Phew, and more questions about utilising the different topics

[meek75]

Originally Posted by rob

If the priest is involved in multiple plotlines, wouldn't there be links between the priest and all those locations and plotlines where he appears? It sounds like you might not have as much linking going on as you need to weave everything together. In Realm Works, everything hinges on linking things together.

There are two very convenient ways to handle "secondary containment". The first is to use relationships to associate the priest to the different locations he can appear. Alternately, you can use Storyline topics. This situation is exactly why they exist. The purpose of the Storyline topic is a place to encapsulate all the core elements of that arc. You can reference all the locations and NPCs that are involved in the arc, providing you with a "hub" for everything pertaining to the arc. Since the Storyline references everything it needs, you can just keep it open in a tab and open links in a new tab. If you are viewing content referenced by the Storyline, you are also only two clicks away from anything else referenced, since one click will take you to the linked Storyline and another to whatever you're seeking. If you use the Content Links list in the Transitions Pane at the right for this, the links are all summarized conveniently for you.

Hope this helps!

P.S. The post that @pjrichert just made is an excellent example of exactly this approach! I got ninja'd!

That's two suggestions that I look at the storyboards again. I am opening RW up and giving it another look right now. I'll let you know how it goes

[rob]

Originally Posted by meek75

That's two suggestions that I look at the storyboards again. I am opening RW up and giving it another look right now. I'll let you know how it goes

My suggestion centered on using TOPICS based on the "Storyline" category, while the alternate suggestion used Plots within the Storyboard. Both work equally for the same general purpose, which is why I cited it as an example of what I was outlining. I apologize for not drawing that important distinction above.

I can understand if you don't like the way plots work. They definitely aren't YET as powerful and flexible as other tools that are specifically designed for that one purpose. However, if you keep your plots reasonably small and use sub-plots instead of complex plots, they work pretty well.

The use of a Storyline TOPIC provides much of the same benefits as plots, with the notable exception of the visual element. It provides you with a navigation "hub" for a story arc, and it's ideal for users who either prefer topics in general (the non-visual types) or who find the current support for plots insufficient for their needs (as a fallback solution).

Hope this helps!

[meek75]

Rob,

Thanks for the clarification. I did misunderstand you. I fit into the "visual" category I think, but I will take a look at the topics again for use as you suggest. I have been playing around with storyboards again though and am seeing some potential. I still would like to see a lot more functionality than is currently there, but I think I see what pjrichert is getting at in his post. My adventure is somewhat location based, so I created a storyboard that had all the villages locations in it. For each location I created a "Subplot" that showed all the plot lines it connected to. By creating a few levels of "subplot" I was able to create a pretty functional navigation hub to use. I think this will work much better when I next run the game. Being visual, I would love it if some of you would post some screen shots of how you organize with either topics or storyboards. I will post some of my own tomorrow. I am getting ready to leave my computer for the day Thanks for all the great advice.

[Acenoid]

Looking forwrd for some examples as well

[pjrichert]

Originally Posted by meek75

Thanks for the advice. I will play with the storyboard a bit more. I haven't used it as you suggest for a couple of reasons. I do, generally, love flow charts for game prep. However, my initial experience with RW flow chart tool was very disappointing. There are some really good free flowchart creators out there that far exceed RW abilities. Not being able to manually pull pieces of the flowchart around was a HUGE issue. The automatic placement of RW kept messing things up and looping things around in ways I didn't want. When the chart got even moderately large it really seemed to break down. Now, perhaps I gave up to soon on that feature. Have you used this method in a game session and found it helpful? My other big complaint was that the descriptions I put in my plot line don't auto-link and I am limited to one connection per element. I found that very limiting and frustrating. I am hoping that the story boards improve as RW get upgraded, but as they stand now I judged them very poor. However, if they work for you I'll go give them another chance. I have been known to throw the baby out with the bathwater on occasion.

You might try using it so you have a number of storyboards. The first one is just a skeleton giving a really rough idea of where the party may go. Make each step in that storyboard link to another, so when you click on it, it'll open up a more specific storyboard that details just that step. You can keep "drilling down" to more and more granular levels, depending on how detailed you want to get. That approach works pretty well for me.

Also, at some point in the storyboard for each more detailed level, I'll have the link back to the broader level. So I may have the Duke ask the players to do something with 3-4 choices. Rather than trying to put all those paths on the one storyboard, I'll do something like having a link from "work for the Duke to find stolen goods" to the sub-storyboard that shows all the steps in that quest. Then at the end of the sub-board, I'll set a link that takes me back to the main storyboard to follow it to whatever direction they choose to go.

It makes for a lot more boards, but if you link them to and from the adventures it keeps it pretty orgainized, and the main board stays fairly neat, without a whole lot of spaghetti mess to follow.

If you follow shows like Burn Notice, Justified, or even Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you can see kind of how my mindset works. A "season" will have an overall arc, ie Burn Notice season 1 - figure out who burned Michael. That would be the main storyboard with the steps needed to figure it out. Each of those steps would be an episode of the show, in the case of Burn Notice, all the stuff that Michael and Crew do to help out others in need, while still working toward figuring out the "season" arc. Each Episode, which is a step in the "Season" arc gets its own storyboard, you could continue to go further with each event in each episode getting its own storyboard, depending on how many levels you want to get to. The episode then has some nugget in it that helps with the overall arc, Michael gets a file that gives him the identity of someone who helped burn him. That step in the "Episode" storyboard links back to the "Season" Storyboard, and you can follow those paths to whatever step the PCs take next.

Hope that helps

[meek75]

This is still a work in progress, but here is where I'm heading.

The main plot hub is location based: http://screencast.com/t/EvadjBlYiL

Then each location links to the plot(s) discovered in that location. Here is an example of the linked storyboard for the Healer's Hut: http://screencast.com/t/WPcdGhtdGzzD

Some of the plots get fairly complected, but this gives me a way of jumping to the appropriate links. I think there is potential for the storyboards to become very powerful as RW grows.

[meek75]

I have spent some time continuing to think about organization for my game. I think I am beginning to see how I can use a combination of the storyboard organization pjrichert suggested and the topic organization rob suggested. Again, screen shots are the easiest way to show what I mean. I tend to create the storyboard and topic entries simultaneously as I go. Shot one is the location based story hub for the village of Bocsa. For my adventure loccations make a great way to organize. Most of the plotlines are tied to either a location or an NPC that is tied to a loaction. This won't work in all adventure designs, but its working in this one. Then each location links to a subplot that gives details for the plot. Shot two is an example of a plot line. This one is very simple, but I think it gives you the general idea. Then I link each part of the plots storyboard to a story topic that gives the details. Shot three is a shot of my topics for the current adventure I am building. It still has a long way to go before completion, but, again, gives you the idea.

Shot One: http://screencast.com/t/EkxUrMLrYEK

Shot Two: http://screencast.com/t/BnjZfFimBje

Shot Three: http://screencast.com/t/ceXKses3a

[Vargr]

Thanks for giving suggestions as to how you organize the things.

Very useful.

[pjrichert]

Meek,

Glad that seems to work for you . I do the same thing. Start writing out the plot in the storyboards, and then create my topics etc as I go along. Using links helps in not having to click tab to tab. I just wish they would let you link back to the storyboard item. Then you'd only need to click once, no matter where you were taken.