’s a fair chance your game might be received well. However, you shouldn’t let a lack of interest in your desired dissuade you from making your game. There could be other reasons why those Harry Potter games didn’t take off. Maybe their GM’s were overly controlling, or maybe the plots weren’t coherent. Make sure to do your research to make sure that this is the reason why those games didn’t take off, and not because nobody is interested in them. We’ll be covering the topics of coherency and organization later on.

How Many are There Anyway?

Now, this goes hand in hand with “Zone of Interest”, how many games of your selected topic/genre are there already? One of the biggest problems I’ve seen around Ongoing Worlds is multiple games of the same topic. Sure, there’s thousands of play by post games and fanfics on the internet, and if we worried about topics clashing then nobody would ever make another game again! It’s one thing for games and fanfics from across the internet to clash, it’s another for games from the same website.

What I mean is, there’s a fine line between a healthy diversity of Star Wars games to choose from, and complete overload.

It’s a good idea before making a game to survey how many of the same type are already present. One-two other games present at the time you’re making your game is an acceptable range. Anything over that and it’s reaching superfluity. I understand that you might really want to make this game, but the more games there are that are identical to yours, the lower your chances of attracting a large amount of members is (kind of an “oh great, there’s another one” effect).

If you want to do a the game anyway, try to make it unique! Do a spin that hasn’t been done before. For example, instead of making a Star Trek game about a Federation starship, try making a game about a freighter crew, an independent vessel, or a colony. This will attract fans of that genre and give them an opportunity to experiment with new plot points and characters.

The Big C: Coherency 

This is quite possibly the biggest issue I’m going to cover: coherency. There are a lot of games that have poorly put together plots, or don’t make any sense at all. This is either because it was thrown together at the last minute, or not thought out thoroughly.

When drafting a game, read the description, your notes, test posts to make sure that everything makes sense. Everything will make sense to you as you’re writing it because…well…you’re the one writing it. You won’t realize how great or messed up a plot will be until you actually read it. You might find that what you wrote earlier is very weak, and that maybe the plot could be better developed. Another problem might be that you didn’t really develop the plot, and threw it together as you were writing. This can lead to people skipping over your game and looking elsewhere. If this is the problem, it’s time to do some revising and editing.

I spent several months drafting my game ORIGIN, and have several megabytes of scratch sheets and sketches floating around on my Drive account. I had every aspect of the game covered and was ready to go, so when the time came to actually make the game everything was already done. I recommend taking the time to write down all of your ideas on a document, and draft out your game’s backstory, characters, and intro posts ahead of time. This way you can revise the game in private, without any pressure from members, or the community. Once you’re sure the game is ready, put it all together and publish it!

The Plot

The plot is the most important part of the game. It’s what dictates the actions of the players, decides the course of the game, and ultimately makes or breaks the game. This is more of a long term goal, rather than a quick-start tip. The plot forms over the course of the game, but is ultimately spawned when you make the game. This and coherency go together like milk and Ovaltine, and if mixed correctly, have sweet results.

When writing the plot, it’s important to remember that this won’t just be your story. It will be the story of every other player that joins, and every character they create. Make sure that you leave the plot open ended to some extent. Write the basic story and the important segments that will help guide the players in the right direction, but stop there. Leaving room open lets players come up with their own aspects of the storyline, like races, organizations, and so forth. This will also give you a rich extended universe, full of marvelous player created content. But another important thing to remember is to keep the story somewhat controlled. It’s good to give the players freedom, but if they’re given absolute freedom to do as they wish it might impede on the game’s plot and the storylines of the players. It’s helpful to have rules about posting, nothing heavy, but enough to make sure that you can keep the plot in check.

If you’re making a game with a linear plot, ignore almost everything up there. These games can be finicky because the story is essentially decided, so it’s important to give the players some room to be creative. Leave room for sideplots and character development, and when the time comes to act out the main story, let the players put their twist on it. Also, let the players add some of their own content to the universe. Who knows, maybe that cool cat like race will be better as the villain than the frog people you had in mind. And if someone contacts you with critique and suggests changes, don’t be mad! They care enough about the game to contact you about it! Community is one of the pillars of roleplaying (community and communication will be covered in another article).

One last thing, a huge problem I’ve noticed is that some games don’t allow for other players to post with characters that aren’t their own. That’s a HUGE mistake. Not only does that prevent any real character interaction it prevents any kind of deep storytelling, because characters don’t interact. Don’t allow that to happen!

The Other C: Characters

Characters are very important to a story, and it’s a great way to see the creativity of other players. This final segment won’t be about characters themselves, however, but a guide on how to set up for character creation in your game.

As I’ve stated numerous times, LEAVE ROOM FOR CREATIVITY! Also, make sure there’s enough fields on the sign-up sheet so that the creator can put as much about their character as possible. This makes it easy for players to write for other characters, because everything they need to know is right there!

Like everything else, set restrictions but don’t be too strict. Also, try not to make the fields too specific. Nothing like “favorite color” or “Best attribute”.

Character creation will be covered in another article.

In Conclusion

By following these tips you can make one hell of a play by post game that will be sure to impress. Remember to keep the game active by posting constantly and holding events. Advertise on forums and look off-site for people looking for games.

Keep your eyes peeled for the next installment of Mike’s Beginner’s Guide to Roleplaying!

Have a good day and keep ongoing!

Fuente:

http://www.ehowenespanol.com/ideas-misiones-juegos-rol-info_282513/

Texto:

Ideas para misiones de juegos de rol

Escrito por Robert Dale | Traducido por Beatriz Sánchez

 
 
 

Proporciona a los jugadores algo más que un dragón que matar.

PhotoObjects.net/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images

En los juegos de rol de mesa y en videojuego, una buena historia atrapa a los jugadores, mientras que una mala los dispersa. El mejor juego del mundo no valdrá mucho sin una historia efectiva que lo acompañe. Si quieres crear una misión de la que tus jugadores hablen durante años, empieza creando una historia que les enganche.

Otras personas están leyendo

• Cómo hacer mi propio juego de rol de fantasía para mesa
• Juegos de rol, personajes e ideas

Cuando crees una misión, no empieces con una historia

"Algunos aventureros se encuentran por casualidad en una taberna. Escuchan hablar sobre una cueva llena de oro protegida por un dragón que escupe fuego. Unen sus fuerzas para matar al dragón y conseguir el oro". Esta aventura de fantasía es típica. Los jugadores se involucran poco en la trama. Simplemente son los que matan al monstruo y se llevan sus cosas. Por este motivo una misión debe empezar con los personajes, no con la historia.

Los personajes son lo primero

Toda historia necesita un conflicto central, uno que venga de los propios personajes. Antes de crear una trauma para un juego de rol, crea los personajes de los jugadores. En un videojuego, el diseñador de juego tiene todo el control. En un juego de rol de mesa, el "game master" que lleva el juego tendrá que adaptarse a las decisiones de los jugadores.

Crea conflictos provocados por los personajes

Haz que los personajes tengan defectos que lleven a conflictos, y después crea una historia sobre estos conflictos. Debe haber un oponente externo (un supervillano o un jefe demoníaco), pero también debe haber conflictos internos relacionados con el externo. Al final de la misión, los personajes deben superar sus defectos y a sus enemigos. Por ejemplo, si un personaje es un joven príncipe ingenuo, consigue que su hermano sediento de poder le traicione. El príncipe vengativo debe volver al trono mientras mantiene su humanidad. Si un personaje es un mago egoísta, consigue que libere accidentalmente a un terrible demonio. El mago deberá deshacer sus errores y aprender a cuidar de los demás. En cualquier situación, los jugadores tienen un interés personal en la historia porque es su historia.

Consigue villanos profundos, no superficiales

Cada historia necesita un buen villano, pero los mejores villanos se ven como héroes. No son malos porque sí. Hitler era un asesino de masas, pero pensaba que estaba salvando a los alemanes, purificando el planeta para la raza aria. A menudo los villanos representan el lado oscuro de los héroes. Batman y el Joker eran los dos lunáticos con disfraz que violaban la ley. La diferencia es que Batman lo hace para defender el orden, mientras que el Joker lo hace para propagar la anarquía. Aprende de la historia y la literatura. Enfrenta a los jugadores con sus lados oscuros.

Asegúrate de que los héroes y los villanos se encuentran antes del enfrentamiento final

En el escenario de "matar al dragón" con el que empezamos, los personajes se encuentran con el dragón sólo para matarlo. Las buenas historias tienen héroes que se encuentran con los villanos antes de la batalla final. Los enfrentamientos anteriores establecen una relación antagónica, que da como resultado una mejor batalla final.

Asegúrate de que las situaciones no tienen soluciones fáciles

Enfrenta a los jugadores con dilemas morales. La galardonada serie "Dragon Age" hace que los jugadores se enfrente con situaciones moralmente controvertidas, como sacrificar a un inocente para salvar un pueblo. Poner a los jugadores en roles de decisión (y hacer que se enfrenten a las consecuencias) aumenta su participación en la historia.

Lleva a los jugadores a un lugar especial

Cuando hayas conseguido los personajes y conflictos, establece un entorno. Los mejores entornos no repiten el viejo "reino de fantasía". Prueba a cambiar el entorno estándar (un mundo donde los duendes defienden su hogar de una invasión de humanos) o mezcla géneros de rol (un mundo donde una raza de robots magos coloniza las estrellas). Hagas lo que hagas, recuerda que los mundos fantásticos no son nada sin buenos personajes y conflictos. Si tienes esto en mente, crearás misiones que los jugadores nunca olvidarán.

My Final Five #2: On the Fly Plots for Narrators!

Fuente:

http://www.gnomestew.com/gming-advice/my-final-five-2-on-the-fly-plots-for-narrators/

Información:

My Final Five #2: On the Fly Plots for Narrators!

February 18, 2013

Posted by Patrick Benson

This is the second article in my final five series for Gnome Stew, and I have chosen this comment from reader Iomythica as the inspiration for today’s article:

Sorry to see you go Patrick. You will be missed.

I always found your methods of GMing interesting, and particularly well suited to narrative heavy games. I would like to see an article on “the top five things that make a great narrative style GM”.

I would also love to see a final article on improvisational plotting. I know improv is one of those oft feared things by many GMs (myself included). I know the topic has been written about in the past, but I hope for some last nugget of wisdom written through the lens of the Patrick Benson GMing philosophy.

Lastly, good luck in your future endeavors!

Some might read this comment and think “That is two articles being requested.”, but there is so much synergy there I decided to combine Iomythica’s requests into a single article. Here are my five guidelines for improvising a plot when using a narrative style:

#1 – Know the Basics

We are not reinventing the wheel here. Plots have been developed and studied for thousands of years, and narrators are often the medium through which plots have been shared with the audience.

The basics of a plot for a GM are as follows:

1. Introduction: We establish who the main characters of the story are.
2. The Conflict: We introduce an element that aligns the characters into opposing groups.
3. The Rising Action: We keep ratcheting up the tension until the conflict is resolved which is the climax of the story.
4. Conclusion: We acknowledge the results of the conflict having been resolved (which can result in the cycle starting over again with a new conflict).

You as a narrator fulfill the following needs at each point of the plot’s development:

1. Introduction: You introduce the NPCs, and you let the PCs introduce themselves.
2. The Conflict: You introduce the element and align the NPCs. The PCs choose their own alignment for themselves (possibly creating their own independent faction).
3. The Rising Action: Every action that the PCs take has a negative and positive consequence that adds to the tension.
4. Conclusion: You show the PCs the results of their actions through the NPCs.

Note that the narrator never dictates an action to the PCs. You simply set the stage.

#2 – The Introduction

Keep it simple. Introduce an NPC that is an obvious ally, an NPC that is an obvious schemer, and an NPC that is an obvious rival. Any one of them can turn out to be the “villain” by the end of the plot, but for the introduction we just want to establish paths for the PCs to go down.

If the PCs want a fight then let them get into fights with the rival. He or she is the bad guy and there is no mystery about it. If the PCs want something more dramatic with lots of social interaction, the schemer is the villain of the story. He or she has been manipulating everyone from the beginning. If the PCs trust no one then in the end the ally is the real threat, and of course only the PCs could have figured this out.

Do not worry about how things will end. Just have an idea of how things might develop based upon the PCs reactions to meeting the NPCs. You do not create the noise when improvising the plot as a narrative GM. You provide the echo.

Most important of all is not to dismiss how the PCs introduce themselves. If they all act like they are the greatest thing since sliced bread, then they are. It is just a game, so let the player’s have their moment of glory.

#3 – Enter the Conflict

As a narrative GM improvising a plot you are a fisherman. You can either choose to have one baited plot hook and hope that the PCs bite on it, or you can cast a net that will encircle the PCs if they choose to do nothing. A plot hook is one static location that requires the PCs’ focus and interest in order for it to develop. A plot net is a series of developments that take place across the entire setting with a common root cause.

You might have a great idea for a plot hook. Choose the net. Always choose the net.

Examples of a plot net:

• Children start talking in tongues, which is a prelude to an alien craft appearing and scorching the land to ashes.
• People are falling ill with a new strain of influenza that appears to be spreading at an alarming rate with no discernable carrier.
• Water elementals spring up out of the ground at random and destroy local crops.

Note how all of the above can happen anywhere at any time with or without the PCs being present. If any of these plot nets are ignored they will simply continue to happen more and more frequently. If the PCs do nothing each of the above plot nets will catch them and cause them to suffer. No one said that you owed the PCs a happy ending.

#4 – Let It Rise

By now you should have the PCs doing most of the work of plot development for you. They decide what direction the story will take and they start feeding you ideas. They propose ways to investigate the plot net, or perhaps they have an idea as to how to resolve the conflict altogether. Regardless, they will be right. They are always right.

They are not all knowing though, and that is where the fun starts. Take any idea that the PCs have and run with it in two directions:

• It accomplishes that which the PCs predicted it would accomplish.
• It comes with an unintended consequence.

For example:

• The PCs believe that the aliens are using some kind of measurable and detectable radio wave to channel instructions to the brains of children that forces them to speak in the language of the aliens. The PCs then devise a way to use that transmission to send a message back to the aliens. It works! Suddenly the PCs are transported onto one of the alien craft.
• The PCs suspect that the influenza is being spread not by people but by a food product that is being distributed by an evil corporation focused on world domination. The PCs trace the influenza’s source back to Corn Nuts (no surprises there) and decide to investigate the nearby Planters production facility. Here they discover Mr. Peanut’s evil plot, and that the influenza is only phase one of his scheme. Suddenly red lights start flashing and an alarm screeches that there has been a security breach (probably the PCs). Mr. Peanut demands that phase two of his plot be launched prematurely – distribute the “cure” for the influenza immediately which turns those who ingest it into mindless zombies with a protective armor similar to a salted peanut shell. Way to go PCs! You just launched the snack food apocalypse!
• Let’s go with a worst case scenario: The PCs just do not care about the water elementals, and they decide to go dungeon crawling instead. Fine. Sell them ten foot poles and grab your favorite adventure module off of the shelf. Once the PCs are finished with that if they decide to return to the village they discover that the villagers are weak with hunger, and that no one cares that the PCs now have gold to spend. Do the PCs have any food? That is all that matters now. Without food to nourish the local militia the village will not stand a chance against the invading goblin forces who used some form of trickery to convince the water elementals to attack the village’s crops.

Once you feel that the timing is right have all of this tension bubble up into the climax of the story where the PCs will resolve the conflict.

• Perhaps the PCs learn that there are two aliens at play here: One species has been trying to transmit a warning about the invading species, and upon receiving a response they decided to take a more direct approach and make contact with the PCs. Eventually the PCs convince the good aliens to help them, and the climax of the story is a huge battle in space against the invading aliens with the PCs leading the good aliens forces.
• The PCs come to their own conclusion that large amounts of chocolate will stop the peanut zombies (two great tastes that taste great together and all that jazz). Roll with it. Somehow the PCs develop rifles that fire Hershey’s Kisses at a high velocity, and it is now time for Mr. Peanut to face his sweet cocoa bean powered demise.
• The PCs still do no care about the village. No problem. The PCs must now fight their way through the invading goblin forces to reach a nearby port where a ship can take them to safety. Along the way they discover that the “ally” PC in the village was actually behind the invasion. PCs that tend not to care about helping others may care about revenge. Go figure. Just let the PCs decide if they want to escape or extract brutal vengeance. It is always their call.

#5 – Conclude the Story

The PCs will determine what action actually resolves the conflict of the story. If they believe that destroying the invading alien flagship will render the invaders powerless it does. If they believe that capturing Mr. Peanut will bring about the end of his zombie army it will, even if you have to have the U.S. Army show up with choco-munitions to just wrap up the loose ends. If the PCs believe that once they are on the ship that the goblins cannot attack them, they are right.

Once the conflict is resolved you now narrate the results to the PCs. Explain how their valiant actions result in a new alliance with the alien species that was trying to warn of the invasion. Have the Director of the Food & Drug Administration give them medals and perhaps extend an invitation to help the FDA put an end to Ronald McDonald’s mad reign of fast food terror. Describe how the PCs can see the goblin army celebrating their victory as the ship moves further away from the shoreline in search of a safe port.

The conclusion is your time to shine. You get to dictate how the world has changed, but you do have an obligation to give credit to how the PCs shaped these results. Whether good or bad, the setting has been forever changed and the PCs were a key part of this transformation

5 Steps to Narrate a Plot

Again, it all comes back to step one: Know the basics. Write up a reminder on an index card that has the steps of the plot and a definition of what a narrator does so that you can reference it if you ever feel stuck. Where are you in the plot? What should you as a narrator do to move this plot forward? Look at that index card and take a moment to think. As long as you have a basic plan to follow and let the PCs’ actions determine the story you will be fine improvising the game.

That is all for now. Share your own ideas for improvising a narrative style game with us by leaving your comments below, and if you have an idea for my last three articles be sure to leave a comment here.

About  Patrick Benson

Patrick was born in 1975, and is more or less your typical American male for someone of his age. Except he is a tabletop RPG gamer and a damn fine game master! What else matters?

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Tags: improvisation, narrative GMing, plot development