How to determine if your Plot is Bad - Game Master Tips

[Music] hello and welcome to this episode of how to be a great GM well in today's episode we're looking at what makes a bad plot I'm not saying what makes a bad story there's two very big differences between plot and story if you don't know go and check out some of the earlier videos but in a nutshell the plot is all of the things that are going to be happening during the story and the story is well all of the stuff that was done in between the things that were happening and as if that didn't clear it up enough think of it as this as the game master you're responsible for plot as this player story is your responsibility the players decisions the way that they engage with the plot is what causes story to happen so the story is not really in your control it's all about the plot the plot the plot the plot the plot so how do we determine whether our plot is good enough or not well the bottom line is is that there are a few things that you can gauge your plot against and of course the most important thing is that if you don't stick to your original plan if you don't stick to your original plot there's no way to determine whether or not it was good or bad because you've changed it as you've gone along so this requires you to stick to your plan stick to your plot and see it through only then can you sit back and go yeah that was that was complete rubbish that was complete rubbish so what makes it rubbish well in general these are some of the pitfalls that I find that I have done and that happened on a regular basis when I play with other GMS starting off poor structure now structure is something that everybody talks about from playwrights to film writers to script writers you name it everybody talks about structure we talked about three acts structure we talked about one to one method the one to two method all those wonderful things which you can check out on other videos however the important thing to bear in mind with structure is that if you don't have a solid beginning if the players suddenly find their character involved in a story and they have no idea how they got there that's a problem if they don't know how they've got there well they'd probably not gonna be invested now this can happen if you decide to throw them into the thick of things and then not give them enough information there's nothing better than if you starting out a campaign or you're starting out a new adventure to suddenly have the players make a defensive role or to make an observation role or to make an initiative role whatever system you're using to start them off in the middle of combat they don't know where they are they don't know what's going on but they do know who the bad guys are and that's the people who are trying to kill them if you don't then take them through the process of how they got into that situation if you don't elaborate on that information they won't be invested in the story they've been dumped there all they're going to try and do is get out get away or avoid whatever it is that they irritated to cause the combat in the first place they won't know where to go because they don't know how they've got there so poor introductions are often a very very very early mistake that GM's make and we just don't know what's going on so why do we care no ending is equally as bad as no beginning so the players didn't know how it started and then it kind of fizzles out at the end and the players are eventually going is it over can we stop trying to figure out what's going on now can we go and do something more interesting by not planning your ending it can become very difficult for the players to realize that the game is over the adventure is over now planning your ending of course can be tricky how do you know how the adventures going to end well if you know of your end game so in other words if this is a mission where the players have to get something what happens when they get that's something is that the end situation and if so what are the ramifications if the players have to deliver something what happens when they deliver it if the players have to thwart something from happening what happens once it is thwarted so have your endgame worked out so that you're not suddenly caught unawares and so that you can give your players a proper ending now if we look at the middle in terms of structure if the middle is rambling and the players get lost and they don't really know what to go and they desperately try to find some information out but they're not getting anywhere that's equally as bad when your players are stumped when their characters don't know what to do that means you need to give them information don't hold it back sometimes that can be tricky especially if the players are no longer engaging in the store and they're not asking NPCs for assistance or a help and they're not really looking around anymore you've really lost them by that point so you need to inject it by Havering an NPC stagger into the room that they're in or into the space that they're in or beam in or whatever technology you have available to kick start your adventure once again and to put it back on track don't be afraid to do that you absolutely can just not too often otherwise it becomes your thing and that becomes a bit of a weakness because the players will just wait for your grand moment where you give them more information so that's structure structure can fail at the beginning in the middle and of course at the end and it makes sense weak motivation now a weak motivation for the players is their pits if your players are not interested in your story abandon ship sink it as quickly as you can and move on now they might do this they might not have much motivation to do the story if you railroaded them into the story if you force them to go down this path and they don't necessarily want to but they don't have any alternatives that's probably going to give them weak motivation to carry on going and they might just carry on going to get it over with read your players and see whether they're genuinely interested or if they're just going through the motions to get to the end of they're just going through the motions to get the end bring the end right now make it over and done with and then reassess as to what your players actually want to do and then give them more of that don't try and force them to finish an adventure because you wanted to happen they have to be invested they have to have motivation to do so another motivation is or lack of motivation anyway is that this is all that there is there really isn't anything else for them to do so you haven't just railroaded them you've said no that's the village that's the only adventure you can find journey into the strange tower nobody else needs any kind of help whatsoever and you can't really leave the village because they won't let you unless you agree to go to that tower it's very similar to railroading but if you're only giving them one or two options what's the difference they're not going to be invested so don't just limit their options let them determine where they want to go and then change your setting to fit rather move the tower that they need to go to in the direction that they have chosen to go rather than try and force them to go in your direction it makes sense to if the players think they've discovered this tower and that their characters are the ones who are the first here it gives them a vested interest to continue exploring that tower whereas if you force them to go to the tower they're there because they don't want to be so they just want to get it over and done with do you see the subtle difference in psychology between forcing and allowing something to happen and just changing your plans it doesn't affect you of the towers in a different place why should it it's all imaginary anyway weak or contradictory descriptions now this happens all the time and there have been lots of linguistic debates on it you walk into an empty room except in the one corner as a pile of bones in the other corner is an ancient sarcophagus and hanging from the ceiling as this large complicated chandelier well then it's not really an empty room is it on the other hand it is empty of organic things it's empty of people and it's full of clutter well that may be as it may be but the players are getting confused so when you give descriptions make sure that you give a description of the room if you're going to give up lots of descriptions as some GM's like to do they like to give a complete picture make sure it's an accurate one if you're like me and you'd rather let your players explore the spaces that they're in give them an accurate description of the space that they're exploring however and this is the primary rule don't change it later if your players move into a room and they don't see anything and you haven't described anything to them and then they've moved on and they've gone to a different level don't suddenly after checking your notes go oh remember that room that you walked into there was actually also a blue chest in that room I forgot to tell you no move the blue chest to the room that the characters are about to walk into so don't ever redact or go back on information that you've given them alter the current state to fit what you've already said contradicting yourself is terrible the wizard with the red robes wait wasn't he wearing plate mail before yes he was but I was wrong he was actually also wearing robes then to what could have been simply to say yes the same one that was wearing plate Mabel for he appears to have changed into robes now it's easy just make the changes as you need to there's some kind of alarm going off I don't know what that's for hopefully the building's not on fire so and if it is let them change the description later don't change your descriptions try and give us clear and as succinct descriptions as possible and never avoid giving descriptions if a player says what is my character see give them descriptions don't just say all you see some stuff give them specifics that's what they want don't of course give them a complete inventory of every particle of dust sand and rock that is in that particular room balance it out but don't change after the fact that's important the focus of the game oh sorry not of the game of the plot might be wrong if the focus is just on NPCs and you don't need the PCs to really be involved in order for the story to emerge then the focus is wrong if NPCs are required to solve the problem NPCs solve the problem and NPCs can solve the problem why are the PCs there and why are you even telling that particular story in the first place that plot should be abandoned if if PCs cannot interact and meaningfully change the cat outcome of events it's not a plot it's an event that happened beyond the PCs control now you can have those absolutely the whole world is continuing whilst our PCs are wandering around in their adventures but if the adventure plot itself cannot be affected or does not require the PCs to be affected it's not for the PCs it's a back story or Oh an event make sure the PCs can participate in your plot and can change it you also need to make sure that the PCs when they do change events as outlined in the plot the plot changes if your villain is supposed to sacrifice let's say 15 Vestal Virgins to a dragon God and the PCs make sure that there are no virgins in the village by escorting all those virgins to a safe nunnery elsewhere of course not by any other means of ensuring that someone's not a virgin if they have done that what is your nemesis what is your villain what is your henchman going to do now that there are no virgins available they have to have an alternative plan they don't just go ah oh well what the BT I was going to sacrifice them but they're not here now so I give up i become carpenter anyone need a good steak so you don't need to simply abandon the plot because the PCs have thwarted your plan how does your plan change if the plot centers around something that has needed to happen and the PCs prevent that from happening the bad guy your monster whatever needs to come up with a workaround well we couldn't get vestal virgins from that village but perhaps a few miles further down there's another village that we can try so we're gonna go and try and do that instead your plots need to incorporate your PC's and their actions otherwise there's no point in following the story if they're going to not change anyway far too often we see this in LARPing community where the players have got significant impact on the narrative but because the LARPing community is trying to build this epic lop they don't change the LARP outcomes really based on what the PCs are doing it makes for a very uninteresting and engaging space so avoid it that's a bad bad plot then routine or mundane challenges didn't we just have to go in to slay the wizard on the dark tower now we've got to go and slay the bard in the dark in what's next slaying the night in the dark field slaying the priest in the dark temple can't we for once not do that there are in general for different types of missions that players can go on one is a 14 mission where they have to thwart the bad guy whether that's in attacking them defeating them doing something that prevents their plans from happening another is delivery I have to deliver something somewhere another one is collection they have to collect something from somewhere and then the final one is protection they have to protect something from something or someone there are several others but those in general are the four mainstays actually think I've got the one wrong but you get my point there's not a lot of missions out there so don't try and create this totally original mission but recognize that the last mission was a combat heavy mission so perhaps this mission needs to be more intellectual or the last one was a go fetch mission and now they need to do a protect mission because they're not going somewhere they're protecting something maybe they have to find something out because last mission they didn't they simply just bashed everything to death vary up the different types of plots that you're throwing at your players to make it feel as if they're doing different things and keep them engaged it's important to do that a lot of MMOs that are out there don't they've got the go collect n go kill ten go take ten things to ten different people and that's about it it gets very routine and very dull very quickly you have the opportunity to step outside of that box you can combine things go throughout someone oh but you actually find out that they have got something that needs to be brought back so it's a swart that becomes a collection and then the collection mission of course is a defense etc etc etc so you can really vary it up but you do need to vary it up finally repeated missions very similar to the routine or the mundane repeated missions missions that are just the same same same same now obviously this channel talks about three-act structure one-to-one model all those kinds of things which seem to make it very formulaic and the answer is yes it is every single Hollywood movie that has ever been released is formulaic based on these principles TV shows are exactly the same and we can spot those patterns a mile away we're not that that complex of storytellers society nation species however it's how you tell it that makes the most interest and if you follow the guidelines of you and everything that you need to have a beginning a middle and an end and you do your descriptions well and you set up different types of adventures that needs to happen all of that fades into obscurity as the players are engaged in the story in the emergent story that comes out of their interactions so if you can be dynamic if you can change up those plots it doesn't matter that they are pretty much the same same plot every single time it will feel different in your world will feel as if it's moving forward so that's how I look at a plot is a good plot or is it a bad plot those are different things I look at here there's about five things there that you can examine and explore and you won't know unless you run your entire plot to conclusion so my advice plan out a simple plot throw in some encounters friends some random bits and bobs and run it and see if your players are engaged if they're having fun if things are going well then you know that you don't have a bad plot you can then expand that and try different things and push them to different levels it's going to be a lot more interesting than fumbling around not knowing where to go and what to do because your characters and your players are just all over the place I hope this has been useful if it has hit that like button if you want to see more like this where you want to join our growing Legion of fans who believe that plot and the story are important aspects of role-playing hit that subscribe button we are rapidly charging to bigger and bigger numbers every day and it just means that there's more like-minded individuals out there which was a warm and encouraging thought speaking of like-minded individuals hit on over to www.instanteulogy.com [Music] you

Channel: How to be a Great GM

Views: 224,011

Keywords: dnd 5e, Dungeon master tips, Game master review, Dungeon building, World building, Dnd gm tips, Game master toolkit, dnd, d&d, dnd gm tips, game master tips, Great game master, Tabletop Roleplaying, GM, How to GM, How to be a great game master, Game Master, Great Game Mastering, How to, How to be a great dungeon master, DM Tips, Dungeon Master, RPG, Game Master Tips, Dungeon Master Tips, GMing Tips, DMing Tips, dnd plot hooks, dnd plot, rpg plots, rpg plot ideas

Id: 6557akFyYyo

Length: 18min 46sec (1126 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 18 2018