Plot concept

[dpenwood]

Hello! I'm having a hard time with Plots and Sub-Plots in RW. The tutorial videos are marginally helpful in that they tell you how to create Plots, but they don't really go into WHAT they are in the context of RW. Written documentation is non-existent (please correct me if I'm wrong).

I'm unsure what the difference is between a "Plot Group" vs. a "Plot with several Plot Points" vs. "Plot Points with a Sub-Plot"

I"m hoping someone can help me out there. Here's a scenario for my Rifts campaign:

Party gets a quest: they must deliver an artifact to a wizard in a far-off city. En route to the city, there are a handful of encounters. Once in the city, several new plots begin, while another one spins off the original quest.

I created a Plot called "Travel to far-away city". I then have plot-points underneath that called "Encounter with mysterious rider", "Introduction to the city's guild", and "Delivery of artifact".

The "Introduction to city's guild" can potentially spin-off into a whole different set of plots/plot points.

In RW terms, what would be the best approach to created my plot/plot points/sub-plots?

I hope my question makes sense. And if I did miss some good documentation, please point me in the right direction. The tutorial video wasn't very helpful.

Thanks!

 

[AEIOU]

I would setup the CATEGORIES with STORYLINE 1 and STORYLINE 2 as STORYLINEs so that I could create the subplots as SCENES.

Party gets a quest (BEGIN STORYLINE 1): they must deliver (STORYLINE 1 SCENE 1) an artifact to a wizard in a far-off city. En route to the city, there are a handful of encounters (STORYLINE 1 SCENE2)(STORYLINE 1 SCENE3)(STORYLINE 1 SCENE4). Once in the city, several new plots (BEGIN STORYLINE 2)begin(STORYLINE 2 SCENE 1)(STORYLINE 2 SCENE 2)(STORYLINE 2 SCENE 3), while another one spins off the original quest (STORYLINE 1 SCENE).

Then I'd go to the Storyboard and link them as appropriate. Lots of ways to do it but this works for me. In the end, you end up with something like: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B38xJJAsUPYUeDJHa3BNVGNKQ1E/view?usp=sharing

 

[Seregil]

Hello! I'm having a hard time with Plots and Sub-Plots in RW. The tutorial videos are marginally helpful in that they tell you how to create Plots, but they don't really go into WHAT they are in the context of RW. Written documentation is non-existent (please correct me if I'm wrong).

I'm unsure what the difference is between a "Plot Group" vs. a "Plot with several Plot Points" vs. "Plot Points with a Sub-Plot"

I"m hoping someone can help me out there. Here's a scenario for my Rifts campaign:

Party gets a quest: they must deliver an artifact to a wizard in a far-off city. En route to the city, there are a handful of encounters. Once in the city, several new plots begin, while another one spins off the original quest.

I created a Plot called "Travel to far-away city". I then have plot-points underneath that called "Encounter with mysterious rider", "Introduction to the city's guild", and "Delivery of artifact".

The "Introduction to city's guild" can potentially spin-off into a whole different set of plots/plot points.

In RW terms, what would be the best approach to created my plot/plot points/sub-plots?

I hope my question makes sense. And if I did miss some good documentation, please point me in the right direction. The tutorial video wasn't very helpful.

Thanks!

While I haven't done it much, I think, plots should be used to map out the FLOW of a story. For example, you start with the high level flow of your story. Let's assume that the story flows in a linear fashion from point 1 to 3. Points 2 and three would be created by using the "Create a new plot point and connect to it" functionality.

In 3 the PCs learn they must travel to another city. They can get there by ship or by land. You plot line would now branch into 4A (Land) or 4B (Sea). 4A and 4B would be created the same way that the other points were BUT you would then select each one, right click and choose "Create a new sub-plot from selected plot points".

These sub-plots are now detailed in a separate plot line, representing the adventures DURING the trip. In your original plot line, 4A and 4B would then merge back into plot point 5 (Arrival in city X).

Now, each plot point should, IMO, link to an Incident, Quest or Scene, depending on what the plot point represents. All the Incidents, Quests and Scenes for a particular Plot should be grouped together in a a Storyline Container. Within the Storyline, I use the prefixes to order the Incidents, Quests and Scenes into the correct order (1,2,3,4A,4B etc)

Your plots CAN be grouped together in Plot Groups to keep them organized. I currently have two plot groups: Completed and Not Completed. However, if my campaign becomes too complex, I might need to create new groups to keep many plots in a logical grouping: side-quests, main storyline, search for X whatever.

See attachments:
1.png: Here is the overall plot line. I have only added one link to content 1:Exposition, which link to a scene where the plot begins. All the other plot point EXCEPT 4A and 4B would have the same thing: a link to a scene, incident or quest.
4A.png : Here is the subplot. It's a subplot to keep the main plot line uncluttered. I decided there are two ways to travel, with a different encounter each way. Notice that the last plot point link to another plot. In fact, it links BACK to the main plot line permitting me to click and follow the plot ploint back to the main plot.
4B.png: Here is the travel by sea plot with an attack by pirates. Again, I have not linked to any scnes, incidents or quest but I would eventually. Also, notice that there is a sub-plot named Pirates. What happens if the groups LOSES when they are attacked. They DON'T reach the city and it leads off to another plot line (not included)
Plot.png: This is the stroryline container for all the Quest, Incidents or Scenes that the Plot 1 plotline would have. I only have one but, as I have said, I would have one for each plot point. Notice I used the prefix (1). When you have many itens in a container, the prefix is there to order them in the order you want.

I hope this helps.

TLDR: Plots are the graphical representation of a story arc. Each plot point either leads to an Incident, Quest or Scene or to a subplot to add more detail to the plot point before reaching the Incident, Quest or Scene level.

 

[Viking2054]

Plot Groups could be used for all your plots tied to a location and not necessarily the main story arc of your campaign. You mention getting to the far off city and a bunch of other plots opening up to the adventurers. But it also sounded like only one was directly related to the main story arc. I would consider putting the unrelated plots into a plot group named after the city so you know they are tied to the city and not necessarily the main story.

 

[Acenoid]

I created many more plots and used the "loop friendly view" which looks in my opion much more appealing.

To know where to begin I add always one "green" & unlinked item with Start [condition] / or if there are several start points to one subplot several start items. The end items are always linked to the connected subplot / mainplot, so you have nice flowchart "of the current area".

Because I am using basically a "detailed" Plot view, I have added in addition to the scenes also important items/characters/places/other stuff to the plotline as "plot point", so it is possible to quickly see what was missed where if necessary.

If that did not make sense, I can post some images

 

[MNBlockHead]

Need help getting started with creating a simple adventure in Realm Works

I'm not finding this intuitive at all. I know that RW is very flexible, and I'm already finding it to be valuable as a database for information on locations and people in my campaign world, but I'm finding it a real pain to create an adventure in. In Master Plan, which is what I was using earlier, it was simple to map out an outline of your advanture in a flow chart, then click into each plot point and enter details, including separate areas for DM instructions and read-aloud text. Next you could add encouters, skill checks, etc. I was able to immediately start building adventures.

But Master Plan was sorely lacking in ways to build up NPCs, especially since I was not using D&D 4e, so I decided to give RW a go.

I really want to like Realm Works. It *seems* to do most everything I need, but I'm finding it very frustrating to build even the most simple adventure in the tool.

For example, this is how I built up a simple adventure in Master Plan. I would be very grateful is someone could step me through how to do something similar in Realm Works.

First, I build out the flow chart:

1. Entering Heavansring (mostly DM exposition of the hook, why and how the players got to Heavansring, what they learned about the village)

2. Checkpoint (could be an event for Entering Heavansring, but for convenience and to allow flexability for players that may want to walk around a bit before going to the tavern it is easier to use this a separate plot point.

3. Meeting at Gryphon Inn. Depending upon what happens here, the story flows to 4 or 5.

4. Escape from Jail (then go to 5)
5. Escape from Heavan's Ring. From here there a number of options, that will lead to 6, 7, or 8)

6. Journey to Almfjord
7. Journey to Ostohar
8. Journey to Kar Torum

The flow chart would look like:
http://www.evernote.com/l/AAPVSX2OtOBPM7dR5OI7Xc6odexbZu34BME/

In Realm Works, it looks like this:
http://www.evernote.com/l/AAOTz7JQPZRM_oPUvDNG4BquiNdTf3WS5Pg/

So far, so good. But it is when I try to flesh out the details that I get frustrated.

In Master Plan, I double click on a plot point and I enter my DM instructions, background info, and read-aloud text.Click here for screenshot.

I can also add details of challenge or combat encounters. See: Ckick here for screenshot.

Master Plan only supports 4e tough, so it is inconvenient to get useful stats for challenges entered and a adding NPCs is a pain, which I why I moved to Real Works.

Could someone tell me the appropriate way to do the same thing in RW?

 

[Parody]

The intended thing is to create a Topic or another Plot and link it to each Plot Point (using the Associated Content button or command in the context menu). The Plot Point's text should just be a short summary. Here's the start of me entering an adventure:



You can see that I've written a Scene (well, a "Scene (Paranoia)" as is my wont) for the briefing. Opening that up gives:



...and so on.

I'm still deciding how I want to set up the Realm Works Scenes, which is why I don't have a more interactive scene to show you. The text here is almost all boxed text copy-pasted straight from my notes, broken into snippets when I wanted GM Directions. Still, it gives you one idea of how you might manage it.

In some cases you'll have a lot of little steps. Since you can't flowchart very well in Realm Works you'll want to make Subplots, which are just a Plot linked to a Plot Point in another Plot. Here's my start on entering a "written" adventure:



I haven't entered the Scenes yet, but I have broken the adventure down into each chapter and scene. It's not identical to how I wrote it up in module form, but it's close.

Hopefully this gives you something to go on until/while others who have played with it more chime in. :)

Good luck!

 

[MNBlockHead]

Thank you, very helpful! After venting a bit on the forums last night, I went through the manuals again with a fresh mind and am starting to get a hang of the RW paradigm. Master Plan made it much more intuitive, but RW is much more powerful and flexible. Now that I'm starting to get the hang of it, I'm really appreciating how they set this up.

From you pictures, one thing I like is your use of GM instruction snippets. I wasn't sure how to use that. I've been putting all description, instructions, and read aloud text in a single snippet and formatting using the WYSIWYG tools. I think your method is much cleaner and would actually save time over formatting the text. I need to get into the habit of creating multiple snippets rather than putting everything in one text box.

For new users or potential buyers, I hope my whining doesn't put you off. It is a great program, but it takes time to figure out the best way for you to use it for your specific world and DM style. I'm finding the PDF files available from the help menu to be more useful that the demo videos.

Once you start understanding topics and using snippets, you start getting a lot of A HA moments on the power of the tools. Now that I've put in quite a bit of content and am starting to organize it better, the autolinking function is just rocking my world.