Plot Point Episodes should Impact the Story

A couple of months ago I gave an overview of the Plot Point Campaign in Saga of the Goblin Horde, and described the War Clock mechanism I use to track the escalation of the war, triggering Plot Point Episodes in response to the players' actions during Savage Tales; the more murderous and destructive the goblins are, the faster the human retaliate.

This time I'd like to talk about a technique I use within the Plot Point Episodes themselves, inspired by the final chapter in the Heroes of Drakonheim adventure, where the players have to build up their Mass Battle tokens by recruiting allies.

Adventuring is not a Spectator Sport

I once read a fantasy novel in which the inept hero blundered from one failure to the next, outsmarted by the villain at every turn. At the end of the story, the villain completed his magical ritual - and died, because he made a mistake that he couldn't possibly have known about in advance. In effect the hero was just a spectator in the story. He "won" through a technicality, but he might as well have stayed at home, because his "quest" had absolutely no impact on the outcome. The villain was going to lose regardless.

Campaigns can sometimes feel the same way. One of my personal pet peeves with some Plot Point Episodes is that the players' actions seem to have no tangible impact on the overall story. If the players fail to rescue the informant, they get the information from someone else. If they fail to save the hostages, it doesn't really matter, life goes on as before. If they fail to steal the MacGuffin, they can just find an alternative way to continue to the next adventure. It can sometimes start to feel as if the players actions don't really matter, win or lose the result will be the same; they might as well just go to the pub and wait for the final episode.

Now obviously you don't want an adventure to be a roadblock that kills the campaign, because failure is certainly a possibility. But I do think the players actions should have a significant and tangible effect on the overall story, the adventure shouldn't just be something that "happens" to the characters, followed by a Reset Button Ending. The players should be driving the plot, not just sitting in the passenger seat.

Degrees of Victory

The approach I'm using in Saga of the Goblin Horde is to provide three possible outcomes for each of the triggered Plot Point Episodes, and these will have a direct effect on the final episode.

In Short Straw the players have to prevent an invading army of "mountain humans" (i.e., dwarves) from leaving their tunnels. If they fail, the Stonefist tribe will eventually fight off the army and prevent the invasion, but they'll suffer heavy casualties in the process, leaving them unable to provide any significant aid in the final battle. On the other hand, if the players manage to block the entire army, the Stonefist tribe will owe them a favor (a bit like an Adventure Card that the party can redeem at any point later in the campaign for a special benefit) and commit themselves fully to the final battle. A partial mission success falls somewhere between the two, with the Stonefist tribe providing limited aid in the final battle.

The other adventures follow a similar trend, with the characters aiding and recruiting the other tribes, forging alliances and recruiting allies as the war escalates. If the players don't bother fighting off the human attacks, the story will still carry on, but one by one the other goblin tribes will fall, and in the final battle the Redfang tribe will find itself standing alone against insurmountable odds (and almost certainly lose as a result).

The players can afford a few failures, but each victory will give them a much-needed edge. They will need to win some battles before they can win the war.

Designing a One Sheet, Savage Tale, or Plot Point Episode

I've previously talked about TV Shows as Plot Point Campaigns, Plot Point Episodes vs Savage Tales vs One Sheets, and even given a Design Overview for a Plot Point Campaign. But after releasing a free One Sheet for Drakonheim last month, Ron Blessing suggested I should also describe my process for writing One Sheets (which are essentially much the same thing as Savage Tales and Plot Point Episodes).

So without further ado, here are my eight steps for creating One Sheets...

Disclaimer: It should go without saying that this is just my personal approach, and others probably do things differently. But this works for me, so perhaps it'll be of use and/or interest to others.

Step 1: Adventure Overview

The first step is to come up with an overview of the adventure. If this is a Plot Point Episode then there should already be an overview in the Plot Point Summary, otherwise I'll have to write it. This doesn't need to be particularly long, a single paragraph of around 40-50 words is fine - I like to think of it as an elevator pitch for my adventure.

If I'm struggling for inspiration, one of the tricks I sometimes use is to browse through the stock art on DriveThruRPG.com, find an illustration that catches my fancy, and see if I can think of a way to build an adventure around it. An added benefit of this approach is that when it comes to doing the final layout, I don't have to hunt around for suitable artwork.

Step 2: Adventure Breakdown

The next step is to break the adventure down into different sections, which is conceptually much like breaking a campaign down into a series of Plot Point Episodes, except on a much smaller scale. My usual approach (which can also be seen in my free One Sheets) is to write up a short introduction followed by five titled sections, each of which usually corresponds to a different scene, then I list any NPCs at the end.

Eventually I'll be aiming for around 1200 words, which averages 200 words for the introduction and another 200 words for each of the five sections, although this is only a rough guideline - I usually end up with larger sections and smaller sections, and the final word count might also be a bit higher or lower (although I try very hard to stay within the 1000-1400 word range).

However at this stage I just want to list the five sections, perhaps with a brief sentence for each.

Step 3: Section Scope

Now I go through each of the sections adding detail, although this is in the form of rough notes rather than an actual description.

The easiest way to define the sections is to have them each describe a particular scene or challenge, possibly incorporating a specific game mechanic. For example the opening scene might involve an Interlude as the heroes introduce themselves to each other, an investigation scene might involve a Dramatic Task or Social Conflict (or even just a standard trait roll), a fight scene might be resolved as a regular combat or could use the Quick Combat rules, and so on.

I try to make sure the final scene involves either a combat encounter, a Chase, or a Dramatic Task, otherwise the adventure finale can feel rather anticlimactic. I also try to avoid using each of those three mechanics more than once per adventure, otherwise it can end up feeling a bit repetitive - if the story needs a second fight scene, for example, I prefer to use the Quick Combat rules for one of the fights.

Step 4: Section Write-Up

At this point each section is little more than a few scribbled notes, perhaps two or three sentences at most, but there should be enough of an outline that I know what needs to be done.

So I work my way through each of the sections, fleshing out the scenes and explaining the mechanics. As I mentioned earlier, each section averages around 200 words, but there will often be one or two sections that are bigger and more detailed, and one or more other sections that are smaller and more concise. I generally aim for 300 words for larger sections, and 100 words for the smaller sections, but once again these are only rough guidelines.

Step 5: Trim and Polish

At this point the adventure is pretty much complete from a content perspective, although it'll usually be too big, and will likely contain mistakes. I like to do several sweeps through the document at this stage, trimming it down to around 1200 words while proofreading thoroughly.

Step 6: Layout and Final Editing

Once the content is finished it's time to do the layout. This means copying everything into Scribus, adding the artwork and legal notices, and then doing a final bout of editing. I often rephrase and rearrange things at this stage as well, to make sure the text aligns neatly with the artwork and borders.

Step 7: Final Checks

In theory the adventure is now complete, but there are a number of last minute checks I need to do, such as making sure I'm using n-dash instead of a standard hyphen, verifying that all elements are on the correct layer, double checking that I've embedded all the fonts, running all the NPC statblocks through my analysis tool, and so on.

Step 8: Call a Friend

Although I've already proofread the document myself many times by this point, and double-checked everything I can think of, it's often difficult to spot my own mistakes, so this is the point where I ask some friends to take a look. Mathew Halstead and Manuel Sambs are usually kind enough to give me some valuable feedback, and Marcelo Paschoalin often has great suggestions concerning the presentation. Thanks guys, I appreciate it :)

Plot Point Episodes vs Savage Tales vs One Sheets

In my "TV Shows as Plot Point Campaigns" blog post, I talked about the two types of adventure commonly used in Plot Point Campaigns - the Plot Point Episodes which cover the central storyline, and have to be played in a specific order, and the Savage Tales, which can be inserted into the campaign when and where the GM sees fit.

But many settings also like to offer a third type of adventure: One Sheets. These standalone adventures are usually around 1000-1200 words, and cover both sides of a single sheet of paper. Much like Plot Point Episodes and Savage Tales, One Sheets provide an overview of the adventure along with any necessary NPC statistics, but avoid getting bogged down with too much detail. Structurally they're very similar, but how do the three types of adventure compare size-wise?

Size Comparison

I ran some very rough numbers on Necessary Evil, and found that its Plot Point Episodes tend to average around 1200 words, while the Savage Tales tend to average around 1000 words. That's the same sort of range (1000-1200 words) as most One Sheets. There is quite a bit of variation (with a few adventures dipping below 600 words, and others reaching 1500 words), and the starting adventure is more like a feature-length pilot episode at over 2200 words, but a goal of 1200/1000 words would seem to be a good general rule of thumb for Plot Point Episodes and Savage Tales respectively.

However this does seem to suggest that a Plot Point Campaign is very much like a collection of One Sheets. In fact there's even a One Sheet in the back of Savage Worlds Deluxe called "The Fires of Ascalon" which describes itself as a "Savage Tale"!

Getting to the Point

Why is this information interesting? Because it breaks down an intimidatingly huge task (writing an entire Plot Point Campaign) into a series of smaller and far more manageable tasks (writing lots of One Sheets).

If you're pitching a new campaign then you're probably going to want to write a few One Sheets anyway, to drum up interest and support - and once you've got a few One Sheets under your belt, you'll have a much better idea of what is needed for a full Plot Point Campaign.

It also gives you a good feel for how you can split up the effort, as you can easily delegate Savage Tales to other writers while focusing on the central plot - the Plot Point Episodes. And because you've already written a few One Sheets, you should have a fairly good idea of how long it'll take you to write the Plot Point Campaign.

If you can write a One Sheet, then you can write a Plot Point Campaign. It's just a matter of scale.