Plot Types Part Eight

Rebirth

This is the final basic plot type. In this plot type, the hero faces a powerful threat that eventually kills him (literally or figuratively). He endures this state of death until it seems that it has become permanent, but then, incredibly, he is reborn or revived. Some authors consider this to be the female equivalent of the male Epic Quest. (I don't buy that, but it does seem common to have a male hero on a quest.)

Examples: Sleeping Beauty, The Matrix

Stages

1. Awaking to Trouble

The immature hero falls under the influence of a malevolent threat.

2. Fighting For Normal

The hero’s life goes reasonably well, and the threat seems to have faded to the background.

3. The Sleep of Death

The threat asserts its power over the hero, so that the hero enters a living death.

4. Loss of Hope

This state continues until it seems that the power of the malevolent threat is completely victorious.

5. Kiss of Life

The hero is miraculously reborn or revived, often by an innocent character of the opposite gender. 

Plot Types Part Seven

Tragedy

The hero, who begins as part of the community, becomes increasingly separated from others, and in the process causes some others (and usually himself) to suffer.

Examples: Romeo and Juliet

Common Victims Include

A. The Nice Old Man

B. The Hero’s Rival

D. The Tempting Woman (who participates in the hero’s destructive path)

Stages

1. Dangerous Desire

The hero is incomplete/unsatisfied and hopes for some future unusual gratification. Some object/desire/plan appears, and his energies have found a focus

2. Dream

Hero becomes committed to his course of action, and for a while things go improbably well. He seems to be “getting away with it.”

3. Frustration

Things begin to go subtly wrong. The hero can’t rest, and may need to commit “darker acts” to ensure continued success. A shadowy figure may begin to threaten the hero.

4. Nightmare

Things are now slipping seriously out of the hero’s control. He feels threatened and despairs. Fate/opposition is closing in on him.

5. Destruction or Death Wish

Either the forces that the hero has aroused or his own final act of violence destroys him. 

Plot Types Part Six

Comedy

For those of you who remember your Shakespeare or your Greek history, you already know that comedies are not always funny.* A comedy is a story where the trouble starts strong early on, but eventually a happy ending is achieved. 
Examples: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Princess Bride
This plot type seems less like a neat line and more like a jigsaw puzzle. The story moves the heroes from some kind of division or darkness to wholeness or light. More concretely, the story builds on several conflicts that move the character from danger and disappointment toward happiness. The plot is a series of moments of “recognition” where any of the following may occur:

A. A dark or hard and unloving character experiences either a change of heart or punishment. Either way, the character will cause no more harm.

B. One or more characters reveal his identity, which had been previously concealed.**

C. Emotionally lost or incomplete characters identify and join up with their “other half.”

D. In general, separation is repaired and what was lost is found.

The happy ending cannot occur until all disguises are gone, and all characters are revealed for what they are.

Stages

1. People are confused, upset and separated.

2. The confusion grows until the climax of the story, when everyone is mixed up or messed up.

3. Suddenly the truth is revealed, so that people begin to perceive things in a different way. The situation is no longer gloomy, for the characters have been united.


*Anyone who has watched enough Will Ferrell movies can tell you that American comedies aren't always funny either.
** Once could certainly run a spy game that was essentially a comedy of mistaken identity.

Plot Types Part Five

Tale of a Voyage “There and Back”

Like the Epic Quest, the Tale of a Voyage involves the hero traveling great distances, but here it is the journey itself that is the focus of the story. The hero discovers a world very different from his own, so that when he finally returns home, his perception of his own life has changed.

Example: The Hobbit

Stages

1. Anticipation and “Fall” into the Other World

The hero and his companions stumble out of their familiar, limited existence into a strange new world unlike anything they’ve experienced before.

2. Initial fascination or Dream

Exploration of this new world may be exhilarating, though puzzling. However, it is never a place where the hero feels at home.

3. Frustration

Gradually the mood of the adventure shifts to one of frustration, difficulty, or oppression. A shadow begins to intrude, which becomes increasingly alarming.

4. Nightmare

The shadow becomes so dominating that it seems to pose a serious threat to the hero’s survival.

5. Thrilling Escape and Return

Just when the threat seems to be too much for the hero to bear, they make their escape from the other world back to where they started. The question posed at this point is, “how much has the hero learned/changed from the experience?” Has the hero been fundamentally changed, or was it all ‘just a dream?’

Plot Types Part Four

Epic Quest

The Epic Quest is the most well known plot type among gamers. The hero discovers a great evil, receives the call to stop it, and travels a great distance through harsh trials to meet his goal. (Perhaps one reason this story transfers well into a game is the ease with which it can incorporate allies for the hero. In fiction, this plot type is the one in which the main character is most likely to have traveling companions who are fully developed characters.)

Examples: The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars: A New Hope

Stages

1. The Call

Life in some “City of Destruction” has become oppressive, and the hero realizes only he can fix things by making a long, difficult journey. He is given supernatural/visionary direction toward his destination.

2. The Journey

Hero and his companions cross hostile terrain and overcome ordeals, each ending in a thrilling escape. Ordeals alternate with periods of rest and recovery, when hero receives help and advice.

3. Arrival and Frustration

Hero arrives at his goal, but sees a new and terrible series of ordeals/obstacle that must be overcome before he can secure his goal.

4. The Final Ordeals

The hero must go through a last series of tests (often 3) to prove he is worthy. This culminates in the last, great battle/ordeal that may be the most deadly.

5. The Goal

After a last thrilling escape, the hero wins the kingdom, princess, and/or treasure with an assurance of renewed life stretching indefinitely into the future.

Possible Ordeals:

1. Horrific monsters to be overcome

2. Temptations to be resisted

3. Need to travel between two deadly (but different) obstacles

4. Journey through the underworld (hero temporarily transcends the power of death and comes into contact with helpful guiding spirits from the past).

Plot Types Part Three

The next general story type in our series is the rags to riches story. I don't think I've ever seen this story play out in an RPG, but there's no reason it couldn't. Certainly many characters amass a great amount of loot over your typical dungeon crawl, but that is more a side effect of the exploration than a focus on the character's social status.

Tale of Tremendous Wealth

The humble young hero progresses from a state of obscure poverty to one of glory and riches, but not without trouble along the way.

Examples: Great Expectations, Aladdin

Stages

1. Initial wretchedness at home and the Call

Hero in lowly and unhappy state (at home) overshadowed by malevolent ‘dark’ figures around them, who scorn/maltreat them. Something causes the hero to be sent out into the world.

2. Out into the world, initial success

Hero is rewarded with first, limited success. May have first encounter with their Princess. Incomplete victory makes clear they aren’t ready for their final state of fulfillment.

3. The Central Crisis

Everything suddenly goes wrong. Hero is separated from what has become most important to him. Hero overwhelmed with despair. Because of the rise and fall, this is the hero’s worst moment.

4. Independence & the Final Ordeal

As they emerge from the crisis, the hero discovers an internal strength in himself, which must be put to the test against a dark figure that stands between the hero and his goal. When the crisis is fully resolved, the hero is able to move ahead.

5. Final Union, completion and fulfillment

The hero’s reward is usually a complete loving union with the Princess. The hero may also gain rulership of some kind of “kingdom,” which isn’t fully explained, but is implied to continue indefinitely into the future.

Plot Types Part Two

The Monster Tale

A cruel, inconsiderate, nearly unstoppable monster threatens the hero or his community. In the end, the reader (and possibly the hero) learns the monster’s blind spot or vulnerability.

Examples: Beowulf, Labyrinth

Stages

1. Anticipation & The Call

The hero glimpses the monster’s destructive power, learn of its fearsome reputation and the threat it poses to the community. Hero experiences call to confront it.

2. Dream

As the hero prepares for battle, all seems to go reasonably well for a while. The danger is still comfortably remote.

3. Frustration

Hero comes face to face with monster. Hero seems tiny and alone, seems to be slipping into the monster’s power.

4. Nightmare

The nightmare battle/ordeal arrives in which all the odds seem loaded on the monster’s side. Nevertheless, at the climax the character's newfound knowledge of the monster causes the reversal.

5. Thrilling Escape from Death, and Death of the Monster

The monster is miraculously dealt a lethal blow just in time. The community is liberated. The hero emerges to enjoy the prize he has won from the monster’s grasp.

Plot Types Part One

This is the first in a series of posts on the various basic plot types. For each plot type, I plan to describe the five acts that make up that story.

Game Masters have always desired to entertain their players by telling a story through the game, but innovations in roleplaying over the past twenty years have encouraged groups to intentionally structure their games in order to tell a good story. Scene framing and campaign-planning techniques enable groups to increase their enjoyment of the game by increasing the coherence of the story they are telling.

Fiction authors use certain planning tools that can be co-opted by roleplayers as campaign planning or scene framing techniques. The most important is the concept of the archetypical plot type.¹ Perhaps you’ve heard it said that there are only one or two stories out there, and that people keep retelling the same stories with different characters. This is a rather melodramatic simplification, but fiction authors do recognize that there are a handful of plot skeletons upon which many stories are fleshed out. I would encourage Game Masters or groups to plan the story of their roleplaying game based upon one of the following seven types of story. 

After choosing one of the following plot types, consider using each of its stages either as a separate gaming session, or as a separate scene in one longer gaming session. For example, if your group chose to model its campaign after the Monster Tale, perhaps your first gaming session, after making characters, would cover the stage “Anticipation & the Call.” Your next session would cover the “Dream” stage and so on. Your entire Monster Tale campaign would last roughly five sessions.

¹ This list is based upon Christopher Booker’s very helpful book The Seven Basic Plots.

The Secret Language of the Forest Moles

Check out Matthew Neagley's recent Gnome Stew post, The Secret Language of the Forest Moles, for a helpful reminder of how language can add a sense of wonder and mystery to your game. I particularly like the idea of a language that is secretly an alien virus. Perhaps the language overwrites your ability to speak certain words. Perhaps it is painful to speak. Or maybe speaking it slowly transforms you physically into another species.