Difference between revisions of "Book:The Story"

Revision as of 00:23, 25 June 2010

Elysium is a game which revolves around stories. Storytelling is a time-honored craft which is not always as easy as it seems. A good storyteller requires presence, a voice, knowledge of the subject at hand, insight into the audience's desires, a firm grasp of story structure, and a command of all the compelling elements of a story.

The Five Acts

A tried and true method of structuring an adventure is with the use of the Five Acts. Playwrights, authors and GMs have been using this method for years. It seems to have worked out pretty well for them, so let's stick with it. The Five Acts are The Opening, The Rising Action, The Climax, The Falling Action, and The Closing. We call the beginning and end of the adventure the opening and closing because each adventure is like a book in a series which possibly spans many shelves. Adventures are meant to end, but the story (campaign) continues.

The Opening

The Opening occurs at the beginning of the adventure and is concerned with making the characters comfortable in their environment. This includes describing the environment, letting them interact with some non-player characters, and dropping a few plot hooks for them to latch on to. The opening should not take up too much of the story. If you don't provide your player characters with a conflict, they will take it upon themselves to find one you really didn't want them to find. Do justice to your opening, and then move on.

• The Promise/The Hook. This is the thing which the PCs nibble on during the opening which gets them hooked for the adventure. Commonly, the promise of a reward is offered, like a nightcrawler on a fishing line. In Macbeth, the Hook comes when Macbeth and Banquo visit the witches and they deliver the prophecies to the men. They tell Macbeth he is slated to become thane and king. Macbeth then begins his bloody path to the kingship. Here is an example of a hook in Elysium: the PCs run a private detective agency in a noire-esque kind of city. One day a newsboy runs up to them in the street. The boy says the characters' should find a way to be in the warehouse down by the docks at midnight, and that there is a large amount of cash in it for them if they do. When questioned further, the boy informs them that the lady who hired him was the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, and she wore a red dress with a veil. Now the characters are hooked on three counts: everyone likes money, curiosity is hard to shrug away, and if the characters like women, apparently this one is gorgeous. It warrants explanation that the promise need not be literal: the reward held out in front of the PCs doesn't have to be real or given without strings attached. The beautiful woman might turn out to be a dangerous assassin who hates the characters endlessly, and intends to use them for her own ends, rob them, and kill them, and maybe not in that order. The reward also can be given or withheld in regards to merit. The rumor that a magical longsword hides somewhere in the cave north of town might prove to be true, but the sword's guardian might require the would-be-wielder to pass a test of mettle. Curiosity killed the cat, they say, and things which seem too good to be true usually are. The important thing is to engage the players' curiosity and motivations. The unknown quality of the hook is what is often the most exciting.

Some GM's prefer to open their games with a bang, and at the same time coach the players through the most difficult aspect of the game: combat. To this end, opening the first session with a quick, simple combat is a good tool; the characters can stretch their itchy fightin' muscles, bond with each other, and ascertain where their different strengths and weaknesses are in a fight. It gives the players time to ask questions about any rules they might be fuzzy on, and it builds their confidence a bit. Even Shakespeare did this at the beginning of Macbeth with the battle between the forces of Scotland and Norway. Don't level too great a threat at the characters at the outset, though: no one wants their character to die in the first five minutes of a game.

The Rising Action

The Rising Action begins with the emergence of the conflict or threat and culminates in the climax. It entails the characters' plight to overcome the central challenge of the adventure. Rising action will likely take up most of the story. It is a rising action because each encounter or event along the way from the arrival of the conflict until the climax of the action should be more dire or take the characters deeper into the conflict than the events that came before.

• The Black Moment. This is one of my favorite devices. The Black Moment is that point where everything seems lost for the heroes. It immediately precedes the climax and gives weight and consequence to it. Typically, the Black Moment forces the actions of the PCs, or involves some sort of sacrifice. One of my favorite Black Moments was during one of my first games. Three of us were fighting off a villain at the top of a windy tower. Nick's character Gemini fumbled an Attack Roll and the villain ended up being able to grab him and take him hostage. “Not an inch!” he cried to us, a vicious longsword pressed close to Gemini's throat. Aesher, the knight at my side dropped his sword and tried to placate the villain. My own character dropped his weapon, but shook a dagger loose in his sleeve in case he needed to throw. An awkward moment passed when all seemed dark for us. We had hunted this guy for leagues, one of us for vengeance, another out of duty, the other out of greed, and we knew that we had his back to the wall now and that he had nothing left to lose. I also knew that our GM had no qualms about killing characters and that if I screwed this up, Nick would likely be staring daggers at me while he created yet another character (the first one he had was how we knew the GM didn't mind killing characters). What I didn't know was that Nick was hiding an ace (err, dagger) of his own up his sleeve. The villain saw it though. Gemini flipped the dagger into the villain's throat just before he got cut cleanly in two. The bad guy fell to his knees, fractions of a second after his stroke cut through Gemini's midsection. The villain writhed on the ground, sputtering and choking, and then dying. Black Moments can elicit some of the craziest attempts at heroics I've ever seen. Nick created his third character with a smile on his face while we clapped him on the back. And the best part? You should have seen the look on our GM's face when Nick told him even if the villain negotiated his release, he was throwing the dagger.

The Climax

The Climax is the turning point of the story. This is where the heroes will prevail over their conflict, run from it, or be consumed by it. It is possible to have several climaxes in a given adventure each at the head of a separate crisis, since villains will often attempt to flee, only to return later, more powerful and with more henchmen. Each time, the danger inherent to the rising action must be more and more intense. I can’t emphasize this enough: as the actions rises, and the PCs move closer and closer toward the climax, the stakes must be raised higher and higher each time. The tension has to grow, the screws must be turned tighter. It is ok to make your players uncomfortable in terms of story. A great tool for creating suspense is to cut off the characters’ options, one by one. Remember: things will always get worse before they get better.

The best way to orchestrate exciting climaxes is to challenge the PCs in new ways. When you present the climax, give the PCs choices and make them tough choices. Many GMs will provide a fight with a villain for the climax, a final all-or-nothing combat. More challenging, and by far more interesting, is if there is an option not to fight. Well, maybe to fight through the hordes of minions, but when that final villain is reached, maybe he doesn’t want to fight. Maybe he asks the PCs to join him, and he should have all sorts of reasons why the PCs should. Not only should there be money and power, but there should be intrinsic motivations as well. Can the villain help the PCs achieve their personal goals? Is there a sentimental reason to want to side with the villain? Is he related to the PCs? An old friend? An interesting tact is to allow villains to explain their side of what is going on and why they are doing what they are doing. Everyone has their reasons. What if the villain turned out to be the hero? It might have seemed like madness at first, but do the PCs find that the villain’s plans are for the greater good? Much of this might lie with where the conflict is: is it personal for the PCs or not? If the characters have a legitimate grudge or hatred of the villain, this doesn’t always work.

If the PCs choose to fight, and prevail, most GMs don’t bat an eyelash to have the villain just die then and there. But there are other choices. Once the villain is brought to a low HP (or even zero HP, if you want to fudge the rules a bit for the good of the game), he might throw down his weapons and plead for mercy. Maybe in frustration he falls to his knees, curses the PCs and invites them to kill him. All he has been trying to do is do what he thinks is right and the PCs keep thwarting him at every turn. They’ve ruined all of his hopes and dreams! “Go ahead and kill me,” he says, “it’s what you want. Deep down, you’re a murderer.” Wow. How does the PC handle that? Wouldn’t it be cool to find out? Perhaps the PCs have rendered the villain unconscious and have him at their mercy. While one of them is poised to deliver the coup de gras, the villains wife runs forward from the shadows and falls on the villain in tears, kissing his face and stroking his hair. From behind a barrel, a child looks on in silent terror and confusion and there is no mistaking he is the villain’s son. Are the PCs callous enough to kill this man in front of his family? Do they haul him off, bound for a jail cell? Or do they let him go, under the threat that next time there will be no mercy? Where do they take him for trial? Would the PCs sit idly by while a judge sentences the villain to death without giving him a chance to stand in his own defense? What if the villain sincerely wants to atone for what he has done? Will the PCs let a changed man be killed? What about treacherous allies? The NPC who has been with the PCs since the beginning, but eventually sells them out or turns on them? Are they dispatched with the swipe of a blade or are they forgiven? At that point, can they be trusted? Likely not, so what is to be done with them? Why did the NPC sell them out? For money? For love? To save his own neck? Or because it was what he thought was right? The motivations of NPCs and villains are just as important as those of the PCs.

These kinds of reactions are the most telling thing about a character, and rendering judgment is something that some players never expect to have to do. The mark of a good story is the moment when you all know that the characters’ lives will never be the same. Change is the name of the game when it comes to stories, and letting the players choose their path is the right way to do it. All a GM has to do is furnish those choices and the consequences that come with each. When a GM makes the decisions for the PCs or gives them no choice at all, well, that’s not doing things right at all.

Once the choices have been made, victory can be a hard thing to nail down. In a hack-n-slash type of game, victory is simple: if the PCs kill the monsters, defeat the villain, rescue the damsel, loot the gold, and live to tell the tale, they have won. In stories which are more dynamic than that, the waters are murky. In good stories, there is a sacrifice for victory. Soldiers die so wars can be won, but sometimes there are worse things for PCs than death. After all, players can just create another character and keep playing. Living with the consequences of their actions (especially their judgments), can be difficult, but ultimately more interesting for PCs. When the villain produces a hostage, do the PCs let him get away, knowing he could kill many more people if given his freedom, or do they take a chance and risk killing or hurting the hostage? What if the hostage is someone the PCs know, or love? More diabolical even, is if the characters are given a choice in who to save. Ah, there’s that choice again. If a PC has to choose between saving his wife, or his brother, which one does he choose? Sometimes victories can be bittersweet. Actually, they often are. What is at stake here, personally and generally for the PCs? For the world? What sort of sacrifice is required for victory? These could be sacrifices of life, the body, soul, others, money, cherished items, reputation, or anything else you can think of.

The Falling Action

After the climax comes the Falling Action. This is where, after the threat has peaked, the ramifications of what was done come to pass. This is where the sympathetic NPC expires from his wounds after having attempted to help the characters defeat the villain, where wounds are nursed and the characters come to change after the events they endured. In the above example where Gemini got bisected, Aesher the knight fell to his knees in sadness and vowed to embark on a quest to honor the memory of the valiant Gemini. My own character, who was close with Gemini from the start, got angry that he would get himself killed and rob my character of his vengeance against the villain to boot (my character had a huge grudge against the villain). We looted the tower, found some clues (foreshadowing/hooks), and rode off into the sunset.

The Closing

The Closing is where a new equilibrium is reached. The balance of the world must be restored before it can be upset again. This need not be a global effect, a world peace. It just means that where the characters are, the conflict is over, one way or another. Remember, though, that an absence of active conflicts doesn't mean there aren't some waiting just the other side of next session. A good tool for keeping your players coming back session after session, and stringing adventures together in a campaign is the use of foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is a glimpse of things to come. For example...

Aelfin the sorceror lies dead at your feet, his body pierced by your arrows and blades, his body twisted and tortured by the effects of the magical ritual he failed to complete, the GM describes. You know by now that his intention was to take the soul of the vicious arch-mage Quin Loran, which was trapped in the gem of Marnak, and place it in the body of the young woman whom you rescued. She shivers under a blanket, nestled against Akare. She looks down at Aelfin and spits on his corpse, muttering curses in her native tongue, which you don't understand. No response comes from Aelfin, and it sinks in for all of you that after thwarting him time and again for nearly a year, that he is truly dead. The chamber in which you stand should be ringing with jubilation and triumph, but a miasma of dread still hangs over the place. As you all stand there, looking down at the broken body of Aelfin and the shattered gem of Marnak around his neck, a distant echo reaches your ears, of chuckling laughter, which drifts down the hall and away from you...

The creeping suspicion that the spirit of Quin Loran, an arch-mage of enormous power, has been let loose once again on the world and may come back to torment the PCs, is an example of foreshadowing. Foreshadowing helps to create suspense by creating unanswered questions for the players to ponder/investigate and can also help create mood by hinting at what is likely to come next.

This Five Act model is also useful as a model for a role-playing session. The opening starts when the players settle around the gaming area with their character sheets and dice and whatnot, with a recounting of what happened last time and where the action starts now. It addresses any questions or concerns. The rising action drives that session's events along with the climax, the falling action helps close the action of the session, and the closing deals with handing out expoints, when and where the next session will be, and maybe some foreshadowing of dangers to come.

I feel like some of you may be asking me: what about cliffhangers? A cliffhanger is a pause in the action of a session, usually somewhere surrounding the climax, which can create suspense and intensity... or ruin both. Cliffhangers ruin suspense and intensity when there is too much time between sessions, or when a character's life hangs in the balance and the player has to worry for long periods of time about what will happen to his character. Cliffhangers should be used to create excitement, not anxiety. T.V. shows employ cliffhanger endings all the time to keep viewers tuning in next week to see what happens. Cliffhangers can't work if the show is cancelled next week. Also, Cliffhangers should never happen in the middle of combat. Just prior to a combat is fine, just after is probably better, but never in the middle. It is just too hard to remember where everyone was, what they were doing, and just what the hell everyone was fighting about in the first place between sessions. It breaks the suspense and energy of a combat encounter and confuses all of those involved. So don't do it.

Cliffhangers are also sometimes strategically employed to give the GM more time to prepare for a big event in the storyline. This can be a good thing when employed at the end of a nice long session filled with excitement and intrigue. Cliffhangers used to buy time can also be a mistake when used to cut a thriving session short. There is little worse for a player to hear from a GM than the only reason the session is ending is because the GM is not prepared. Time constraints, need for sleep, hunger, going to work, feeling ill, natural disasters, angry spouses, and the end of times are all good reasons to prematurely end a role-playing session. Few of them are as disappointing as “I'm just not prepared.” GMs should be like boyscouts: always prepared. If and when you aren't prepared, though, better to tell your players you'd rather hold off until next week to continue on than have your milestone event fall flat.

It occurs to me now that many GMs (like myself at one point) are stoked to start a story and do a bang-up job with the Opening, but falter somewhere in the Rising Action and Climax. All of us have said “Oh, man, that would be an awesome start to my next campaign!” or “I think I just found my new villain...” but few of us have as many epiphanies regarding the middle. The middle of a story can tend to sag. Just remember to follow through and give the rising action and climax the attention it deserves, and to stay fluid and adaptable: the PCs might not find that new villain or plot hook as interesting as you do, but if you put the time in and think about it critically, it is likely that they will.

Elements of Story

Some of us tell good stories without knowing what it is about them that makes them so great. Once we stumble onto the secret of their appeal, however, we can make them even better. By understanding and employing the elements of story, a GM can write better adventures and make the game much more exciting. The elements are simply an extension of who, what, when, why, where, and how? The elements we will cover here are conflict, mood, characters, setting, and plot.

Conflict

At the heart of every good story, there exists conflict. The thing that makes this game exciting is when your character goes head-to-head with a threat or obstacle. The bigger the threat, the louder we cheer if that character prevails. Characters might clash with their destinies, their own dark natures and personal impairments, an antagonist or villain, the mores and beliefs of a particular society, or the unrelenting forces of nature. Some of the best stories involve all of these conflicts in tandem. It is important to remember that without any sort of conflict the story will fall flat and the players will lose interest in the game. No conflict, no story.

On the other hand, the GM should not abuse the power to throw challenges at the players. Without conflict, players lose interest, but if the players feel their characters never get a fair shake, they might abandon the game as well. Even worse is if a player feels personally harassed or singled out as the object of a GM's aggression. Conflict is a tool. Use it often, use it in different ways: above all just use it to bring a challenge to the players, not a harassment.

Mood

Mood is a climate of feeling in a story. A story's mood is conveyed through the GM's descriptions and tone of voice, the setting, the events that have come before in the story, and the atmosphere around the gaming area.

Weak: “The characters are frightened of the monster.”

Strong: The GM stands up from his seat and leans across the gaming table, saying “The slithering abomination lowers itself on its many coils and levels its huge head at you. The god-like thing regards you with a penetrating stare as the flames surrounding it lick at your skin. You aren't quite sure, but you could swear the thing seems to smile at you. In any case, its jowls pull back revealing rows upon rows of jagged teeth, made for ripping steel armor as well as flesh. Its smoky breath blows your hair back. As the thing rears back in a gesture of attack, you hear something which may or may not be one of your comrades openly crying in fear. Your end has come. Make your Reaction rolls.”

Of course, the above example doesn't do much in the way of giving the players a sense of danger if they have been lopping off the heads of bigger, uglier monsters since the adventure began. As mentioned above, the tension and danger have to increase each time a crisis is overcome and a new climax approaches.

Two great tools for generating mood are lighting and sound. I was once in a gaming group which met in my friend Tim's basement. There was all sorts of junk in the place and the walls were stone and it was almost always cold in there. One night during a game, our characters were investigating an underground crypt under a dilapidated cemetary. It seemed like another run-of-the-mill dungeon crawl played out under the bright lights of the basement's overhead lighting. Then Jon, our GM, got up from the table and made his way over to the wall where he announced that a cold draft came along and blew out our torches. Then he turned out the lights. A few of us probably giggled at first, but after a few long seconds sitting there in the complete dark, we started to get uncomfortable. Then Jon struck a match and lit a fat candle he had and placed it on the table. It was barely bright enough for us to make out our character sheets, and the way that dancing flame cast creepy shadows on the walls made my skin crawl. Then Jon pressed play on a cd player and started playing this eerie soundtrack he had found complete with the echoes of human and animal sounds and howling wind. Suddenly, the mood was very, very dark and super-creepy. At one point Tim's little brother started banging on the window from outside and all of us jumped out of our seats. I'm fairly certain Tim screamed like a little girl. Or maybe it was me. Let's just pretend it was Tim.

Sound especially can be used to generate mood. Airy classical music will relax the mood, opera will make it feel formal, folk music and acoustic sets resemble tavern tunes, and fast paced rock music with heavy metal guitar makes for good ol' fashioned fightin' music. Ever since I started running games of my own, I pay attention to the soundtrack of every movie I go to. Jon and I exchange soundtracks from movies, video-games, anime (you'd be surprised just how well composed the music is for these shows), and everything else. It's important, however, not to get too caught up in the technical aspects of running a game since, as Hamlet might say, “the play's the thing.”

Characters

Your characters are the most important aspect to your story. Without them, there is no one to root for or against, and no human interest to the story.

As a player, and as a GM, you should know your character(s) pretty well. This is why we give you a chance during character creation to determine Motivation, Personality traits, etc. There is more to your character than what sort of sword he or she is swinging. In games where the focus is on action and hack-n-slash, this is slightly less important, but you may find yourself getting in character and truly role-playing more than you thought you would. The purpose for knowing your character is two-fold: it helps keep everyone interested in the game instead of outside distractions, and helps you to direct where the story goes. GMs, if you know your important NPCs inside and out, you don't need to worry about mapping out the plot to the smallest detail (your players are sure to derail your plans in that event anyway); you already know what your characters will do when something unexpected comes up. NPCs should not feel robotic. If they exist only to reiterate the same piece of information over and over, or are good only as billboards which read “this way to the plot,” the PCs will likely begin treating them like toys, like things which can be pushed around and played with without fear of consequence. Bad idea. If the NPCs react accordingly and hold the PCs accountable for what they do, the PCs won’t end up as the town bullies.

Fleshing out your characters and making them three-dimensional also helps in creating suspense. If all of the NPCs in your story are cardboard cutouts for the PCs to toy with, they will likely not fully grasp what is at stake if the villain is about to take over the world or kill lots of people. Meanwhile, if the PCs have grown to love a place and the people in it, especially Crazy Ed the town drunk and Father Tobias the town priest (who is also a town drunk), then when Cinder the supervillain decides to set off a nuke in the middle of the city, your PCs will realize what is at stake. Characters they have gotten to know and enjoy interacting with are going to die if something isn’t done. That’s all part of making the PCs uncomfortable. The PCs should feel part of a world and community.

Building a Party

Since the GM is going to be throwing dangers at th PCs which may take the combined strength of all the player characters to overcome, it benefits the players to endeavor to create a group of characters which complement and bolster each other. Some players actively collaborate during character creation and progression, making suggestions on each character's Trumps, Faults, statistics, and role within the party. Other players are secretive and territorial about their characters, and while they may strive to create the best character they can, don´t want anyone poring over their character sheet. Always remember, however you go about rounding out your character, that your character is yours and their destiny lies in your hands. The best road is often found on the middle ground where a player retains the integrity of the character, but that character also actively contributes to the goals of the party in general.

The Lone Gunman

Inevitably, there will be times during the story when a player may feel their character has become estranged from the goals and motivations of the rest of the party. They may feel as if they are just being carried along by the tide, that they have no voice, or that they just don´t fit. They may be tempted to go all ¨Lone Gunman¨ and start a solo mission.

Solution: If this is you, talk to your GM. There is likely a way to bring your character's motivation back into the mix. In fact, the GM might have been planning it all along.

On a much smaller scale, this sort of thing often happens whenever the party returns to a city from adventuring in the wilds. One character wants to head to the bar, toss a few beers back, start a fight, and take a pretty little thing up to the room afterwards, another wants to follow a clue or lead in town, one character wants to purchase some goods or collect a bounty, and one character just wants to go to bed and regain some lost HP. What will inevitably happen is that the first player gets wrapped up in a lengthy combat, the second player starts in on a plot hook which will have to be explained to the rest of the party later, the third player gets the loot, and the fourth character is bored, bored, bored. This might not always be a problem, but when the focus of your party is scattered, it usually is.

Solution: The GM is tasked with keeping the players focused and the party together, but the players aren´t without responsibility. Take a rest, then collect the bounty and buy provisions, move on to a night in the bar, and if that clue or lead doesn´t pop up, go looking after it. Remember: if the GM wants to catch your character on their own, there are plenty of ways to do it.

The Boss

One good way to keep the PCs in line is to give them someone to work for. They might be treasure hunters, monster slayers, detectives, thieves, secret agents, vigilantes, soldiers, smugglers, or anything else, but they have a boss who they report to. When the PCs stroll into town and take their time reporting back, or take too long on their mission, the boss will find them instead (and will likely be none too happy with them). He might send a note to hurry up, a couple of thugs to "motivate" the PCs, or if he is desperate, might offer more money. One good reason for the PCs to work for a boss is that they don't have to lug a lot of junk around from their spoils: they can just hand it over to the boss and he will reimburse them for it. Another good reason is that the PCs have someone looking out for them who they can go to when in need. Not all bosses are like this, but some are. Then there are the bosses who would sell their own mother out for a nickel, or who would rather stiff the characters and kill them rather than pay them. It's a good gaming device, to be sure, however you use it. Just remember: a boss is not a friend or ally to the PCs, at least not immediately. They should have to endeavor to reach that end, if they so wish. Until that point, the boss is someone out for his own interests, someone whose primary motivation is business, but bosses are also in great positions to help PCs out with their motivations. "Sure, I'll help you find the guy who gunned your brother down, but first I'm going to need you to do this, that, and this other little thing..."

Villains

Villains are more than mere antagonists. Villains are the counterpart to the PCs in that they are fully rendered beings with free will, complex motivations, and interesting personalities. Villains act in opposition to the PCs aims.

When creating and playing villains, it is important to remember several things. Villains...

• ...are fighting for what they believe in. Some villains think of themselves as evil and revel in it. What they believe in is causing hatred, pain, and death everywhere they go. These are the easiest villains to deal with, actually. Villains who are more sympathetic, such as the aging superhero who becomes a vampire so that he can fight crime for eternity, but is also killing people to feed his bloodlust, are more difficult to deal with. Then there are the truly insane villains, who hurt those around them, but have no idea as to what they are doing, by merit of being fully insane. Are they hospitalized? Put out of their misery? A villains aims are deeply personal.
• ...like important NPCs and PCs, should be complex and interesting. Villains should change. As cool as many of the characters in comic books are, each issue is often packed with more of the same. Villains should not exist in a vacuum, repeating the same mistakes over and over. As said before, the stakes have to be raised, and villains will likely not try the same trick twice. Or at least next time, they will try it bigger.
• ...have the two faces: a public face and a hidden face. This might be as literal as a demon-possessed real-estate agent who sells unsuspecting couples homes which hold gateways to Hell, and are haunted by evil spirits. The public face is that of the smiling salesman, and the hidden face is that of pure malice. This may be subtle also, like a rich old man who was the victim of torment from other children. The old geister is worth millions nowadays and has been manipulating the folks in town with his cash and influence so he can obtain vengeance on his childhood abusers by wiping their bloodlines from the earth via “accidents.” He’s probably certifiably insane, but he seems like such a lovable old man, who only wants the best for his family. His public face is lovable and generous. His hidden face holds not only terrible plans for vengeance, but also a great deal of pain and sadness.
• ...should be larger than life. Very notorious villains will have their names uttered with curses far and wide, or perhaps most people are afraid to even mention their name. When the time comes that the player characters come face to face with the villain, they should outdo their reputations. If you don’t really own your villains, if you don't make them impressive, you’ll know when someone lobs a longsword across a great hall at them.
• ...have friends too. Or at the very least minions and fellows. Or hired help. Or robots. If the villains are treacherous, crazy people, the friends they have probably aren’t too trustworthy. Evil organizations easily fall victim to infighting and animosity. Villains who rule with fear and an iron fist ought to watch out for iron knives stabbing them in the back. Yet there are always others out there who share at least part of their philosophy, and they will work together to catastophic ends.
• ...don’t have to be stupid. They don’t have to be smart, either. They should be about as smart as you’ve made them out to be. There’s different kinds of smart, too. The street-urchin-turned-assassin would be cunning, but not very book smart.

When it comes to villains, don't let them steal the show for too long. The focus of the story should be on the player characters and their journey, not on the villains and theirs. To this end, as a GM you have to be able to come up with really, really cool or despicable villains, and then stand by and watch them get killed, sometimes in anti-climactic ways. When this happens, you'll need to step it up and make a new, more terrifying villain for the PCs to deal with.

Setting

The setting is the world around the characters, the when and where. Setting also incorporates items and objects the characters may encounter. Simply put, setting is the characters' sandbox. Describing setting is important in role-playing games since the world the characters move in is likely very unlike ours. Strange technology, hideous monsters, and intriguing fellow beings are all inherent to RPGs. Some GM's go into great detail regarding their settings while others let the players' imaginations do most of the work. Either way, you'll need to give the players something to work off of, especially if they ask “what does this thing look like?” or “can you describe it?” If you don't have a description prepared, just ad-lib. It's surprisingly easy and you'll get better at it the more you play.

• Technology. You’ll need to decide on a level of technology which is available in your setting. The earliest forms of military technology consisted of armor made of woven reeds and stone arrowheads and knives. Then came the invention of bronze tools. In this sort of setting, a steel sword would be about the equivalent to a magic one; steel would cleave through bronze and reed like butter. Then there is futuristic technology or fantasy technology: do the characters walk around with tiny, portable computer headsets? Do heroes roam around town in colossal robots? Does everyone in town own a motorcycle or flying jetbike? Some folks think that science-fiction deserves to be mentioned in Genre, instead of relegated to a fixture of setting. While it is true that science-fiction stories are classified as a genre of writing, as a “genre of ideas,” in RPGs science-fiction is better thought of as a measure of technology within the setting. Technology is heavily dependent on the advancement of the sciences.
• Populace. What are the people of a family, town, nation or planet like? Likely there will be some commonalities which link and differentiate people of a given geographical area. What is the government like? What are their cultural beliefs and practices? Do they believe in gods, or are they atheists? What are their traditions regarding love, marriage, death, birth, feuds, and wealth?
• Era/Period. If you are setting your story during a particular era of world history, much of the technology and populace is already spelled out for you. But if you cross a period in history with a different level of technology, things get really interesting. What if aliens had visited ancient Egypt and brought futuristic technology with them? Would the Egyptians work towards world domination with them? What if the races of Elysium were thrown into the ages when dinosaurs roamed the world? Which races would survive in that deadly world? What if the modern world as we know it fell victim to a worldwide catastrophe and fell into ruin? What if the Aztecs were given access to magic and machine guns? Would Cortes have had such an easy time then? Steampunk is essentially Victorian Europe crossed with a greater level of technology. Cyberpunk is the same thing done with detective noire stories. World Wars crossed with zombies? It’s been done, but it’s awesome.

We have already discussed making the PCs feel as if they are a part of a community. On top of that, the communities have to change over time. If the PCs leave town for a month, or a year, or a decade, when they return, things must be different. People have died, babies have been born, buildings have collapsed or been replaced, villains have become heroes, heroes have become villains, villains have attacked, other heroes have taken their place, professionals have retired, laws have changed, beliefs have shifted, technology is different, gilded longswords are no longer in fashion, cell phones don’t get service on the east side, the menu at their favorite restaurant no longer features prime rib, etc.

The setting is not just a backdrop, it is a malleable, organic thing, and is affected by the actions of the PCs, whether on a small scale or a large scale. Not only do the PCs themselves have to live with the repercussions of their actions, but the people and places around them do as well. If the PC detectives don’t catch the serial killer plaguing the town of Long Point, the citizens won’t feel safe, and won’t have much respect for the police. People might go as far as vandalism and verbal harassment, or even rioting. If the PCs rat out their fellow cops to the chief of police for beating up innocent people, other cops on the force are going turn on them, and they will be ostracized. If the PCs kill the villain in front of his young son, his son is going to come after them for vengeance one day. If in stopping the villain, buildings are destroyed and streets are ruined, folks won't be able to go back to life as usual, even if the villain is dealt with, and the heroes could be made to pay for the damages. If the PCs are held accountable by others for their actions, they are likely to think things out in more detail and take things a bit more seriously.

The Plot

Plot is a collection of all the events and encounters of a story which work together to achieve the goal of thematic or emotional effect. While it is good and possible to work the events of a story over a central theme, the plot should be driven forward by the characters and guided by the GM, instead of the other way around. Avoid placing unnecessary or unrealistic plot requirements on the story or player characters.

Point A to Point B

If the players aren't given at least the possibility of travelling to new places, meeting new NPCs, and exploring new mysteries, they will feel trapped. As I have already said, the player characters are the focus of the game and the story. Players who feel like they have limited control over their character (they only get one, you know?) will give their GM hell and may lose interest in the game. As a GM, give your players options and choices. There is a fine balance to be found between letting your players run their characters amok accomplishing nothing in the way of story, and vehemently controlling the characters´ actions yourself, in which case you should be an author, not a GM. I take that back; even authors are surprised by where their characters end up upon occasion. If you try to control everything, well, you're probably just a jerk.

The problem that arises in the course of some games is how to keep your players on track with the story which is unfolding around them and still perpetuate a suspension of disbelief. As a GM, you have likely put a lot of thought and work into the story and you don't want all that effort to be wasted. I'll give you an example each of how I both succeeded and failed as a GM in this regard.

During one of my campaigns, I had a player who was leaving town and I wanted to speed the party along the plot as much as possible so we could get to the climax of the adventure before the player had to move on. As such, I worked into the plot that the city where the characters were based was rocked by earthquakes and sandstorms, which destroyed or damaged much of the city. Suddenly I had a convenient excuse to say "sorry, that shop is closed for repairs," or "when you approach the bar, you find that the roof has collapsed and there are boards over the doors and windows." This helped create a mood of mounting tension and catastrophe (which foreshadowed and enhanced the events which came next) and gave me a way to keep the characters on track so they could get to fight the bad guy (who was behind the earthquakes) before my buddy had to pull up stakes. The players even came up with a phrase they used whenever I used this sort of tactic: "It's broken."

People, places, and items became broken over the course of that adventure, which suddenly started working after the defeat of the villain. Strange, eh? The players didn't seem to mind this so much since the story was so engrossing and I had structured it to encompass all of their Motivations (remember those?). And let me just add that my buddy did get to the showdown with the villain. During the showdown, while the villain was monologuing, James had his character Elik heave a longsword the length of a Great Hall. He rolled so well, the sword impaled my villain through the chest and killed the guy right there. Since I couldn't just let that end the final showdown, the big climax, I had a new villain step forward (the old villain's apprentice) along with some stock bad-guys. Boom! I gave the PC's reason to cheer, and cheer they did, by adapting to the situation. Plus, I suddenly had a new villain set up to either let the PCs trounce right then and there, or arrange for a quick escape so I could use him for the next leg of the campaign...

Which I did. Over. And over. And over again. And then a few more times. And then once more. And then when he finally died, I brought him back at least twice more. He's had more near-misses than Jason Voorhees. I was so caught up in my villain, which was essentially a clone of a player character I played once, that I never gave the characters the chance to truly triumph over him. My players from that campaign still harass me about it. When I introduce a villain for a current campaign, they might say “It isn't (name omitted to protect the innocent) again, is it?” So yeah, don't do this. Neither the heroes nor the villains should be invulnerable and everlasting. If you feel you are at risk for this, then avoid making your own player characters into villains. Now, making a friendly NPC into a villain is another story entirely...

Types of Story

Elysium is a game which strives to break down the barriers between genres so characters can straddle different realms of story and style. It has been engineered to be somewhat generic since each campaign, adventure or storyline will undoubtedly take on a certain feel, and that is up to the GM to create. A genre is just a type of story with specific conventions particular to it. Below are some different story genres, which could be used solely or in combination with each other. Often, each adventure in a campaign will have a different combination of genre.

• Mystery - Mysteries often involve some tragedy or heinous act which serves as a catalyst for the PCs to step in and try to piece together what happened and why. Mysteries focus a lot on the Mental and Social Attributes as characters interview witnesses, experts, and suspects. In mysteries, the characters are largely unaware of who the villains are or who is pulling the strings behind dark events. Classic thirties and forties film-noire detective stories are considered mysteries, as well as Victorian-era Sherlock Holmes-ian casework.

• Horror - Mystery often works well with horror. Horror revolves around something disturbing. This could be something as simple as a rampaging mutant beast who tears through the countryside, brutally murdering the townsfolk, or as devious as a human being who has sunk to the lowest depths of depravity and psychosis and begins performing scientific experiments on children. Horror stories should instill fear and paranoia, and as such deal greatly with Spirit Attributes. In horror, the characters' goal is not just to survive, but to remain sane.

• Action - These stories are fast paced, and all about characters who hack and slash their way into the dungeon, rescue the damsels, stick it to the bad guy, and make off with the loot. They require less thought about character personality than other types and raise less questions for the players to consider besides "how do we kill this monster?" Action stories are heavily oriented with combat and Physical Attributes. Other great examples of action stories are comics involving superheroes, where the forces of good and evil take turns beating each other to a pulp and demolishing cities.

• Intrigue - Intrigue is all about social maneuvering, political treachery, and false-facing. Here, the characters deal with alliances, betrayals, lies, deceit, intricate plots, grudges, and imperialism. A game set during the height of the Roman Empire would make a great game of intrigue. As such, Intrigue games deal greatly with Social and Mental Attributes.

Scope

Scope determines how long of a time period the events of the story span, but also how wide-spread the ramifications of the events are.

• Simple - Simple stories are often best for beginning GMs and player groups. Very simple stories might revolve around the legends of a particular haunted dungeon, with the entire adventure lasting only a handful of sessions. The consequences of the heroes' actions would be localized and have little impact on the world at large. These stories feature a small cast of characters, and the rewards are often material.
• Epic - Epic stories are ones which change the shape and color of the world. Kingdoms may rise or fall, and great heroes may triumph or die. Epic stories often involve very old legends and history. A large cast of characters is usually present, and epic campaigns can last for months or years. These stories require much from the GMs who run them, but have the potential to involve the characters much more deeply than simple stories. These stories offer rewards which are more extrinsic in nature.
• Something in between - Simple stories can give rise to Epic ones just by leaving loose ends untied and building on the existing themes and events. Whittling an Epic story down into a Simple one rarely works very well.

Scope has nothing to do with how difficult the adventure is on the characters, or how powerful they are. Often, inexperienced or innocent characters are swept up in events which are much bigger than they. Inversely, when a minor monster sweeps into a tiny town and kills some helpless villagers, those villagers will want to go to a big, bad, monster-hunter for help, not the town shepherd. Scope has a lot to do with character motivations as well. A player character with aspirations to rule the world likely won't be entirely satisfied with just looting a brigand's hideout.

The Delve

A Delve, or Dungeon Crawl, is any part of an adventure in which the characters enter into a closed, dangerous area with the intent of investigating and searching (often killing and looting, also). Sometimes, the characters will have a specific notion of what they are looking for, but other times the PCs will start a delve by accident or on a whim. Characters can delve into dungeons, caves, gated cemeteries, catacombs, ruins, dense woods, cities, warehouses, drifting spaceships, RVs, museums, homes, or highly guarded palaces. The classic dungeon delve is a staple of many RPGs. Many times, these dungeons are places of mystery and foreboding. Imagine a party of ghost hunters who are investigating a disturbance in an ancient church in France. They discover that under the church is a secret underground chamber which was used by the Templar Knights. Pretty cool delve, there, I think.

Character Progression

Over the course of a story, characters will evolve dramatically. Each session, players will earn Expoints, which they can spend or save as they see fit. After a while, you may end up with quite a different cast of characters than you started with.

Expoints

As long as you show up and play the game, you get an Expoint to spend on your character, maybe more. Over time, you'll amass a great deal of these. Spend them wisely. Once spent, they can't be unspent. GM's, you can and should have some of your important NPC's evolve and progress during the story. The villains should always have new weapons and skills at their disposal the next time the PC's run into them.

Personality

Character personality can change drastically or not at all over a campaign, depending on how he or she reacts to the events of the story. When Cyrilla sees her own sister in the service of Aelfin, the evil sorceror, she may become cynical, or slothful, or unhinged. Meanwhile if Akare, who has never before known the joy of doing a good deed, saves an entire town from peril and is hoisted on their shoulders as a hero, well, his personality might shift from selfish and callous to helpful and proud. He might still be a grinning, arrogant trickster, but he has discovered a love of swashbuckling heroism. It's about evolution. It has been said that a character's actions are not nearly as telling as a character's reactions. How a character reacts is largely up to you. The more a character changes over the course of an adventure, the more interesting and three-dimensional they become, arguably. So think about this as you play. Personality is a roleplaying tool, and a guide, but not a rule.

• The Two Faces. A cool little idea regarding Personality and character creation/progression is that all characters have a hidden face and a public face. The public face is the one which is outwardly presented to those the character meets, and the hidden face is one which is rarely revealed, and holds aspects of the character’s personality which are very personal. This is a pretty deep concept and for players who want to go into great detail about their characters, I would recommend thinking about it. For beginning players, or those who aren’t that focused on this sort of thing, don’t worry about it.

Faults

While Faults are typically something most players opt for at character creation, there is nothing to say that a player can't come up with a good reason as to why his or her character might develop a new one on the road to adventure. There is one prerequisite for the selection of a mid-adventure Fault, however: that aforementioned good reason. According to common sense, here are some rules which are best followed.

• Players cannot choose Faults for which they already suffer the effects. This means that if Nox loses his arm in a climactic battle with the story's main villain, Dusty cannot give Nox the One Arm Fault. The loss of the arm happened during the course of gaming, not character building, and so, Nox has to tough out having one arm without receiving any Expoints for it. Faults are essentially chances for the player to challenge him or herself in the playing of a complex character. The things that happen during the game are challenges the GM levels at you. There is a difference in how they are handled.

• Players must gain a GM's permission before applying a Trump or Fault to their character. Sometimes players will want to give a character a ridiculously inappropriate power or trait in the the middle of a story. Jon can't choose to give Akare the Obese Fault while the characters are preparing for a raid on Aelfin's hideout. Akare can't just spontaneously become morbidly obese without a reason. Nor could Tim give his character Drinnin the Mounted Smite Trump if Drinnin has never ridden a horse. These kinds of things put a strain on the flow of the story and can sometimes bring it to a halt altogether. The idea behind the game is to create a story. And yet, if the character in question has reason to exhibit unknown potential (like being partially possessed by the spirit of his great-great-grandfather, who knew all sorts of strange lore) the GM might allow big jumps in a character's abilities, so long as that player role-plays the strange appearance of said abilities and knowledge out in character. Again, use common sense and the golden rule: "Ask the GM."

• If, over the course of an adventure, you find that one or more of the Faults chosen earlier are severely impeding the story or your enjoyment of the game, talk to your GM. A good rule to use is that if a player tires of the impairment of a certain Fault, if he or she spends as many Expoints as the Fault is worth on eliminating the Fault, the conditions of it will no longer apply. For instance, if Brian decides that his character Phineas' Peacemaker Fault is severely holding his fellow characters back and placing them in jeopardy, Brian can approach the GM with the idea of buying it back. He might give as a reason that the near death of Deidre's character Cyrilla during the party's last encounter with a fearsome Ice-worm made Phineas rethink his pacifistic ways. Brian should roleplay this inner conflict out in character and it might take a few more encounters like this to shake his non-confrontational ways, but in an instance like this, the GM might allow Brian to spend 6 Expoints to negate the Fault. There are also situations where this is totally inappropriate. If Dusty's character Nox has vowed never to harm a woman as part of his knightly code, but he knows the next mission is to sneak into the temple of a band of ultra-violent, man-hating amazons, he can't just use Expoints to abandon his Code Fault. The Code is part and parcel to his character concept and Dusty shouldn't be able to just drop it because it is inconvenient for the mission. In Brian's example, he is approaching his problem with regards to his fellow players and is roleplaying the issue out through Phineas' eyes. In Dusty's example, Nox has no good reason to abandon his sacred vows; it is simply something Dusty wants in order to kick some butt. Well, tough cookies man. Looks like Nox will have to play a different role than combat brute in the mission. Good GMs will know when it is appropriate to let a character backtrack on their character's progression. If in doubt, refer to the golden rule.

Keep these in mind as you think about Faults as your character progresses.

Death

The prospect of a grisly death keeps things suspenseful in the game. If that prospect is absent, things become less exciting and the players become less involved. However, when a character dies (and sooner or later in your games, at least one will), it can be a total buzzkill. Learning how to deal with the death of characters in and out of game can help you to keep the ball rolling. When dealing with death in game, it is important to know how the GM is approaching the problem of death...

• Lost to the Void - The deceased character is done for, and cannot be brought back to the game world in any form. The finality of this gaming philosophy encourages players to utilize careful role-playing and immaculate tactics. It also promotes more caring and compassion between player characters. GM's should be sure their games are very balanced when utilizing this philosophy.

• Resurrection - The deceased character can be immediately resurrected if brought to a place of worship or healing and a ritual or procedure is performed. This method is often one of the most conducive to campaign longevity, but raises the question "if death is a minor inconvenience, why should the players care if a fellow character dies?" The only prerequisite for this approach is that the surviving characters maintain possession of the deceased character's body.

• Reincarnation - This approach reaches a middle ground between the void and resurrection. A deceased character's soul can be called back to a corporeal body, but cannot enter the previous body as before, as the link there has been forever severed. This still likely forces a player to make a "new character", or at least come up with new physical stats for the existing character. In this way, this approach is the least hassle-free, but it can be worth it to keep a loved and respected character in the story.

• Undeath - The character's soul endures, while the physical body decomposes or is transformed. This works best for PCs when the character becomes a zombie or other cursed undead creature, as opposed to a vampire or ghost, whose forms are problematic with regard to PC gameplay. The character must struggle to keep themselves together and avoid society's damning attention, and possibly strive to restore their prior form or end their torment. When it comes to using the character as an NPC or monster to plague the party, however, the options are endless.

• Ghostly Guides - The deceased character is corporeally lost to the world, but the soul perseveres in the form of a ghost who can be seen and heard. These ghosts make poor player characters due to their inability to affect the world at large, but can be used to great effect by GMs who employ them to hook the PCs on an adventure

• Animal Guides/Jeeves - Deceased characters can be reincarnated, but in a form which does not make for a good PC. Rather, they are reincarnated in a form which would make a good NPC or ally, namely, that of a henchman or animal companion.

Many times, the setting of a story largely determines how character death is handled. In settings which are godless and more scientifically bent, death is more final. In settings with pantheonic gods or greatly advanced magic or technology, characters can be resurrected, reincarnated, or even cloned. Genre also dictates this aspect a bit. In horror games, you better believe the GM won't think twice about bringing your old soldier character back as a zombie to chase after the party.

Grand Theft Idea

The quote ¨Good artists borrow, great artists steal," has been attributed to William Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, Pablo Picasso, and many others. It is possible that none of these prolific artists actually uttered the phrase. Well, I'm saying it now, as well as the following: ideas are the only things you can safely steal.

Let me just say here that there is a difference between using copyrighted or trademarked material as your own, and using an idea as inspiration for a completely original work. The former is illegal, as well as dishonest, and the latter is perfectly reasonable. Repeat: I do not condone the misuse of protected or copyrighted material.

However, when you are looking for ideas, I encourage GMs and players to look everywhere, and to borrow ideas. Anyone familiar with the work of Alan Moore or Seth Grahame-Smith has evidence of a great writer using characters from the public domain for an original story idea.

Archetype to Prototype

Many of the greatest stories ever told are based on archetypes, which are like armatures of fully realized characters. They are skeletons which need to be built upon. With the advent of a name, face, look and personality of a character, comes the transformation from archetype to prototype, something original. Luke Skywalker, King Arthur Pendragon, Neo, Frodo Baggins, Eragon, Rand al´Thor, Jon Snow, Tristran Thorn, and Willow Upgood are all characters originating from the archetype known as the Neophyte (Apprentice, Rookie, Initiate). The Neophyte starts out as a simple farm boy, or someone minding their own business, but somewhere along the line they get caught up in big events to which they have to adapt in heroic ways. By the end of the story, the Neophyte has become a true hero.

There are loads of archetypes like this: The Loyal Friend, The Damsel in Distress, The Warrior-Woman, The Slippery Thief, The Charming Rogue, The Treacherous Vixen, The Redeemed Villain. If you can see archetypes for what they are, you are free to build your own characters on top of them. Everybody needs to start somewhere. Where you start is just as important as how you finish. In literature, stories are frequently judged on how the character transforms. By the end of the story, the character can't be the same as when the story started. Otherwise, what is the point of reading the story?

Archetypes are not the same as clichés or stereotypes. Stereotypes will likely offend someone and clichés will likely bore everyone. Unless your game is geared toward heavy satire, steer clear of these in your characters and plot devices. Bottom line is this: archetypes, as mentioned before, are skeletons, and you can build them out however you like. If what you end up with looks like a cheap clone of someone else's unique character, or if your character seems flat, overly simplified, or mundane, you did something wrong. Start over and put your imagination into it!