(05-04-2016, 01:00 PM)Jaliqai Wrote: Cross-posting this from my tumblr post, since I know there are quite a few people here who have or do currently run longterm plots for their FCs.
Gold & Glory is gearing up to get our first dedicated, longterm FC storyline going which will unfold over the course of multiple events spanning several weeks. And I’ll admit, while I've run a lot of our one-shot / short term events, I have no experience running larger, long-term storylines.
I’ve got the actual content of the plot more or less figured out, and I’m going to run this as largely free form (aka no extensive rolling or character sheets), but as for actually implementing and running it.. I’ve got some questions for people who have more experience!
<snipped questions>
Thank you guys so much for your help! I love my FC dearly and I really want to give them something fun and interesting like they deserve, so I’ll take all the help I can get to make that happen!
1.)  What’s the best way to get and keep everyone involved, so the plot doesn’t end up solely gravitating around one individual / group?
This will depend entirely on how many players are in your FC and how active those players are. Unfortunately, players who aren't active in their attendance are probably just going to feel left out, because as the plot progresses the only way they can keep "caught up on current events" is to do a bunch of log reading (more on that later). Arguably, if they have very limited time to play the game they probably also don't have time to read logs, and so you may simply not be able to please that group.
One approach to try with the low-activity members is to come up with some element of the plot which specifically involves their character's capabilities which it could be said (with their agreement) that the character is working on even when the character isn't around - this essentially lets you use the character in the background as an NPC during the plot. For example, let's say this low-activity member plays a character who is a plain and simple warrior type. It's plausible that as a part of the plot, that character could be asked to keep watch over the FC house and report on any unusual happenings. If the player agrees that this could be going on in the background even when the player isn't logged in, then as the GM of the plot, you now have the ability to later to use that as a plot hook. Perhaps you want to say as a part of the story that someone suspicious was skulking about, and got run off by your guard character. Yay, now they've participated! Sort of.
As for the active members, a rule-of-thumb used in tabletop games is that (depending on the GM's personal comfort) no more than 4-6 players (not including the GM) is ideal for keeping things moving in a given scene. Less than that and you may encounter significant gaps in the ability of the group to overcome problems; more than that and scenes may get bogged down. This may mean you'll need to run scenes that cycle in and out who is actually participating in a given scene, to avoid it always being the same group.
It's a good idea to consider using a "post order" for the plot scenes, so that everyone has an opportunity to chime in - otherwise your faster typers may end up bowling over the slower ones. This also makes it so your plot scene can be inclusive of players with social anxiety who may feel disinclined to just chime in randomly, but will be pleased to do so when they know it's their turn.
2.) Â What sort of pitfalls or common / easy mistakes would you guys warn against falling into?
This is personal opinion, but - if you've played tabletop, you're familiar with the concept of "Random Encounters", which is to say "battles with patrol enemies or wandering monsters while en route to deal with the actual issue at hand". Here's the problem with these even in tabletop - Most of the time, if the players are even remotely competent, they don't present any actual challenge or risk to the group. They exist primarily as a test of resource management - does the mage use up her allotment of magic spells on the way to the nasty boss enemy, or does she conserve them? Short of terrible luck, you almost never have a character become seriously injured or killed during a random encounter.
So my advice is, skip the attempt to create the illusion of false tension - it doesn't work anyway, and players often just end up feeling like they piddled the night away rolling dice against peasants. Let your heroic characters be heroic. If you encounter some mooks, don't bother breaking out your rolling system or doing some prolonged RP battle with back-and-forth, parry-and-thrust. Be heroic. Be Marvel. Just one shot those idiots. The warrior walks right up to that highwayman and gibs him in a single post.
This keeps the overall plot moving more quickly, while also lending an air of confidence to the group. Meanwhile, it also ramps up the gravity of the important encounters because suddenly, when they're fighting Squelror the Madmage, they aren't able to cleave him in twain with a single hefty blow. He deflects, he avoids, he endures and continues fighting, and suddenly the characters know - Squelror the Madmage is serious business. As he should seem, given that he's an important encounter.
3.) Â Conversely, what are the things that may not be obvious, but I should be doing anyway?
Delegate. If you have 15 active players to manage to keep involved in the plot, pick a couple of them that are your most active and reliable ones and get them involved as subordinate GMs. That means you'll have to divulge some aspects of the plot, but that's okay (as long as said players also have a proven IC/OOC boundary).Â
Delegation means that you could more easily manage the multiple scenes that will be needed in order to keep everyone active. Instead of you personally GMing three scenes with three different groups of five players (or maybe groups of six, with a little player-overlap), instead, it could be you and your two sub-GMs each running a group simultaneously in different locations of the setting.Â
This also means that if something happens with your RL and you need to step away from the game for a few days, you can leave the sub-GMs with a to-do list and the plot can keep going onward. You can also rely on them to help you generate between-the-scenes RP...
4.)  Any other tips, tricks, suggestions, warnings…?
In as much as plot RP can be fun, it's also good to have downtime RP in between the plot scenes. Space out the advancement of the plot and give characters a chance to rest ICly and reflect on what's happened so far. This can be great for stirring up tavern type activity, since suddenly the characters all have something to talk about which can motivate them for that slice-of-life time. Friendships can form, debates can occur, and most importantly the characters may come up with ideas for how to resolve the problem without needing to be railroaded...
Don't railroad. That's huge. Players like to feel like their contribution and their characters' input mattered. Leave the bread crumbs out, but let the characters other than your own be the ones to discover the crumbs, and let them decide what kind of sandwich it was. This may mean that as the GM you will need to tweak your intended route for the plot to take, because they might decide the sandwich (to continue the metaphor) was on Rye bread, when you'd intended it to be on Sourdough. Oops! Hey, oh well. Shift gears as the GM and let them explore the rye bread possibility, and maybe throw in a way so that it could lead to the same overall course of plot anyway. It's okay to have it be a dead-end and they have to realize it was sourdough, too - but don't do that too much, because players become frustrated if they always feel like they're getting it wrong. Sometimes even if they do get it wrong, it's better to just adjust the course of the plot so that their wrong conclusion is actually now the correct one.
Lastly, keep logs of the plot scenes and post them on your FC's website so that members who want to keep up on the story can do so. It's also very helpful, as a preface to each log, to write up a quick summary - that way players who just want the meat of the story can read the summary, but those who want to read the entire scene can do so if they want to. Unfortunately, as far as I'm aware there's no easy way to just click a button and have FF14 dump a log into a text file. Someone in the scene is going to have to be copying the posts to Notepad or something, all throughout the scene... tedious. But a necessary tedium if you want to avoid having half a dozen players constantly asking you "So what happened in the scene last night?!"
Lydia Lightfoot ~ The Reliquarian's Guild «Relic» ~ Lavender Beds, Ward 12, #41
This player has a sense of humor. If the content of the post suggests otherwise, please err on the side of amusement and friendship, because that's almost certainly the intent. We're all on the same team: Team Roleplayer! Have a smile, have a chuckle, and have a slice of pie. Isn't pie great?
This player has a sense of humor. If the content of the post suggests otherwise, please err on the side of amusement and friendship, because that's almost certainly the intent. We're all on the same team: Team Roleplayer! Have a smile, have a chuckle, and have a slice of pie. Isn't pie great?
