Creating Conflict

I've been considering lore and storyline a lot lately while I script, and one of the things I keep returning to is creating compelling conflict in the world. There's several things to keep in mind while creating conflict for S&S.

First, I want the conflict to be realistic. In the real world, though we like to think in terms of good guys vs. bad guys (we Americans are especially notorious for this), conflict is complicated. There are heroes and villains on both sides of every conflict and, though history is generally written by the victors, there's no "right side" in realistic conflicts.

From the beginning, one of the guiding principles of Shadows & Silver has been that there would be no overarching good vs. evil conflict, so it doesn't work to have traditional goblin raiders or the dragon that terrorizes the countryside. Rather, who you root for will depend on your perspective. A good example here is the War of Burdean Sovereignty. From the perspective of Burdeans, Burdea's sovereignty was more important than the political unity of Adunay. The belief in the ability of small states to govern themselves compelled them to action against what they perceived to be an oppressive regime. This is contrasted by the other Adunean states, which believed the strength of a united Adunay was more important than the rights of any individual state. As a character in the world, your viewpoint likely comes down to whether you see yourself as a citizen of Adunay or of your state. Burdeans, for example, are fiercely protective of their independence, and see themselves as Burdeans first and Aduneans second.

Burdea versus Adunay is a representation of the conflict of political identity, but also of security versus liberty. Most soldiers on either side of the war did not sit down to think about where they stood on the individual issues. Rather, the source of their national pride determined how they reacted to the different conflicts the War created.

Second, history is not linear, not just a series of events. Rather, it is a complex web of ideas, actions, and consequences. The effects of any action can be felt across the centuries, just as a butterfly beating its wings in the Pacific causes a hurricane in Florida. It's the way of the world, and the way of a realistic setting.

In S&S, the war with Burdea had consequences that continue to this day. For one, it caused unrest and political dissent in the populace at large on both sides. Social upheaval became a daily occurrence. The infighting also weakened the security of Adunay, making it vulnerable to those both within and without. The old monarchies fought for control even as the coalition devolved into chaos. In reaction to that, a wave of conquests swept Adunay, culminating in the establishment of an Adunean Empire ruled by martial law. Power and wealth lead the Empire to attack its neighbors, and the resulting war with the northern Krunags led to the Empire's fall, once again plunging the land into chaos. Today, though the Confederation has nominally established control over Adunay, but the revolutions continue. Hundreds of factions pull the government this way and that, others seek its downfall entirely.

Thirdly, it's important for the players to have lots of adversaries, but no real villain. Even if the PCs were to put aside their differences and pursue a common goal (how unrealistic is that?), there shouldn't be a Big Bad Evil Guy™ to focus on. Remember, conflict is not found in bad guys; it's found in ideas you oppose.

For a real world example, consider the Palestinian vs. Israel conflict. The conflict is not between people but between ideas. It's not a good guys versus bad guys conflict or a terrorists versus democracy conflict. It's not Hamas versus Mossad. It's one ethnic group's nationalism versus another group's nationalism. It's an idea versus an idea. So, while the idea you support has opponents, there is no "bad guy" to focus your attention on. To win the conflict, you have to unseat an idea, not a leader.

In S&S, a similar conflict can be found in the colonization of former Nerath by the Aduneans and Salicians. These countries see themselves as bringing civilization to the backwards people of the eastern Plain, and they inevitably find themselves in conflict with the native peoples, who don't take kindly to being treated like the scum of the earth. The real conflict here is in the ideas. The West believes that, because of its technological superiority, it has the right to the resources of the East, and that spreading their civilization to them and ridding them of the "Brown Menace" is more than payment. The East believes its ways are its own, regardless of any technical inferiority, and that its lands are not open for exploitation by Western powers.

Finally, conflict exists independently of the PCs. It's not there so the PCs have something to fix. It's there because that's the way things are. If the PCs want to jump in and try to fix things, great. But if their shortsightedness simply messes things up more, even better. National and ethnic conflict is not easily settled, especially when it has lasted for centuries, and creating the illusion of true conflict within the game world requires a lot of forethought.

Think about the role you want conflict to play in your setting. Do you want bad guys versus good guys, or do you want something more fluid, more dynamic? How do you plan to complicate things? Do you want to try to teach the players a lesson as they unravel conflicts into their component ideas? Or do you want a sort of sandbox for them to deal with real-world conflicts within the game?

For those of you participating in S&S, what conflicts would you like to see played out? Most interested here in conflicts of ideas as listed above, but perhaps you have ideas for various factions that might vie against each other?

Finding Inspiration

I'm having fun ripping my hair out over the ambient system (which, though I hesitate to give any solid details yet, has become an epic-scope AI system), and reading Casa's latest post reminds me of the need to keep my inspiration up.

Building a PW is a lot of work. Like, scary lot. To the point where you almost imagine who in their right minds would do it without getting paid. It helps, of course, that I'm not content to cobble together a bunch of existing scripts and insist on rewriting everything (even if it ends up being the exact same code) I find just so it does exactly what I want. Still, I'd have imagined I'd get more done in the now over two years that I've been building.

So how does one find the inspiration for continuing a project that has already taken so much time and will yet consume so much more than it already has? I suppose on some level it's by reminding yourself that you've invested too much time and effort to quit now. But on another, it's the thought of how beautiful the finished product will be.

I began S&S as a labor of love, and along the way I've found others who are similarly entranced with both Neverwinter Nights and the opportunity to tell a compelling story. That love, I think, will be something that players will feel when they begin playing on the server, and it also means I'll be happier with the final product.

Yesterday I sat back and began to imagine playing in the world. Not just how the systems would work, or what the conversations would say, or how the areas would be designed. No, I began to think about the role-play that would come out of it, the stories I want to tell, and the characters I want to grow in it. Not so much from the point of view of a writer and a DM but from that of a player. I felt the atmosphere and the weight of the themes that flow through the world. I let my mind wander through the broad spectrum of people I'd meet, the places I'd see, and secrets I'd uncover. And even though I was imagining what I've already been trying to create, seeing it through the fresh new eyes of a prospective player gave me a new vigor. I don't want to just get this thing built and run it; I want to play in it, too.

How do you keep up your inspiration in your project?

Lore snippet: One of the causes for the current tensions between the states of the Confederacy of Adun was the War of Burdean Sovereignty. Burdea, a state in Upper Adunay that suffered heavily in the war with Nerath, tried to leave the coalition rather than submit to the rule of the new Confederation government. Claiming Burdea was sovereign over its own affairs, Major General Alexei Graudyn led his troops in storming Fort Lussk, a Confederation stronghold. He was hailed as a folk hero and continued his raids against Confederation forts for fourteen months. When Burdean Prime Minister Hendrick Chatham, fearing Graudyn's political aspirations, had him arrested and hanged for treason without a trial, Burdea plunged into civil war. The Confederation leapt at the chance to crush the vulnerable republic. All that remains of its cities are the blackened husks of buildings, and most of its people live in refugee camps throughout Adunay.

Shameless Cross-Promotion

I don't know how many people read this blog, other than those who are helping with or actively working on Shadows & Silver. Nevertheless, I thought I'd suggest that those of you who aren't in our little group take a look at some of those links in the sidebar there. Most of those helping with Shadows & Silver have their own projects, and most of those people have their own blogs detailing their progress.

In particular, I want to note Ben Harrison's new blog "The End Times", chronicling the development of his new project. Though Ben has been actively working in the NWN community for years now, he's undertaking a new PW project and made his first blog post today. Ben's been a big supporter of S&S, and he's helped Casa tremendously. I look forward to seeing his progress and (hopefully) getting to assist in making his dream project come true.

Best of luck, Ben. :)

A little more detail

Thought I'd take a break from scripting the ambient system to make a blog post.

So in the last entry I posted an exceedingly boring screenshot of a dude in a brown overcoat and equated him to one of the most famous arch-mages in D&D-geek culture. What gives? We'll talk a little more about Dante here.

Origin
Little is known about Dante save that he's a retired Churchman. As an Archonist, he traveled about the Plain seeking knowledge useful to the Church. After the most recent war with Nerath (about forty years ago), he retired to Midport, using the considerable wealth he gained in the war to build an inn. It was there that he founded the Order of the Ouroboros, an association of alchemists and adventure-seekers who continue his work seeking out occult knowledge in th Plain.

But behind every truth, there is a deeper truth. Dante, in fact, is responsible for much of the state of the world, and especially for the progress of alchemic study. Though I won't spoil any possible plots for those of you who may play on S&S when it is finally released, I'll let it drop that Dante is who you can thank for the triumph of science over mysticism in western culture.

Well, that was disappointingly minimal in the way of exposition. Okay, here's another, more juicy fact: Dante is one of the controlling investors in Aether Technologies, Inc. (better known as AetherTech). AetherTech is at the forefront of alchemic research in Emorlad, and its inventions are creeping into every corner of Adunay. It is both loved as a symbol of Adunean ingenuity and despised as a pit of Machiavellian bureaucracy. AetherTech is deeply entrenched into Adunean politics as well, and there's some speculation among the less patrotic of Adunay that AetherTech started the current war with the northern state of Kruna to profit from the sale of arms.

Motives
So Dante has his fingers in some not-so-nice business. I thought he was supposed to be a good guy, you say.

One of the underlying truths of human nature (and a concept which I hope to reflect in the morally grey world of Shadows & Silver) is that there are no such things as good people or bad people. In truth, there is good and bad in each of us. In some the good is stronger; in others, the bad is stronger. It's rather like the old Native American story, when the old man tells his grandson, "Whichever dog I feed the most is the winner."

It may seem a pedantic distinction, but it's not. In fact, it's a distinction that, if we made more often, would vastly improve both the quality of our role-play and the quality of our lives. Both in our games and in RL, we like to separate things into boxes in a futile attempt to quantify the world. The adventurers are good, the goblins are evil. The Allies were good, the Nazis were evil. It's an easy way to approach the world. It's convenient, and simple, to imagine yourself on the side of good.

But flip the coin to the other side. The Nazis believed they were doing good, for example. Solidifying control of the world under what they presumed was the rightful ruling race was, in their minds, one of the greatest goods they could achieve. In their war and their genocides, they believed they were accomplishing a noble and righteous goal.

Those goblins raiding the caravan likely believe the same. They're defending their territory from the ever-encroaching humans, taking back some small measure of the wealth stolen from their land. Curious, isn't it, how we put them into the "evil" box just because their goals conflict with ours.

So what is all of this to say? As Socrates tells us, no man willingly does evil. If he does evil, it's because he is trying to do good, either for himself or for another; his reason and, thus, his methods are simply clouded. Dante... well, his reason is clouded sometimes, though he refuses to admit it. He's not dogmatic, like many Churchmen. Since he's one of the more powerful forces in Emorlad, he tends to try to "fix" things, attempting to remake the world the way he thinks it should be. Unlike your typical, mislead tyrant, though, he sees himself simply as an agent of the change, not the destined ruler. He's quite happy to work in the background (or have others do the work for him) in order to make things right.

As the saying goes, you have to break some eggs to make an omelette.

Elminster... S&S Style!

So I've gotten a bit bored with scripting. Things seem to work alright on the ambient system, but I haven't the energy to test it thoroughly or to try putting it to use. I'm itching to build again, but we haven't finished work on our haks, so that's off the table. Well, no, not entirely. I can do some stuff with 1.69 content.

I got to designing a coupla NPCs. Here's one, an NPC named Dante.

Dante is the owner of the Haven Inn, a cozy little place in Manheim Court in Midport. He's a genial old fellow, and a retired Churchman and adventurer. Few but his friends know that he is also a powerful alchemist. In fact, Dante's years of research have fueled the current age of scientific discovery. Despite this, Dante is humble and down-to-earth. Though he no longer goes out on adventures, preferring his comfortable life in the city, Dante heads the Order of the Ouroboros, a group of adventuresome alchemists.

Dante is the Elminster of S&S, though he doesn't look it. In fact, he's largely responsible for the retreat of the Nerathim forty years ago. The question is, though, how do you keep him from overshadowing the PCs? In the FR setting, for example, you have to wonder why powerful NPCs are always giving out quests instead of just using scry-and-die tactics. In most settings the answer is that these NPC powerhouses are just too busy with the really big epic planar threats to handle the goblin invasion. That's what the PCs are there for.

Dante's reason for delegating is much simpler: he's old. Dante has had his fair share of adventure, and it's time for him to settle down and relax. Why risk your neck out in the wilderness when someone younger and fitter can do it?

I've got a lot of story ideas for Dante, and a lot of secret lore, too. But you don't think I'm going to tell you them here, do you? :)