Equally as important as conflict is plot. The plot is the structure of the story. Structure your plots so that events lead the characters to make choices, which then lead to other events, which lead to other choices, which leads to yet more events and on goes the sequence. The beginning of the game should bring about some situation needing resolution. The initial reactions of the players then bring about the middle of the game. The events and choices could bring about certain elements of good plotting, such as reversals, discoveries, complications, catastrophes and
resolutions. One thing to avoid is the tendency to lead the characters by their collective noses. The other things to avoid are events or characters who do not add materially to the story. If an element’s presence or absence makes no difference to the game, leave it out. All elements should be the necessary or probable result of the preceding action. In the construction of any plot, aim for the necessary or the probable. Anything else stretches the plot beyond verisimilitude. Another point to be made for a good plot: action. The action in a Conan adventure should be continuous. The action should not let up. Listed below are some tools for creating lively, action-oriented plots. Reversals: A reversal is an occurrence that changes a character’s luck from good to bad then back again to create more conflict or escalate tension. In a game, these reversals should result from Player Character actions and choices, giving rise to continued reasons for further actions and choices. Be careful to avoid reversals springing from coincidence or, worse, non-sequitur events. Reversals arising from coincidence seem forced. A non-sequitur is simply an event happening for no reason whatsoever. Reversals generate surprise in a game, to keep it from becoming obvious and boring. The twists and turns in a game should make the players say, ‘I never saw that coming!’ yet seem as inevitable in hindsight, probable consequences arising from previous events. Excellent examples of reversals appear in Robert E. Howard’s The
Black Stranger. In that tale, Conan runs from the Picts,
only to find safe haven in a strange rocky refuge the Picts would not go near. His fortunes went from bad to good.
The Black Stranger provides other moments of reversal,
such as when Strom arrives, expecting to trade passage to Count Valenso for treasure. Then a Zingaran ship arrives, wanting the same treasure, chasing off Strom. Then a storm destroys the Zingaran ship, giving Strom another opportunity for bargaining. The map vanishes. Conan appears with the map and then destroys it. However, he knows where the treasure is. So the story goes, reversal after reversal. These moments of reversal are dramatic and climactic in many stories, leaving the players to wonder what will happen next. Never just let a plot move along a straight, predictable line. Make it twist. If the players seem to have it all figured out early in the session, then toss your notes aside and throw in a twist that gives the lie to everything the players think they know. Always try to think of what else might happen during the course of a plot, making sure all reversals are the necessary or probable result of the preceding action.
Discoveries: Just as important to a plot as reversals are the discoveries. Discoveries include the uncovering of clues, revealing elements of a character’s past, flaws or motivations, realising epiphanies or the unveiling
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of a potential complication. These discoveries advance the plot while motivating the characters to continue, often by creating the feeling they are succeeding and moving forward. If the characters suffer a setback, allow them to discover something new to renew their motivation. In
The Tower of the Elephant by Robert E. Howard, Conan
discovers a dead royal guard, strangled by nameless hands, revealing a potential complication. Later, he discovers the source of Yara’s power and is given the motivation to continue forward. Like reversals, discoveries must be relevant to the overall plot and the central conflict. Random, meaningless discoveries without the least connection to the plot should be left out of the game. Discoveries should be the necessary or probable result of the preceding action and lead toward successive actions. Another type of discovery includes the introduction of a helpful guide and a magical talisman of some sort to help win the day. In The Tower of the Elephant, Yag-Kosha fills this archetypal role, giving Conan advice and, by way of a talisman, the Heart of the Elephant.
Complications: Often uncovered as a discovery, a complication is something obstructing the characters from their goals. Functionally, a complication maintains tension in the story by providing additional conflict. Complications are either incident based or character based. Complications can include threshold guardians, those obstacles needing to be overcome in order to simply begin the story. Threshold guardians function to keep the characters in their present situation, preventing them from becoming involved in the story or plot. Guards who insist on keeping characters in town because of past crimes are an example. Natives who do not want their regional heroes to leave, afraid doom will come to town if they do are another example of a threshold guardian. In The
Tower of the Elephant, the Kothian who tries to talk Conan
out of scaling Yara’s tower serves as a threshold guardian. The characters’ efforts to resolve complications will often create other complications, which escalates the tension. If things get slow, bring a probable and logical complication or catastrophe into the plot to raise the tension level. Just as with reversals and discoveries, complications should be the necessary or probable result of the preceding action and be connected to the overall plot in some manner. Catastrophe: A catastrophe is an especially intense complication or reversal. The function of the catastrophe is to ensure the plot does not move along too easily and to introduce further conflict. Catastrophes can be external or internal. An external catastrophe can include severe weather, such as a tornado or typhoon. An internal catastrophe can include the destruction of a character’s sanity or the increase in a character’s Corruption level. Once again, make sure the catastrophe
is the necessary or probable result of a preceding action. Random catastrophes do not materially add to a given story. The catastrophes pack much more punch if they are brought about by character actions and choices. In the case of severe weather, if not caused by a character spell (player or non-player), then the characters need forewarning so they can choose to protect themselves in some manner or not.
Random Encounters: Avoid random encounters; they are rarely necessary. If the inclusion or exclusion of an event does not add to the whole adventure or make the least amount of difference in the movement of the plot, then leave the event out. A roleplaying game is a form of storytelling and good storytelling does not include irrelevant events unrelated to the plot as a whole. A game session is not a day-in-the-life but a narrative focused on one element of that life. If the removal of an element from the game completely disrupts the flow of the story, then that element is important. If the removal of an element does nothing to the plot, then it should be removed. Random encounters tend to fall into this category. Do not let the dice determine the flow of the game. Such is the Games Master’s purview, his responsibility. Having a guard or neighbourhood bully without any connection to the plot come up and challenge the characters, while a probable event on the streets of Shadizar, does not add anything to the story, thus making the encounter unnecessary. It is a delaying tactic at best and an annoyance at worst. Do not introduce characters without connection to the main conflict of the plot. The conflict with the unconnected character or element will simply be boring and pointless.
The Nature of the
Supernatural in the
Campaign
Another important element to this campaign setting is the scary, weird and paranormal elements. All of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories have an imaginative touch of the supernatural in them, an aspect of lurid horror. Terror is a fantastic motivator for events and characters, inspiring explosive action, expressing certain moral truths, or increasing dramatic tension. Keep in mind how nightmares make you feel. Describe that feeling when you describe magical effects. Keep it emotionally intense. That was Howard’s strength in his best stories. He used words he found frightening and strong. Do the same. Atmosphere is not so much word choice as it is the creation of tension, wonder and fear. There is a brooding, dark, creepy side within each of us. Tap into that unsavoury shadow while describing sorcery and its black implications in Shadizar
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He had entered the part of the city reserved for the temples. On all sides of him they glittered white in the starlight – snowy marble pillars and golden domes and silver arches, shrines of Zamora’s myriad strange gods. He did not trouble his head about them; he knew that Zamora’s religion, like all things of a civilised, long-settled people, was intricate and complex and had lost most of the pristine essence in a maze of formulas and rituals. He had squatted for hours in the courtyard of the philosophers, listening to the arguments of theologians and teachers and come away in a haze of bewilderment, sure of only one thing, that they were all touched in the head.
Robert E. Howard, The Tower of the Elephant
The Nature of
Resolution
Just as a story has a beginning and a middle, it also has an end or resolution derived from the events in the story. Do not rely on coincidences or unforeseen new elements to conclude a plot, instead let the conclusion be a logical extension of story elements already presented by you or the players. The resolution should also be satisfying to all the participants. Do not forget the twists used in the middle portion of the adventure; a good ending is often the unexpected ending arrived with a twist. One ending to avoid is the deus ex machina ending.
Deus ex Machina: The infamous deus ex machina is among the worst possible resolutions a Games Master can use to end an adventure, a session or a campaign. This resolution is any ending both clumsy and improbable, used merely as a convenient way to get the characters out of an impossible situation. Two examples of this type of ending include those wherein the cavalry comes in the nick of time from out of nowhere or a super-Non-Player Character arrives out of nowhere to save the day. There are many problems with this resolution. One, it cheats the Player Characters out of a chance to prove their worth or die with their boots on. Two, such an ending destroys the verisimilitude of the entire adventure, destroying in one blazing moment the effect the Games Master and the players have been building and working on the entire session.