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Resources to support Story / Setting / System Building

ejnotts

Member
Wizard of Story
In @saps Adventure Building Ramblings, @JohnnFour said:

What many RPG world builders don't think about (at least, based on stuff that's been shared with me and my bookshelf of published settings) are the Story and System (game) corners.

And this seems to have struck a chord with @ExileInParadise (and certainly has with me).

I might be jumping the gun here, somewhat, as I've no doubt @JohnnFour will be covering story in the Plot section of WoA resources, but I thought it worthwhile making a thread to accumulate storycrafting resources. All the information I've found out there about Story crafting is presented through the lens of authorship, which doesn't quite work for collaborative TTRPGs, but may still be useful food for thought.

So to start the list:

The Seven Basic Plots
Types of Story
The Alexandrian's Three Clue Rule (for investigation/mystery stories)


I've found other resources in the past, but (irritatingly) seem to have misplaced them... will circle back round when I find them again!
 
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Ronaldo Lima

Member
Wizard of Story
Great idea! This is something I have been spending a bit of my time lately...
A thing I need to share here is an online course about Storytelling from Pixar. They made it available for free at the beginning of the pandemic.
It has 6 chapters; the last three are less relevant to RPGs, but the first three I would consider a MUST for us:

1. We are all Storytellers
2. Character
3. Story Structure

https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/pixar/storytelling

It's presented by artists/writers from Pixar, so it's basically a peek window into the "background processing" of some of their great movies. Can't recommend enough!
 
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ExileInParadise

RPG Therapist
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Gathering some resources here for folks

STORY
For Villain Plots - Dustin Andrews Conspiracies and Capers one-page dungeon entry:
https://campaignwiki.org/1pdc/2014/Dustin Andrews - Conspiracies And Capers.pdf

For NPC / roleplay encounters, you can probably lay them into one of Polti's 36 Dramatic Situations:
https://archive.org/details/thirtysixdramat00raygoog

There is also Plotto for plots:
https://www.amazon.com/Plotto-Master-Book-All-Plots/dp/1941040551

There is also David Siegel's Nine Act Drama notes:
https://medium.com/@pullnews/the-nine-act-structure-of-feature-films-b47a33b673a5

SYSTEM
Do It Yourself: Myriad RPG System by Ashok Desai is a creative commons licensed free/open RPG building toolit
Get it Free: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/29196/Myriad-RPG-System

RPG Design Alternatives Analysis arhive
http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/systemdesign/design-alternatives.html

All of the various Open Game License (OGL) systems are a huge jumpstart toolkit.

SETTING
Patricia Wrede's Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions:
https://www.pcwrede.com/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/

Dawn of Worlds:
http://clanwebsite.org/games/rpg/Dawn_of_Worlds_game_1_0Final.pdf
 

JohnnFour

Game Master
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Demonplague Author
Borderland Explorer
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