Diabolical Plots and Plot Hooks

[Lord Zack]

I am a fairly new DM. I've run the first issue, and a few short adventures (Someone busts out of the bank with money. A security officer is shooting at him from in side the bank. The man is masked and is running down the street. What do you do?). I however have problems creating very advanced plots. If I do come up with a good plot, I have trouble hooking the players into it.

[Manticore]

Sometimes a simple situation can lead to a complicated situation. Especially if there's a twist... E.g. That man's not as bank robber! OR, that man needs that money to help his daughter get an operation!

My own approach to building complex campaings is to think of a theme I like- and then think of a simple plot. Then I invent characters and think of the effects they have on the storyline. It's usually the characters that MAKE a campaign.

[honestiago]

Just remember what makes great story:

Success against long odds
Failure (and learning from it)
Cosmic failure (and death)
Betrayal
Tension

I've GM'ed for a long time, esp. fantasy roleplaying. The best cmapaign I ever ran went on for about a year, and the ground found ONE (that's right ONE) magic item. What made the campaign was the characters, especially the NPCs. The characters had to ineract with (among many others): a priest who had a VERY disagreeable personality (but whom they couldn't touch); Four obnoxious "Italian" brothers who ran a sort of circus (and who always showed up at inopportune times); two complete dunces in charge of a guardshack, who were nonetheless fully aware of their responsibility and difficult to get past; a pair of brave native guides (one of whom perished while leading them); a dwarf who spoke very few words of the common tongue, but happened to yell all the time (as if THAT would make him understandable), who ALSO died, but willingly to save the group.

Just remember: your NPCs have lives and agendas. Even the guy behind the bar has some sort of angle. Fill your game world with memorable folks who make repeat appearances. Make your villains SMART and SNEAKY! Give the players a knot to unravel (remember, they have NO IDEA what you have planned, so you can misdirect all you want). Teach the players the value of retreat, if they're overmatched. Make them play smart, but occassionally let them simply kick some butt.

And REMEMBER: consequences! Players cannot interact with the world without benefitting or suffering in some way. A group that destroys a business, even in a righteous fight, is going to have people complain about that "Who's payin' for this?"). Don't be afraid to enforce consequences, or to pull out the "God in the Machine" to help yourself at times. Story is everything. Your players should remember that. If you run a good story, they will.

[Manticore]

Remeber that a cunning bad guy can always think of some way to survive. Especially a bad guy with a teleporter!

[honestiago]

No kidding. How many times did the Mandarin survive getting blwon up. He even got sucked out into space once. His answers was always, "It's easy for one who wields the rings of power!" Guess they have all sorts o' goodies in 'em.

(And he DOES have a teleporter belt).

[Manticore]

What exactly is the "God in the Machine"?

[Lord Zack]

deus ex machina (pl. dei ex machinas)

Any resolution to a story that does not pay due regard to the story's internal logic and that is so unlikely that it challenges suspension of disbelief, and presumably allows the author, director, or developer to end the story in the way that he or she desired.
(Literally) A god from a machine.
(Television, capitalized) The name of the ship that Joel Hodgson uses to escape from the Satellite of Love on the television program Mystery Science Theater 3000.
(Motion pictures, capitalized) The ultimate power in the machine world in The Matrix Revolutions, the third motion picture of The Matrix series.

[Brainstem]

Just a little bit extra on that (school's coming back soon... gotta get back to thinking). It actually has that name based on a literal definition. The "God Box" was used by Greek playwrites in their shows. Essentially, everything would build up to some kind of unpassable goal, and then some random deity would pop up and be all "Hey, dude, I'll help ya out." There was a little device (I think at the top of the stage) that the "god" would come from, and the device was... you guessed it... a box. Now... I learned that in like... January, so my facts may be a bit rusty.

And now for my points to your query...

Don't be afraid to borrow from existing stories. There's no such thing as an original idea, so don't be caught up in making a brand new world. After all, The Lion King basically told the story of Hamlet, but it added enough creative touches to it that it really stood out as its own tale.

Another way to come up with good, epic feeling plots... read up on Joseph Campbell's Hero Cycle. It's amazing, it's the ultimate GM tool for creating stories. It's essentially the outline for what makes a story epic. If you want some good reading on it in RP terms, check out the Gamemasters Guide for the d20 Star Wars Roleplaying Game. The book in itself is wonderful for helping cultivate ideas to make a more epic feeling game.

I've actually got a few plotlines up in the old noggin. If you want me to give you some parts of 'em, just drop me a line. I can give you some basics and from there you can mold it into a story that better fits your group.

[honestiago]

Not that anyone cares, but since the last play I finished was an adaptation of Aristophanes' "The Clouds."

In this Greek comedy, the playwright, who was attacking/ satirizing the then "new" philosophy of logic took a jab at its supposed father, Socrates, by having the character first appear above the other characters, in the heavens, and descend to the stage as a god would (ironic use of Deus Ex Machine, since Socrates' appearance is the inciting, rather than culminating action in the play).

Speaking of Greeks, Aristotle's Poetics is a good place to start when it comes to what makes a story work. The elements, in order of importance, are:

Plot
Character
Diction
Thought
Music
Spectacle

In good plots, everything is used. Aristotle likened a well-crafted plot to a "house of cards," meaning if one thing is removed, the whole thing falls apart. Another way of looking at this is, "introduce nothing extraneous; everything must relate." In the basic MURPG rule book, this is most closelt realted to "Synchronicity" (if players need it, it's there; things they saw int he beginning come back later).

I could go on about the whole list, but really, only plot is paramount. If you have a good plot, other things can be forgiven. A good plot with excellent characters is really all that's needed. The rest is gravy (and on a board such as this, music and spectacle do not apply, anyway).

[survivesurvivor]

Another quickie suggestion:

Build up a strong reason for a character to exist ie Know the ultimate goal of the character. Work towards that with all the adventures you run. For example, a certain Catwoman might be resurrected to avenge her death as well as fulfil an ancient prophecy. Once she has accomplished that prophecy, she would fade into stuff of legends, presumely dealing out justice on the streets. NOthing makes a campaign more draggy and dithery with senseless adventures. Well my campaigns are usually short run types lasting a few months with a final resolution that's kinda 'cliffhanger-ish', and that keeps my players coming back for more actually, since we play in a 'continuous' Universe, so their character's legacy/infamous deeds etc live on.

Hope that helped! =)