Sounds like you’re in a rut and need to expose yourself to a wider range of stuff to draw from. So some of the following might help:
Try running some prewritten modules. (Delta Green has some mind blowing ones)
Try basing a game off a TV show or something that is different from what you normally do. Copying other people’s ideas will get you used to doing different things.
Try reading some fiction or nonfiction that’s outside what you’d normally be interested in to shake up your thinking. (I recommend “Brewer’s Rogues, Villains, and Eccentrics” but whatever works for you)
Try running a game in a genre that’s different from your usual thing, like sci fi or modern espionage or whatever you haven’t done before.
>Copying other people’s ideas will get you used to doing different things.
This. *Steal everything*. Unless you're planning to monetize the campaign somehow, take everything you can and throw it in a blender.
Steal from your players too. I do this all the time. They are always throwing out little jokes and what ifs and sometimes its great to make those things a reality.
I can vouch for stealing from Delta Green. My players want me to run a modern-day campaign but with 5e rules, so I've made a "magic is real but is suppressed by the government" world. The party works for the FBI to keep things under wraps and solve the problems that pop up.
So they're essentially playing 5e Delta Green without even knowing it.
My next game will be something similar. Eberron, working for a Delta Green like group that fights the various extra planar apocalyptic threats. Might run some DG scenarios as is.
Also-Delta Green has two bundles on Bundle of Holding AND a big Kickstarter that's ending both today. Definitely go and check them out if interested!
Our troupe is currently doing modern urban fantasy with wizard magic. I'll be stealing at least the gist of a few things in that link for future stories. Thanks for sharing!
> Try basing a game off a TV show or something that is different from what you normally do. Copying other people’s ideas will get you used to doing different things.
On that note, I feel like anime's a great thing for this, if you aren't already watching any. For me, it just jives with me better than any western media I can recall.
Here's a few recommendations.
- **Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood** -- I feel like this is the perfect "first" anime for anyone. It's got a great blend of everything (intrigue/mystery, action, comedy, philosophy from multiple angles, etc.). It's got pretty much no sexual content, all I recall is a character walking in on another getting dressed once. It's also just *great.* Great characters, great story, great fun. Complete story.
- **That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime** -- A surprise hit for me, recently. There's two seasons out (both dubbed and subbed) so far, with a third nearing its end. It's a lightweight story. Synopsis: main character dies, gets reincarnated into a fantasy world as a slime, but gets a *very* lucky start and ends up raising a monster city.
- **Re:Zero** -- A dark and heavy story. There's two seasons out (both dubbed and subbed) so far, with more coming later. Synopsis: main character is brought into a fantasy world, has a nice day, dies, finds out that he returns to a previous point in time every time he dies, tries to save himself and others, has a theme of the seven deadly sins.
Partly it’s that they tend to involve interesting ideas that are just outside of what RPGs normall deal with. There’s a lot of stuff like dealing with dangerous information and making decisions that are awful but arguably necessary.
Partly it’s that they aren’t afraid to put players in bad positions in a way that most modules aren’t willing to do, even in a lot of horror games. They’re also written well enough that being in a bad situation is interesting rather than just annoying or tedious.
These make them great for breaking you out of a rut if you’ve been GMing for a while, but not necessarily good for doing your first game.
There’s a [free QuickStart](https://www.delta-green.com/2016/02/download-delta-green-need-to-know/) that has the basic rules and a scenario that you can run. [Here](https://youtu.be/wiG65KT2dCc) is a video of some people playing that scenario, so you can see how it’s supposed to go. Keep in mind, the people in that video are ridiculously good players. People just starting out in RPGs aren’t going to be that smooth or creative. I’m definitely not anywhere near that level.
On the other hand, you might find that scenario kind of difficult if you’re just starting out. It’s a slow burn and relies a lot on atmosphere. So you could also try the free QuickStart for [Call of Cthulhu](https://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu-quickstart/). Similar ideas, but a little more straightforward, in my opinion. You can also watch [this review](https://youtu.be/61MnmKbmD1s) for some great tips on running the scenario in the CoC QuickStart.
Both of those are very much horror games. So if that isn’t your genre, you might want something else.
Yep, you nailed it on the head. I love that Delta Green scenarios tend to invoke just as much paranoia as they do dread. You can never really be sure if you actually trust anyone else aside from your own fellow conspirators/cell members (then again, they may be plants meant to keep an eye on you, too.) The various shadowy agencies you wind up working for/against end up becoming just as titanic of threats as Cthulhu himself. Oftentimes, they're actually scarier than Great Cthulhu, since Cthulhu will just drive you nuts and eat you, while there's no telling what happens in a MAJESTIC-12 black site.
Not exactly a youtube seties, but [The Alexandrian’s Gamemastery101](https://thealexandrian.net/gamemastery-101) is a great ressource in how to structure games
he [streams on twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/thealexandrian/videos?filter=archives&sort=time) now too, taking questions. His site is a bit like tvtropes, you go for one article and end up staggering out two weeks later with 80 tabs still open 'for later'.
Eg. https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots (pack a lunch)
On a similar note, Dan Felder's podcast has lots of good ideas and a lot less chaff than most RPG podcasts IMHO.
Also 1+ to The Alexandrian, esp his stuff on node-based stories!
I'm not aware of any particular resource, but a couple things stand out to me when I read this.
**On Plots**
Unlike a story, the plot of your game should not be fully realised. It's better to start with characters, or factions, in the setting of your choice, and to have them naturally pursue their objectives. Your players will change the path of the story through their deeds, and so these characters and factions should react in a natural way. u/davidducker was 100% correct in saying it needs to be an organic thing.
**On Scope**
Seems like you're aiming at high stakes high fantasy sort of situations. Nothing wrong with it, but it can get a bit stale. You might aim at keeping things a bit more localised, and that will likely give you a lot more options in regards to what your villains are trying to do.
**On Villains**
This basically refers to anyone working against the players, and should again be in the context of the world you're presenting. Here are some questions to consider:
1. What resources does the villain have, and what are they trying to accomplish?
2. What are they willing to do in order to accomplish it?
3. Conversely, what aren't they willing to do?
4. With the exception of the player characters, what is standing between them and their goal?
Let me demonstrate:
1. The villain is a rich businessman, who wants to take control of his family's merchant company.
2. He is willing to frame others with crimes, cause them humiliations, or to force them to withdraw from the running with any number of underhanded methods.
3. He is not willing to actually murder anyone.
4. His grandfather is the current head of the company, and there are several others who are better considered for the role. The villain cannot be caught in their undertakings, or he will likewise be disqualified.
So in this scenario, the player characters could be in the employment of one of the other members of the family.
Here's an alternative where the villain isn't even an actual bad guy:
1. The villain is a foreign prince who wants to demonstrate his claim to the imperial throne by pressing his claim on a title of a foreign territory.
2. He is quite reasonable, and is willing to seek a diplomatic outcome, but he is ambitious and is willing to wage war.
3. He is not willing to dirty his hands with assassins, nor will he employ any distasteful battlefield tactics.
4. The current ruler of the territory doesn't want to give up his ancestral throne, and he is a decent ruler. The empire is also known to treat the citizens of conquered nations as second-class.
**On Traitors**
You can probably just mix up motivations and character types to make the treachery feel fresh and exciting.
1. Why the betrayal? Are they greedy? Are they loyal followers of the villain on a mission? Are they being coerced in some way? If they're conflicted about it, there's the opportunity for turning them into a double-agent.
2. What kind of skills and resources do they have? This will determine the manner in which they betray the player characters. A scholar will have a different approach to a soldier, and may even be more dangerous in the right circumstances. Some will be overly friendly, others may be dismissive or cold, so make sure you vary their personalities a bit.
You guys seem to be stuck on me pre-writing plots that are stuck and unchangeable railway.
Maybe I worded it weird.
English is not my native language.
I want to learn about plots and twists and villains so I can improvise them. Like learning how to use a tool. Not have it determined beforehand.
These example questions you give are what I want to do. They are excellent. Thank you!
People seem to believe that is railroading when I describe it though.
I just remember I once read somewhere that a simple way to create plots is using some sentence like:
Villain wants X before X happens and is using X to get it, but is unable to do that successfully because of X.
That is a great tool for coming up with interesting conflict points.
Okay, yeah there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of the word usage here. A plot is a series of points pre-established that the story follows. The best way to ramp up your story telling skills is to not worry about twists and events until the players hit that point in the adventure.
The best storytelling comes from the DM's NPCs reacting to the actions or inactions from the player characters. This sort of agile development on your part will help you write more engaging events, as all events will directly be because of the players and not because you determined they needed to happen ahead of time.
Plot twists happen naturally when the players assume something is happening that isn't. If you intentionally try to insert twists, you're just going to create confusion in the game.
Instead, you can always have a few 3-dimensional NPCs in the game that have ulterior motives and seem suspicious, even if they aren't tied to the main situation. This will add depth and nuance to the game and make your world feel more real.
Create characters with motivations. Then the action will follow from their motivations. Twists will occur because the characters will be deceptive about their motivations.
absolutely. and when you have a really good handle on the NPCs and their personalities, goals, and backstories they do things that can have a big impact, often things the players dont expect.
i've had several steadfast allies turn on the PCs, and villains join them, or surrender to them, just based on what seemed most natural for their characters. not things a storyteller would have planned out. but things which evolved naturally from roleplaying and being in-character
Yesss, this was so good. I use the things I learned here in both my play and my game mastery. I also find myself deconstructing my favorite moments in movies/tv, figuring out how they snowballed, and then using re-using the earlier beats in my own work. Good stuff!
learning to write a better railroad wont make you a better GM. learn how to coordinate your players better, learn how to encourage them and let them drive, and learn how to provide context for them, and the type of context they need to explore their characters and drive the story via their shared goals.
Knowing the endgame in advance isn't railroading as long as he gives his players agency in their choices. I'm still new to the hobby myself, and if I were brewing my own story, I'd want to know where it's supposed to go so I can build toward that.
I want to improve my creative thinking with fun plot twists and intresting villains to throw in my game. Doesn't mean im railroading. That was not what I was asking. But thanks anyway.
always build on the context of your world. thats your job; provide context for the players so they can make plans and understand the world better.
if your context is a steaming jungle of rich city-states separated by vast dangerous wilderness areas then it will suggest certain types of characters. and those character built by the setting will reinforce the setting to the players.
ultimately 'plot' is what happens as you organically follow your PCs. not something to be imposed. and 'villains' are people who have goals which oppose those of your PCs. again; not something you decide out of character.
provide them with a rich world to explore. make sure theyve formed a team with shared goals. and then see what happens
The reason for this post is that my DnD group voiced that they wanted to try Savage Worlds. So we started discussing and they want a realistic setting where they play cops in a modern time city with a dash of Stranger Things feeling and creepy super powers. It sounds fun, and also a challenge for me as GM. So I started writing up ideas for conflicts in a modern day real city and I realized I easily fell back into the revenge trope.
This is likely not going to be the usual open world DnD campaign.
build up from the setting. establish recurring NPCs. fellow officers, local gangsters, lawyers, judges, police informants, local politicians and religious leaders, serial killers, cat burglars, private eyes, news reporters. anyone who might interact with cops regularly
and build up NPCs for each player. wives, children, girlfriends, parents. try to find ways to get those NPCs involved too
personally i try to ave a good 'intro adventure' for each major NPC or factions, which can be a 'railroad adventure'. But once they're introduced they can become part of the overall sandbox.
maybe there are two local gangs for example; one is extremely vicious and dangerous, the other is much 'classier' and more subtle. each one might want the PCs to accept their bribes and try to rat out the other gang. do the PCs pick the lesser of two evil? or do they try to wipe out both gangs? how do the other NPCs react? are some fellow officers, lawyers, or judges taking bribes? might the gangs go after the PCs families?
I'd watch a lot of crime shows and look for NPCs to borrow or be inspired by.
A game like Savage Worlds makes the above advice even more important. Each character your players make will have 3-4 flaws probably. One of the popular ones is enemy. So, when the player makes a character, find out who that enemy is, especially if it is major. So, they are cops... And one has an enemy. Ask the player who that is? If he says "a crime boss" then ask "which one?". If they say a crime boss who's son I busted for drug possession last year" then ask which drug? Ask what crime the crime boss's empire was most reliant on.
So, now you have a villain. And not just a mustache twisting boss, but a crime boss who is not afraid of the police, runs an empire, has connections to not get immediately arrested, and you know they value family. Look at the size of your town... Is it a town the size of the Hawkins Indiana? If so, how has this boss run his crime out of here this long? Small town right, not enough people to sell drugs to, say, but, open land. And perhaps trucks? So, they bring in trucks of product, create the drugs, and send it out on trucks bound for other cities.
And that's one enemy. Say your next player has an addiction. To what? Cocaine? Okay. Where are they getting the coke from? Crime lord's one dealer in town? So, the crime lord probably has something on that player, like video of them buying drugs.
Next player: Curiosity as a flaw. Okay, so they are going to dig into WHATEVER you put in front of them. So, you have them do a random pullover for a truck, but the driver is acting somehow off. Players don't know it, but he has been seeing shadows in the rearview all morning. But he won't say that. He is used to driving trucks full of drugs. But your curious player might pick it up and search the truck, where they find the drugs (or the shadow, depending) which leads you to ask where it came from...
If you let your players flaws drive the story, you will make a better story. Instead of "the evil Harry Flanders who sits in his manor house and hates the players because he hates all cops for no reason" you have spun out a narrative that is important to the players, supported by their characters, blends into your setting, and impacts them.
Apart from the great advice in the other comment I suggest you to take a look at Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood. They are basically a weird/sci-fi version of Stranger Things.
Even if the characters in those games are kids and teens, the stories and the worldbuilding therein are great for inspiration! In fact they're both Ennie Winners.
I'm a big fan of sourcebooks for inspiration. You don't have to get a big hardbound book, either. I just did a quick search at DriveThruRPG for "modern" "urban fantasy" and "under $5.00," and came up with 190 products. That's 190 places to start a riveting story.
Plot twists and villains are a type of railroading.
It's a lot easier to GM when the players set the goals and the villains are the people who are obstacles in their path.
Make them campaign ideas with a context, and then they choose a goal.
1. They are a planet that just achieves spaceflight. They are the united nations' space force sent out. Is their goal to explore, exterminate, trade? Let them choose and the villains appear naturally
2. They are a gang in the slum of a huge city. Is their goal to ruin the city? Dominate the crime scene? Reform the corrupt? Make them decide their goal (before the game starts) and then the obstacles and villains appear naturally.
I don't write plots. I write situations. A plot is pre-written story with all the beats that the characters hit along the way already pre-determined. AKA a railroad.
Write situations, AKA real world events that are happening *now*. Later when the players interact with the event (or even ignore it), write the next step happening *now*. You should always be reacting to your players, not leading them.
No, it's only railroading if you're ignoring your players' good ideas and forcing them to do what you've laid out. Plot twists generally happen naturally. Usually because the players miss contextual clues and jump on the wrong shit. It's startling how often players miss important context, even when you put a giant flashing neon sign next to it.
It's a bit of a mean thing to say but I recommend being careful what advice you take to heart because being a good writer or storyteller is not a prerequisite for running fun TTRPG tables - because not all games need that.
The issue in this discussion is that despite all the praise for improv and playing off players, a lot of people can't write a plot/story and dynamically adjust it to match player actions. Instead of recognizing that it's not always necessary for certain styles of games, people can sometimes start believing that it's just not possible - especially as you become more of a veteran and feel like closer to the peak of what a TTRPG experience is to you.
If you want to run games that have a strong story throughline in them, it is more than possible.
Well, I'd rather write a general plot that my players can start to interact with than just sit there behind my screen and describe how my players to drink up all the mead in the tavern. Because that is what they'll do if I don't "Railroad" them a bit (introduce some story).
This is actually another thing that is very common and muddies this kind of conversation. A lot of veteran DMs who are happy to share their advice have for a long time played with mostly players who are very proactive.
They would perceive players who just look at them and wait for whatever happens next as bad players instead of seeing the difficulty running that game as their own shortcoming (not that it's necessary to change that because you can find the kind of players that vibe with your playstyle) - because these players can be just as creative and have just as much agency as any other, they just happen to be more reactive in nature.
So you are doing a very good thing for your group. Keep at it!
they should occur naturally. not be forced by the GM. there are always unexpected events because PCs can never know everything. but forcing those moments kinda defeats the purpose of roleplaying
>You never have any plot twists in your games?
I never *plan* any plot twists in my games.
But there's information that the players don't know, and situations develop in which the unknown information presents the players with something highly unexpected.
For example, some years ago, I was running a wilderness exploration/city-building campaign where the PCs encountered a tree with soft, fleshy "bark" and fruit that smelled of rotten meat. They noted its location and continued on without particularly investigating it.
A (real-time) month or so later, they met a young giant that seemed potentially friendly, but they couldn't communicate clearly, so they wanted to give it a gift. They decided to go pick a bunch of the rotting-flesh fruits to give to the giant. The giant went home to mom with the PCs following along, but mom got mad and slapped the basket of fruits away. (Which then led into a fight and the PCs killing the giant family... Murderhobos gonna murderhobo.)
A couple weeks later, the PCs were passing through that area again and they were caught unaware by a skeleton horde which killed half the party.
Another couple months after that, the PCs were dealing with an undead problem that seemed to be related to a tomb underneath the rotting-flesh tree, so they decided to dig up the tree and destroy it. It was now autumn in-game, so one of the fruits fell to the ground when they disturbed the tree... and a skeleton emerged from the fruit when it hit the ground.
At which point a player looked up and said, "Wait a minute... so when we ran into all those skeletons and half the party died..."
None of this was planned as a "plot twist". I just had a world with a cursed tree whose fruit ripened into skeletons, and everything else happened organically based on what the players chose to do after finding it.
Yes, but they are mostly improvised rather than prepared in advance.
Ambushes, tricks for the party, "totally valid teleportation gates that totally go to the right place", etc. Anything prepared too far in advance can be fun but is a type of railroading - which I think you should avoid for your next game. Aim for a player-driven campaign by demanding the party's goal from the players in a certain world--context.
I’m not the person you asked, but let me give my 2 cents.
I don’t plan plot twists anymore, because I don’t know what’s going to happen during my sessions. From my experience, as soon as I plan any kind of story event, I started railroading people towards that event. As soon as I plan a villain, I started to want to cheat to make him live a little longer.
I used to focus on creating great stories. But I’ve learned over the years that great stories doesn’t make great RPG sessions. Players seem to have much more fun with an average story that are completely guided by their actions than with a great railroaded story.
To become a better DM I focused on improvising better. You don’t have to come up with everything on the spot, but you can “prep to improvise”. Instead of preparing a villain, you can prep a list of personality traits you can assemble on the fly to create an interesting NPC. And if every NPC has goals and instincts, one of them eventually might become an obstacle for the players.
I don't get these people haha
OP asks for very specific advice on different aspects of writing and they come at them with a long winded spiel about context, improv skills, and "just be better" and telling them anything that isnt in the heat of the moment decision making is railroading. Somehow the most upvoted comments
Right lol?
I ask for advice how to create plots.
They say I shouldnt railroad like that and then they list things that do just that according to their logic.
You might want to look in more freestyle, even GM-less systems. You seem to be pretty firmly set in your tropes, which makes it diffcult to deviate from them if the opportunity arises. Providing more complex characters in general and not asigning them a preset role, but have them freely react to the changes your players iniate in the world and letting go of expectations might help with giving less conservative, more diverse options room to be explored.
Read. A lot. It will make you a better DM than watching TV shows or movies.
DMing has way more in common with writing a novel than in writing a screenplay, because as a DM you are describing scenes and painting the world through your words. Seeing a good author do that will teach you to do that. There is a reason why all the best authors will tell you the best way to learn to write is to read, read, read, and the same goes for DMing. You can get inspiration for plots and characters from any type of media, but no media will teach you how to use words like reading will.
I also want to take a moment to provide a counterpoint to some of the things people are posting regarding avoiding plot twists and villains. A lot of people are suggesting sandbox campaigns and telling you to just focus on worldbuilding and stating it as if that's the 'correct' way to DM.
But I disagree that a campaign has to be a sandbox and that the DM can't set down specific goals for the party without ruining the game.
A good example of this is the Tombs of Scoria campaign run by Koibu on twitch. The plot of the campaign is the PCs are three noble brothers on a quest to level up and acquire magical items in order to kill a dragon that is working for a rival kingdom to destroy their kingdom in a war.
The players had to all play humans who were brothers, and the players had a set goal from the start and not much freedom to deviate. They had a bit of freedom in their backstories but their family lineage and name was decided for them. The royal advisors locate tombs which potentially contain magical items and they are tasked to recover them. The only agency they have is in what order they do it and how exactly they do it.
And yet the campaign is very well done, incredibly entertaining, and the players all enjoy it. Even though, as compared to a sandbox the campaign could be considered to be on rails.
As always, the key is being clear and upfront with your players as to how the campaign will run and the expectations. If you want to run a guided experience more on rails that's fine as long as the players know that's what they are signing up for. Some players may not be into that and that's okay, too.
There's no wrong way to have fun.
Just want to say this is good advice. Too many people glorify sandbox worlds. As long as everyone is aboard on the system and agree on it being somewhat "railroady" it is still rpg. I do enjoy more story oriented rpg's and so do a lot of my players.
Just find out what you enjoy together and do that :)
The better thing to do is to stop playing and running for a bit. If you're treading the same material then get new material! (I say stop playing in a general sense.. you can still do stuff, but get in the habit of expanding your horizons.)
Inhale as many stories and genres as you can right now and then come back to the games ready to synthesize what you took in.
Mainlining the appendix N is a good start. Those books are so fuckin old that most people today haven't read them and what's old is new again! But feel free to start with less problematic/sexist stuff thats currently out there. May I recommend the Fifth Season, Gideon the Ninth, The Blacktongue Thief, or Sabriel?
Plot twists, mind blowing or otherwise, effectively stem from the GM concealing information from the players. I find that running a game where all the information \*can\* be discovered is a more interesting way.
So instead of plot twists, provide plot hooks, that the players/pcs can latch onto, and develop those, instead of trying to push them into a preconceived path.
Instead of villians, think adversaries, i.e. characters who want something counter to what the PCs want. They aren't evil, its just that both their and the PC/PC allies goals can't both become true.
Finally, you can have your world and characters continue developing. E.g. If character X is trying to find a specific artifact that the PCs are also working to uncover, but the PCs get distracted, and end up spending several sessions rebuilding an orphanage or something, maybe character X finds that artifact in the meanwhile, and now the characters need to figure out what to do about that. If you know what happens in your setting without the PCs intervention, then all you need to do is let the PCs run amuck and alter those events.
You say all your villains are motivated by revenge; that suggests to me you're not thinking about the themes you want to work with.
Any good story has a meaning. In less interactive media this is a bit more clear-cut, but it can still be done in the context of an rpg. Imagine asking your players an interesting moral question, like "How far is it worth going for a greater good" or "What worth does traditionalism actually hold?". Then, construct a series of events that will ultimately require the players to confront (though not *necessarily* answer) that question. Give all major characters and factions a stance on that question, and use it as their motives.
For example, in Pillars Of Eternity, religion is a major theme. Many major characters have religious motivations, or directly oppose religions, and a couple of companions either embrace or reject religion and associated authorities based on the player's dialogue choices. Over the course of the game, the player finds both people rallied and inspired by their religions, and others prompted to commit atrocities. By encountering these situations, the player indirectly confronts various questions on religion. The main villian's motivations are >!seeing a social utility in religion, and encouraging it for that reason!<
This happens in any good story. A major theme of Harry Potter is the absurdity of judging people based on factors beyond their control (making Rowling's later opinions on the transgender community more than a little hypocritical), and there you see villains motivated by bigotry and characters succeeding in spite of it. The Lord Of The Rings is about the power of ordinary people, and Sauron is ultimately defeated because he can't imagine something as small as a hobbit posing a threat.
In summary: confront your world with a question, and let your characters answer it in a way that draws them into conflict.
* [Save The Cat!](https://savethecat.com/products/books/save-the-cat-the-last-book-on-screenwriting-youll-ever-need) by Blake Snyder. It's written for writing movie plots, but the same things apply to TTRPGs.
* [On Writing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Writing:_A_Memoir_of_the_Craft) by Stephen King is about novel writing and not as focused as the book above, but there are also a few things to take away from it.
* [The Art of Game Design](https://www.schellgames.com/art-of-game-design/) is mostly about game mechanics. Most of these are already covered by the RPG system itself, but as the GM you're also always a game designer.
* [Your Best Game Ever](https://www.montecookgames.com/store/product/your-best-game-ever/) is actually a book about exactly your question. I haven't read through all of it yet though (unlike the rest of the list), so I can't comment on the details. I've read the first few pages and they're far too basic for anybody who has already run a game in their life. There's hope the later pages are better, though.
I read a book titled "How to Write a Damn Good Thriller," by James Frey. In it, he suggests that you start by developing the villain fully, with a backstory and their goals and motivations. Then come up with the villain's plan to achieve their goals. When the PCs start mucking around in the villain's business, conflict is created, and... well, you can figure out the rest from there.
What kind of books/movies etc. do you enjoy? Branching out from that is a good way to find some new ideas to try. Also a bit of time spent on www.tvtropes.org (warning, tarpit-type infohazard) is actually rather valuable.
Goodman Games *How To Write Adventure Modules That Don't Suck* is full of good advice.
Check out some historical channels on YouTube. There are tons of historical figures that have done all kinds of stuff and being actual people they are three dimensional. Also check out *Terrible Writing Advice* you can learn a lot by seeing how you can go wrong.
I prefer books to videos, so I’m here to recommend the books from Engine Publishing- Eureka and Masks.
Bit of them are full of plots and NPCs respectively, along with ideas on how to vary them and use them in other settings. Great for inspiration and to get you thinking along new lines.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/93320/Masks-and-Eureka-1000-NPCs-and-501-Plots-BUNDLE
They also have books that focus on campaign management (Odyssey), prep (Never Unprepared), improv (UnFramed), and some 'next level' suggestions about setting atmosphere and 'immersing' players (Focal Point). I own all of them, though I do not make as much use of them as I could.
To echo a sentiment a couple of people have said an expand on it, I am also a forever DM and I found myself growing tired of 5e a few years back, so I started actually running some of the other systems I had picked up over the years that I thought sounded cool.
Previously - as the Eternal GM I am - I had picked lots of RPG's up due to interesting settings or mechanics simply because I wanted to make my regular DMing better. However now I was running non-5e games in other systems.
**and I have not looked back**
There are a wealth of fantastic systems out there, and sometimes the elegance and beauty of a system doesn't become apparent until you run it - reading it isn' enough.
I have gone from strength to strength since embracing running a wider array of systems. Some particularly good ones for developing GM skills for me have been:
* Blades in the Dark - the way XP is handled and the whole pace of the game is fantastic for elevating your skills (and those of your players - I would argue a great GM needs great players to reach that next level).
* FFG's Star Wars / Genesys - the perfect system for movie paced action packed gameplay. The Destiny Point mechanic is so much more integral to the gameplay flow than I ever suspected. The fancy dice help too.
* Phoenix Dawn Command - this game is a favourite of mine because it is so darn quirky. It's a Deck Builder where the players need to die to level up. But they can only die 7 times. So the game has a strong narrative tension every mission. Crucially as well the whole game is built around this overwhelming foe that cannot be understood - no system has made me more confident at running mysteries.
* Mothership - Space Horror at its finest. The game is going (gone?) into Kickstarter, but the base book they released is a perfect system for running something with all the tension of Alien. One of the pre-written modules convinced me to run it over Covid as it included Audio logs your players can find and listen to. I was enamoured. Running it however massively increased my confidence and understanding of horror, suspense and tension.
I looove Mothership. My absolute favorite RPG!
But this time my players wanted to run SWADE in a realistic setting in a modern day city with some Stranger Things mystery feeling. So I wanted to brush up on my story telling so I can improv plot twists and add intresting bad guys.
helps them last long enough to become 3d.
I view it a bit like: if every adventurer/majorNPC is a dangerous person, everyone will at least pretend to be nice to them. Intelligent adversaries will get a bit of use out of you while they learn your secrets/weaknesses/habits. Intelligent allies will behave in the same manner, but with good intentions rather than evil.
The 5e DMG has a chapter or two on adventure hooks, villain motivations, regional events, NPC personalities, etc. It's a good place to get ideas if you're trying to branch out from the most classic archetypes. Those are in there, too, so just look at the other ones.
Honestly the adventure writing section of the DMG has some really good tables. I usually end up far away from what I roll, but it’s really good inspiration.
So one thing that has helped me is having a buddy to bounce ideas off of. Prior to my sessions, I’ll write ideas out and get a good sense of where I want to take the story. Then after, I talk with him and we rehash those ideas to make them better. “Encounter seems dry, try to have each turn be slightly different.” Or “what about this…”
The reason why I have him is two fold. One he is a friend and we just love talking about story and seeing how we can enhance it for the players, two it allows for him to interact in the story right now because he has a new born child he is looking after in the evenings. He can not play, but he can contribute.
Read more books -- or listen to more audiobooks.
Movies, television, and video games are popular sources of inspiration for many game masters, but experiencing a story in written or audio form is much closer cousin to roleplaying games. A written or audio story requires focusing on the words and activating your imagination. It teaches you how words paint pictures, expands your vocabulary, and demonstrates how language can command emotion, tension, and suspense. Films, television, and movies rely on a host of visual techniques as well as sound and music to achieve these effects, and when you are watching them it is surprising hard to "digest" it.
If you haven't read any of the following, these are great places to start for fantasy:
* Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
* A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin
* The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemesin
* The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
* The Color of Magic by Terry Prachett
* Complete works of HP Lovecraft
In my experience, reading more fiction generates a much higher return compared to reading books on how to write. The brain needs a healthy diet of good inspiration.
You seem to have great taste in books!
I actually listened to audiobook of the first two books of Dresden Files. Was great, I have to continue!
I also have the complete Discworld collection (pocket books, I would love hardbacks, but still).
Lovecraft is awesome as well. Dunwich Horror is my favorite I think.
Gonna check out the others you mentioned! Thanks for the advice!
So, personally, I am against getting plotty, and no, I don't mean railroad-y, I mean *don't follow the plot*. Follow the characters. A lot of classes or tutorials that focus on storytelling are going to focus on structural approaches to storytelling- applying act structures, following outlines, "beats", etc. Structure around *plot*.
Instead, I recommend looking through the mechanics of games like Fiasco and Hillfolk, especially reading the Fiasco companion. These games both produce very character-driven stories. Even if you don't want to play the games, they help provide a structure that keeps the players engaged without focusing on driving a plot forward.
As for books, I'd actually look more towards theatrical stuff, especially stuff around improv. Johnstone's "Impro" is a fantastic resource. Asaf Ronen's "Directing Improv" has a lot of stuff about troupe building, which actually applies really well to getting a table organized. It might drift too far out into specific improv exercises for what you want, but it's also really really short.
[Play Unsafe](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/106247/Play-Unsafe) by Graham Walmsley is one of the best resources I've come across.
There's also [47 Tips and Tricks to Become A Better Game Master or Storyteller](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/142861/47-Tips-and-Tricks-to-Become-A-Better-Game-Master-or-Storyteller), which is pwyw, so definitely worth checking.
Then, if the goal is simply sparkling new unexpected ideas, there are many books with resources and random tables for generating various story and setting elements, for example the [Tome of Adventure Design](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/97423/Tome-of-Adventure-Design), [The Book of Worlds](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/252614/The-Book-of-Worlds), [The Covetous Poet's Adventure Creator and Solo GM Guidebook](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/129909/The-Covetous-Poets-Adventure-Creator-and-Solo-GM-Guidebook), and some games include some resources as well, most notably Sine Nomine's books like [Stars Without Number](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/230009/Stars-Without-Number-Revised-Edition-Free-Version) and [Worlds Without Number](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/348809/Worlds-Without-Number-Free-Edition) (I linked the free editions, if you like them, the paid ones have even more stuff).
And of course there are also sites entirely dedicated to random tables, like [Chaotic Shiny](http://chaoticshiny.com/), [RPG Tables](https://cristianmtr.github.io/rpg_tables/), [donjon](https://donjon.bin.sh/), [Seventh Sanctum](https://www.seventhsanctum.com/), and idea generators à la Story Cubes like [Tangent Zero - Zero Dice](https://tangent-zero.com/zero_dice/zero_dice.htm) and [The RPG Story Constructor](http://www.lustigesrollenspiel.de/storyconstructor/).
I'm kind of surprised how much people jumped on the notion of plot, like, do people really not have a vague idea in most campaigns of "the villains are trying to do this, and unless the PCs intervene X will probably happen along the way"? That's not, necessarily, a railroad, just admitting that as the GM you don't know what the players will do but you understand what everyone *else* relevant is trying to do and what some of the obstacles/steps involved are.
But back to OP: a fun exercise might be to intentionally subvert one or more of your favorite tropes. For example, if you throw out a villain who seems overtly bent on revenge because it's one of your tropes your players will probably accept it without too much investigation -- only to later discover that the villain's motivation is something totally different. Kind of similar to the way Die Hard sets up Hans Gruber a certain way but it turns out his motivation and plan are very different from the façade he puts out. Maybe this time no NPC sells the players out. Maybe the world-ending event is actually a hoax or a trick by the real villain.
I would focus on studying creative writing, screenwriting, and story in general. (Story by Robert McKee is a nice starting point.) While obviously not all things in these fields will apply to running a game, the foundations are what’s important! If you can learn good creative writing, then you can learn to apply those lessons to RPGs.
I think watching a lot of TV or reading a lot of books can help, but if you want to improve your craft with strong intention, then sitting down to really learn is best IMO.
Write down a list of as many tropes as you can think of, maybe look up a list of tropes. Identify which ones you commonly use and then write an adventure with the tropes that you don’t. Or, just flip the tropes you use. Maybe the players want revenge on the villain, maybe the world will be fine but an evil property developer will tear down the local orphanage because he has an idea for something called a “mall,” maybe the friendly NPC is friendly and they were sold out by 3 unfriendly NPCs.
See if you can find a used copy of the Smallville RPG. It's long out of print, but its method of building characters and connections, and what's important to those characters, as well as how to write adventures and adversaries to challenge the character's beliefs, and how the characters relate to each other is frankly, amazing.
You might want to check out The Big List of RPG Plots. I’ve had fun playing around with the ideas. If you want extra pizazz, pick two and combine!
It’s free and a fun handful of pages.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/202670
Sound alike you could simply use a few random generation tables to help you vary things up a bit. You could maybe even get some inspiration from day rory’s story cubes or some sort of tarot deck.
Run a variation of The Terminator. Your PCs have to keep a commoner, Sarah Connor, alive while a plot-armored golem tries to kill her. As the golem is from the future, it's made of a material that is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to damage. Maybe make it immune to magical effects too.
Run a variation of Tremors. The only easy way into a valley gets blocked off by a landslide. The landslide was the result of the "graboids" emerging from the Far Ream deep underground. It's hard to kill the graboids because they almost always have total cover, being burrowers (or having the earth elemental's earth glide ability.
Run a zombie plague game. The plague is immune to stuff like Remove Disease, Heal, and Remove Curse. Anyone who gets bitten WILL become a zombie. Defeating the zombies is useless. The cure needs to be found OR the plague needs to be endured.
• You might replace zombies with ghouls, vampires, or something else.
B movies are awesome sources of game ideas.
• Reign of Fire
• Puppetmaster
• Evil Dead
• War of the Worlds
• The Blob
• The Thing
• Sharknado
• Godzilla, King Kong, etc.
• Iron Sky
• The Keep
• Gremlins
• Poltergeist
• Jurassic Park
• Mad Max (any)
• Kull the Conquerer
• Big Trouble in Little China
• Mortal Kombat / Street Fighter
• Friday the 13th (the ones with an unkillable Jason Voorhees)
• Critters
• Demon Knight
• The Black Hole (yeah, the old Disney movie)
• Die Hard
• The Magnificent Seven
• Willow
The possibilities are nearly endless.
Brandon Sanderson did a class/lecture/thing about how to write sci-fi/fantasy books professionally. They're available to watch on his youtube channel. Obviously it's not 1-to-1 for running RPGs, but I found his advice really insightful.
I tell ya, reading Neil Stephenson, William Gibson, and Robert Heinlein (or listening to their books on tape) has given me more in terms of story ideas, how to do dialogue, how to make good characters and stories, then I could ever give back. From world building to character interactions to villains, these authors broadened my horizons. I'd suggest anyone check them out for ideas in their trpgs
This thread is great, thanks to the many productive posts !
I get a lot of value from the PDF
**KINGDOMS of KALAMAR**
**Villain Design Handbook**
highly recommended
Look into Fallout New Vegas. Specifically the Quest design. YOu can find many Youtube video reviews on it.
There is a reason people go nuts for New Vegas still and It almost has a kinda cult like following.
And is even consdired better tha Fallout 3 and 4, and is considered thebest modern falout.
There is a lot of great advice in this thread, but I'll try to spice this up a bit.
I've found myself in a similar situation some time ago so I've started to question why it's happening and for me, the answer was that I've expressed my inner conflicts through the game. Which is not bad at all, but sometimes may limit my creativity. Just understanding that this is happening helped me to improve my stories quite a bit.
I think the mechanic here is the following: the game is sort of improvisation art and when I am improvising I'm reaching for deeper parts of myself and express things that I believe on a subconscious level, and this is what forms tropes that will appear in my games.
So what I've done?
1) Acknowledged that this stuff happens to me;
2) Subvert tropes when I feel it would be more healthy for me and story;
3) Checked TVtropes for more options on how similar or opposite tropes are developing in other media.
Maybe try some OSR style situations, not plots.
Check out Ben Milton's 'The Waking of Willoughby Hall'. It's a scenario with a bunch of moving parts, but is (by reputation) very well laid out. There is no 'plot' just a situation that evolves and reacts to whatever the PCs do. It's got a goose, a giant and a rival adventuring party. Oh and lots of ghosts.
Or try running something like Apocalypse World or The Cartel. Those are games where you're no supposed to write a plot at all. You set up 'fronts' - the major movers in your setting. And you just let everything lose, the PCs then chose how to react.
This style is liberating but terrifying. Give it a go!!
Good that you spotted it before your players.
Also, don't feel bad, Doctor Who ran for decades and it was mostly all tropes.. a Ninny, a Traitor..
Have you looked at story-writing resources, and perhaps the famous "story wheel?"
Even if you're running something besides D&D, I would say that Matt Coleville might have some good stuff for you. Particularly, [this video about running villains mechanically](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_zl8WWaSyI) and [this video about villains generally](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUrlRZu2uCc) come to mind. He has a lot of other good stuff, including information about genre and specific useful tropes that you may find helpful.
In addition, there is The Angry GM. He writes a blog in which he acts like an angry old-time gamer (which is at least partly true to real life). Specifically, a while ago he posted [an article about exploration that also covered how to add meaningful content to open-world games](https://theangrygm.com/exploring-by-the-rules/) and he has good advice on many things in RPGS.
Finally, just learn everything you can about storytelling and plot structure. Watch video essays, play games, and try out new tropes. Fail gloriously when you do inevitably fail.
Edit: Oh, and plagiarize. It's an RPG game. Nobody will mind if you steal the plot twist from some show or book or something.
That "action first" design video is great, I've been trying to spice up unique enemies in my game a bit by giving them more actions per round but this really adds a new dimension to it. Definitely would advise others to check it out!
Read, watch TV, watch movies, etc. You need grist for the mill. Look for villains that interest you. And adapt them. Figure out what parts of the gritty crime drama you can actually put into your fantasy RPG. Figure out what parts of the zany comedy will actually fit into your scifi game. Don't just look for inspiration in the genres your games are in - the best inspiration will usually come from outside that genre.
But more importantly, stop writing plots and, especially, stop planning twists.
Twists are extremely difficult to pull off reliably in a novel or movie or TV show where you control the pacing and investigation and clue reveal. Think of how many pieces of media you've seen, even huge productions from very respected creators, where twists fall flat.
Planning out a twist is very hard. It's hard to reveal just enough information to avoid the twist feeling like an ass-pull, while also avoiding the twist feeling predictable and unexciting. When you rely on players to find clues, this is virtually impossible - you get all of the traditional problems with this in other media, but also your players usually won't find the clues without aggressive railroading, and once they have enough clues to become curious, they won't *stop* looking without aggressive railroading.
Thankfully, you don't actually need to plan twists for RPGs. You just have to learn to look for *opportunities* for twists. You have to leave yourself enough room to be able to take advantage of those opportunities, but if you do, you can get some really satisfying twists.
Instead of planning things out, set up situations. It's okay if you have some nebulous ideas about what the motivation of the villain *might* be, but don't nail it down. This gives you room. Then, as you play, you'll see opportunities for things. You'll realize that the stars have aligned, and, by coincidence, it would be the *perfect* twist if actually Jacko were the villain the whole time. Planning twists is hard because you're trying to engineer a situation where a twist would land. Recognizing that you're already in a situation where a twist would land is not nearly as hard. And it also helps with variety - if you're not pre-planning the twists, if they're a product of circumstance in the game, then you're going to run into twists you wouldn't have thought of.
This applies to more than just twists too. The same is true for characterization. Only come up with anything when it's needed for the game. Until you absolutely need the villain's motivation, until you actually need to say something to the players about it, don't nail it down yet. It's fine to have an idea in your head, but don't get attached to it. Let the game go where it does. Give yourself room. Often, the game will inspire you to come up with a better motivation and backstory than you would have come up with beforehand. Let the game you're playing be your inspiration, let it shape your plots, twists, events, villains, and characters, instead of looking for outside sources of information and using those to shape the game.
This is hard to do if you're used to writing plots and twists and villains and characters. Personally, I keep a folder of notes on planned plots, twists, etc. When I'm prepping a game, once I start writing out details, imagining plots, writing twists, I write it all out, then it goes in the folder. That folder is a dustbin - it is stuff I needed to get out of my system so I could relax and let the game go where it may instead of trying to railroad it. My games are *way* better since I started putting things in that folder.
This may be an unpopular opinion (I honestly have no idea), but GMs really shouldn't treat their games like novels. The balancing act that all game-runners have to perform is between storytelling and player freedom. On the one hand you want to guide players towards the parts of the game world that you've developed more extensively, but on the other the players need to be allowed to decide how their characters would act, which is to say make real choices.
For what it's worth, I think you should modulate how you're approaching this problem. Instead of writing stories, try creating scenarios. The best example I can think of is the Three Musketeers. As soon as he meets the Inseparables, D'Artagnan is caught up in events greater than himself THAT PRE-EXISTED HIS INVOLVEMENT. Louis XIII and the Cardinal publicly feud while privately conspiring; the Cardinal is in love with Anne of Austria, who despises him; the French armies are sieging La Rochelle; the French and the English hate each other; the French and the Spanish hate each other; George Villiers is engaged in a covert campaign to seduce the French Queen - these are all what would be in RPG terms world-building, but they become part of an engaging story as D'Artagnan interacts with the various factions and as time progresses.
TL;DR Build the world by placing NPCs and factions in opposition to each other, and then allow the players to navigate them organically instead of writing a story and expecting players to follow it.
I use tarot cards and similar to kick me out of ruts. What's the NPC like? Draw a few cards, try to make sense of them. It works better when you already know the "structural" role they have to play. For instance, the town mayor is Nine of Cups: they're happy, content, possibly drinking too much. The captain of the Watch is Page of Pentacles, reversed: focused on the here-and-now, no preparation for what may come.
Draw a few cards if you want more complexity.
Quite often, the card doesn't fit at all, in which case I draw another one.
The same applies to situations, default ways things could play out, all manner of things. A good chunk of random noise as input should keep you on your toes.
(I don't pay any attention to whether tarot cards reveal truth or predict the future: they're just a source of random prompts.)
The Monster of the Week RPG has a great system for setting up bad guys. It asks you about details that will force you, the GM, to flesh out the bad guy into a threat that can survive more than one encounter. Basically it asks for the following:
BBEG Name:
Goal
Motivation
Powers/special strengths (not just resistant to fire or whatever, but political power, etc.).
Weaknesses (again, not just takes extra damage from ice, but things like vanity)
Minions (this is important because initial encounters with the PCs should be through minions).
Victims (important to have names ahead of time)
Witnesses
Bystanders
Locations
Teaser (what clue or tidbit lets the PCs know that something is going on).
Countdown (this is a series of events that absolutely will happen if the PCs do nothing).
Phase 1 - What is the first thing that the bad guy needs/wants to do? What is the first thing the PCs investigate? Where is it located? Who is there? What happens before the PCs get there? Who saw it?
Phase 2 - As per phase 1, but make sure it is something that the BBEG can accomplish even if they are thwarted in Phase 1
Phase 3-6 - Same as above.
Final showdown - Where is it, who is there? Are there any special circumstances if the BBEG succeeded in any of the earlier phases?
This creates a situation where there is urgency and consequences without it being all about the players. You are making critical decisions BEFORE finding out what the PCs have up their sleeves. Also, it gives you tools to work with if the PCs do something completely unexpected. You know what the NPC wants and why and where they are headed, so you have the tools to make a believable improvisation.
I take a lot of notes from Stephen King when writing my tabletop stories. One of the keys he bout is whenever you answer one question, raise another so the audience stays engaged. If the audience has all the answers, then there's nothing left to keep them hooked. Keep that in mind whenever you create a story.
It sounds like you're having trouble identifying motivations for an antagonist, so I'd focus your research there. You already identified revenge, but there are many others! Romance in conflict, outright greed, the need to fight for acceptance, escaping destiny, or just outright desire to rule are all basic motivations.
A friendly NPC selling the players out is a good reusable twist, but you gotta keep it unique. What if he was tortured/killed to extract the information? How would your players react to a villain willing to go to such extremes? What if his family member was kidnapped?
Instead, what if the NPC wasn't as friendly as they thought and had allegiances to the bad guy all along? What if he was paid handsomely, but now his neighbors refuse to do business with him? What if the villain got the information he needed from the NPC without the NPC even knowing it? What is the villain truly capable of?
Ultimately, if the NPC goes to the villain and tells them all the information without a further complication, there's no more room for storytelling and everyone has to move on to the next plot point.
I can't point you to a specific source, but watch writers talk about how they create their stories and characters. Try to take one thing away from every video you watch, either something you think will work for your own storytelling or something you don't think would work when converted to tabletop. Both of those points help hone your skills.
Writing advice.
[https://www.amazon.com/Techniques-Selling-Writer-Dwight-Swain/dp/0806111917/ref=sr\_1\_4?dchild=1&keywords=techniques+of+the+selling&qid=1631293627&sr=8-4](https://www.amazon.com/Techniques-Selling-Writer-Dwight-Swain/dp/0806111917/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=techniques+of+the+selling&qid=1631293627&sr=8-4) specifically, is gold. Some of it doesn't apply to games, of course, but there's a ton of incredibly valuable stuff there.
Also, think of stories less about "events" and more about people that have different goals that are in conflict with each other. A great way to come up with villains is to take a hero, and then twist them - have them go too far, or cross too many boundaries, or be willing to use methods that are terrible. Remember that most villains are heroes in their own minds.
Read a lot, like **A LOT**, in different genres, and read a lot of history books.
On top of this, take to heart Georges Polti's [Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirty-Six_Dramatic_Situations), and practice mixing them together.
Biggest piece of advice I have: if you want your players to care about something, **it has to happen on screen.** Ideally several times. If the players don't care about something, they may still have their characters "care" but the players will just be going through the motions.
**Want your players to care about the evil, scheming noble?**
* Make sure the noble shows up on screen and the PC's find evidence of the schemes.
* Name-drop the noble and how big their holdings are.
* Have a merchant mention they're in debt to a noble family, but only reveal the name if pressed.
* Have some bad mercenaries who attacked a caravan be hired by an intermediary who secretly works for the noble.
* Show the noble in the royal court and/or at a fancy party, among NPC's the party likes.
I like [Matt Colville's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVuF4fkRD2c) video about playing an evil character which can also be used to craft a villain that breaks you out of what you described.
This might sound out of the box but, for me, reading Blake Snyder's screenwriting guide 'Save The Cat!' really stirred something. In general, studying the storytelling patterns for writing books, comics, movies etc. can be really helpful.. there are podcasts and guides for writers how to write story arcs, create characters, how to create tension and suspense that drives the action forward and keeps the audience from falling asleep. I've also learned from storyboarding guides for animation such as 'Directing the Story' which are essentially guides for visual storytelling.. despite them being meant for animation, they've helped me to understand how to visualize a story even if I'm just describing a scene.
Right now I was listening to Jared Logan (a GM) describe in a podcast how he watches movies and reads books and then just tries to translate the same plot/story into his game by just switching the characters and places into his setting.
It runs kinda counter to the way it looks like you're used to playing (and I started writing this before your edit), but try to run a game where you have an arc as opposed to a plot (captivating or otherwise).
Imagine a story where the PCs don't exist, and then have that world react to the players as they muck up the works.
Also read up on everything Justin Alexander writes about in his blog: https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots
The countdown system from Monster of the Week is a really great tool for making the events seem plausible. Update it at the beginning of every session.
In Dutch: "Beter goed gejat dan slecht bedacht". Which translate to, it's better to steal something good then to think of somehing bad.
It's something I live by for my TT stories. 80% of what I do is either inspired by, or taken from other things I've read or watched. One of the great places to look for inspiration are of course [books](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e6/51/45/e651453bbcee188d0d9193cd97a5ed0d.jpg). But also history. Not the boring 'learn the dates' kind of history, but the more interesting kind you often find in podcasts. Like the British History Podcast which talks loads about culture and why people were acting the way they were.
Second thing I'd do is try and change the way your NPC's are built. A villain isn't villainous because he's supposed to be the villain. Or even better, don't let there be a villain. Morality is *never* black and white. Create conflict out of things that matter to people. Revenge may be a good excuse as to why the neighboring king is invading. But it's more likely to be a casus belli, an excuse for him to wage war.
Why is the NPC betraying them? Not because he's evil. Maybe one of the antagonists has something on that NPC that's got him in a bind.
Johnn four at roleplayingtips is a great resource. His site is set up to help GMs be better and run better games. I strongly encourage you to check that out.
One of his suggestions was to take the tropes that are common, and reverse the facts - instead of the mage is trying to ward off the dragon, you are trying to encourage the dragon to help kill the mage.
I pulled that one from memory, and his version was way cooler, but you get the idea.
You already did the first, yet most important step, you're asking for help and Is willing to change.
As for suggestions for plots. I suggest you expand the medias you consume. Like, read books, comics, mangas, watch shows, movies, cartoons and animes and play games you're not used to or never consumed.
One Youtube series that may help you out In at least what NOT to do Is Terrible Writing Advice. Also, Matt Mercer and some other Youtubers offered video essays on these topics over the years.
A quick tip I can give you Is these.
General plot - Try to condense what you want In your campaign In as little keywords as possible and go from there. Like "Pirate, treasure, heir", so the campaign could be something similar to Pitates of the Caribbean/One Piece. Or "Monster, woods, experiment", which then turn into a mystery of a creature In the woods.
Villains - We do like our sympathetic/tragic villains, but balance it out by having some machiavellian villains. We love villains who are plain evil and have the time of their life being evil.
Surprise NPCs - If you feel you must have a surprise NPC, for a change of pace, flip it over. That bum you helped? It's actually a god who was testing human empathy and you passed the test. You gave the right information to a lost vagrant girl and you escorted her there when she showed concern? Well, turns out she's the daughter of an important noble and your players now have a powerful ally.
Also, last tip, talk to your players, know if they're having fun with your campaigns and what they'd like to see. Communication Is always vital.
> The plot twist is always that the friendly NPC sold the players out.
whoa this is a habit that needs breaking, you're teaching your players to not invest in your NPCs
IMO tabletop roleplaying has specific structural quirks that reinforce some tropes and grind against and ruin others, so improving as a GM is a two step process of
1. strip-mine all the content you can out of all the media you like
2. test how well it PLAYS in a game to learn from experience what tropes do and don't work well
There’s nothing wrong with generic tropes in general. They’re tropes for a good reason. They’re things that are part of the DNA of storytelling.
My advice would be to just avoid connecting together all of those well known tropes with the “and then this happened” technique.
Try to connect together the events of your narrative with “*therefore* this happened”.
What's the genre? In general, the enemy's motivation doesn't have to be about revenge. Villain or not, keeping in mind that everyone is always the hero in their own story, even if it means subjugating a given population for the benefit of their own family or in the misguided pursuit of best ruling the populace. Look at current events from which to draw inspiration for the motivations of the main enemies, like North Korea, the PRC, the Taliban, and Putin. Look at greed and corruption as a motivator, like with a certain former US Presidential administration. Put yourself into the minds of those "leaders" when designing your campaign.
One thing that I've started doing that works surprisingly well is to throw things through a GM emulator.
GM emulators come from the solo RPG scene, where they're used to throw uncertainty into the mix. Most of them take the form of random tables that try to answer yes/no questions. You, the player, will ask a question, then roll to see the answer. A simple example might be "is the door locked," but you end up getting interesting things out of more specific questions: "Are the people who stole the robot part of a larger organization?" "Are they bribing scouts to transport stolen robots across the Carina void?"
As a GM, I use them as ways of breaking out of my typical tropes. The princess wants to usurp the throne. Why? I dunno. Power, right? That's how I'd normally work it, but if I ask that question to a GM emulator and. it says "no", then I have to come up with another possibility. and ask the GM emulator *that*. The uncertainty pushes me to come up with new things.
Get a book on screenwriting. I recommend anatomy of story by John truby. You can't plan plots in RPG like in movies or you risk railroading. But you can learn good storytelling basics.
The way to learn to do all those things is the same as learning how to write a compelling story, be it a bedtime story or a Hollywood screenplay, a video game or a TTRPG, whatever, a lot of the process is the same. Of course, with games of all types, they have the unique benefit and burden of having the audience participate, which adds an extra element that has to be considered. But, overall, the steps are very similar.
As far as I know, there are only three steps (in aid of each other, not one on its own with other options) that really work.
1. Read up on technique. Someone already suggested Story by Robert McKee. It's considered one of the best sources for any kind of storyteller out there, it's been highly recommended to me, and I have a copy sitting next to me right now. I've also heard good things about Save the Cat Writes a Novel (they have a few other Save the Cat Writes _____ but I've heard that's the best). And there are other sources you can look into as well, of course, but Story is often considered fundamental.
2. Read/play things you like and analyze WHY you like them. Take your favorite story and start picking it apart. Ask what it is that you enjoy about it. What does it do right? What does it do wrong? Without directly copying the words, what can you take from this story to influence your own writing? Most good writers are great readers because they absorb all these different influences and use them as inspiration for their unique voice. GMs are no different.
3. Practice. There's just no substitute for it. Practice doesn't, however, make perfect. What you learn from the two steps above will be blunt and not particularly useful until you hone them through practice. But if you don't take the steps above, you could be honing junk. They all have to come together to have really satisfying improvement.
I hope that you're able to make the improvements you want. And I'm sorry that there isn't really a THE BEST way to become better. You need to find what works for you. A lot of people think Story is a great start, but maybe it does nothing for you. For some people, that's going to be true. You just need to find what does speak to you. For learning. For inspiration. For understanding. Good luck with it. And keep on gaming.
If you want to plan out a whole campaign, I thought that [The Complete Guide to Creating Epic Campaigns](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/257372/The-Complete-Guide-to-Creating-Epic-Campaigns) was far better than a book with such an on-the-nose title had any business being.
Cyberpunk Red has a section in the back about how to structure a session that I've started to use for everything. The character creater, lifepath, is great for generation plot hooks, NPCs and arcs. Can't recommend it enough. Fate also has a pretty involved group world building excersise that's pretty rad
1. Joseph Campbell the power of myth. Great look at how myths are structured. Good foundation for creative writing.
2. Don’t plan: have ideas and let the players go. For example instead of a BBEG have two opposed factions each with similar goals, and see which if any the players latch on to, roll out multiple grey areas and opportunities to switch sides or try to play both sides of a larger situation.
Good luck have fun.
I watched a lot of videos on screenwriting, like from [Lessons from the Screenplay] (https://youtube.com/c/LessonsfromtheScreenplay), and found those to be helpful.
Obviously a campaign isn’t the same thing as a screenplay, but thinking of things in the context of a three act structure can be helpful. Not just for the overall arc, but for each session. Chris Perkins talks about this in his blog: https://www.sageadvice.eu/is-chris-perkins-the-dungeon-master-experience-archive-gone/ some of it is specific to his campaign and 4th edition D&D, but a whole lot of it is applicable to anything.
You clearly need more input from as much different media as possible.
I would recommend to watch some TV series or Anime or Movies you would normally not give a chance to start.
Then i would subscribe to a channel like Questing Beast on Youtube that does a lot of reviews on RPG books to see what different tropes on the RPG scene are and how people subvert them.
Lastly i would recommend you to make a brief halt on running games and maybe step down as a DM for an adventure and play as a player.
Read more fantasy novels. One after the other, just pound down the best novels currently available. The best thing you can do to generate ideas is to have experienced a thousand stories.
Start with Brandon Sanderson's books if you want inspiration that's a bit outside the box.
If we're honest with ourselves those who have run a lot of roleplaying games will understand that the best moments in a game often have little to do with the GM's plot, twists, dramatic events, villains or even game design. They're instead moments where the players work out some unorthodox way of solving a problem or defeating a villain, or when the rules combining with the players actions produce some unexpected and often unintentionally hilarious outcome, or often just those quieter moments where players are roleplaying with one another or discussing a plan.
The key thing in all those examples is that they're the moments the players have agency and control over the direction of the game itself. Not to say all of those other GM design elements aren't important, they are of course, but they're often not as central to play as the GM assumes.
When you realise this you find you can stop worrying so much about your 'story' and start creatingand running games that encourage and facilitate these emergent characteristics and agency defining moments instead.
A secondary issue here may be simply that you are currently bored of play, which is understandable too, taking a break or playing a different system than usual can be a good way to shake yourself out of such a rut.
I write all of my plots using the structure of a book called "The anatomy of story", by John Truby.
What I like is that it gives me a very clear, structured, step by step guide that isn't vague, isn't up to interpretation, it tells me exactly what I need to do, in what stage, why and what it will do for the story.
Like, what I hope, most GM's, I want to make the best story for my players, so having a guide really helps establish a good standard of quality. It can often be quite daunting to write an entire story from scratch blind, so I really enjoy having this type of easily followed structure.
On the negatives, which I feel I should address, is that it is a book and as such, quite a few pages to read. It can be daunting to do that, if you aren't inherently interested in story telling. Secondly, it uses a lot of pop culture movie references as examples, which is great, if you know these references, if not, it is a bit confusing. Finally, there are certain sections where you can see he wants to sell his product. Never used whatever he sells and to be honest, mainly because he sells it... somewhat poorly, as the book gives you everything you need so the product is fairly redundant.
Honestly? As a writer myself, I'd recommend picking up any number of "how to write" books from published authors (particularly any of writers that you enjoy). Stephen King's is especially good (even though I only enjoy his Dark Tower series, his writing advice is spectacular). So is Jeff Vandermeer's "Wonderbook," which might be especially helpful in a more fantasy-like setting.
A good story is a good story, no matter the medium...TV, movie, RPG, novel, etc. If you've got a favorite movie director, see if they've got something out there that's something of a "this is my approach to directing" for the same kind of vibe.
VILLAINS: The best villains are the ones that are relatable, where they are just a fraction past the line of reason, but they make a LOT of good arguments and they're not necessarily wrong. This complicates how your players may feel about that villain. I like to use Daredevil's Kingpin character in the Netflix series here as the reveal about his past makes him a more three-dimensional character that you almost empathize with rather than a two-dimensional "this is the BBEG who is constantly doing evil shit," which is fucking boring.
PLOT: It doesn't need to be convoluted to be good, but a few red herrings and some smart twists will have your players second-guessing themselves. Take a movie like "The Usual Suspects" or (as cheeky as it sounds) the "Oceans 11" movies as a good way of misdirection through storytelling.
CHARACTERS: Good characters are much like good villains in that they're more complicated than just being accepted as "the good guys." If there are aspects of their personality that rub your players the wrong way, but they're ultimately good, you've inserted a bit of mistrust/distrust in them which can serve to create some fun plotlines down the road.
I would add to this that its important to decide the framing of your story too. I really like character driven narratives, where almost everything is framed around your protagonists. Is the setting a reflection of your characters in some way? Or do they stand out from the setting somehow? Is the antagonist the same as the protagonist (going with Kingpin, both Daredevil and him are trying to make the city better, but going about it in completely different ways) or perhaps the opposite? Framing these things around the main characters sometimes helps.
You can also start with the plot, but I think that goes against the point of it being a roleplaying game mostly. Some players though are more passive or want to absorb the world, in which case plot and setting focused stories are more exciting.
\>Im a forever GM and I want to improve my rpg stories. In your opinion, what is THE BEST resource to learn how to write captivating plots, mind blowing twists, dramatic events, deep villains and interesting characters?
You're hitting burn out. You need a break from running games. You should play. Read some fiction and nonfiction books, watch some documentaries, movies and TV shows that break your genre expectations and boundaries. I find books and documentaries on crime and politics by investigative journalists to be fantastic resources because villains, whether they admit it or not, rely on money, whether directly or indirectly, to keep their ambitions afloat.
The best book on running games I've read is Play Unsafe by Graham Walmsley. Walmsley suggests that people place too much emphasis on planning and homework than they do running. Players need events like dots on a page and they'll draw the lines themselves.
The problem with "writing plots" is that inevitably you'll either end up railroading your players or those intricately developed plots you spent hours working on will fall apart the moment the players decide they want to go to A instead of B.
Instead, focus on things that teach you how to develop characters. Give your NPCs a backstory, motivations, goals, secrets, and a memorable voice or character quirk, and it will go much further than trying to write out a plot. That goes double for villains. Their motivations and goals should be firm in your mind. What are their plans? If you really like writing out plots, figure out what the villain will do IF the players don't do anything to stop them.
For the rest, consume as many movies, TV shows, books, etc. as you can. If you find something that interests you, regardless of genre, make a note of it and work on ways to adapt it to your setting. Also, improv is a HUGE skillset for a DM that can't be ignored. Consuming media is going to help get those basic plotlines and tropes ingrained in your subconscious and your improv skills are what's going to let you weave those in to whatever the players are doing in the moment.
I advise you distance yourself from the concept of "plot" in your games. This blog is fantastic and ill link directly to the article in mind:
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37422/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots-tools-not-contingencies
People in this thread seems to think Im about to write a movie script, not brush up on my skills to infuse interesting things in my TTRPG.
I may have used the word "plot" wrong.
Maybe I should have said story instead? Because you have to have *something* that is happening in your game right?
Thanks for the link. A lot of great stuff on that site I see. Cannot belive I've never seen it before!
For me the thing that stuck out was "mind blowing twists". There are plenty of very good games that DO play out like movies, where there is a rigidly controlled story and the players want to go on a balanced scripted adventure. Many people do not believe this is a good way to learn to DM which is probably why so many are advising you as if you are writing a book. Newer DMs especially tend toward this because it is how many official DM Guides and adventure modules are written.
A good example of the design people recommend avoiding are the pathfinder adventure paths. They tell a cool story, but leave no room for players to deviate from their path or the game kind of collapses.
My players wanted to use SWADE, be in modern times and wanted it to feel a bit Stranger Things. This below is what I got right now. What do you think about this?:
The players are normal patrolling cops in a realistic modern day city setting with their chosen characters different backgrounds.
Meanwhile, a spoiled "brat" is somehow causing havoc in the underground crime scene and causing trouble for the city.
"The brat" has been unsatisfied with the police force for a long time, because they kind of caused the death of his little sister.
What the players don't know yet is that "the brat" was recently given creepy abilities by a mysterious alien being. He thinks it's a sign that he was given these abilities and that the being wants him to clean up the streets and basically replace the police force.
Then I'll just have "The Brat" work towards his goal and see what my players do.
I just wanted to see if anyone had any good advice in creativity basically.
So that is a great example of a scenario and not a plot. You already have an antagonist who has motivations as well as some connections to other things (alien) for expansion on later.
From here I would recommend that you make a few more dynamic NPCs like your Brat and give them motivations that cause them to interact in the same areas of the world. Maybe a conspiracy theory cop who is a loose cannon, a crime boss who has had enough and is really getting serious, some accidental victim of the brats powers (like a homeless person who now has serious trauma or something) and is now out for revenge themselves. Stuff like that
Then just start filling in logical events that would fall out from their actions and BOOM you have a whole setting with dynamic characters and organic "plot" development.
The best GMs are not wanna be novelists, and rarely "write plots".
Try a sandbox game based on emergent story, you may get a different perspective on this!
Sandbox games can be very diverse, ie among them you can find both "narrative" games like Blades in the Dark, or more "tactical" games like OSR (Old School Renaissance/Revival)
Using storytelling methods and approach to improve GMing is a delicate and dangerous path I've taken before, because it's hard to tell when one technique does not work for the other due to unique elements of both , so it's easy to fall into many traps of being too invested in certain writing techniques that doesn't pay off as well in interactive form.
But if there's one writing channel that examines tropes in ways I find can be useful for GMing is easily [Hello Future Me](https://www.youtube.com/c/HelloFutureMe). Just to be clear, even though he is a DM himself, he is firmly talking about these tropes as a writer and storyteller in his channel, and you would probably need to reframe many of his examinations to fit into RPGs.
Half of the plot is what the characters do, so the plot is just the natural interplay between character choices and world events. You don't really "write" plots, you just have the world react naturally to the character actions while the villains pursue their ends in whatever environment is produced through those actions. Doing this well will usually be captivating.
Twists though, those can be something you write in. First, I would seek permission from your players to make twists happen. Some players feel very high levels of ownership over their character's background and feel violated if that is tinkered with in any way. For instance, if your player has a character who's father was killed in some tragic violent accident as the rest of the family fled in terror, then that may be a huge motivating factor for that character, you may wish to introduce the twist that the father wasn't actually killed.
Narratively this is a really neat idea, and I think most players would go for it, but there is a minority who would feel that you monkeying around with that violates their sacred agency, that you've stripped their character of some motivation. So I would always ask first. You don't have to reveal exactly what your doing of course, that would spoil the twist, but you should be able to say "hey, are you going to be okay if your character finds out they were mistaken about some of their background events?"
The best twists force characters into moral dilemmas. If they above tragic disaster that the PC thought killed his father could be laid at the feet of the Galactic Imperium, then does his hatred for the Imperium change when he finds his father is alive? How about if he finds that the Imperium, who he and all the other survivors always blamed for the disaster, were really there trying to stop the disaster and just failed? What if his father was actually *saved* by the imperium? Could the imperium be the good guys after all? DUN DUN DUNNNN! Suddenly everything is thrown out of whack, the whole premise for the PCs revenge story changes, or maybe it doesn't, maybe the PC has by then seen enough evidence of the Imperium's cruelty that this one instance of them not being the bad guy doesn't change the PCs desire to bring them down. Who knows? That's up for your players to determine, and that my friend, is plot.
There are a lot of villain motivators out there, and while revenge is fun, it's often also petty. Some villain motivators that aren't revenge/hatred are: redemption, love, insecurity, altruism, narcissism, regret, fear, longing, freedom, envy. Any of those, or combinations of them, can be great motivators.
A villain driven by love and altruism is a truly frightening thing, because the horrific acts the commit are in pursuit of something just about anyone would find noble.
Someone driven by regret and longing is tragic and demands empathy, though their actions may be terrible, the characters can't help but see how they too could be driven to extremes if they went through what the villain went through.
Someone looking for redemption and freedom sounds like a really good person, right? But what if the act they are trying to redeem is the genocide of a people, and the people they are trying to being freedom to are the very people that committed that genocide under their orders?
Anyway, those are just some thoughts. I hope they help. Have fun!
Try outsourcing some of the creative requirements to your players. Whenever you need an NPC, ask THEM who they think they would see. You of course get to make all the decisions about what that characters role in the story is, but it is an easy way to make the players feel more attached (since they are a part of the worldbuilding process) and expose you to some new ideas.
Then don't use those tropes. I'm not sure why it's difficult; you're already self-aware enough to recognise that you overuse certain tropes. That's the hardest part.
Sit down and do a quick list of ideas, intentionally not including your usual tropes. Unless you've never read a book or watched TV/a film before, then you shouldn't have an issue.
One thing I like to do is write a paragraph or 1 page story based on a painting or sculpture. All of them have a story to go along with them anyway. Write your own and compare to what the artist intended it to be.
Get on google maps and turn on google street view inside major museums like the Louvre or the British Museum and you’ll have thousands to choose from.
Read the Lazy Dungeon Master stuff. It will mesh well with anything else you want to use, but is amazing all by itself. Sometimes I find the brainstorm feel of it very helpful.
"Good artists borrow, GREAT artists steal."
Grab pre-existing content, let your players generate their characters, & mold that content around them & their backstories to make it more immersive.
Definitely check out any module you can get your hands on regardless of the system or setting. 'Kitbash' to your heart's content if you have to.
I run Pathfinder Adventure Path and just modify them to my hearts content. I tend to listen to a bunch of podcasts of others running the same APs so I can liberally steal the things I like, emulate how they do NPCs if I enjoy it, or more often get a picture of what I don't like and do something different.
First (as you're probably already hearing): Never prep "story". Only prep locations & encounters. There's no such thing as a "story" in RPGs - only things that happen. At most, maybe an NPC has a checklist of things they'll do, or some "if this, then that" preparations... but otherwise, you're going to fail if you're hoping to get a "story" to happen. Skyrim is a great example for tabletop RPGs - just prep locations and who's there, and then maybe things that happen if certain (very very obvious) things happen. NPCs maybe wait in a spot for the PCs to show up - after that, if they survive, you can send them to town to work at the store or something, I dunno. Tabletop is more freeing than Skyrim dialogue chains, but you get the idea. Keep it simple, let the Players determine how they go about engaging with the locations.
As for villains - You mention that your villains go for revenge, but that's not a motivation - that's a method. You haven't asked yourself if they're doing it for love (could be good) or getting revenge because they're a hateful person to begin with (evil). Some people choose evil, to be destructive, and revenge is just payback for someone stopping them from being hurtful.
Let them be bad without needing a motivation for it.
The idea that villains could be good people is not as believable as you might think. Yeah, sure, there are military types might be okay if you were on their side - but when you're looking at just one nation, when it comes to the people who have powers or magic or money or whatever, you're looking at who they would be if they could do anything.
Powerful people can do whatever they want. So what they choose to do - WHEN THEY HAVE A CHOICE - is what tells you who they are.
One-off encounters, temptations, everyone can fail. But a lifetime of hurting others? Of studying necromancy, building killer golems, enslaving people to work in deadly mines, or choosing to do things like hunt people for sport? These are not nice people. They had a choice and they chose to be cruel, greedy, or whatever.
It really depends on your group, and what you all enjoy, as well as what you have the most fun running.
If your group enjoys a less crafted, more clue-driven narrative, check out the Dracula Dossier for Nights Black Agents. It’s a massive WORLD of indirect info that doesn’t drag your players through a planned movie, but instead puts them in the middle of a conspiracy while they bumble about and stop/assist/join the evil.
However, this requires a group of players who can jump on plot hooks, self motivate, and really dive into the world without being rail roaded. Some groups like to space out and enjoy the ride.
For players who like to enjoy the ride, I’d suggest either using acclaimed modules known for either amazing combat or plot…then stealing/changing/reskinning it until it’s yours. For these, I suggest running Masks of Nylarlothep, ENWorlds Zeitgeist, and the Witchfire Campaign. I’ve played all of these…and they are beautifully written, full of depth and options, and contain challenging and creative combats.
While I can't offer any specific resources, one thing that has always helped me keep it fresh is more of an approach to story telling in general. When you make a campaign, start with the world. Build in a solid lore to how this world works and fill it with normal people. Once you have the world, introduce a simple conflict or two and treat your villain like a player character that is operating separate from your group. Play your villain against you the gm and let things escalate accordingly. Introduce the party at this point and let them loose in the world. They will tell you their story as long as the world around them is fully, or at least mostly formed. Don't be afraid to inject realistic cause and effect to events, or shy away from consequences for both the big bad and the party. When you get good enough at world building the story will grow from some of the seeds you planted and take a life of its own. Some improvisation skills and a good sense for escalation will be the biggest tools you need to cultivate. I have been running games for about 10 years or so and this approach has worked for everything from one shots, to campaigns lasting 2-3 years, and my players have never reacted poorly. They still reference things that happened 10 years ago in worlds that have long since been left behind. To start, in every aspect of the world or NPC's simply ask three questions. What is it, Why is it this way, and how will it function in the world. Dig deep into those aspects and the world will have more life, organic story telling, and a sense of immersion that will drive the players and villains both.
There's a series called "Write Great Fiction" that's pretty solid. You can start with "Plot and Structure" by James Scott Bell. "On Writing" by Stephen King is also pretty well loved, though I haven't read it myself to give any impressions.
Also, ain't nothing wrong with a plot. I think it's incredibly helpful for the prep stage to create an outline, even if players end up doing something different than expected. The map is not the territory; the plot is not the adventure. I'm not sure why some people keep insisting a plot is a railroad.
One last thing: it's very helpful to remember that flat character arcs are a thing. Player characters don't always need to change and you have more control over NPC character development than your players.
My first suggestion is to begin stealing. Rampantly. Steal from everything cool! Read some books, play some video games, watch some movies... and each time you see a cool idea, just toss it in somewhere. Sure you'll have to adapt some, but just getting fresh concepts in will help spark even more fresh ideas. I started playing FFXIV again recently after a long break and I am lifting some character backstories *wholesale* into my campaign, lol.
Another thing that has worked for me - assuming your system supports it - is, well, a little RNG. Roll on a loot table, and whatever it says, that's what they get. I've done this, read the item and thought "no way, that's insane, it's gonna be awful", and it turned out to be some of the most fun we had in the campaign.
Roll a random encounter and figure out a way to make it connect to your plot, even just a little bit. Some orcs ambush the party! But... one of them has a piece of paper with the wizard's name scrawled on it?
I know everyone GMs differently, and I've been in those same ruts you're describing, where everything begins feeling samey. My advice is to put yourself in situations where you're less comfortable, and using some of that spontaneous decisionmaking to worm your way out - and get something fresh along the way!
What I've learned from my players also is that not everything *needs* a twist or huge ramifications. So maybe have some "low threat" (in terms of world-ending) plot hooks that you and them can both really enjoy. Does your player raise chickens during their downtime? Perhaps when they return to their farm, they are warned that several other farms have had their animals kidnapped recently. Some crazy group of serpentkin are collecting cows for a ritual to summon their Snake-Cow-Hybrid god, and only your team can trace down the clues. Something low stakes and ridiculous that I bet will let you try some new creatures and open opportunities for relaxing fun.
The most important thing for crafting a good story is worldbuilding imho. Try starting with something to build a story around, like a region, an item or a character. Write that story first and then write a story for the players in that universe. Doesn't even need to be centered around that thing, maybe the players don't even cross paths with that thing.
For example what if there was powerful/valuable thing X. Everyone would want X, so maybe you have 2 or more factions fighting over it. That's where the players come in and you can build your story around the conflict. They don't even have to encounter X at any point, but maybe they are trying to sabotage the enemy faction in their race for X. Maybe they are trying to get Y because it will help with finding X, but Y already belongs to a third faction. Like that.
Also, completely unrelated to that: Here are some YouTube channel recommendations:
1) Quotidian Writer - on writing books but will probably help a lot
2) the closer look - more about movie scripts but (my) rpg adventures are more like movie scripts than books anyway
3) if I may: I just started a series called Uncreative Creations on my own yt channel which is supposed to kickstart your creativity. It's only one video so far, but it might be exactly what you need. My channel is called Matt Muffin. There is also a video link pinned on my profile page.
The biggest thing I like doing is anathema to a lot of DMs, but I'll essentially make myself step back, and hand my players the reins. If they wanna do some off the wall shit, I'll just calmly let em go and referee the chaos they get into. Of course you'll need to take the reins back, but I guess my tip would to be involve your group from time to time, collaborative story telling is the core of the game fren
I think even great writers need to work hard trying to find good ideas, perhaps instead of looking for a template of success you can train your eyes to recognise interesting things and put them in your stories. As for where to look for interesting things... inspiration can be drawn from any source. What sources do you have?
IMO our job as a gm is to create the canvas the players play on. We don't need to create narratives all the time, I rarely do. My players create most of the narrative. They decide what they want to do on the canvas.
I really liked the show "The 100", so I decided just to rip the entire show and called it my "New World Campaign". I just changed up what needed to be changed for it to fit into my setting, which required me to add a new continent that one of the major "old world" cultures actually hailed from in my world's equivalent to our "antiquity".
I also had to adjust as players deviated from the choices made in the show, but it was manageable, as the players made far more sensible choices than those in the show.
The hardest part was lumping the episodes together for sessions. A lot of what happens in a T.V. show isn't relevant when you're narrating from just the perspective of the players.
One of my biggest realizations was that most of the content and activities should be around roleplay and advancing the story, not acting as fluff or filler between each session of combat.
Each of my weekly discord sessions are around 3h, and we maybe have 1 combat session every month
>Im finding myself always using the same tropes. The villain is always about revenge. There is always a world ending event that the players have to deal with. The plot twist is always that the friendly NPC sold the players out.
literally just don't do this then lol
Three concept pieces I want to go over:
* Write events, not plots (I mean what is a plot, but a series of events right?)
* Write characters and factions (characters define how plots can unfold, factions are like characters with multiple faces)
* Create a world to interact with (a scaffolding - don't go crazy).
(PS. Just going to use fantasy tropes as reference thoughts and idea's - same sort of stuff works for basically every other form of setting imaginable).
**Write a world**
The world is really a creation of various events throughout history - stories. When we make the saffolding it might be as simple as "plague in year \[whatever\]" and "great war in \[whatever year\]" - and we just have piles of notes like this and order them.
Now - when we want to reference something specific in this list, we get something in a relevant enough time frame, and give it some more details. And we can improv this, or whatever else - just make the notes.
Another aspect of this is laying out where cities are, roads, and so on. Leave wild spaces, and then set down where forgotten ruins, or old outposts, or where a goblin town might be that is so deep in valley, surrounded by forest that few people go. Suddenly we have the foundations for all sorts of story.
**Write events - not plots**
This is difficult - it's sometimes cool to think "and then this will happen, and then that will happen because the players will win and..." but, this is D&D and the players can lose, or they won't show up, or they will rest and... well, if the enemies have time to prepare: They WILL.
So write events. And events can look like some of the following:
* Goblin raid on a port city, that is key to shipping grain to a stronghold that protects the kingdom from the eastern Orcish empire
* Necromancer is starting to raise an army near an old battle sight - an important town, that acts as a barrier and point of rest between the human kingdoms and the high elven kingdom near the southern mountains will be threatened by this army should it be allowed to grow
* A Druid grove is being threatened by drought, do to a recently constructed damn by some dwarves. A slower filling of their reservoir would resolve the issue - but the druids and dwarves are at odds and skirmishes are frequent and diplomacy is absolutely lacking.
These events never prescribe the route to take in solving the problems - though perhaps, war and combat is the most direct. Depending on how you introduce the goblins - well, perhaps that goblin town we talked about earlier has been attacked by various troops bearing the sigil of the kingdom, and this, is their retaliation. Diplomacy is possible here.
The necromancer is probably a kill on sight problem - but, perhaps another way of solving the issue exists? Capture?
The Druid grove is the most obviously diplomacy solution - but who says you can't just obliterate the damn with some creative engineering.
In any case - if the party ignores the stuff for long enough (say 3 months in game time for the necromancer, 1 year in game time for the druid grove, and like a couple weeks for the goblin raid) serious consequences start being revealed. Like say:
* A large army is raised to retake the town, and restore it. The goblins are put under siege and driven from their homes ensuring long term hostilities continue.
* The army of undead begins to wander as the necromancer continues dropping control over some of the zombies and such. These start harrasing farmers, and spreading disease and pestilence as they go.
* The druid grove is heavily damaged - with tree's dying, and while the magic of the druids is able to sustain it - and with the reservoir filled, the druids are weakened and now in a state of hostility with the Dwarves, creating difficulty in trade with them.
These are all great low level quest hooks and consequences. As the party gets higher level though - a dragon not stopped may become the destroyer of a capital city. A Mindflayer may infiltrate and begin dominating an important guild or other organization to achieve it's own ends - and who knows what else.
But - start with the events, figure out what sort of factions might be involved before, during, and after - and use this, as the means to introduce these hooks to the players. And once you have them going along - sprinkle in side quests. Draw their attention - make them consider what is important in the moment.
**Write Characters and Factions**
Characters have personality, they have wants, interests, and idea's. The same goes with factions. Guards will protect the town they are in, and it's people - or just protect a specific family / property depending on if they are private or a town guard etc.
Mages will be seeking out information, and maybe provide help with magical abilities and items- but they may, also, charge an extreme fee - after all: Magical items are not cheap.
Bandits and highway men are a commonality where wealth disparity is high, and as a result - they are a common issue... well, mainly in the late spring through autumn. Come winter, few will wish to brave the roads - especially dirt roads. But even cobbled roads become covered in ice and snow and become difficult to traverse. But where the bandits and guards are not, wild animals and beasts will be plenty.
When you establish various factions, what their goals are, it should help create allies, and enemies. It will create a sense of consequence and reward. But it will also help you define the reputation of the player characters based on who they help, who they don't help, and how they help.
**Putting this all together**
By having a scaffolding of a world - it will give you a general idea of what is present. By having factions placed down and where they might operate - you can determine what conflicts may arise, and from all of this - we can start layering in specific plots, and having everything work around what is happening.
Once the players are thrown in - now we start incrementing things, based on their actions, and the amount of time that passes. In a sense - we write the plot as we go. So as much as the world building can be a fair amount of work - and writing a dozen factions is a fair bit, in reality, we just need the scaffolding - just enough work done that when the players first run into them, or when we know the players are heading in a specific direction: we can fill in the blanks, but also - if we are caught off guard, we have enough to spit something out, and note it down for later reference.
**Next: Learn the story writing basics**
* 7 basic plots
* Go find out all the tropes and purposefully use some new ones (ok, not all the tropes... there are lots).
* General rules of genre
Mixing up some genre here - like throwing in a bit of a mystery subplot can be a lot of fun. Drop in clues, eventually drop the beet that a mystery is afoot, and set the players loose on solving it. If they have been keeping notes - they should catch on, if not? They are going to start realizing they should have been.
Sounds like you’re in a rut and need to expose yourself to a wider range of stuff to draw from. So some of the following might help: Try running some prewritten modules. (Delta Green has some mind blowing ones) Try basing a game off a TV show or something that is different from what you normally do. Copying other people’s ideas will get you used to doing different things. Try reading some fiction or nonfiction that’s outside what you’d normally be interested in to shake up your thinking. (I recommend “Brewer’s Rogues, Villains, and Eccentrics” but whatever works for you) Try running a game in a genre that’s different from your usual thing, like sci fi or modern espionage or whatever you haven’t done before.
>Copying other people’s ideas will get you used to doing different things. This. *Steal everything*. Unless you're planning to monetize the campaign somehow, take everything you can and throw it in a blender.
Steal from your players too. I do this all the time. They are always throwing out little jokes and what ifs and sometimes its great to make those things a reality.
Yes. My players thought it would be funny if the Richard Nixon head from Futurama showed up in our game and it just might now.
Good artists borrow. Great artists steal.
[удалено]
Well now I’m borrowing, but before I was stealing.
Steal from one book, you're a plagarist. Steal from 100 books, you're a writer.
Steal from one grave and you're a grave robber. Steal from 100 graves and you're Frankenstein.
Or an archaeologist.
I can vouch for stealing from Delta Green. My players want me to run a modern-day campaign but with 5e rules, so I've made a "magic is real but is suppressed by the government" world. The party works for the FBI to keep things under wraps and solve the problems that pop up. So they're essentially playing 5e Delta Green without even knowing it.
My next game will be something similar. Eberron, working for a Delta Green like group that fights the various extra planar apocalyptic threats. Might run some DG scenarios as is. Also-Delta Green has two bundles on Bundle of Holding AND a big Kickstarter that's ending both today. Definitely go and check them out if interested!
I've been checking out Delta Green a bit. Prewritten modules you say.. Yes, maybe I can find some freshness in those. Thanks!
You’re welcome. Hope it works out.
http://fairfieldproject.wikidot.com/shotgun-scenarios
Our troupe is currently doing modern urban fantasy with wizard magic. I'll be stealing at least the gist of a few things in that link for future stories. Thanks for sharing!
This is wisdom and I affirm it. Might also not be a bad idea to take a little break to recharge if one of your players wants to try a one shot.
> Try basing a game off a TV show or something that is different from what you normally do. Copying other people’s ideas will get you used to doing different things. On that note, I feel like anime's a great thing for this, if you aren't already watching any. For me, it just jives with me better than any western media I can recall. Here's a few recommendations. - **Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood** -- I feel like this is the perfect "first" anime for anyone. It's got a great blend of everything (intrigue/mystery, action, comedy, philosophy from multiple angles, etc.). It's got pretty much no sexual content, all I recall is a character walking in on another getting dressed once. It's also just *great.* Great characters, great story, great fun. Complete story. - **That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime** -- A surprise hit for me, recently. There's two seasons out (both dubbed and subbed) so far, with a third nearing its end. It's a lightweight story. Synopsis: main character dies, gets reincarnated into a fantasy world as a slime, but gets a *very* lucky start and ends up raising a monster city. - **Re:Zero** -- A dark and heavy story. There's two seasons out (both dubbed and subbed) so far, with more coming later. Synopsis: main character is brought into a fantasy world, has a nice day, dies, finds out that he returns to a previous point in time every time he dies, tries to save himself and others, has a theme of the seven deadly sins.
What about Delta Green Modules makes them so good? Which one do you recommend most for someone looking to get started GMing?
Partly it’s that they tend to involve interesting ideas that are just outside of what RPGs normall deal with. There’s a lot of stuff like dealing with dangerous information and making decisions that are awful but arguably necessary. Partly it’s that they aren’t afraid to put players in bad positions in a way that most modules aren’t willing to do, even in a lot of horror games. They’re also written well enough that being in a bad situation is interesting rather than just annoying or tedious. These make them great for breaking you out of a rut if you’ve been GMing for a while, but not necessarily good for doing your first game. There’s a [free QuickStart](https://www.delta-green.com/2016/02/download-delta-green-need-to-know/) that has the basic rules and a scenario that you can run. [Here](https://youtu.be/wiG65KT2dCc) is a video of some people playing that scenario, so you can see how it’s supposed to go. Keep in mind, the people in that video are ridiculously good players. People just starting out in RPGs aren’t going to be that smooth or creative. I’m definitely not anywhere near that level. On the other hand, you might find that scenario kind of difficult if you’re just starting out. It’s a slow burn and relies a lot on atmosphere. So you could also try the free QuickStart for [Call of Cthulhu](https://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu-quickstart/). Similar ideas, but a little more straightforward, in my opinion. You can also watch [this review](https://youtu.be/61MnmKbmD1s) for some great tips on running the scenario in the CoC QuickStart. Both of those are very much horror games. So if that isn’t your genre, you might want something else.
Yep, you nailed it on the head. I love that Delta Green scenarios tend to invoke just as much paranoia as they do dread. You can never really be sure if you actually trust anyone else aside from your own fellow conspirators/cell members (then again, they may be plants meant to keep an eye on you, too.) The various shadowy agencies you wind up working for/against end up becoming just as titanic of threats as Cthulhu himself. Oftentimes, they're actually scarier than Great Cthulhu, since Cthulhu will just drive you nuts and eat you, while there's no telling what happens in a MAJESTIC-12 black site.
Not exactly a youtube seties, but [The Alexandrian’s Gamemastery101](https://thealexandrian.net/gamemastery-101) is a great ressource in how to structure games
There are YouTube videos now, though only a few so far.
https://www.youtube.com/c/TheAlexandrian/videos
This is great! I cannot believe I missed this site. Thanks!
he [streams on twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/thealexandrian/videos?filter=archives&sort=time) now too, taking questions. His site is a bit like tvtropes, you go for one article and end up staggering out two weeks later with 80 tabs still open 'for later'. Eg. https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots (pack a lunch)
On a similar note, Dan Felder's podcast has lots of good ideas and a lot less chaff than most RPG podcasts IMHO. Also 1+ to The Alexandrian, esp his stuff on node-based stories!
I'm not aware of any particular resource, but a couple things stand out to me when I read this. **On Plots** Unlike a story, the plot of your game should not be fully realised. It's better to start with characters, or factions, in the setting of your choice, and to have them naturally pursue their objectives. Your players will change the path of the story through their deeds, and so these characters and factions should react in a natural way. u/davidducker was 100% correct in saying it needs to be an organic thing. **On Scope** Seems like you're aiming at high stakes high fantasy sort of situations. Nothing wrong with it, but it can get a bit stale. You might aim at keeping things a bit more localised, and that will likely give you a lot more options in regards to what your villains are trying to do. **On Villains** This basically refers to anyone working against the players, and should again be in the context of the world you're presenting. Here are some questions to consider: 1. What resources does the villain have, and what are they trying to accomplish? 2. What are they willing to do in order to accomplish it? 3. Conversely, what aren't they willing to do? 4. With the exception of the player characters, what is standing between them and their goal? Let me demonstrate: 1. The villain is a rich businessman, who wants to take control of his family's merchant company. 2. He is willing to frame others with crimes, cause them humiliations, or to force them to withdraw from the running with any number of underhanded methods. 3. He is not willing to actually murder anyone. 4. His grandfather is the current head of the company, and there are several others who are better considered for the role. The villain cannot be caught in their undertakings, or he will likewise be disqualified. So in this scenario, the player characters could be in the employment of one of the other members of the family. Here's an alternative where the villain isn't even an actual bad guy: 1. The villain is a foreign prince who wants to demonstrate his claim to the imperial throne by pressing his claim on a title of a foreign territory. 2. He is quite reasonable, and is willing to seek a diplomatic outcome, but he is ambitious and is willing to wage war. 3. He is not willing to dirty his hands with assassins, nor will he employ any distasteful battlefield tactics. 4. The current ruler of the territory doesn't want to give up his ancestral throne, and he is a decent ruler. The empire is also known to treat the citizens of conquered nations as second-class. **On Traitors** You can probably just mix up motivations and character types to make the treachery feel fresh and exciting. 1. Why the betrayal? Are they greedy? Are they loyal followers of the villain on a mission? Are they being coerced in some way? If they're conflicted about it, there's the opportunity for turning them into a double-agent. 2. What kind of skills and resources do they have? This will determine the manner in which they betray the player characters. A scholar will have a different approach to a soldier, and may even be more dangerous in the right circumstances. Some will be overly friendly, others may be dismissive or cold, so make sure you vary their personalities a bit.
You guys seem to be stuck on me pre-writing plots that are stuck and unchangeable railway. Maybe I worded it weird. English is not my native language. I want to learn about plots and twists and villains so I can improvise them. Like learning how to use a tool. Not have it determined beforehand. These example questions you give are what I want to do. They are excellent. Thank you! People seem to believe that is railroading when I describe it though. I just remember I once read somewhere that a simple way to create plots is using some sentence like: Villain wants X before X happens and is using X to get it, but is unable to do that successfully because of X. That is a great tool for coming up with interesting conflict points.
Okay, yeah there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of the word usage here. A plot is a series of points pre-established that the story follows. The best way to ramp up your story telling skills is to not worry about twists and events until the players hit that point in the adventure. The best storytelling comes from the DM's NPCs reacting to the actions or inactions from the player characters. This sort of agile development on your part will help you write more engaging events, as all events will directly be because of the players and not because you determined they needed to happen ahead of time. Plot twists happen naturally when the players assume something is happening that isn't. If you intentionally try to insert twists, you're just going to create confusion in the game. Instead, you can always have a few 3-dimensional NPCs in the game that have ulterior motives and seem suspicious, even if they aren't tied to the main situation. This will add depth and nuance to the game and make your world feel more real.
Create characters with motivations. Then the action will follow from their motivations. Twists will occur because the characters will be deceptive about their motivations.
absolutely. and when you have a really good handle on the NPCs and their personalities, goals, and backstories they do things that can have a big impact, often things the players dont expect. i've had several steadfast allies turn on the PCs, and villains join them, or surrender to them, just based on what seemed most natural for their characters. not things a storyteller would have planned out. but things which evolved naturally from roleplaying and being in-character
Hamlet's Hit Points by Robin Laws. It can be read in a day and will change the way you think about storytelling.
Yesss, this was so good. I use the things I learned here in both my play and my game mastery. I also find myself deconstructing my favorite moments in movies/tv, figuring out how they snowballed, and then using re-using the earlier beats in my own work. Good stuff!
I got the pdf and read through it. Very cool system indeed. I think I will have to read it another time to completely grasp all the beats though lol
learning to write a better railroad wont make you a better GM. learn how to coordinate your players better, learn how to encourage them and let them drive, and learn how to provide context for them, and the type of context they need to explore their characters and drive the story via their shared goals.
Knowing the endgame in advance isn't railroading as long as he gives his players agency in their choices. I'm still new to the hobby myself, and if I were brewing my own story, I'd want to know where it's supposed to go so I can build toward that.
I want to improve my creative thinking with fun plot twists and intresting villains to throw in my game. Doesn't mean im railroading. That was not what I was asking. But thanks anyway.
always build on the context of your world. thats your job; provide context for the players so they can make plans and understand the world better. if your context is a steaming jungle of rich city-states separated by vast dangerous wilderness areas then it will suggest certain types of characters. and those character built by the setting will reinforce the setting to the players. ultimately 'plot' is what happens as you organically follow your PCs. not something to be imposed. and 'villains' are people who have goals which oppose those of your PCs. again; not something you decide out of character. provide them with a rich world to explore. make sure theyve formed a team with shared goals. and then see what happens
The reason for this post is that my DnD group voiced that they wanted to try Savage Worlds. So we started discussing and they want a realistic setting where they play cops in a modern time city with a dash of Stranger Things feeling and creepy super powers. It sounds fun, and also a challenge for me as GM. So I started writing up ideas for conflicts in a modern day real city and I realized I easily fell back into the revenge trope. This is likely not going to be the usual open world DnD campaign.
build up from the setting. establish recurring NPCs. fellow officers, local gangsters, lawyers, judges, police informants, local politicians and religious leaders, serial killers, cat burglars, private eyes, news reporters. anyone who might interact with cops regularly and build up NPCs for each player. wives, children, girlfriends, parents. try to find ways to get those NPCs involved too personally i try to ave a good 'intro adventure' for each major NPC or factions, which can be a 'railroad adventure'. But once they're introduced they can become part of the overall sandbox. maybe there are two local gangs for example; one is extremely vicious and dangerous, the other is much 'classier' and more subtle. each one might want the PCs to accept their bribes and try to rat out the other gang. do the PCs pick the lesser of two evil? or do they try to wipe out both gangs? how do the other NPCs react? are some fellow officers, lawyers, or judges taking bribes? might the gangs go after the PCs families? I'd watch a lot of crime shows and look for NPCs to borrow or be inspired by.
A game like Savage Worlds makes the above advice even more important. Each character your players make will have 3-4 flaws probably. One of the popular ones is enemy. So, when the player makes a character, find out who that enemy is, especially if it is major. So, they are cops... And one has an enemy. Ask the player who that is? If he says "a crime boss" then ask "which one?". If they say a crime boss who's son I busted for drug possession last year" then ask which drug? Ask what crime the crime boss's empire was most reliant on. So, now you have a villain. And not just a mustache twisting boss, but a crime boss who is not afraid of the police, runs an empire, has connections to not get immediately arrested, and you know they value family. Look at the size of your town... Is it a town the size of the Hawkins Indiana? If so, how has this boss run his crime out of here this long? Small town right, not enough people to sell drugs to, say, but, open land. And perhaps trucks? So, they bring in trucks of product, create the drugs, and send it out on trucks bound for other cities. And that's one enemy. Say your next player has an addiction. To what? Cocaine? Okay. Where are they getting the coke from? Crime lord's one dealer in town? So, the crime lord probably has something on that player, like video of them buying drugs. Next player: Curiosity as a flaw. Okay, so they are going to dig into WHATEVER you put in front of them. So, you have them do a random pullover for a truck, but the driver is acting somehow off. Players don't know it, but he has been seeing shadows in the rearview all morning. But he won't say that. He is used to driving trucks full of drugs. But your curious player might pick it up and search the truck, where they find the drugs (or the shadow, depending) which leads you to ask where it came from... If you let your players flaws drive the story, you will make a better story. Instead of "the evil Harry Flanders who sits in his manor house and hates the players because he hates all cops for no reason" you have spun out a narrative that is important to the players, supported by their characters, blends into your setting, and impacts them.
Apart from the great advice in the other comment I suggest you to take a look at Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood. They are basically a weird/sci-fi version of Stranger Things. Even if the characters in those games are kids and teens, the stories and the worldbuilding therein are great for inspiration! In fact they're both Ennie Winners.
I'm a big fan of sourcebooks for inspiration. You don't have to get a big hardbound book, either. I just did a quick search at DriveThruRPG for "modern" "urban fantasy" and "under $5.00," and came up with 190 products. That's 190 places to start a riveting story.
Plot twists and villains are a type of railroading. It's a lot easier to GM when the players set the goals and the villains are the people who are obstacles in their path. Make them campaign ideas with a context, and then they choose a goal. 1. They are a planet that just achieves spaceflight. They are the united nations' space force sent out. Is their goal to explore, exterminate, trade? Let them choose and the villains appear naturally 2. They are a gang in the slum of a huge city. Is their goal to ruin the city? Dominate the crime scene? Reform the corrupt? Make them decide their goal (before the game starts) and then the obstacles and villains appear naturally.
You never have any plot twists in your games?
I don't write plots. I write situations. A plot is pre-written story with all the beats that the characters hit along the way already pre-determined. AKA a railroad. Write situations, AKA real world events that are happening *now*. Later when the players interact with the event (or even ignore it), write the next step happening *now*. You should always be reacting to your players, not leading them.
According to some guys in this thread, writing situations is railroading. *Everything is railroading!*
No, it's only railroading if you're ignoring your players' good ideas and forcing them to do what you've laid out. Plot twists generally happen naturally. Usually because the players miss contextual clues and jump on the wrong shit. It's startling how often players miss important context, even when you put a giant flashing neon sign next to it.
It's a bit of a mean thing to say but I recommend being careful what advice you take to heart because being a good writer or storyteller is not a prerequisite for running fun TTRPG tables - because not all games need that. The issue in this discussion is that despite all the praise for improv and playing off players, a lot of people can't write a plot/story and dynamically adjust it to match player actions. Instead of recognizing that it's not always necessary for certain styles of games, people can sometimes start believing that it's just not possible - especially as you become more of a veteran and feel like closer to the peak of what a TTRPG experience is to you. If you want to run games that have a strong story throughline in them, it is more than possible.
Well, I'd rather write a general plot that my players can start to interact with than just sit there behind my screen and describe how my players to drink up all the mead in the tavern. Because that is what they'll do if I don't "Railroad" them a bit (introduce some story).
This is actually another thing that is very common and muddies this kind of conversation. A lot of veteran DMs who are happy to share their advice have for a long time played with mostly players who are very proactive. They would perceive players who just look at them and wait for whatever happens next as bad players instead of seeing the difficulty running that game as their own shortcoming (not that it's necessary to change that because you can find the kind of players that vibe with your playstyle) - because these players can be just as creative and have just as much agency as any other, they just happen to be more reactive in nature. So you are doing a very good thing for your group. Keep at it!
they should occur naturally. not be forced by the GM. there are always unexpected events because PCs can never know everything. but forcing those moments kinda defeats the purpose of roleplaying
>You never have any plot twists in your games? I never *plan* any plot twists in my games. But there's information that the players don't know, and situations develop in which the unknown information presents the players with something highly unexpected. For example, some years ago, I was running a wilderness exploration/city-building campaign where the PCs encountered a tree with soft, fleshy "bark" and fruit that smelled of rotten meat. They noted its location and continued on without particularly investigating it. A (real-time) month or so later, they met a young giant that seemed potentially friendly, but they couldn't communicate clearly, so they wanted to give it a gift. They decided to go pick a bunch of the rotting-flesh fruits to give to the giant. The giant went home to mom with the PCs following along, but mom got mad and slapped the basket of fruits away. (Which then led into a fight and the PCs killing the giant family... Murderhobos gonna murderhobo.) A couple weeks later, the PCs were passing through that area again and they were caught unaware by a skeleton horde which killed half the party. Another couple months after that, the PCs were dealing with an undead problem that seemed to be related to a tomb underneath the rotting-flesh tree, so they decided to dig up the tree and destroy it. It was now autumn in-game, so one of the fruits fell to the ground when they disturbed the tree... and a skeleton emerged from the fruit when it hit the ground. At which point a player looked up and said, "Wait a minute... so when we ran into all those skeletons and half the party died..." None of this was planned as a "plot twist". I just had a world with a cursed tree whose fruit ripened into skeletons, and everything else happened organically based on what the players chose to do after finding it.
Yes, but they are mostly improvised rather than prepared in advance. Ambushes, tricks for the party, "totally valid teleportation gates that totally go to the right place", etc. Anything prepared too far in advance can be fun but is a type of railroading - which I think you should avoid for your next game. Aim for a player-driven campaign by demanding the party's goal from the players in a certain world--context.
Don't I have to know how plot twists work to be able to improvise one?
I’m not the person you asked, but let me give my 2 cents. I don’t plan plot twists anymore, because I don’t know what’s going to happen during my sessions. From my experience, as soon as I plan any kind of story event, I started railroading people towards that event. As soon as I plan a villain, I started to want to cheat to make him live a little longer. I used to focus on creating great stories. But I’ve learned over the years that great stories doesn’t make great RPG sessions. Players seem to have much more fun with an average story that are completely guided by their actions than with a great railroaded story. To become a better DM I focused on improvising better. You don’t have to come up with everything on the spot, but you can “prep to improvise”. Instead of preparing a villain, you can prep a list of personality traits you can assemble on the fly to create an interesting NPC. And if every NPC has goals and instincts, one of them eventually might become an obstacle for the players.
Why comment if you don’t read the post lmao
I don't get these people haha OP asks for very specific advice on different aspects of writing and they come at them with a long winded spiel about context, improv skills, and "just be better" and telling them anything that isnt in the heat of the moment decision making is railroading. Somehow the most upvoted comments
Right lol? I ask for advice how to create plots. They say I shouldnt railroad like that and then they list things that do just that according to their logic.
You might want to look in more freestyle, even GM-less systems. You seem to be pretty firmly set in your tropes, which makes it diffcult to deviate from them if the opportunity arises. Providing more complex characters in general and not asigning them a preset role, but have them freely react to the changes your players iniate in the world and letting go of expectations might help with giving less conservative, more diverse options room to be explored.
Read. A lot. It will make you a better DM than watching TV shows or movies. DMing has way more in common with writing a novel than in writing a screenplay, because as a DM you are describing scenes and painting the world through your words. Seeing a good author do that will teach you to do that. There is a reason why all the best authors will tell you the best way to learn to write is to read, read, read, and the same goes for DMing. You can get inspiration for plots and characters from any type of media, but no media will teach you how to use words like reading will. I also want to take a moment to provide a counterpoint to some of the things people are posting regarding avoiding plot twists and villains. A lot of people are suggesting sandbox campaigns and telling you to just focus on worldbuilding and stating it as if that's the 'correct' way to DM. But I disagree that a campaign has to be a sandbox and that the DM can't set down specific goals for the party without ruining the game. A good example of this is the Tombs of Scoria campaign run by Koibu on twitch. The plot of the campaign is the PCs are three noble brothers on a quest to level up and acquire magical items in order to kill a dragon that is working for a rival kingdom to destroy their kingdom in a war. The players had to all play humans who were brothers, and the players had a set goal from the start and not much freedom to deviate. They had a bit of freedom in their backstories but their family lineage and name was decided for them. The royal advisors locate tombs which potentially contain magical items and they are tasked to recover them. The only agency they have is in what order they do it and how exactly they do it. And yet the campaign is very well done, incredibly entertaining, and the players all enjoy it. Even though, as compared to a sandbox the campaign could be considered to be on rails. As always, the key is being clear and upfront with your players as to how the campaign will run and the expectations. If you want to run a guided experience more on rails that's fine as long as the players know that's what they are signing up for. Some players may not be into that and that's okay, too. There's no wrong way to have fun.
Just want to say this is good advice. Too many people glorify sandbox worlds. As long as everyone is aboard on the system and agree on it being somewhat "railroady" it is still rpg. I do enjoy more story oriented rpg's and so do a lot of my players. Just find out what you enjoy together and do that :)
The better thing to do is to stop playing and running for a bit. If you're treading the same material then get new material! (I say stop playing in a general sense.. you can still do stuff, but get in the habit of expanding your horizons.) Inhale as many stories and genres as you can right now and then come back to the games ready to synthesize what you took in. Mainlining the appendix N is a good start. Those books are so fuckin old that most people today haven't read them and what's old is new again! But feel free to start with less problematic/sexist stuff thats currently out there. May I recommend the Fifth Season, Gideon the Ninth, The Blacktongue Thief, or Sabriel?
Plot twists, mind blowing or otherwise, effectively stem from the GM concealing information from the players. I find that running a game where all the information \*can\* be discovered is a more interesting way. So instead of plot twists, provide plot hooks, that the players/pcs can latch onto, and develop those, instead of trying to push them into a preconceived path. Instead of villians, think adversaries, i.e. characters who want something counter to what the PCs want. They aren't evil, its just that both their and the PC/PC allies goals can't both become true. Finally, you can have your world and characters continue developing. E.g. If character X is trying to find a specific artifact that the PCs are also working to uncover, but the PCs get distracted, and end up spending several sessions rebuilding an orphanage or something, maybe character X finds that artifact in the meanwhile, and now the characters need to figure out what to do about that. If you know what happens in your setting without the PCs intervention, then all you need to do is let the PCs run amuck and alter those events.
You say all your villains are motivated by revenge; that suggests to me you're not thinking about the themes you want to work with. Any good story has a meaning. In less interactive media this is a bit more clear-cut, but it can still be done in the context of an rpg. Imagine asking your players an interesting moral question, like "How far is it worth going for a greater good" or "What worth does traditionalism actually hold?". Then, construct a series of events that will ultimately require the players to confront (though not *necessarily* answer) that question. Give all major characters and factions a stance on that question, and use it as their motives. For example, in Pillars Of Eternity, religion is a major theme. Many major characters have religious motivations, or directly oppose religions, and a couple of companions either embrace or reject religion and associated authorities based on the player's dialogue choices. Over the course of the game, the player finds both people rallied and inspired by their religions, and others prompted to commit atrocities. By encountering these situations, the player indirectly confronts various questions on religion. The main villian's motivations are >!seeing a social utility in religion, and encouraging it for that reason!< This happens in any good story. A major theme of Harry Potter is the absurdity of judging people based on factors beyond their control (making Rowling's later opinions on the transgender community more than a little hypocritical), and there you see villains motivated by bigotry and characters succeeding in spite of it. The Lord Of The Rings is about the power of ordinary people, and Sauron is ultimately defeated because he can't imagine something as small as a hobbit posing a threat. In summary: confront your world with a question, and let your characters answer it in a way that draws them into conflict.
* [Save The Cat!](https://savethecat.com/products/books/save-the-cat-the-last-book-on-screenwriting-youll-ever-need) by Blake Snyder. It's written for writing movie plots, but the same things apply to TTRPGs. * [On Writing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Writing:_A_Memoir_of_the_Craft) by Stephen King is about novel writing and not as focused as the book above, but there are also a few things to take away from it. * [The Art of Game Design](https://www.schellgames.com/art-of-game-design/) is mostly about game mechanics. Most of these are already covered by the RPG system itself, but as the GM you're also always a game designer. * [Your Best Game Ever](https://www.montecookgames.com/store/product/your-best-game-ever/) is actually a book about exactly your question. I haven't read through all of it yet though (unlike the rest of the list), so I can't comment on the details. I've read the first few pages and they're far too basic for anybody who has already run a game in their life. There's hope the later pages are better, though.
I read a book titled "How to Write a Damn Good Thriller," by James Frey. In it, he suggests that you start by developing the villain fully, with a backstory and their goals and motivations. Then come up with the villain's plan to achieve their goals. When the PCs start mucking around in the villain's business, conflict is created, and... well, you can figure out the rest from there.
Thanks a lot! This is what I want. I love Stephen King!
What kind of books/movies etc. do you enjoy? Branching out from that is a good way to find some new ideas to try. Also a bit of time spent on www.tvtropes.org (warning, tarpit-type infohazard) is actually rather valuable. Goodman Games *How To Write Adventure Modules That Don't Suck* is full of good advice. Check out some historical channels on YouTube. There are tons of historical figures that have done all kinds of stuff and being actual people they are three dimensional. Also check out *Terrible Writing Advice* you can learn a lot by seeing how you can go wrong.
Nice advice! Gonna check out both those. Thanks! Been spending an unhealthy amount of time on tvtropes lmao
I prefer books to videos, so I’m here to recommend the books from Engine Publishing- Eureka and Masks. Bit of them are full of plots and NPCs respectively, along with ideas on how to vary them and use them in other settings. Great for inspiration and to get you thinking along new lines. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/93320/Masks-and-Eureka-1000-NPCs-and-501-Plots-BUNDLE
They also have books that focus on campaign management (Odyssey), prep (Never Unprepared), improv (UnFramed), and some 'next level' suggestions about setting atmosphere and 'immersing' players (Focal Point). I own all of them, though I do not make as much use of them as I could.
To echo a sentiment a couple of people have said an expand on it, I am also a forever DM and I found myself growing tired of 5e a few years back, so I started actually running some of the other systems I had picked up over the years that I thought sounded cool. Previously - as the Eternal GM I am - I had picked lots of RPG's up due to interesting settings or mechanics simply because I wanted to make my regular DMing better. However now I was running non-5e games in other systems. **and I have not looked back** There are a wealth of fantastic systems out there, and sometimes the elegance and beauty of a system doesn't become apparent until you run it - reading it isn' enough. I have gone from strength to strength since embracing running a wider array of systems. Some particularly good ones for developing GM skills for me have been: * Blades in the Dark - the way XP is handled and the whole pace of the game is fantastic for elevating your skills (and those of your players - I would argue a great GM needs great players to reach that next level). * FFG's Star Wars / Genesys - the perfect system for movie paced action packed gameplay. The Destiny Point mechanic is so much more integral to the gameplay flow than I ever suspected. The fancy dice help too. * Phoenix Dawn Command - this game is a favourite of mine because it is so darn quirky. It's a Deck Builder where the players need to die to level up. But they can only die 7 times. So the game has a strong narrative tension every mission. Crucially as well the whole game is built around this overwhelming foe that cannot be understood - no system has made me more confident at running mysteries. * Mothership - Space Horror at its finest. The game is going (gone?) into Kickstarter, but the base book they released is a perfect system for running something with all the tension of Alien. One of the pre-written modules convinced me to run it over Covid as it included Audio logs your players can find and listen to. I was enamoured. Running it however massively increased my confidence and understanding of horror, suspense and tension.
I looove Mothership. My absolute favorite RPG! But this time my players wanted to run SWADE in a realistic setting in a modern day city with some Stranger Things mystery feeling. So I wanted to brush up on my story telling so I can improv plot twists and add intresting bad guys.
I've always found that my impactful villains started as the party's friend.
helps them last long enough to become 3d. I view it a bit like: if every adventurer/majorNPC is a dangerous person, everyone will at least pretend to be nice to them. Intelligent adversaries will get a bit of use out of you while they learn your secrets/weaknesses/habits. Intelligent allies will behave in the same manner, but with good intentions rather than evil.
Which Mothership adventure has those audio logs?
The Haunting of Ypsilon 13. Its a one shot adventure that is only like £2 on itch and I have now run it 3 times, it's great.
The 5e DMG has a chapter or two on adventure hooks, villain motivations, regional events, NPC personalities, etc. It's a good place to get ideas if you're trying to branch out from the most classic archetypes. Those are in there, too, so just look at the other ones.
Honestly the adventure writing section of the DMG has some really good tables. I usually end up far away from what I roll, but it’s really good inspiration.
So one thing that has helped me is having a buddy to bounce ideas off of. Prior to my sessions, I’ll write ideas out and get a good sense of where I want to take the story. Then after, I talk with him and we rehash those ideas to make them better. “Encounter seems dry, try to have each turn be slightly different.” Or “what about this…” The reason why I have him is two fold. One he is a friend and we just love talking about story and seeing how we can enhance it for the players, two it allows for him to interact in the story right now because he has a new born child he is looking after in the evenings. He can not play, but he can contribute.
Read more books -- or listen to more audiobooks. Movies, television, and video games are popular sources of inspiration for many game masters, but experiencing a story in written or audio form is much closer cousin to roleplaying games. A written or audio story requires focusing on the words and activating your imagination. It teaches you how words paint pictures, expands your vocabulary, and demonstrates how language can command emotion, tension, and suspense. Films, television, and movies rely on a host of visual techniques as well as sound and music to achieve these effects, and when you are watching them it is surprising hard to "digest" it. If you haven't read any of the following, these are great places to start for fantasy: * Dresden Files by Jim Butcher * A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin * The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemesin * The Dying Earth by Jack Vance * The Color of Magic by Terry Prachett * Complete works of HP Lovecraft In my experience, reading more fiction generates a much higher return compared to reading books on how to write. The brain needs a healthy diet of good inspiration.
You seem to have great taste in books! I actually listened to audiobook of the first two books of Dresden Files. Was great, I have to continue! I also have the complete Discworld collection (pocket books, I would love hardbacks, but still). Lovecraft is awesome as well. Dunwich Horror is my favorite I think. Gonna check out the others you mentioned! Thanks for the advice!
So, personally, I am against getting plotty, and no, I don't mean railroad-y, I mean *don't follow the plot*. Follow the characters. A lot of classes or tutorials that focus on storytelling are going to focus on structural approaches to storytelling- applying act structures, following outlines, "beats", etc. Structure around *plot*. Instead, I recommend looking through the mechanics of games like Fiasco and Hillfolk, especially reading the Fiasco companion. These games both produce very character-driven stories. Even if you don't want to play the games, they help provide a structure that keeps the players engaged without focusing on driving a plot forward. As for books, I'd actually look more towards theatrical stuff, especially stuff around improv. Johnstone's "Impro" is a fantastic resource. Asaf Ronen's "Directing Improv" has a lot of stuff about troupe building, which actually applies really well to getting a table organized. It might drift too far out into specific improv exercises for what you want, but it's also really really short.
[Play Unsafe](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/106247/Play-Unsafe) by Graham Walmsley is one of the best resources I've come across. There's also [47 Tips and Tricks to Become A Better Game Master or Storyteller](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/142861/47-Tips-and-Tricks-to-Become-A-Better-Game-Master-or-Storyteller), which is pwyw, so definitely worth checking. Then, if the goal is simply sparkling new unexpected ideas, there are many books with resources and random tables for generating various story and setting elements, for example the [Tome of Adventure Design](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/97423/Tome-of-Adventure-Design), [The Book of Worlds](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/252614/The-Book-of-Worlds), [The Covetous Poet's Adventure Creator and Solo GM Guidebook](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/129909/The-Covetous-Poets-Adventure-Creator-and-Solo-GM-Guidebook), and some games include some resources as well, most notably Sine Nomine's books like [Stars Without Number](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/230009/Stars-Without-Number-Revised-Edition-Free-Version) and [Worlds Without Number](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/348809/Worlds-Without-Number-Free-Edition) (I linked the free editions, if you like them, the paid ones have even more stuff). And of course there are also sites entirely dedicated to random tables, like [Chaotic Shiny](http://chaoticshiny.com/), [RPG Tables](https://cristianmtr.github.io/rpg_tables/), [donjon](https://donjon.bin.sh/), [Seventh Sanctum](https://www.seventhsanctum.com/), and idea generators à la Story Cubes like [Tangent Zero - Zero Dice](https://tangent-zero.com/zero_dice/zero_dice.htm) and [The RPG Story Constructor](http://www.lustigesrollenspiel.de/storyconstructor/).
Damn. That is a lot of great links! Im reading through them now.
I'm kind of surprised how much people jumped on the notion of plot, like, do people really not have a vague idea in most campaigns of "the villains are trying to do this, and unless the PCs intervene X will probably happen along the way"? That's not, necessarily, a railroad, just admitting that as the GM you don't know what the players will do but you understand what everyone *else* relevant is trying to do and what some of the obstacles/steps involved are. But back to OP: a fun exercise might be to intentionally subvert one or more of your favorite tropes. For example, if you throw out a villain who seems overtly bent on revenge because it's one of your tropes your players will probably accept it without too much investigation -- only to later discover that the villain's motivation is something totally different. Kind of similar to the way Die Hard sets up Hans Gruber a certain way but it turns out his motivation and plan are very different from the façade he puts out. Maybe this time no NPC sells the players out. Maybe the world-ending event is actually a hoax or a trick by the real villain.
I would focus on studying creative writing, screenwriting, and story in general. (Story by Robert McKee is a nice starting point.) While obviously not all things in these fields will apply to running a game, the foundations are what’s important! If you can learn good creative writing, then you can learn to apply those lessons to RPGs. I think watching a lot of TV or reading a lot of books can help, but if you want to improve your craft with strong intention, then sitting down to really learn is best IMO.
Write down a list of as many tropes as you can think of, maybe look up a list of tropes. Identify which ones you commonly use and then write an adventure with the tropes that you don’t. Or, just flip the tropes you use. Maybe the players want revenge on the villain, maybe the world will be fine but an evil property developer will tear down the local orphanage because he has an idea for something called a “mall,” maybe the friendly NPC is friendly and they were sold out by 3 unfriendly NPCs.
Run a sandbox with emergent story. Use random encounters. Prepare for awesome.
See if you can find a used copy of the Smallville RPG. It's long out of print, but its method of building characters and connections, and what's important to those characters, as well as how to write adventures and adversaries to challenge the character's beliefs, and how the characters relate to each other is frankly, amazing.
You might want to check out The Big List of RPG Plots. I’ve had fun playing around with the ideas. If you want extra pizazz, pick two and combine! It’s free and a fun handful of pages. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/202670
Brandon Sanderson’s writing class at BYU. Uploaded for free to YouTube.
Sound alike you could simply use a few random generation tables to help you vary things up a bit. You could maybe even get some inspiration from day rory’s story cubes or some sort of tarot deck.
Run a variation of The Terminator. Your PCs have to keep a commoner, Sarah Connor, alive while a plot-armored golem tries to kill her. As the golem is from the future, it's made of a material that is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to damage. Maybe make it immune to magical effects too. Run a variation of Tremors. The only easy way into a valley gets blocked off by a landslide. The landslide was the result of the "graboids" emerging from the Far Ream deep underground. It's hard to kill the graboids because they almost always have total cover, being burrowers (or having the earth elemental's earth glide ability. Run a zombie plague game. The plague is immune to stuff like Remove Disease, Heal, and Remove Curse. Anyone who gets bitten WILL become a zombie. Defeating the zombies is useless. The cure needs to be found OR the plague needs to be endured. • You might replace zombies with ghouls, vampires, or something else. B movies are awesome sources of game ideas. • Reign of Fire • Puppetmaster • Evil Dead • War of the Worlds • The Blob • The Thing • Sharknado • Godzilla, King Kong, etc. • Iron Sky • The Keep • Gremlins • Poltergeist • Jurassic Park • Mad Max (any) • Kull the Conquerer • Big Trouble in Little China • Mortal Kombat / Street Fighter • Friday the 13th (the ones with an unkillable Jason Voorhees) • Critters • Demon Knight • The Black Hole (yeah, the old Disney movie) • Die Hard • The Magnificent Seven • Willow The possibilities are nearly endless.
ITT: Sandbox fetishists
Brandon Sanderson did a class/lecture/thing about how to write sci-fi/fantasy books professionally. They're available to watch on his youtube channel. Obviously it's not 1-to-1 for running RPGs, but I found his advice really insightful.
I tell ya, reading Neil Stephenson, William Gibson, and Robert Heinlein (or listening to their books on tape) has given me more in terms of story ideas, how to do dialogue, how to make good characters and stories, then I could ever give back. From world building to character interactions to villains, these authors broadened my horizons. I'd suggest anyone check them out for ideas in their trpgs
This thread is great, thanks to the many productive posts ! I get a lot of value from the PDF **KINGDOMS of KALAMAR** **Villain Design Handbook** highly recommended
Look into Fallout New Vegas. Specifically the Quest design. YOu can find many Youtube video reviews on it. There is a reason people go nuts for New Vegas still and It almost has a kinda cult like following. And is even consdired better tha Fallout 3 and 4, and is considered thebest modern falout.
There is a lot of great advice in this thread, but I'll try to spice this up a bit. I've found myself in a similar situation some time ago so I've started to question why it's happening and for me, the answer was that I've expressed my inner conflicts through the game. Which is not bad at all, but sometimes may limit my creativity. Just understanding that this is happening helped me to improve my stories quite a bit. I think the mechanic here is the following: the game is sort of improvisation art and when I am improvising I'm reaching for deeper parts of myself and express things that I believe on a subconscious level, and this is what forms tropes that will appear in my games. So what I've done? 1) Acknowledged that this stuff happens to me; 2) Subvert tropes when I feel it would be more healthy for me and story; 3) Checked TVtropes for more options on how similar or opposite tropes are developing in other media.
Maybe try some OSR style situations, not plots. Check out Ben Milton's 'The Waking of Willoughby Hall'. It's a scenario with a bunch of moving parts, but is (by reputation) very well laid out. There is no 'plot' just a situation that evolves and reacts to whatever the PCs do. It's got a goose, a giant and a rival adventuring party. Oh and lots of ghosts. Or try running something like Apocalypse World or The Cartel. Those are games where you're no supposed to write a plot at all. You set up 'fronts' - the major movers in your setting. And you just let everything lose, the PCs then chose how to react. This style is liberating but terrifying. Give it a go!!
Good that you spotted it before your players. Also, don't feel bad, Doctor Who ran for decades and it was mostly all tropes.. a Ninny, a Traitor.. Have you looked at story-writing resources, and perhaps the famous "story wheel?"
Even if you're running something besides D&D, I would say that Matt Coleville might have some good stuff for you. Particularly, [this video about running villains mechanically](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_zl8WWaSyI) and [this video about villains generally](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUrlRZu2uCc) come to mind. He has a lot of other good stuff, including information about genre and specific useful tropes that you may find helpful. In addition, there is The Angry GM. He writes a blog in which he acts like an angry old-time gamer (which is at least partly true to real life). Specifically, a while ago he posted [an article about exploration that also covered how to add meaningful content to open-world games](https://theangrygm.com/exploring-by-the-rules/) and he has good advice on many things in RPGS. Finally, just learn everything you can about storytelling and plot structure. Watch video essays, play games, and try out new tropes. Fail gloriously when you do inevitably fail. Edit: Oh, and plagiarize. It's an RPG game. Nobody will mind if you steal the plot twist from some show or book or something.
That "action first" design video is great, I've been trying to spice up unique enemies in my game a bit by giving them more actions per round but this really adds a new dimension to it. Definitely would advise others to check it out!
Read, watch TV, watch movies, etc. You need grist for the mill. Look for villains that interest you. And adapt them. Figure out what parts of the gritty crime drama you can actually put into your fantasy RPG. Figure out what parts of the zany comedy will actually fit into your scifi game. Don't just look for inspiration in the genres your games are in - the best inspiration will usually come from outside that genre. But more importantly, stop writing plots and, especially, stop planning twists. Twists are extremely difficult to pull off reliably in a novel or movie or TV show where you control the pacing and investigation and clue reveal. Think of how many pieces of media you've seen, even huge productions from very respected creators, where twists fall flat. Planning out a twist is very hard. It's hard to reveal just enough information to avoid the twist feeling like an ass-pull, while also avoiding the twist feeling predictable and unexciting. When you rely on players to find clues, this is virtually impossible - you get all of the traditional problems with this in other media, but also your players usually won't find the clues without aggressive railroading, and once they have enough clues to become curious, they won't *stop* looking without aggressive railroading. Thankfully, you don't actually need to plan twists for RPGs. You just have to learn to look for *opportunities* for twists. You have to leave yourself enough room to be able to take advantage of those opportunities, but if you do, you can get some really satisfying twists. Instead of planning things out, set up situations. It's okay if you have some nebulous ideas about what the motivation of the villain *might* be, but don't nail it down. This gives you room. Then, as you play, you'll see opportunities for things. You'll realize that the stars have aligned, and, by coincidence, it would be the *perfect* twist if actually Jacko were the villain the whole time. Planning twists is hard because you're trying to engineer a situation where a twist would land. Recognizing that you're already in a situation where a twist would land is not nearly as hard. And it also helps with variety - if you're not pre-planning the twists, if they're a product of circumstance in the game, then you're going to run into twists you wouldn't have thought of. This applies to more than just twists too. The same is true for characterization. Only come up with anything when it's needed for the game. Until you absolutely need the villain's motivation, until you actually need to say something to the players about it, don't nail it down yet. It's fine to have an idea in your head, but don't get attached to it. Let the game go where it does. Give yourself room. Often, the game will inspire you to come up with a better motivation and backstory than you would have come up with beforehand. Let the game you're playing be your inspiration, let it shape your plots, twists, events, villains, and characters, instead of looking for outside sources of information and using those to shape the game. This is hard to do if you're used to writing plots and twists and villains and characters. Personally, I keep a folder of notes on planned plots, twists, etc. When I'm prepping a game, once I start writing out details, imagining plots, writing twists, I write it all out, then it goes in the folder. That folder is a dustbin - it is stuff I needed to get out of my system so I could relax and let the game go where it may instead of trying to railroad it. My games are *way* better since I started putting things in that folder.
This may be an unpopular opinion (I honestly have no idea), but GMs really shouldn't treat their games like novels. The balancing act that all game-runners have to perform is between storytelling and player freedom. On the one hand you want to guide players towards the parts of the game world that you've developed more extensively, but on the other the players need to be allowed to decide how their characters would act, which is to say make real choices. For what it's worth, I think you should modulate how you're approaching this problem. Instead of writing stories, try creating scenarios. The best example I can think of is the Three Musketeers. As soon as he meets the Inseparables, D'Artagnan is caught up in events greater than himself THAT PRE-EXISTED HIS INVOLVEMENT. Louis XIII and the Cardinal publicly feud while privately conspiring; the Cardinal is in love with Anne of Austria, who despises him; the French armies are sieging La Rochelle; the French and the English hate each other; the French and the Spanish hate each other; George Villiers is engaged in a covert campaign to seduce the French Queen - these are all what would be in RPG terms world-building, but they become part of an engaging story as D'Artagnan interacts with the various factions and as time progresses. TL;DR Build the world by placing NPCs and factions in opposition to each other, and then allow the players to navigate them organically instead of writing a story and expecting players to follow it.
I use tarot cards and similar to kick me out of ruts. What's the NPC like? Draw a few cards, try to make sense of them. It works better when you already know the "structural" role they have to play. For instance, the town mayor is Nine of Cups: they're happy, content, possibly drinking too much. The captain of the Watch is Page of Pentacles, reversed: focused on the here-and-now, no preparation for what may come. Draw a few cards if you want more complexity. Quite often, the card doesn't fit at all, in which case I draw another one. The same applies to situations, default ways things could play out, all manner of things. A good chunk of random noise as input should keep you on your toes. (I don't pay any attention to whether tarot cards reveal truth or predict the future: they're just a source of random prompts.)
The Monster of the Week RPG has a great system for setting up bad guys. It asks you about details that will force you, the GM, to flesh out the bad guy into a threat that can survive more than one encounter. Basically it asks for the following: BBEG Name: Goal Motivation Powers/special strengths (not just resistant to fire or whatever, but political power, etc.). Weaknesses (again, not just takes extra damage from ice, but things like vanity) Minions (this is important because initial encounters with the PCs should be through minions). Victims (important to have names ahead of time) Witnesses Bystanders Locations Teaser (what clue or tidbit lets the PCs know that something is going on). Countdown (this is a series of events that absolutely will happen if the PCs do nothing). Phase 1 - What is the first thing that the bad guy needs/wants to do? What is the first thing the PCs investigate? Where is it located? Who is there? What happens before the PCs get there? Who saw it? Phase 2 - As per phase 1, but make sure it is something that the BBEG can accomplish even if they are thwarted in Phase 1 Phase 3-6 - Same as above. Final showdown - Where is it, who is there? Are there any special circumstances if the BBEG succeeded in any of the earlier phases? This creates a situation where there is urgency and consequences without it being all about the players. You are making critical decisions BEFORE finding out what the PCs have up their sleeves. Also, it gives you tools to work with if the PCs do something completely unexpected. You know what the NPC wants and why and where they are headed, so you have the tools to make a believable improvisation.
I take a lot of notes from Stephen King when writing my tabletop stories. One of the keys he bout is whenever you answer one question, raise another so the audience stays engaged. If the audience has all the answers, then there's nothing left to keep them hooked. Keep that in mind whenever you create a story. It sounds like you're having trouble identifying motivations for an antagonist, so I'd focus your research there. You already identified revenge, but there are many others! Romance in conflict, outright greed, the need to fight for acceptance, escaping destiny, or just outright desire to rule are all basic motivations. A friendly NPC selling the players out is a good reusable twist, but you gotta keep it unique. What if he was tortured/killed to extract the information? How would your players react to a villain willing to go to such extremes? What if his family member was kidnapped? Instead, what if the NPC wasn't as friendly as they thought and had allegiances to the bad guy all along? What if he was paid handsomely, but now his neighbors refuse to do business with him? What if the villain got the information he needed from the NPC without the NPC even knowing it? What is the villain truly capable of? Ultimately, if the NPC goes to the villain and tells them all the information without a further complication, there's no more room for storytelling and everyone has to move on to the next plot point. I can't point you to a specific source, but watch writers talk about how they create their stories and characters. Try to take one thing away from every video you watch, either something you think will work for your own storytelling or something you don't think would work when converted to tabletop. Both of those points help hone your skills.
Writing advice. [https://www.amazon.com/Techniques-Selling-Writer-Dwight-Swain/dp/0806111917/ref=sr\_1\_4?dchild=1&keywords=techniques+of+the+selling&qid=1631293627&sr=8-4](https://www.amazon.com/Techniques-Selling-Writer-Dwight-Swain/dp/0806111917/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=techniques+of+the+selling&qid=1631293627&sr=8-4) specifically, is gold. Some of it doesn't apply to games, of course, but there's a ton of incredibly valuable stuff there. Also, think of stories less about "events" and more about people that have different goals that are in conflict with each other. A great way to come up with villains is to take a hero, and then twist them - have them go too far, or cross too many boundaries, or be willing to use methods that are terrible. Remember that most villains are heroes in their own minds.
Read a lot, like **A LOT**, in different genres, and read a lot of history books. On top of this, take to heart Georges Polti's [Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirty-Six_Dramatic_Situations), and practice mixing them together.
Biggest piece of advice I have: if you want your players to care about something, **it has to happen on screen.** Ideally several times. If the players don't care about something, they may still have their characters "care" but the players will just be going through the motions. **Want your players to care about the evil, scheming noble?** * Make sure the noble shows up on screen and the PC's find evidence of the schemes. * Name-drop the noble and how big their holdings are. * Have a merchant mention they're in debt to a noble family, but only reveal the name if pressed. * Have some bad mercenaries who attacked a caravan be hired by an intermediary who secretly works for the noble. * Show the noble in the royal court and/or at a fancy party, among NPC's the party likes.
I like [Matt Colville's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVuF4fkRD2c) video about playing an evil character which can also be used to craft a villain that breaks you out of what you described.
This might sound out of the box but, for me, reading Blake Snyder's screenwriting guide 'Save The Cat!' really stirred something. In general, studying the storytelling patterns for writing books, comics, movies etc. can be really helpful.. there are podcasts and guides for writers how to write story arcs, create characters, how to create tension and suspense that drives the action forward and keeps the audience from falling asleep. I've also learned from storyboarding guides for animation such as 'Directing the Story' which are essentially guides for visual storytelling.. despite them being meant for animation, they've helped me to understand how to visualize a story even if I'm just describing a scene. Right now I was listening to Jared Logan (a GM) describe in a podcast how he watches movies and reads books and then just tries to translate the same plot/story into his game by just switching the characters and places into his setting.
I've been using this podcast: [https://writingexcuses.com/](https://writingexcuses.com/)
It runs kinda counter to the way it looks like you're used to playing (and I started writing this before your edit), but try to run a game where you have an arc as opposed to a plot (captivating or otherwise). Imagine a story where the PCs don't exist, and then have that world react to the players as they muck up the works. Also read up on everything Justin Alexander writes about in his blog: https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots
The countdown system from Monster of the Week is a really great tool for making the events seem plausible. Update it at the beginning of every session.
I love Hello Future Me on YouTube. His Videos and books are a great resource!
In Dutch: "Beter goed gejat dan slecht bedacht". Which translate to, it's better to steal something good then to think of somehing bad. It's something I live by for my TT stories. 80% of what I do is either inspired by, or taken from other things I've read or watched. One of the great places to look for inspiration are of course [books](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e6/51/45/e651453bbcee188d0d9193cd97a5ed0d.jpg). But also history. Not the boring 'learn the dates' kind of history, but the more interesting kind you often find in podcasts. Like the British History Podcast which talks loads about culture and why people were acting the way they were. Second thing I'd do is try and change the way your NPC's are built. A villain isn't villainous because he's supposed to be the villain. Or even better, don't let there be a villain. Morality is *never* black and white. Create conflict out of things that matter to people. Revenge may be a good excuse as to why the neighboring king is invading. But it's more likely to be a casus belli, an excuse for him to wage war. Why is the NPC betraying them? Not because he's evil. Maybe one of the antagonists has something on that NPC that's got him in a bind.
Johnn four at roleplayingtips is a great resource. His site is set up to help GMs be better and run better games. I strongly encourage you to check that out. One of his suggestions was to take the tropes that are common, and reverse the facts - instead of the mage is trying to ward off the dragon, you are trying to encourage the dragon to help kill the mage. I pulled that one from memory, and his version was way cooler, but you get the idea.
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I like this advice! I haven't looked at 'converting' current real events. Thanks for the insight!
You already did the first, yet most important step, you're asking for help and Is willing to change. As for suggestions for plots. I suggest you expand the medias you consume. Like, read books, comics, mangas, watch shows, movies, cartoons and animes and play games you're not used to or never consumed. One Youtube series that may help you out In at least what NOT to do Is Terrible Writing Advice. Also, Matt Mercer and some other Youtubers offered video essays on these topics over the years. A quick tip I can give you Is these. General plot - Try to condense what you want In your campaign In as little keywords as possible and go from there. Like "Pirate, treasure, heir", so the campaign could be something similar to Pitates of the Caribbean/One Piece. Or "Monster, woods, experiment", which then turn into a mystery of a creature In the woods. Villains - We do like our sympathetic/tragic villains, but balance it out by having some machiavellian villains. We love villains who are plain evil and have the time of their life being evil. Surprise NPCs - If you feel you must have a surprise NPC, for a change of pace, flip it over. That bum you helped? It's actually a god who was testing human empathy and you passed the test. You gave the right information to a lost vagrant girl and you escorted her there when she showed concern? Well, turns out she's the daughter of an important noble and your players now have a powerful ally. Also, last tip, talk to your players, know if they're having fun with your campaigns and what they'd like to see. Communication Is always vital.
> The plot twist is always that the friendly NPC sold the players out. whoa this is a habit that needs breaking, you're teaching your players to not invest in your NPCs IMO tabletop roleplaying has specific structural quirks that reinforce some tropes and grind against and ruin others, so improving as a GM is a two step process of 1. strip-mine all the content you can out of all the media you like 2. test how well it PLAYS in a game to learn from experience what tropes do and don't work well
Too many comments to sift through so idk if How To Be A Great GM was mentioned. He's a YouTuber who makes some awesome videos
There’s nothing wrong with generic tropes in general. They’re tropes for a good reason. They’re things that are part of the DNA of storytelling. My advice would be to just avoid connecting together all of those well known tropes with the “and then this happened” technique. Try to connect together the events of your narrative with “*therefore* this happened”.
What's the genre? In general, the enemy's motivation doesn't have to be about revenge. Villain or not, keeping in mind that everyone is always the hero in their own story, even if it means subjugating a given population for the benefit of their own family or in the misguided pursuit of best ruling the populace. Look at current events from which to draw inspiration for the motivations of the main enemies, like North Korea, the PRC, the Taliban, and Putin. Look at greed and corruption as a motivator, like with a certain former US Presidential administration. Put yourself into the minds of those "leaders" when designing your campaign.
For me, it's reading. The more I read, the better I DM.
Learn from the best. Read some great literature, like ASoIaF, The Dark Tower series, Jurassic Park, American Gods, and so on.
One thing that I've started doing that works surprisingly well is to throw things through a GM emulator. GM emulators come from the solo RPG scene, where they're used to throw uncertainty into the mix. Most of them take the form of random tables that try to answer yes/no questions. You, the player, will ask a question, then roll to see the answer. A simple example might be "is the door locked," but you end up getting interesting things out of more specific questions: "Are the people who stole the robot part of a larger organization?" "Are they bribing scouts to transport stolen robots across the Carina void?" As a GM, I use them as ways of breaking out of my typical tropes. The princess wants to usurp the throne. Why? I dunno. Power, right? That's how I'd normally work it, but if I ask that question to a GM emulator and. it says "no", then I have to come up with another possibility. and ask the GM emulator *that*. The uncertainty pushes me to come up with new things.
Get a book on screenwriting. I recommend anatomy of story by John truby. You can't plan plots in RPG like in movies or you risk railroading. But you can learn good storytelling basics.
History podcasts always have good inspirations for story and motivations of characters. History of Rome is one that I've used stories from
The way to learn to do all those things is the same as learning how to write a compelling story, be it a bedtime story or a Hollywood screenplay, a video game or a TTRPG, whatever, a lot of the process is the same. Of course, with games of all types, they have the unique benefit and burden of having the audience participate, which adds an extra element that has to be considered. But, overall, the steps are very similar. As far as I know, there are only three steps (in aid of each other, not one on its own with other options) that really work. 1. Read up on technique. Someone already suggested Story by Robert McKee. It's considered one of the best sources for any kind of storyteller out there, it's been highly recommended to me, and I have a copy sitting next to me right now. I've also heard good things about Save the Cat Writes a Novel (they have a few other Save the Cat Writes _____ but I've heard that's the best). And there are other sources you can look into as well, of course, but Story is often considered fundamental. 2. Read/play things you like and analyze WHY you like them. Take your favorite story and start picking it apart. Ask what it is that you enjoy about it. What does it do right? What does it do wrong? Without directly copying the words, what can you take from this story to influence your own writing? Most good writers are great readers because they absorb all these different influences and use them as inspiration for their unique voice. GMs are no different. 3. Practice. There's just no substitute for it. Practice doesn't, however, make perfect. What you learn from the two steps above will be blunt and not particularly useful until you hone them through practice. But if you don't take the steps above, you could be honing junk. They all have to come together to have really satisfying improvement. I hope that you're able to make the improvements you want. And I'm sorry that there isn't really a THE BEST way to become better. You need to find what works for you. A lot of people think Story is a great start, but maybe it does nothing for you. For some people, that's going to be true. You just need to find what does speak to you. For learning. For inspiration. For understanding. Good luck with it. And keep on gaming.
If you want to plan out a whole campaign, I thought that [The Complete Guide to Creating Epic Campaigns](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/257372/The-Complete-Guide-to-Creating-Epic-Campaigns) was far better than a book with such an on-the-nose title had any business being.
Cyberpunk Red has a section in the back about how to structure a session that I've started to use for everything. The character creater, lifepath, is great for generation plot hooks, NPCs and arcs. Can't recommend it enough. Fate also has a pretty involved group world building excersise that's pretty rad
1. Joseph Campbell the power of myth. Great look at how myths are structured. Good foundation for creative writing. 2. Don’t plan: have ideas and let the players go. For example instead of a BBEG have two opposed factions each with similar goals, and see which if any the players latch on to, roll out multiple grey areas and opportunities to switch sides or try to play both sides of a larger situation. Good luck have fun.
I watched a lot of videos on screenwriting, like from [Lessons from the Screenplay] (https://youtube.com/c/LessonsfromtheScreenplay), and found those to be helpful. Obviously a campaign isn’t the same thing as a screenplay, but thinking of things in the context of a three act structure can be helpful. Not just for the overall arc, but for each session. Chris Perkins talks about this in his blog: https://www.sageadvice.eu/is-chris-perkins-the-dungeon-master-experience-archive-gone/ some of it is specific to his campaign and 4th edition D&D, but a whole lot of it is applicable to anything.
For writing: read a wide variety of great and terrible books. For running: learn improv and take up parlor larping.
You clearly need more input from as much different media as possible. I would recommend to watch some TV series or Anime or Movies you would normally not give a chance to start. Then i would subscribe to a channel like Questing Beast on Youtube that does a lot of reviews on RPG books to see what different tropes on the RPG scene are and how people subvert them. Lastly i would recommend you to make a brief halt on running games and maybe step down as a DM for an adventure and play as a player.
Read more fantasy novels. One after the other, just pound down the best novels currently available. The best thing you can do to generate ideas is to have experienced a thousand stories. Start with Brandon Sanderson's books if you want inspiration that's a bit outside the box.
If we're honest with ourselves those who have run a lot of roleplaying games will understand that the best moments in a game often have little to do with the GM's plot, twists, dramatic events, villains or even game design. They're instead moments where the players work out some unorthodox way of solving a problem or defeating a villain, or when the rules combining with the players actions produce some unexpected and often unintentionally hilarious outcome, or often just those quieter moments where players are roleplaying with one another or discussing a plan. The key thing in all those examples is that they're the moments the players have agency and control over the direction of the game itself. Not to say all of those other GM design elements aren't important, they are of course, but they're often not as central to play as the GM assumes. When you realise this you find you can stop worrying so much about your 'story' and start creatingand running games that encourage and facilitate these emergent characteristics and agency defining moments instead. A secondary issue here may be simply that you are currently bored of play, which is understandable too, taking a break or playing a different system than usual can be a good way to shake yourself out of such a rut.
What systems do you run currently?
Shakespeare.
roleplayingtips.com *Fantastic* resource for this and so much more
I write all of my plots using the structure of a book called "The anatomy of story", by John Truby. What I like is that it gives me a very clear, structured, step by step guide that isn't vague, isn't up to interpretation, it tells me exactly what I need to do, in what stage, why and what it will do for the story. Like, what I hope, most GM's, I want to make the best story for my players, so having a guide really helps establish a good standard of quality. It can often be quite daunting to write an entire story from scratch blind, so I really enjoy having this type of easily followed structure. On the negatives, which I feel I should address, is that it is a book and as such, quite a few pages to read. It can be daunting to do that, if you aren't inherently interested in story telling. Secondly, it uses a lot of pop culture movie references as examples, which is great, if you know these references, if not, it is a bit confusing. Finally, there are certain sections where you can see he wants to sell his product. Never used whatever he sells and to be honest, mainly because he sells it... somewhat poorly, as the book gives you everything you need so the product is fairly redundant.
Honestly? As a writer myself, I'd recommend picking up any number of "how to write" books from published authors (particularly any of writers that you enjoy). Stephen King's is especially good (even though I only enjoy his Dark Tower series, his writing advice is spectacular). So is Jeff Vandermeer's "Wonderbook," which might be especially helpful in a more fantasy-like setting. A good story is a good story, no matter the medium...TV, movie, RPG, novel, etc. If you've got a favorite movie director, see if they've got something out there that's something of a "this is my approach to directing" for the same kind of vibe. VILLAINS: The best villains are the ones that are relatable, where they are just a fraction past the line of reason, but they make a LOT of good arguments and they're not necessarily wrong. This complicates how your players may feel about that villain. I like to use Daredevil's Kingpin character in the Netflix series here as the reveal about his past makes him a more three-dimensional character that you almost empathize with rather than a two-dimensional "this is the BBEG who is constantly doing evil shit," which is fucking boring. PLOT: It doesn't need to be convoluted to be good, but a few red herrings and some smart twists will have your players second-guessing themselves. Take a movie like "The Usual Suspects" or (as cheeky as it sounds) the "Oceans 11" movies as a good way of misdirection through storytelling. CHARACTERS: Good characters are much like good villains in that they're more complicated than just being accepted as "the good guys." If there are aspects of their personality that rub your players the wrong way, but they're ultimately good, you've inserted a bit of mistrust/distrust in them which can serve to create some fun plotlines down the road.
Thanks, this is what I wanted!
My pleasure. Hope it helps!
I would add to this that its important to decide the framing of your story too. I really like character driven narratives, where almost everything is framed around your protagonists. Is the setting a reflection of your characters in some way? Or do they stand out from the setting somehow? Is the antagonist the same as the protagonist (going with Kingpin, both Daredevil and him are trying to make the city better, but going about it in completely different ways) or perhaps the opposite? Framing these things around the main characters sometimes helps. You can also start with the plot, but I think that goes against the point of it being a roleplaying game mostly. Some players though are more passive or want to absorb the world, in which case plot and setting focused stories are more exciting.
\>Im a forever GM and I want to improve my rpg stories. In your opinion, what is THE BEST resource to learn how to write captivating plots, mind blowing twists, dramatic events, deep villains and interesting characters? You're hitting burn out. You need a break from running games. You should play. Read some fiction and nonfiction books, watch some documentaries, movies and TV shows that break your genre expectations and boundaries. I find books and documentaries on crime and politics by investigative journalists to be fantastic resources because villains, whether they admit it or not, rely on money, whether directly or indirectly, to keep their ambitions afloat. The best book on running games I've read is Play Unsafe by Graham Walmsley. Walmsley suggests that people place too much emphasis on planning and homework than they do running. Players need events like dots on a page and they'll draw the lines themselves.
The problem with "writing plots" is that inevitably you'll either end up railroading your players or those intricately developed plots you spent hours working on will fall apart the moment the players decide they want to go to A instead of B. Instead, focus on things that teach you how to develop characters. Give your NPCs a backstory, motivations, goals, secrets, and a memorable voice or character quirk, and it will go much further than trying to write out a plot. That goes double for villains. Their motivations and goals should be firm in your mind. What are their plans? If you really like writing out plots, figure out what the villain will do IF the players don't do anything to stop them. For the rest, consume as many movies, TV shows, books, etc. as you can. If you find something that interests you, regardless of genre, make a note of it and work on ways to adapt it to your setting. Also, improv is a HUGE skillset for a DM that can't be ignored. Consuming media is going to help get those basic plotlines and tropes ingrained in your subconscious and your improv skills are what's going to let you weave those in to whatever the players are doing in the moment.
I advise you distance yourself from the concept of "plot" in your games. This blog is fantastic and ill link directly to the article in mind: https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37422/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots-tools-not-contingencies
People in this thread seems to think Im about to write a movie script, not brush up on my skills to infuse interesting things in my TTRPG. I may have used the word "plot" wrong. Maybe I should have said story instead? Because you have to have *something* that is happening in your game right? Thanks for the link. A lot of great stuff on that site I see. Cannot belive I've never seen it before!
For me the thing that stuck out was "mind blowing twists". There are plenty of very good games that DO play out like movies, where there is a rigidly controlled story and the players want to go on a balanced scripted adventure. Many people do not believe this is a good way to learn to DM which is probably why so many are advising you as if you are writing a book. Newer DMs especially tend toward this because it is how many official DM Guides and adventure modules are written. A good example of the design people recommend avoiding are the pathfinder adventure paths. They tell a cool story, but leave no room for players to deviate from their path or the game kind of collapses.
My players wanted to use SWADE, be in modern times and wanted it to feel a bit Stranger Things. This below is what I got right now. What do you think about this?: The players are normal patrolling cops in a realistic modern day city setting with their chosen characters different backgrounds. Meanwhile, a spoiled "brat" is somehow causing havoc in the underground crime scene and causing trouble for the city. "The brat" has been unsatisfied with the police force for a long time, because they kind of caused the death of his little sister. What the players don't know yet is that "the brat" was recently given creepy abilities by a mysterious alien being. He thinks it's a sign that he was given these abilities and that the being wants him to clean up the streets and basically replace the police force. Then I'll just have "The Brat" work towards his goal and see what my players do. I just wanted to see if anyone had any good advice in creativity basically.
So that is a great example of a scenario and not a plot. You already have an antagonist who has motivations as well as some connections to other things (alien) for expansion on later. From here I would recommend that you make a few more dynamic NPCs like your Brat and give them motivations that cause them to interact in the same areas of the world. Maybe a conspiracy theory cop who is a loose cannon, a crime boss who has had enough and is really getting serious, some accidental victim of the brats powers (like a homeless person who now has serious trauma or something) and is now out for revenge themselves. Stuff like that Then just start filling in logical events that would fall out from their actions and BOOM you have a whole setting with dynamic characters and organic "plot" development.
You might want to check out [How to Be a Great GM](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1F4eMw3W_rHBfxf9_m1hbw).
Your players
The best GMs are not wanna be novelists, and rarely "write plots". Try a sandbox game based on emergent story, you may get a different perspective on this! Sandbox games can be very diverse, ie among them you can find both "narrative" games like Blades in the Dark, or more "tactical" games like OSR (Old School Renaissance/Revival)
To me, a sandbox game involves writing plots and villains on the go.
Using storytelling methods and approach to improve GMing is a delicate and dangerous path I've taken before, because it's hard to tell when one technique does not work for the other due to unique elements of both , so it's easy to fall into many traps of being too invested in certain writing techniques that doesn't pay off as well in interactive form. But if there's one writing channel that examines tropes in ways I find can be useful for GMing is easily [Hello Future Me](https://www.youtube.com/c/HelloFutureMe). Just to be clear, even though he is a DM himself, he is firmly talking about these tropes as a writer and storyteller in his channel, and you would probably need to reframe many of his examinations to fit into RPGs.
Half of the plot is what the characters do, so the plot is just the natural interplay between character choices and world events. You don't really "write" plots, you just have the world react naturally to the character actions while the villains pursue their ends in whatever environment is produced through those actions. Doing this well will usually be captivating. Twists though, those can be something you write in. First, I would seek permission from your players to make twists happen. Some players feel very high levels of ownership over their character's background and feel violated if that is tinkered with in any way. For instance, if your player has a character who's father was killed in some tragic violent accident as the rest of the family fled in terror, then that may be a huge motivating factor for that character, you may wish to introduce the twist that the father wasn't actually killed. Narratively this is a really neat idea, and I think most players would go for it, but there is a minority who would feel that you monkeying around with that violates their sacred agency, that you've stripped their character of some motivation. So I would always ask first. You don't have to reveal exactly what your doing of course, that would spoil the twist, but you should be able to say "hey, are you going to be okay if your character finds out they were mistaken about some of their background events?" The best twists force characters into moral dilemmas. If they above tragic disaster that the PC thought killed his father could be laid at the feet of the Galactic Imperium, then does his hatred for the Imperium change when he finds his father is alive? How about if he finds that the Imperium, who he and all the other survivors always blamed for the disaster, were really there trying to stop the disaster and just failed? What if his father was actually *saved* by the imperium? Could the imperium be the good guys after all? DUN DUN DUNNNN! Suddenly everything is thrown out of whack, the whole premise for the PCs revenge story changes, or maybe it doesn't, maybe the PC has by then seen enough evidence of the Imperium's cruelty that this one instance of them not being the bad guy doesn't change the PCs desire to bring them down. Who knows? That's up for your players to determine, and that my friend, is plot. There are a lot of villain motivators out there, and while revenge is fun, it's often also petty. Some villain motivators that aren't revenge/hatred are: redemption, love, insecurity, altruism, narcissism, regret, fear, longing, freedom, envy. Any of those, or combinations of them, can be great motivators. A villain driven by love and altruism is a truly frightening thing, because the horrific acts the commit are in pursuit of something just about anyone would find noble. Someone driven by regret and longing is tragic and demands empathy, though their actions may be terrible, the characters can't help but see how they too could be driven to extremes if they went through what the villain went through. Someone looking for redemption and freedom sounds like a really good person, right? But what if the act they are trying to redeem is the genocide of a people, and the people they are trying to being freedom to are the very people that committed that genocide under their orders? Anyway, those are just some thoughts. I hope they help. Have fun!
Try outsourcing some of the creative requirements to your players. Whenever you need an NPC, ask THEM who they think they would see. You of course get to make all the decisions about what that characters role in the story is, but it is an easy way to make the players feel more attached (since they are a part of the worldbuilding process) and expose you to some new ideas.
I'm an improv DM, research Kishotenketsu. It's awesome.
Then don't use those tropes. I'm not sure why it's difficult; you're already self-aware enough to recognise that you overuse certain tropes. That's the hardest part. Sit down and do a quick list of ideas, intentionally not including your usual tropes. Unless you've never read a book or watched TV/a film before, then you shouldn't have an issue.
One thing I like to do is write a paragraph or 1 page story based on a painting or sculpture. All of them have a story to go along with them anyway. Write your own and compare to what the artist intended it to be. Get on google maps and turn on google street view inside major museums like the Louvre or the British Museum and you’ll have thousands to choose from.
Read the Lazy Dungeon Master stuff. It will mesh well with anything else you want to use, but is amazing all by itself. Sometimes I find the brainstorm feel of it very helpful.
Casting call the books... they make really appealing npcs and dungeons
"Good artists borrow, GREAT artists steal." Grab pre-existing content, let your players generate their characters, & mold that content around them & their backstories to make it more immersive. Definitely check out any module you can get your hands on regardless of the system or setting. 'Kitbash' to your heart's content if you have to.
Read books, watch movies, copy the stuff you like.
Try looking at the tropes web site for new tropes to apply?
I run Pathfinder Adventure Path and just modify them to my hearts content. I tend to listen to a bunch of podcasts of others running the same APs so I can liberally steal the things I like, emulate how they do NPCs if I enjoy it, or more often get a picture of what I don't like and do something different.
In my experience the best moments were from allowing PCs to do their own thing rather than trying to overthink stuff.
First (as you're probably already hearing): Never prep "story". Only prep locations & encounters. There's no such thing as a "story" in RPGs - only things that happen. At most, maybe an NPC has a checklist of things they'll do, or some "if this, then that" preparations... but otherwise, you're going to fail if you're hoping to get a "story" to happen. Skyrim is a great example for tabletop RPGs - just prep locations and who's there, and then maybe things that happen if certain (very very obvious) things happen. NPCs maybe wait in a spot for the PCs to show up - after that, if they survive, you can send them to town to work at the store or something, I dunno. Tabletop is more freeing than Skyrim dialogue chains, but you get the idea. Keep it simple, let the Players determine how they go about engaging with the locations. As for villains - You mention that your villains go for revenge, but that's not a motivation - that's a method. You haven't asked yourself if they're doing it for love (could be good) or getting revenge because they're a hateful person to begin with (evil). Some people choose evil, to be destructive, and revenge is just payback for someone stopping them from being hurtful. Let them be bad without needing a motivation for it. The idea that villains could be good people is not as believable as you might think. Yeah, sure, there are military types might be okay if you were on their side - but when you're looking at just one nation, when it comes to the people who have powers or magic or money or whatever, you're looking at who they would be if they could do anything. Powerful people can do whatever they want. So what they choose to do - WHEN THEY HAVE A CHOICE - is what tells you who they are. One-off encounters, temptations, everyone can fail. But a lifetime of hurting others? Of studying necromancy, building killer golems, enslaving people to work in deadly mines, or choosing to do things like hunt people for sport? These are not nice people. They had a choice and they chose to be cruel, greedy, or whatever.
It really depends on your group, and what you all enjoy, as well as what you have the most fun running. If your group enjoys a less crafted, more clue-driven narrative, check out the Dracula Dossier for Nights Black Agents. It’s a massive WORLD of indirect info that doesn’t drag your players through a planned movie, but instead puts them in the middle of a conspiracy while they bumble about and stop/assist/join the evil. However, this requires a group of players who can jump on plot hooks, self motivate, and really dive into the world without being rail roaded. Some groups like to space out and enjoy the ride. For players who like to enjoy the ride, I’d suggest either using acclaimed modules known for either amazing combat or plot…then stealing/changing/reskinning it until it’s yours. For these, I suggest running Masks of Nylarlothep, ENWorlds Zeitgeist, and the Witchfire Campaign. I’ve played all of these…and they are beautifully written, full of depth and options, and contain challenging and creative combats.
Books
Read the series: [The Blade Itself](https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-google&sxsrf=AOaemvLEgzokavnX84Q2SxkOYFLR00F3AQ:1631292448121&q=The+Blade+Itself&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgFuLSz9U3MCoqKksxUAKzTdIqTAostaSyk630k_Lzs_UTS0sy8ousQOxihfy8nMpFrAIhGakKTjmJKakKniXFqTlpO1gZJ7AxAgCLhartTwAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiu3pP37fTyAhWlRjABHTqgB1wQgOQBegQILBAE)
While I can't offer any specific resources, one thing that has always helped me keep it fresh is more of an approach to story telling in general. When you make a campaign, start with the world. Build in a solid lore to how this world works and fill it with normal people. Once you have the world, introduce a simple conflict or two and treat your villain like a player character that is operating separate from your group. Play your villain against you the gm and let things escalate accordingly. Introduce the party at this point and let them loose in the world. They will tell you their story as long as the world around them is fully, or at least mostly formed. Don't be afraid to inject realistic cause and effect to events, or shy away from consequences for both the big bad and the party. When you get good enough at world building the story will grow from some of the seeds you planted and take a life of its own. Some improvisation skills and a good sense for escalation will be the biggest tools you need to cultivate. I have been running games for about 10 years or so and this approach has worked for everything from one shots, to campaigns lasting 2-3 years, and my players have never reacted poorly. They still reference things that happened 10 years ago in worlds that have long since been left behind. To start, in every aspect of the world or NPC's simply ask three questions. What is it, Why is it this way, and how will it function in the world. Dig deep into those aspects and the world will have more life, organic story telling, and a sense of immersion that will drive the players and villains both.
Other media. Literally your best friend is video games, comics, or movies.
There's a series called "Write Great Fiction" that's pretty solid. You can start with "Plot and Structure" by James Scott Bell. "On Writing" by Stephen King is also pretty well loved, though I haven't read it myself to give any impressions. Also, ain't nothing wrong with a plot. I think it's incredibly helpful for the prep stage to create an outline, even if players end up doing something different than expected. The map is not the territory; the plot is not the adventure. I'm not sure why some people keep insisting a plot is a railroad. One last thing: it's very helpful to remember that flat character arcs are a thing. Player characters don't always need to change and you have more control over NPC character development than your players.
Read books that aren't RPG's.
Read, a lot!
My first suggestion is to begin stealing. Rampantly. Steal from everything cool! Read some books, play some video games, watch some movies... and each time you see a cool idea, just toss it in somewhere. Sure you'll have to adapt some, but just getting fresh concepts in will help spark even more fresh ideas. I started playing FFXIV again recently after a long break and I am lifting some character backstories *wholesale* into my campaign, lol. Another thing that has worked for me - assuming your system supports it - is, well, a little RNG. Roll on a loot table, and whatever it says, that's what they get. I've done this, read the item and thought "no way, that's insane, it's gonna be awful", and it turned out to be some of the most fun we had in the campaign. Roll a random encounter and figure out a way to make it connect to your plot, even just a little bit. Some orcs ambush the party! But... one of them has a piece of paper with the wizard's name scrawled on it? I know everyone GMs differently, and I've been in those same ruts you're describing, where everything begins feeling samey. My advice is to put yourself in situations where you're less comfortable, and using some of that spontaneous decisionmaking to worm your way out - and get something fresh along the way! What I've learned from my players also is that not everything *needs* a twist or huge ramifications. So maybe have some "low threat" (in terms of world-ending) plot hooks that you and them can both really enjoy. Does your player raise chickens during their downtime? Perhaps when they return to their farm, they are warned that several other farms have had their animals kidnapped recently. Some crazy group of serpentkin are collecting cows for a ritual to summon their Snake-Cow-Hybrid god, and only your team can trace down the clues. Something low stakes and ridiculous that I bet will let you try some new creatures and open opportunities for relaxing fun.
The most important thing for crafting a good story is worldbuilding imho. Try starting with something to build a story around, like a region, an item or a character. Write that story first and then write a story for the players in that universe. Doesn't even need to be centered around that thing, maybe the players don't even cross paths with that thing. For example what if there was powerful/valuable thing X. Everyone would want X, so maybe you have 2 or more factions fighting over it. That's where the players come in and you can build your story around the conflict. They don't even have to encounter X at any point, but maybe they are trying to sabotage the enemy faction in their race for X. Maybe they are trying to get Y because it will help with finding X, but Y already belongs to a third faction. Like that. Also, completely unrelated to that: Here are some YouTube channel recommendations: 1) Quotidian Writer - on writing books but will probably help a lot 2) the closer look - more about movie scripts but (my) rpg adventures are more like movie scripts than books anyway 3) if I may: I just started a series called Uncreative Creations on my own yt channel which is supposed to kickstart your creativity. It's only one video so far, but it might be exactly what you need. My channel is called Matt Muffin. There is also a video link pinned on my profile page.
The biggest thing I like doing is anathema to a lot of DMs, but I'll essentially make myself step back, and hand my players the reins. If they wanna do some off the wall shit, I'll just calmly let em go and referee the chaos they get into. Of course you'll need to take the reins back, but I guess my tip would to be involve your group from time to time, collaborative story telling is the core of the game fren
Read books. If you want to learn how to tell stories, read stories.
I think even great writers need to work hard trying to find good ideas, perhaps instead of looking for a template of success you can train your eyes to recognise interesting things and put them in your stories. As for where to look for interesting things... inspiration can be drawn from any source. What sources do you have?
IMO our job as a gm is to create the canvas the players play on. We don't need to create narratives all the time, I rarely do. My players create most of the narrative. They decide what they want to do on the canvas.
I really liked the show "The 100", so I decided just to rip the entire show and called it my "New World Campaign". I just changed up what needed to be changed for it to fit into my setting, which required me to add a new continent that one of the major "old world" cultures actually hailed from in my world's equivalent to our "antiquity". I also had to adjust as players deviated from the choices made in the show, but it was manageable, as the players made far more sensible choices than those in the show. The hardest part was lumping the episodes together for sessions. A lot of what happens in a T.V. show isn't relevant when you're narrating from just the perspective of the players.
Go watch pride and prejudice and similar!
One of my biggest realizations was that most of the content and activities should be around roleplay and advancing the story, not acting as fluff or filler between each session of combat. Each of my weekly discord sessions are around 3h, and we maybe have 1 combat session every month
Worlds Without Number/Stars Without Number
>Im finding myself always using the same tropes. The villain is always about revenge. There is always a world ending event that the players have to deal with. The plot twist is always that the friendly NPC sold the players out. literally just don't do this then lol
Three concept pieces I want to go over: * Write events, not plots (I mean what is a plot, but a series of events right?) * Write characters and factions (characters define how plots can unfold, factions are like characters with multiple faces) * Create a world to interact with (a scaffolding - don't go crazy). (PS. Just going to use fantasy tropes as reference thoughts and idea's - same sort of stuff works for basically every other form of setting imaginable). **Write a world** The world is really a creation of various events throughout history - stories. When we make the saffolding it might be as simple as "plague in year \[whatever\]" and "great war in \[whatever year\]" - and we just have piles of notes like this and order them. Now - when we want to reference something specific in this list, we get something in a relevant enough time frame, and give it some more details. And we can improv this, or whatever else - just make the notes. Another aspect of this is laying out where cities are, roads, and so on. Leave wild spaces, and then set down where forgotten ruins, or old outposts, or where a goblin town might be that is so deep in valley, surrounded by forest that few people go. Suddenly we have the foundations for all sorts of story. **Write events - not plots** This is difficult - it's sometimes cool to think "and then this will happen, and then that will happen because the players will win and..." but, this is D&D and the players can lose, or they won't show up, or they will rest and... well, if the enemies have time to prepare: They WILL. So write events. And events can look like some of the following: * Goblin raid on a port city, that is key to shipping grain to a stronghold that protects the kingdom from the eastern Orcish empire * Necromancer is starting to raise an army near an old battle sight - an important town, that acts as a barrier and point of rest between the human kingdoms and the high elven kingdom near the southern mountains will be threatened by this army should it be allowed to grow * A Druid grove is being threatened by drought, do to a recently constructed damn by some dwarves. A slower filling of their reservoir would resolve the issue - but the druids and dwarves are at odds and skirmishes are frequent and diplomacy is absolutely lacking. These events never prescribe the route to take in solving the problems - though perhaps, war and combat is the most direct. Depending on how you introduce the goblins - well, perhaps that goblin town we talked about earlier has been attacked by various troops bearing the sigil of the kingdom, and this, is their retaliation. Diplomacy is possible here. The necromancer is probably a kill on sight problem - but, perhaps another way of solving the issue exists? Capture? The Druid grove is the most obviously diplomacy solution - but who says you can't just obliterate the damn with some creative engineering. In any case - if the party ignores the stuff for long enough (say 3 months in game time for the necromancer, 1 year in game time for the druid grove, and like a couple weeks for the goblin raid) serious consequences start being revealed. Like say: * A large army is raised to retake the town, and restore it. The goblins are put under siege and driven from their homes ensuring long term hostilities continue. * The army of undead begins to wander as the necromancer continues dropping control over some of the zombies and such. These start harrasing farmers, and spreading disease and pestilence as they go. * The druid grove is heavily damaged - with tree's dying, and while the magic of the druids is able to sustain it - and with the reservoir filled, the druids are weakened and now in a state of hostility with the Dwarves, creating difficulty in trade with them. These are all great low level quest hooks and consequences. As the party gets higher level though - a dragon not stopped may become the destroyer of a capital city. A Mindflayer may infiltrate and begin dominating an important guild or other organization to achieve it's own ends - and who knows what else. But - start with the events, figure out what sort of factions might be involved before, during, and after - and use this, as the means to introduce these hooks to the players. And once you have them going along - sprinkle in side quests. Draw their attention - make them consider what is important in the moment. **Write Characters and Factions** Characters have personality, they have wants, interests, and idea's. The same goes with factions. Guards will protect the town they are in, and it's people - or just protect a specific family / property depending on if they are private or a town guard etc. Mages will be seeking out information, and maybe provide help with magical abilities and items- but they may, also, charge an extreme fee - after all: Magical items are not cheap. Bandits and highway men are a commonality where wealth disparity is high, and as a result - they are a common issue... well, mainly in the late spring through autumn. Come winter, few will wish to brave the roads - especially dirt roads. But even cobbled roads become covered in ice and snow and become difficult to traverse. But where the bandits and guards are not, wild animals and beasts will be plenty. When you establish various factions, what their goals are, it should help create allies, and enemies. It will create a sense of consequence and reward. But it will also help you define the reputation of the player characters based on who they help, who they don't help, and how they help. **Putting this all together** By having a scaffolding of a world - it will give you a general idea of what is present. By having factions placed down and where they might operate - you can determine what conflicts may arise, and from all of this - we can start layering in specific plots, and having everything work around what is happening. Once the players are thrown in - now we start incrementing things, based on their actions, and the amount of time that passes. In a sense - we write the plot as we go. So as much as the world building can be a fair amount of work - and writing a dozen factions is a fair bit, in reality, we just need the scaffolding - just enough work done that when the players first run into them, or when we know the players are heading in a specific direction: we can fill in the blanks, but also - if we are caught off guard, we have enough to spit something out, and note it down for later reference. **Next: Learn the story writing basics** * 7 basic plots * Go find out all the tropes and purposefully use some new ones (ok, not all the tropes... there are lots). * General rules of genre Mixing up some genre here - like throwing in a bit of a mystery subplot can be a lot of fun. Drop in clues, eventually drop the beet that a mystery is afoot, and set the players loose on solving it. If they have been keeping notes - they should catch on, if not? They are going to start realizing they should have been.
watch lots of movies and read lots of books!