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.

Flashback

Framing Mechanic for One-Shot Tragic RPGs
Written by Josh Jordan
Edited by Levi Kornelsen

What is It?
Flashback is a method for framing tragic stories, for playing out one-shot and short-run character arcs that end with death… but without player removal, and without “chopping off” a game at some unsatisfactory point. The question here is: What if the first thing you did for your character was to narrate a spectacular death scene? The GM and players play out the story one scene at a time, but scenes are played in reverse order. The story plays out with each character needing five scenes (and characters may well share some or all of their scenes, depending on their setup), beginning with the end, in which characters most likely die or go insane. This was designed with horror in mind, but could work for any tragic storyline.

Setting It Up
In addition to whatever regular character stuff is needed (in general, this should be very little - Flashback  works best with extremely light rules systems or even none at all), every player should make a list with the following five items; some of them, they’ll flesh out at creation; others, they’ll discover in play.

• Desire: At creation, the player will note here a sentence or two about some item or goal their character wants, but which is dangerous to pursue. This desire should be tempting enough to encourage the character to make some bad choices.
• Dream: This is left blank at creation. During play, a note on how the character made early progress toward their goal will be placed here.
• Curse: This is left blank at creation. During play, a note on “compromise and near success” will be placed here.
• Doom: This is left blank at creation. During play, a note on “the low point” of the storyline will be placed here after than scene is played out.
• End: As the end of the creation process, a scene will be played out showing (but not fully explaining) the tragic end of the character, and notes on that will go here.

The Chain of Events
Use the following to guide you as you go into the five scenes. Start with scene 5: Death Wish, and move back from there. The list below shows is how the story would look if it were run in chronological order:

1. Desire: The character feels empty and incomplete. He hopes for some dangerous item or goal, which he believes will fulfill him and make life worthwhile.
2. Dream: As the character pursues his desire, he experiences major progress. It seems for a moment that nothing can stop him from attaining his goal.
3. Curse: Little mistakes and bad luck begin to catch up with the character. To prevent failure and to fight off his opponents, the character must make some painful or morally compromising choices.
4. Doom: The character begins to despair. It seems that his chances for success are almost gone, and the people around him are paying the price for his bad choices.
5. Death Wish: As a result of fate, his opponents, or his own choices, the character meets his tragic end.

The Nature of Conflicts
A game run in this fashion completely inverts one of the regular assumptions about roleplaying games. In play, the point of descriptions and actions is not to determine what happens next - you already know that - but, instead, how it came to pass, and what that says about the characters. This means that if there is a conflict of some kind, that conflict can, absolutely, contribute to the story - if the character was driven to the maddening sight of the diabolical beast out of fear of the things in the sewers, that’s not the same outcome as if they went there in full knowledge of their doom in order to hold it back long enough for someone else to plant the explosives that would seal it underground.

What Must Be Left Unknown
Given that conflicts and challenges work in this way, it means that a single hard rule should be kept in mind - you can’t explain how the characters got to the start of the scene that they're in. That’s something that will be figured out in the next scene to be played out.

The Scene Frames
What this results in is a game where each scene except for the last one played starts with a general overview (from the list of five steps), in conditions that are not explained, and that the scene doesn’t end until it can naturally lead to the last scene that was played. Explaining why the current scene started as it did? That’s the job of the next scene you play out. And remember, there should be several possible ways to get from the start of the scene to the end, so there’s room to make decisions and have conflicts over the “how”.

Foreshadowing
Since everyone already knows “what happens next”, everyone can drop little hints about it, and the GM can drop in odd obstacles when starting a scene. If the squarejawed hero is in the sewers with the spunky reporter, and we all know that the spunky reporter isn’t in the next scene… Then it needs to be determined just why that’s the case. Players can (and should) have a vision of how they’d like to solve these things, which they can reference and attempt, and the GM can (and should) challenge them.

Flashbacks
While the total contents of the next scene to be played (which is the previous one chronologically) must remain unknown, the GM can drop small hints. If the spunky reporter that has to be gone before the next scene is cursing that “bastard weasel of a shopkeeper”, that’s a hint of what came before - and, thus, of what will be played out next. The GM should be wary of overdoing this; a little goes a long ways.

I Speak A Little

A modular mini-game for foreign languages in RPGs

Description:

Two or more characters in the scene wish to have a conversation, but they do not share fluency in a single language. Perhaps one has studied the language of another. Perhaps both have studied, but have not mastered, a third language. This mini-game attempts to emulate (without any dice rolling), the limited communication that follows. Note: we assume that players are actually speaking the same language, e.g. English, but their characters are trying to have a conversation in game.)

What you need:

At least Two Characters

At Least Two Players

Pencil and Paper

How to Play I Speak a Little:

First, determine on a scale of 1-10 how skilled each character is at the language in which they will attempt to communicate. For example, player one, Ness, is playing Willis, who is fluent in Common, so Willis is a 10. Player two, Steven, is playing, Orknaught, who understands some Common, so Orknaught is a 5. Player three, Kris, is playing,Iluvriel, who knows very little Common, so Iluvriel is a 2. Now, for each character, consult the chart below:

How Much is a Little?

1. Pick 10 one- or two-syllable words. Write these words down. These are the only words you know in Common. Your sentences can be up to two words long. Good luck.
2. Pick 20 one- or two-syllable words.  Write these words down. These are the only words you know in Common. Your sentences can be up to three words long
3. Your vocabulary is still poor. You know all one- and two-syllable words in Common, except those that in English, use the letters D, U, C, H, or Y. If a word uses one of these five letters, your character doesn’t understand it. Your sentences can be up to four words long.
4. Your vocabulary is okay. You know all one- and two-syllable words in Common, except those that in English, use the letters U, C, H, or Y. If a word uses one of these five letters, your character doesn’t understand it. Your sentences can be up to four words long.
5. Your vocabulary is decent. You know all one- and two-syllable words in Common, except those that in English, use the letters C, H, or Y. If a word uses one of these five letters, your character doesn’t understand it. Your sentences can be up to five words long.
6. Your vocabulary is good. As long as a word has three syllables or less, you know it, except those that in English, use the letters C or Y. If a word uses one of these five letters, your character doesn’t understand it. Your sentences can be up to five words long.
7. As long as a word has three syllables or less, you know it. Your sentences can be, at most, six words long. Pick two letters, you often switch these letters in the middle of words.
8. As long as a word has five syllables or less, you know it. Your sentences can be, at most, seven words long. Pick two letters, you often switch these letters in the middle of words.
9. Your character often misunderstands figures of speech, but otherwise has good understanding. Phrases like, “put your foot in your mouth,” or “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” seem to confuse your character. He may use his own figures of speech.
10. You are fluent in this language. Your character is as good at this language as you are at English.

So in our example, Ness would play Willis like a normal speaker. Whenever Orknaught speaks, Steven must limit himself to using one or two syllable words, and do his best to avoid words with the letters C, H, and Y. Steven must also use sentences with five or less words. Kris on the other hand must stick to the list of twenty words she has written down.

Note: Some people might find it difficult to self edit quite this much. If these limitations slow conversation down too much, try this alternate list of 1-10.

Alternate List:

1. Pick ten one-syllable words. Write these down. They are the only words you know. Your sentences are one word long.
2. Pick twenty-one syllable words. Write these down. They are the only words you know. Your sentences are at most one word long.
3. Pick twenty-one syllable words and ten-two syllable words. They are the only words you know. Your sentences are at most two words long.
4. You know all one syllable words and twenty two-syllable words. Write down these two-syllable words. Your sentences are at most two words long.
5. You know all one- and two-syllable words. Your sentences are at most two words long.
6. You know all words with three syllables or less. Your sentences are at most three words long.
7. You know all words with four syllables or less. Your sentences are at most four words long.
8. You know all words with five syllables or less. Your sentences are at most five words long.
9. You know all words with six syllables or less. Your sentences are at most five words long.
10. You are fluent in this language. Your character is as good at this language as you are at English.

Publish Post

Salt and Light Sermon

I originally preached this sermon on Matthew 5:13-16 at Battle Ground, Indiana in the spring of 2010.

Thank you all for the chance to be here this morning. It is a great privilege to share with you from God’s message. My wife and I are excited to be here, and I’m thrilled to be able to speak to you all for a few minutes. Would you pray with me?

Holy Father in heaven, unimaginably perfect and just, we come before you by means of the access you have granted followers of your son Jesus, and we ask for you to watch over us this morning. We pray for protection for our loved ones who are not here this morning, and we pray for clarity and accuracy in my speech. I ask that your Holy Spirit would unplug our ears for the next few minutes so that we might commit ourselves to understanding and obeying your life changing words to us. We thank you in advance for the work you will do in us this morning. We pray these things by the power of your Holy Spirit within us and through the name of Jesus Christ who died to make us right with you. Amen.

If you ask for a piece of candy, you will not get one. If I give you a reward, like a piece of candy, say thank you, or I might take it back. If any of you uses the electric pencil sharpener while I’m talking (grinding noise), everyone else will point at you until you figure out you need to stop.

A day or two into each school year, my wife covers the standards of behavior in her classroom after she introduces herself, meets the students, and takes down their emergency contact info. These standards let the students know how they are expected to behave while they are members of the classroom. They learn things like, “If you call me hey, or teacher, or Miss, I will ignore you. If you call me Mrs. Jordan, I will be happy to help you.” It’s normal for a teacher to have rules for their students. It should come as no surprise that Jesus, early in his ministry, only five chapters into the New Testament, laid out a set of standards for his students. He taught the disciples how members of God’s kingdom were expected to behave.

This lesson by Jesus is called the Sermon on the Mount. You can find it beginning in the fifth chapter of Matthew. Today we will be looking at one part of this lesson, this set of standards, in order to answer the question what does a good member of God’s kingdom look like. More specifically, since I am a church planter, we are going to try to answer the question how does a good member of God’s kingdom behave toward outsiders, toward unchurched people. We find our answer in Matthew chapter five beginning in verse 13.

As you turn to Matthew chapter 5 verse 13, I want you to picture the setting of this sermon. Jesus is sitting on the side of a mountain with his disciples, whom he just recently called. In the background is a huge crowd of people, from all over Israel and beyond, who have heard that there is a new preacher, this Jesus guy, who can heal sick people and paralyzed people and even demon-possessed people. As Jesus is speaking to the disciples about the standard of behavior for members in the kingdom of God, a curious crowd of outsiders is listening just a stone’s throw away. This teacher Jesus, whom we follow, came with the power to heal, the power to forgive us of sin, so when he tells us how to behave, we better listen. I pray that you would join me this morning in learning a little more about what Jesus expects of us as his disciples.

In this passage Jesus uses two metaphors. First he uses a metaphor to teach what a good disciple is, then he uses another metaphor to describe what that looks like to outsiders. Let’s look at the first metaphor. Verse 13:

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

The first metaphor that Jesus uses is that the disciples are salt of the earth. He goes on to explain that salt without saltiness is useless. What is salt without saltiness? Jesus is talking about one of two things here. Jesus may be talking about an inferior kind of crystal that was mined from the ground in Middle East. This crystal could be used as salt, because it contained some sodium chloride, or table salt, but it was easily drained of its sodium chloride, its table salt whenever it got wet. The other possibility is that Jesus is referring to a joke.  Later Jewish rabbis, after Jesus, recorded a joke about salt without saltiness. We’re not sure how old the joke is, but it’s possible that’s what Jesus is hinting at. The joke goes, to fix salt without saltiness, all you have to do is rub it with the blood of a mule’s baby. The punch line is that there is no such thing as a mule’s baby. Mules are sterile. So presumably, there’s no such thing as salt without saltiness. Hilarious, right. Well, sometimes jokes don’t translate well from one country to another. The point is Jesus could be saying, there’s no such thing as unsalty salt, because why would God create such a thing? Either way, whether Jesus is referring to that impure mined crystal or the mule joke, Jesus tells his disciples that salt without saltiness is useless. It’s pointless, it’s garbage. If you had some, you would throw it out. God created salt to be useful. Therefore the first metaphor Jesus uses tells us that the standard for members of the kingdom of God is that they be useful, that they do what God created them to do. If you are a disciple, you will do what God created you to do. And we know from Ephesians two that God created you to do good works. A good disciple will do some good works.

The only difference between us and the disciples in the original audience is that we stand on the other side of the cross. We understand that Jesus satisfied the Father’s standard of perfect good works for us. Now we aim for that high standard not in order to gain access to the kingdom of God, but in order to live as good members in that kingdom. In other words, like Paul tells us in Ephesians 2, we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus who died in our place, and now, having been saved, we must do good works which God created us to do.

Good salt is useful. Likewise, good members in God’s kingdom are useful. They serve God’s purpose. What does that look like? Doing good works is still a little vague. Is Jesus talking about the flavor of salt, its distinctiveness, or its preservative quality, its resistance to corruption? If members in the kingdom are useful like salt, what do their good works look like? What specifically is Jesus telling us to do here?

Let’s return to Matthew and read the second metaphor beginning in chapter 5 verse 14

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

The second metaphor that Jesus uses to explain God’s standard for our behavior is that the disciples are light. Jesus explains that light is not meant to be hidden. We put light in obvious, visible places so it can shine.

Besides, it’s hard to hide light. I tend to read before going to sleep at night, and I just bought myself a book light so I wouldn’t keep Anessa awake. I used to just use the lamp on my night stand, but I finally felt guilty enough watching her put a blanket over her head while she tried to fall asleep that I bought a little book light that clips onto the book I’m reading. But now I’m self conscious and I try to hold the book so the light doesn’t accidentally slip and blast her in the eyes. It’s hard to hide light. And except when I’m reading at night, I don’t want to hide light. I put it somewhere obvious where it will light up the whole room. Jesus tells us that God’s standard for members of his kingdom is that they do the same sort of thing. A useful member in God’s kingdom lets his good behavior shine. He lets his good behavior point people toward praising God. We could say that God’s standard is that we act as ambassadors of God, letting our behavior shine in full view of other people, so that they may praise God.

Being a visible ambassador of God, shining a light that people can see, means more than doing good works inside the walls of your church and your house. We must be visible, obvious to outsiders. After all, ambassadors live in foreign countries. We must seek out non-Christians and show them love that can only come from God. This could mean babysitting for a single mom, donating emergency supplies to victims of a fire, or participating in a church plant. I’m not talking about doing good deeds and forgetting about the gospel of salvation in Christ. I’m saying that rubbing elbows with non-Christians and meeting their needs is an important part of earning their trust. And as you’re sharing the gospel, and sharing what God has done for you, they are more likely to listen to you if you’re an unusually kind person. We see this in the life of Jesus, in how people whom he healed always listen to his preaching, whereas the religious types wouldn’t even touch sinners, let alone befriend them enough to lead them to God. And we see it again here in the Sermon on the Mount. King Jesus teaches us that members of his kingdom must let their good works shine so that others will praise God.

Be a visible ambassador of God. Be useful to God by being an ambassador of his kingdom. This means living a self-sacrificing life like Jesus. God calls us to live so kindly, generously and sacrificially that our good behavior points people toward God. Are you a person who is habitually kind and generous to outsiders and outcasts, to dirty people? Jesus was kind like that, and people, all kinds of people, flocked to him. When was the last time you had a non-Christian over to your house? Do the non-Christians around you have any idea by your behavior toward them that you have good news from God? Can they tell by your kindness that you have something that they want?

Now everybody is different, so when I tell you to build relationships of supernatural kindness with non-Christians, some of you already have great ideas about how to start doing that. But in case you’re a more process-oriented type thinker, let me give you four ways you might start. I suggest you do all four whenever you build a relationship with an unchurched person. As you’re doing these four steps, you will have a chance to share the gospel, and you will probably have to share it more than once before someone trusts Christ. But here are the four steps that I would use, write these down:

• First, “G” give a gift. You could buy them lunch, make them some cookies, or bring them veggies from your garden. If you’re an artist or a craftsman, you could bring them something that you’ve made. It doesn’t have to be a huge gift. Most of us could take someone out to lunch occasionally. I can tell you personally, it is hard for me to dislike anyone who feeds me. Give a gift.
• Second, “I” invite them to a party. This could be some fun church event, or a game night, a concert, a movie night. Maybe you could combine step one and step two and invite them over for a BBQ. Invite them to a party.
• Third, “F” fill one of their visible needs. This depends on what they need. Maybe you could offer to babysit for them, or fix their car. You could help with their yard (as long as you aren’t the rude guy who mows his neighbor’s yard just because he hates how it looks). Maybe you can help them set up their computer. Find some need that they have, and offer to fill it for them. No strings attached. Fill one of their visible needs.
• Fourth, “T” tell them how God has filled one of your invisible needs. You could talk about the relief from guilt you’ve felt since becoming a Christian, or maybe the friendships you’ve made at church. Maybe God has given you new hope for the future or wisdom to deal with frustrating people. Tell them how God has filled one of your invisible needs.

These four steps, GIFT, in whatever order that you do them, will cause your light to shine. They are one process you might follow for being a visible ambassador of God, so that your good works will point people toward God, even as we continue to share with them the gospel message.

Whether or not a student obeys the standards my wife sets out in her classroom, they are still a student. She still lets them into the classroom every school day. But if they want to be good students, if they want to pass the class, and grow in their education, they must follow the teacher’s standards. If you have put your trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I’m not telling you to live up to Jesus’ standard out of fear for your salvation. I’m telling you that if you don’t strive toward that standard, you won’t grow, you won’t be a good Christian, and honestly your life here on earth will be useless and pointless. There’s a reason that God has kept you safe from death all these years. He has stuff for you to do and people for you to encourage. Be salt, be a useful member of his kingdom. And let your light shine, behave in such a way as to point outsiders toward God. Let your good deeds lead to unchurched people meeting and praising our Lord. Let’s pray.