(05-04-2016, 01:00 PM)Jaliqai Wrote: 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?
2.) Â What sort of pitfalls or common / easy mistakes would you guys warn against falling into?
3.) Â Conversely, what are the things that may not be obvious, but I should be doing anyway?
4.)  Any other tips, tricks, suggestions, warnings…?
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. Let the people who want to be involved, be involved. Do not force the people who aren't interested in being involved not be involved.
As others have said, the players who are invested in the plot are going to put more time and effort into it than the people who aren't. This is pretty much inevitable, and I can point to the last three storylines I've run as having an "arc" of player investment: First, when the plot was in its infancy, events would have a broad number of players as everybody signed up to test things out. As the storyline progressed, some players would sign up more frequently and take a greater IC and OOC investment in events, and others would drop out, until by the storyline's end it was the people who were most involved who saw things through to the end.
This is all pretty normal and expected. The important thing is to ensure that the players who don't participate are doing so because they choose not to do so, rather than because they feel like they are being excluded, intentionally or otherwise. Communicate with members who aren't involved or are only involved to limited degree to learn who you could incorporate.
2. To my dice-addled brain you've already fallen into one by going freeform. Grab sheets!
In all seriousness this will cause some difficulty because you will have a hard time convincing players of failure. Often players will have a pretty set-in-stone idea of their characters' chances of success at a given action, and having that contradicted without some sort of randomizer to determine success and failure can lead to arguments and frustration. Even if it's a simple /random check, it's useful.
Failing that, I think you can disregard some of the advice mentioned above like random encounters since they rely on tabletop conceits of having character sheets and measurable, expendable resources.
I would also suggest you be prepared to have your plot derailed. People will talk about this in terms of avoiding railroading, but really it means plotting out all reasonable possibilities in your plot and still being surprised when the characters defy them, then choosing to roll with the unexpected. You should be prepared to have your plot end in a very different direction than what you originally anticipated when players both succeed and fail in unexpected ways.
A useful way to construct a plot in this regard is not to think in terms of story arcs, but in terms of cause-and-effect. Give all parties goals and relative timetables, and figure out what happens if the cast doesn't interfere in some way. Use that to determine what happens if the players do alter things at a certain point, and change the goals of other characters accordingly.
3. Setoh already discussed the fail-forward philosophy, which I've used to great effect myself, so I won't repeat that here.
One thing you should think about is how characters handle consequences directly impacting them. The obvious example is character death, but really any significant harm to a character could be something a player didn't sign up for. Make sure that players are aware of the potential end results - so, for example, when one of my storyline events could easily result in character death, I would mark them as Lethal to ensure players knew the risks.*
4. Partition a specific amount of OOC time for yourself to handle questions and discussion from the players each week, or you will be getting them at all times during an ongoing storyline. Setting office hours like this was a huge boon to my sanity.
It's okay if there are lulls in the plot, especially if things proceed over a series of real-world months, and especially especially after a significant high point in the story. Just be sure to keep people aware of the storyline still-being ongoing and ready to go again once they've had time to recharge.Â
*They haven't lost a character yet to these lethal events, but one of these days. Oh, one of these days . . .
Verad Bellveil's Profile | The Case of the Ransacked Rug | Verad's Fate Sheet
Current Fate-14 Storyline:Â Merchant, Marine
Current Fate-14 Storyline:Â Merchant, Marine
