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Plots, Side Plots, Quests and tracking them in a sandbox environment.

DM Mark

New member
Gold WoA
As I am plodding through my massive NPC's creation task it dawned on me I was going to be essentially creating ton's of quests like you would find in an MMORPG.

  1. Do you all think it would be better to make them separate entries and TAG them?
  2. Since they are included on three line npc would it be the best practice to link a named plot as well with the plot description?
  3. Should their be a TAG specifically for this and a plot page or other new elements?
  4. Do other users simply run with what is on the NPC page for smaller quests?
Interested in hearing how others are handling this. I am going to uploading my first batch of 100 pc's soon and I want to backtrack as little as possible.

Thanks!
 

ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Do you all think it would be better to make them separate entries and TAG them?
I would definitely try to to keep things as modular as possible, and therefore go for separate entries, named plots and tag-o-rama. That should make it much easier to branch the plots to unforeseen directions and also reuse content more effectively.
 

DM Mark

New member
Gold WoA
I would definitely try to to keep things as modular as possible, and therefore go for separate entries, named plots and tag-o-rama. That should make it much easier to branch the plots to unforeseen directions and also reuse content more effectively.


Thanks for your reply Elf!

Yeah I am kinda thinking this may be the route to go in the long run. Having a separation between Hooks, Secrets and Plots and Quests would be nice too. Then if you have sub-quests they could tie back to the plot...

thoughts?
 

Hannu

Mythras Guru
Gold WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
My approach has been more like creating NPC's close in time when they are likely to be encountered or when they are encountered. Campaign approaches differ. Plots - I use loopy planning roughly but put a few ready made things to wait in the wings - now that I counted them, there are approx 60 future seeds in the current campaign island and 18 active subplots connected to loopy planning
 

DM Mark

New member
Gold WoA
My approach has been more like creating NPC's close in time when they are likely to be encountered or when they are encountered. Campaign approaches differ. Plots - I use loopy planning roughly but put a few ready made things to wait in the wings - now that I counted them, there are approx 60 future seeds in the current campaign island and 18 active subplots connected to loopy planning

Thanks for replying Hannu!

I am actually doing similar but as I discuss this I think the separate TAG's would make life easier at least in my case. I will probably make use of loopy planning as well in some instances.

For example I am uploading my first batch of 100 npc's all of which are men-at-arms and any of them could be encountered and all are complete individuals. It really hasn't taken long to do this after Johnn's awesome tips on 3 line Npc's and some other things I have purchased. All of them have secrets and plot hooks or individual quests etc. Some tie in at the world level, some to the module I have revamped. and several tied into an overarching GOT style +Epic Level storyline. I am figuring to have several hundred NPC's by the time the game starts in a few weeks.

As I am putting these in I realized it would be better if I could track them indiviually. As the players could leave after module completion + my extras, they could still encounter these NPC"s again later in the game as they are part of a faction that is prominent. If things are not time sensitive then any incomplete quests etc could still be viable.

Now for important NPC's etc that are critical to main plots I do like you do and flesh them out heavily closer to usage.
 

Hannu

Mythras Guru
Gold WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
For example I am uploading my first batch of 100 npc's all of which are men-at-arms and any of them could be encountered and all are complete individuals. It really hasn't taken long to do this after Johnn's awesome tips on 3 line Npc's and some other things I have purchased. All of them have secrets and plot hooks or individual quests etc.

That is one way to approach it and valid. I decided to go the other way as I find it is easier for me to have only the only the NPCs I absolutely need (the major ones and the ones people have encountered) existing, linked and tagged. So I created generators that I can create a new NPC for a faction or similar in a second which I either use on the spot when I need the guy/gal, connect the generator to the environment (city, plot, ship...) or before the game in a prep. The major ones and the ones they have encountered already may come up in some of the random generators as well or thru the loopy planning or gamer interaction. The benefit for this is that I have few dozens of NPCs over time that have come up thru this method in campaign logger and the Campaign logger tag pages and text expansions etc are not polluted with unused stuff - only used stuff. This has worked quite well so far for me. My group has tendency to go on tangent to some different place or direction - so having too much ready in a single place might be over prepping... But of course creating the generators has been kind of overdoing prepping in that direction.

This is definitely a GM style issue - there is no right or wrong here.
 

DM Mark

New member
Gold WoA
That is one way to approach it and valid. I decided to go the other way as I find it is easier for me to have only the only the NPCs I absolutely need (the major ones and the ones people have encountered) existing, linked and tagged. So I created generators that I can create a new NPC for a faction or similar in a second which I either use on the spot when I need the guy/gal, connect the generator to the environment (city, plot, ship...) or before the game in a prep. The major ones and the ones they have encountered already may come up in some of the random generators as well or thru the loopy planning or gamer interaction. The benefit for this is that I have few dozens of NPCs over time that have come up thru this method in campaign logger and the Campaign logger tag pages and text expansions etc are not polluted with unused stuff - only used stuff. This has worked quite well so far for me. My group has tendency to go on tangent to some different place or direction - so having too much ready in a single place might be over prepping... But of course creating the generators has been kind of overdoing prepping in that direction.

This is definitely a GM style issue - there is no right or wrong here.

I agree about the style, it really is a matter of preference. I like hearing how other DM's handle things. Years ago I wouldn't have been this in depth. Actually even now I would do more on the fly if I could. I have major nerve problems in my hands and arms which I think is coming from my neck. (still figuring that one out). Because of this I can't run the logger during game I am having to print out everything. I try an use voice on the PC as much as possible now.

Additionaly, I am worried about not being prepared enough for improv as I haven't ran in a while. So I am making sure I am prepared for all options. I am giving the NPC's keywords etc as well as unique ID's so I can access them easily. If I want to reuse I can reupload via the bulk uploading method I have come up with. It would be nice if I could work smaller, but in my case it is better to have an not need than need and not have. As far as logging goes I am having my son take general notes and I will track the secret stuff players don't know. Will definitely be using short shorthand for that :p I am hoping the rich game experience will counterweight his note-taking.
 
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