Difference between revisions of "Book:The Story"

Revision as of 22:26, 9 May 2010

Elysium is a game which revolves around stories. Storytelling is an time-honored craft which is not always as easy as it seems. A good storyteller requires stage presence, a strong ¨voice,¨ knowledge of the subject at hand, and a command of all the compelling elements or a story.

Elements of Story

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. If the character overcomes the threat, we cheer. Characters might clash with an antagonist or villain, the mores and beliefs of a particular society, the unrelenting forces of nature, their destinies, or their own dark natures and personal impairments. 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.

On the other hand, the GM should not abuse the power to level threats at the players. Without conflict, players lose interest, but if the players feel their characters never get a break, they might abandon the game as well. Even worse is if a player feels personally harassed or singled out as the object of a GMś devices. Conflict is a tool. Use it often, use it in different ways: above all just use it well.

Drama and Suspense

Mood

People, Places, and Things

Genre

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. Below are some different story genres, which could be used solely or in combination with each other.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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. As such, Intrigue games deal greatly with Social and Mental Attributes.

• Science-Fiction - Science-fiction is a ¨genre of ideas.¨ Science fiction stories are built on the established scientific laws of nature and imaginative advances in technology. Science-fiction stories heavily incorporate Mental Attributes. Some popular sub-genres of sci-fi are Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Space Fantasy/Space Opera, or Space Western.

Scope

This aspect of the story decides 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.
• 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 as 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, masuoleums, catacombs, ruins, dense woods, cities, homes, or highly guarded palaces. The classic dungeon delve is a staple of fantasy RPGs. Many times, these dungeons are places of mystery and foreboding.

Building a Party

Since the GM is going to be throwing dangers at you which may take the combined strength of all the player characters to overcome, it benefits the players to endeavour 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 characterś 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 you may feel your character has become estranged from the goals and motivations of the rest of the party. You may feel as if youŕe just being carried along by the tide, that you have no voice, or that you just don´t fit. You may be tempted to go ¨Lone Gunman¨ and start a solo mission.

Solution: Talk to your GM. There is likely a way to bring your characterś 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.

Character Progression

Over the course of a campaign, your character will evolve dramatically. Each session, you will earn Expoints, which you can spend or save as you see fit. Chances are, however, that after a while, you may end up with quite a different character 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.

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. So think about this as you play. Personality is a roleplaying tool, and a guide, but not a rule.

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. So the golden rule is this: "First, 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.

Keeping these in mind, it is still a good idea to think about Trumps and 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.

• Resurrection - If death is a minor inconvenience, why should the players care if a fellow character dies?

• Reincarnation -

• Undeath -

• 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

Running a Game

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. Players who feel trapped will give their GM hell and may lose interest in the game, so—as a GM—give your players options. 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.

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 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? And let me just add that my buddy did get to the showdown with the villain. While I was monologuing, James had Elik heave a longsword the length of a Great Hall. He rolled so well, he impaled my villain through the chest with that longsword and killed the guy right there. Since I couldn't just let end the final showdown, I had a new villain step forward (the old villain's apprentice) along with some stock bad-guys.

But how to get the party from here to there? Ah, well, if you have a map of your world handy, you can give your players an idea of the expanse of the world around the characters, but this can sometimes distract from what you have set up if your story revolves around one city or town. If the GM has a map of the city or town where the PCs usually hang out, this can give good idea of the environs.

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, Iḿ saying it now.

Ideas are the only things you can safely steal.

Dustin: 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 or central concept in 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. 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. Successful story-builders mine the depths of myth to find the precious bits of archetype, which, when refined and shaped, make for great characters. 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). There are loads of archetypes like this: The Loyal Friend, The Damsel in Distress, The Warrior-Woman, The Slippery Thief, The Charming Rogue, 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.

Dustin: archetypes are not the same as clichés or stereotypes. Unless your game is geared toward heavy satire, steer clear of these in your characters and plot devices. A few years ago, I was lucky enough to read about the difference between archetype, stereotype, and cliché, which had been explained by another RPG designer. To K.S. I am extremely grateful. 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 elseś unique character, or if your character seems flat, overly simplified, or mundane, you did something wrong. Start over and put your imagination into it!