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?
First off, don't expect that you'll get everyone in the FC involved AND keep them the whole time. And don't make attendance mandatory -- you'll only risk getting resentful participants who will spend more time trying to find a way out. Â Which could include them giving their character a case of temporarily dead/kidnapped/not permanently terminally ill, which could hijack your story.
Most people, when being presented with the idea of being involved in the plot in the beginning, will jump for it. That typically isn't a problem, so don't sweat that part. It's getting people involved again that fell by the wayside (they missed a day when something important happened, they lost interest for a bit and are now interested again) or didn't have interest in the beginning (the dreaded OOC argument of "But this isn't something my character would be involved with!") but developed interest further down the line that you should consider. Locate and hold aside plot threads that won't kill the plot progression if they're not discovered/explored by the main group for the purpose of bringing in/bringing back people later in the story progression.
If you notice the plot starting to revolve around a select portion of your active participants, don't wait and hope that one of the others will step forward. This division (in my experience) tends to happen when you have a divide in participant's... capacity. Slower typers, maybe they're not logic'ing their way through the plot as fast as the growing 'super team' is. Assign stuff to these people that you might've just left for the group to possibly discover at random, and make it more personal than just "someone finds a journal from the missing person". Opt for a "In the morning, X will find a letter addressed to them in their mail -- it seems someone mailed the missing person's journal to X". Give them a few solo moments to shine. If they re-engage in a reasonable way, then it's just a case of they're a bit slower with their RP and you might want to consider tweaking some things so that they don't get left behind.
If they don't re-engage, then you're possibly dealing with someone who is... just actively spectating. Not much you can really do with someone like this. I have someone like this in my RP group, and it doesn't matter what we serve him on a silver platter, he does not engage (or if he does, he engages 30 minutes after we moved on after waiting 5 minutes for a response and not getting one, and as if the past half-hour of RP hadn't occurred). It is frustrating, but if after several attempts to get them to re-engage doesn't work, then stop wasting time on them and just accept them as a lurker.
2.) What sort of pitfalls or common / easy mistakes would you guys warn against falling into?
Pacing.
Holy crap, but pacing/timing is something that can so easily screw you up in a long-running, large-group RP. And unfortunately, the only way to avoid it is to know how to accurately read your group. There is a fine line between progressing too fast (and therefore making people feel rushed and unable to explore parts that they find interesting) and progressing too slowly (where people feel the plot is dragging and begin to look elsewhere).
Always have side-stuff prepared, in case people find a part that they want to stop and linger on, and (depending on the theme of your plot) don't be afraid to have these eventually become false leads/dead ends if following them doesn't suit your overall purpose. It is better to let the group deviate a bit from your itinerary and have fun and then rein them back in than it is to leave them thinking "Gee... that could've been interesting/fun/logical.".
Similarly, be prepared to cut/trim/condense/"It Happened" a plot point if it starts to bore people. Even if, in your mind, this plot point is SUPER IMPORTANT and you put a lot of time and effort into it. If your participants aren't having fun, you run the risk of them wandering off. Cut/condense/"It Happened" the material for now, consider it for reworking later.
3.) Conversely, what are the things that may not be obvious, but I should be doing anyway?
Periodic debriefings. Both IC and OOC. IC ones allow characters to get on the same IC page, discuss/explain things that others may have missed, and allows people who disengaged to re-engage and get ICly 'caught up' without a dreaded "Hey guys, what's up?" cropping up just as everyone's plotting on how to storm the fortress, or whatever. If you're not taking logs of the rest of the RP, you should take logs of any IC debriefings and post those up. OOC debriefings, these you should use to gauge how your pacing is, and how engaged people feel. Was there a really dizzying jump in logic that no-one really gets? Think of it as a progress report.
Second, is prepare for people to not follow your exact script. When I write even just a short plot, I write multiple paths that might be logically taken, so that my players might -not- manage to outsmart me and go off in a direction that I didn't plan. It doesn't always work (one person I RP with regularly, I'll plan five different paths and 50% of the time he'll come up with a sixth and I have to scramble to contain him cause he'll just keep going like a runaway train) and if your players are just not getting the hint, DO NOT BE AFRAID of using some horrible cliche/trope/whatever to stop them. I haven't had to do it yet, but I am not afraid of dropping a massive, dangerous storm or other natural disaster onto a group in order to stop them from running wild.
Actually, in general, don't be afraid of cliche and trope. The reason why many things become cliche and trope is... because they work. If a logical progression/train of thought/plot twist/conclusion to any aspect of what your planning suddenly feels cliche/trope-y, don't feel like you have to scramble to get out of that and find something totally unique. Embrace it. Do it -well-. We make fun of cliche and trope because so many people use them poorly. When cliche and trope is done well, most people won't even realize that that's what they're dealing with -- they're more kicking themselves in the butt for not realizing the obvious. Which can be EXTREMELY satisfying.
4.) Any other tips, tricks, suggestions, warnings…?
Don't be afraid to call and/or allow a break if you notice that people's attentions are starting to wane. When this happens, it's typically one of two things; they're bored, or they're starting to feel mental fatigue, both ICly and OOCly. If it's the former, a break lets you re-evaluate what you're doing and figure out where the problem is. If it's the latter, it lets both characters and players recharge. If they're up to their eyebrows in super-serious RP, a day of relative lightheartedness is occasionally needed.
Never leave a coded clue behind that, if decoded, negates all your plans for the group to run around and do stuff. I saw it happen once -- DM had the villain leave a coded letter behind along with a clue as to where the villain went. Most of the group just went with the clue and began a merry chase, which is what the DM wanted. But one person stayed behind to work on the coded letter, and because it wasn't a very sophisticated code, he managed to crack it ICly in a very short amount of time (like.. by the time he figured out where all the E's, T's, H's, A's, and I's were, he saw that all the letters were just shifted by a value of 10 or something) and solved the whole thing because it turned out there wasn't actually a villain and someone was just leaving and the 'clue' was their good-bye note.
Plan back-up villains/mini-bosses. Especially if you have a villain/boss who isn't a fighter. Years ago, a friend was DMing a long-term campaign for our circle of friends. The intro scene for the day's RP, me and the friend I was teamed with utterly botched our willpower rolls, our characters went into a feeding frenzy (we were playing Vampire the Masquerade), then we both rolled damn near perfect 10's and attacked an NPC. The DM then botched the NPC's rolls. As soon as the NPC hit the floor dead, the DM sighed, looked at us, and said "... Well. We need to break for an hour, now... the priest you two just steamrolled was today's boss and I gotta come up with a new plot."
Also.
Do not expect perfection.
Do not take it as a total disaster and think that you're an utter failure if you end up having to trash the plot after a couple weeks. There is a learning curve when it comes to these sorts of things. Keep it firmly in your mind while running this that you have never done this before. Keep it firmly in your FC's mind that this is your first time and that you are the first one to run one of these with this FC. There is no precedent for you to look back at that deals SOLELY with this group. You're breaking new ground for the FC, and no-one knows what is and isn't going to work for the FC until after your plot. Take it as a learning experience.
First off, don't expect that you'll get everyone in the FC involved AND keep them the whole time. And don't make attendance mandatory -- you'll only risk getting resentful participants who will spend more time trying to find a way out. Â Which could include them giving their character a case of temporarily dead/kidnapped/not permanently terminally ill, which could hijack your story.
Most people, when being presented with the idea of being involved in the plot in the beginning, will jump for it. That typically isn't a problem, so don't sweat that part. It's getting people involved again that fell by the wayside (they missed a day when something important happened, they lost interest for a bit and are now interested again) or didn't have interest in the beginning (the dreaded OOC argument of "But this isn't something my character would be involved with!") but developed interest further down the line that you should consider. Locate and hold aside plot threads that won't kill the plot progression if they're not discovered/explored by the main group for the purpose of bringing in/bringing back people later in the story progression.
If you notice the plot starting to revolve around a select portion of your active participants, don't wait and hope that one of the others will step forward. This division (in my experience) tends to happen when you have a divide in participant's... capacity. Slower typers, maybe they're not logic'ing their way through the plot as fast as the growing 'super team' is. Assign stuff to these people that you might've just left for the group to possibly discover at random, and make it more personal than just "someone finds a journal from the missing person". Opt for a "In the morning, X will find a letter addressed to them in their mail -- it seems someone mailed the missing person's journal to X". Give them a few solo moments to shine. If they re-engage in a reasonable way, then it's just a case of they're a bit slower with their RP and you might want to consider tweaking some things so that they don't get left behind.
If they don't re-engage, then you're possibly dealing with someone who is... just actively spectating. Not much you can really do with someone like this. I have someone like this in my RP group, and it doesn't matter what we serve him on a silver platter, he does not engage (or if he does, he engages 30 minutes after we moved on after waiting 5 minutes for a response and not getting one, and as if the past half-hour of RP hadn't occurred). It is frustrating, but if after several attempts to get them to re-engage doesn't work, then stop wasting time on them and just accept them as a lurker.
2.) What sort of pitfalls or common / easy mistakes would you guys warn against falling into?
Pacing.
Holy crap, but pacing/timing is something that can so easily screw you up in a long-running, large-group RP. And unfortunately, the only way to avoid it is to know how to accurately read your group. There is a fine line between progressing too fast (and therefore making people feel rushed and unable to explore parts that they find interesting) and progressing too slowly (where people feel the plot is dragging and begin to look elsewhere).
Always have side-stuff prepared, in case people find a part that they want to stop and linger on, and (depending on the theme of your plot) don't be afraid to have these eventually become false leads/dead ends if following them doesn't suit your overall purpose. It is better to let the group deviate a bit from your itinerary and have fun and then rein them back in than it is to leave them thinking "Gee... that could've been interesting/fun/logical.".
Similarly, be prepared to cut/trim/condense/"It Happened" a plot point if it starts to bore people. Even if, in your mind, this plot point is SUPER IMPORTANT and you put a lot of time and effort into it. If your participants aren't having fun, you run the risk of them wandering off. Cut/condense/"It Happened" the material for now, consider it for reworking later.
3.) Conversely, what are the things that may not be obvious, but I should be doing anyway?
Periodic debriefings. Both IC and OOC. IC ones allow characters to get on the same IC page, discuss/explain things that others may have missed, and allows people who disengaged to re-engage and get ICly 'caught up' without a dreaded "Hey guys, what's up?" cropping up just as everyone's plotting on how to storm the fortress, or whatever. If you're not taking logs of the rest of the RP, you should take logs of any IC debriefings and post those up. OOC debriefings, these you should use to gauge how your pacing is, and how engaged people feel. Was there a really dizzying jump in logic that no-one really gets? Think of it as a progress report.
Second, is prepare for people to not follow your exact script. When I write even just a short plot, I write multiple paths that might be logically taken, so that my players might -not- manage to outsmart me and go off in a direction that I didn't plan. It doesn't always work (one person I RP with regularly, I'll plan five different paths and 50% of the time he'll come up with a sixth and I have to scramble to contain him cause he'll just keep going like a runaway train) and if your players are just not getting the hint, DO NOT BE AFRAID of using some horrible cliche/trope/whatever to stop them. I haven't had to do it yet, but I am not afraid of dropping a massive, dangerous storm or other natural disaster onto a group in order to stop them from running wild.
Actually, in general, don't be afraid of cliche and trope. The reason why many things become cliche and trope is... because they work. If a logical progression/train of thought/plot twist/conclusion to any aspect of what your planning suddenly feels cliche/trope-y, don't feel like you have to scramble to get out of that and find something totally unique. Embrace it. Do it -well-. We make fun of cliche and trope because so many people use them poorly. When cliche and trope is done well, most people won't even realize that that's what they're dealing with -- they're more kicking themselves in the butt for not realizing the obvious. Which can be EXTREMELY satisfying.
4.) Any other tips, tricks, suggestions, warnings…?
Don't be afraid to call and/or allow a break if you notice that people's attentions are starting to wane. When this happens, it's typically one of two things; they're bored, or they're starting to feel mental fatigue, both ICly and OOCly. If it's the former, a break lets you re-evaluate what you're doing and figure out where the problem is. If it's the latter, it lets both characters and players recharge. If they're up to their eyebrows in super-serious RP, a day of relative lightheartedness is occasionally needed.
Never leave a coded clue behind that, if decoded, negates all your plans for the group to run around and do stuff. I saw it happen once -- DM had the villain leave a coded letter behind along with a clue as to where the villain went. Most of the group just went with the clue and began a merry chase, which is what the DM wanted. But one person stayed behind to work on the coded letter, and because it wasn't a very sophisticated code, he managed to crack it ICly in a very short amount of time (like.. by the time he figured out where all the E's, T's, H's, A's, and I's were, he saw that all the letters were just shifted by a value of 10 or something) and solved the whole thing because it turned out there wasn't actually a villain and someone was just leaving and the 'clue' was their good-bye note.
Plan back-up villains/mini-bosses. Especially if you have a villain/boss who isn't a fighter. Years ago, a friend was DMing a long-term campaign for our circle of friends. The intro scene for the day's RP, me and the friend I was teamed with utterly botched our willpower rolls, our characters went into a feeding frenzy (we were playing Vampire the Masquerade), then we both rolled damn near perfect 10's and attacked an NPC. The DM then botched the NPC's rolls. As soon as the NPC hit the floor dead, the DM sighed, looked at us, and said "... Well. We need to break for an hour, now... the priest you two just steamrolled was today's boss and I gotta come up with a new plot."
Also.
Do not expect perfection.
Do not take it as a total disaster and think that you're an utter failure if you end up having to trash the plot after a couple weeks. There is a learning curve when it comes to these sorts of things. Keep it firmly in your mind while running this that you have never done this before. Keep it firmly in your FC's mind that this is your first time and that you are the first one to run one of these with this FC. There is no precedent for you to look back at that deals SOLELY with this group. You're breaking new ground for the FC, and no-one knows what is and isn't going to work for the FC until after your plot. Take it as a learning experience.
