Plot, Part 4

I got a basic plot for my book that I can start fleshing out. But I've also said I would like to make a Neverwinter Nights world based on Shadows & Silver. I'm going to work some on the plot for the game this time, and I'll begin shifting my focus here from writing fiction to designing a game world.

Writing a plot for a multiplayer game is both similar to and different from writing one for a novel. For one thing, you've got many more characters the story has got to focus on, not just one or two, so the story has got to be flexible enough to account for players of many backgrounds, abilities, and personalities. Secondly, it has to be a conflict that will not be resolved in the book. This has been the downfall of many settings (notably Dark Sun), and is particularly dangerous since it makes it so the players' accomplishments mean nothing. Third, it has to be something the players cannot resolve in a few gaming sessions, but something that they can make progress with so they don't feel useless.

The similarities are still there, though. Even multiplayer plots center around a conflict and the complications that get in the way of solving it. The more difficult the complications are to overcome, the longer the plot is able to last without coming to a conclusion. Often, the resolution of one conflict will reveal a new conflict (e.g., the players topple an evil king only to have the local nobles start warring to determine the successor). One of the best ways to have an ongoing plot is to show a conflict that is too big for the players to do something about on a large scale but is still one they can manage on a small scale. For example, you can't expect the players to do much to end a world war, but they might infiltrate key enemy positions and thus help one side or another.

In this case, I'm going to use the primary conflicts I laid out a couple of posts ago, since they're all things the player can work to change on his own end without a realistic chance of him drastically changing the face of the setting. It also means the story will be flexible enough to account for many players participating in it. I doubt I will have to worry about characters in my book overshadowing players in my world since, for my first book, I settled on a main character who's out to bring in an age of science to trample the age of magic. This implies that it's earlier in the chronology than my world was intended to be, since I had intended a world where technology had displaced magic. This means, then, that whatever happens in my novels sets the stage for the world the players will inherit.

Considering that, what sort of world do I expect to come out of the actions of the characters in my novels? For one, I expect that my main character's goal of toppling the mage-kings will come to fruition, and that the religious and technological orders he supports will come into power. The Church of the Archons, as I've been calling it, has been waging a silent war against the mages for thousands of years, and, after the actions of this character, they are final able to wrest control from them. They have, in the years since, conducted extensive witch-hunts to destroy both mages and magical creatures. In turn, they support the development of machines which, while non-magical, can accomplish wondrous feats and placate a public thirsty for wonder. Over the years, they've managed to convince the public that the mages were either pretenders who simply harnessed the power of science, cruel men who played on their superstitions, or demon-worshippers who obtained power through horrid means. Unfortunately, in its years (I'm thinking maybe a few centuries) of endless witch-hunting, the Church has so thoroughly rid the land of significant presences of magic that most people don't believe in witches and think the Church serves no useful function except perpetuating superstition. In order to solidify its place in the new world, the Church has begun expanding its definition of witch to include undesirable members of society.

So how does the player fit into all of this? I'm thinking that the player is arrested by the Church when he is found without identification papers (or much else, for that matter), and he is being held until he can prove he is not a mage. Just prior to the arrest, though, he discovered that he may be a target for mages and other creatures of magic. If he chooses to divulge this information, the Church will likely give him a job, since he would be excellent bait in catching mages. If not, then he'll be on his own and in need of money in a land that is still suffering the effects of the magical warfare of centuries past: parched land, poisoned water, and rampant plague.

In addition to all this, there will always be wars and conflicts going on as the country tries to maintain its position amidst many lesser lands, and the high tensions means the racial integration in unacceptable in all but the most liberal of places. There should be plenty of plot hooks and quests to show these aspects of the world to the player, and the conflict of the struggle to survive is inherent in all of them, as well as in the day-to-day life of the player character.

I think this is a good start, and something I can flesh out as time goes on. It also begins my shift towards talking about game design, which will start to become the focus of this blog now.