Story Arc & Why?

From: Tim Ellis <tim_at_timellis.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 21:51:53 +0100


Doug says

>But what I don't understand is why Greg/Martin/Issaries would
>care about this. I'd think that leaving out the details would be
>better. Simply say "the RE has come back every time up to now, but
>hasn't returned this time, thus throwing the LE into the biggest
>crisis" or something to that effect, and consider the rest to be
>details.

ahh, but the devil is in the detail! It might not matter to your average farmer in the fields (or the man on the Glamour omnibus), but if your characters are at the level where they can either try to engineer the RE's disappearance, or work to try and bring him back then you need to have a reasonably good idea of what might be going on "behind the scenes" so to speak. If the RE is just the Noble who persuades the priests to pronounce him the latest mask of the Ever Living Moonson then your job will be very different from if he is the unchanging, eternal demigod who is likely to appear fully-formed in some remote corner of the Empire....

While Trotsky reminds us of the overall Stroyline plan
>I gather that's what they are doing. The first such date is 1630, I
>believe, and then they advance in ten year chunks.

This was the answer Greg and/or Robin gave at Convulsions last time. If I understand it correctly it is similar to the Pendragon method (the "Ten Year Plan" will be published first, and then the details will follow on from that. IMO this is the "right" way to do a story arc. GM's get some knowledge of what is coming up, so can hopefully avoid painting themselves into a corner, or needing massive retcon's when the next book is published. The alternate method is that used by "Legend of the 5 Rings" amongst others. Here the plot is deliberately kept secret from GM's (and even supplement authors!) to ensure everyone is surprised by the twists & turns of the plot. Obviously individual campaigns can still follow or ignore the plot in either case, but it is much easier if you can make a positive decision what to include/exclude, rather than discovering you have just been contradicted. - --

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