CAMPAIGN AND SESSION WRITING
Expectations
The only useful metric of a “good game” is entirely based on the expectations of the players. Players, and not the judge or anyone else, will define whether or not a game is good.
With that said, managing player expectations should be easy because they have, at this point, told you mostly everything that they expect. Between Step Zero and The Wheel, you should now know exactly what they want. If you choose to ignore this, you fall dangerously into ignoring what the players expect or want and that is almost invariably a bad idea.
The Pilot Episode
The session zero game, also called the pilot episode is a way to become immediately acquainted with your characters and game in a no pressure situation, much like the pilot episode of a television program. It doesn’t have to have any bearing on the continuity of the game, it’s just a safe place to try out voices, character concepts and all the other complex social variables you can’t predict.
Keep the Pilot Episode simple. Follow the basic formula provided at the bottom of this page as well as in the character creation section here, and let players spend time exploring their characters. It will be a naturally short game but it’s designed to be completed with character creation in the same sit-down session.
Set the expectation that this is just a way to get a feel for what works or doesn't work and test it out. Continuity won't be followed and it is a good way to change things before the first session actually begins.
The Finite Campaign
You campaign should tell a story. It needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end. All good stories are finite in nature. Do not have a meandering game that tells random tales ad infinitum. Each episode, as well needs to follow this idea, telling a chapter within the campaign. Starting and ending at arbitrary points each session is bad storytelling and not very good at holding tension.
Three kinds of Episodes
While you can run anything and call it an “episode,” this is a classification used to generally understand how episodic story writing in television works. It is my recommended method for how to organize the kinds of stories you want to play and how often.
- Character Episodes - these highlight a characters past. It is the “unfinished business” of that character coming back to haunt them. Character episodes are usually based on the RIM or ROAD aspects of The Wheel. Draw heavily on information from these parts of character creation to create a story.
- Main Story Episodes - These progress the main story arch of the campaign and lead characters closer to solving the major threats, mysteries and enemies the constitute the campaign’s challenges.
- Side Story Episodes - These episodes are self contained stories that are resolved within themselves. They may indirectly affect the major campaign, but are mainly about the characters solving a new issue within a self contained area of the game.
Basic Adventure Formula
The basic adventure follows a very simple formula that can be used to create a sleek episode quickly without too much drag in the gameplay. There are three elements. The Hook, the Upset, and the Climax. This formula is best used when you don't have a lot of time to plan a game and need to come up with some basic story beats suddenly.
- The Hook
- This is the fundamental reason for the players to get involved. It is not necessarily the problem, but sometimes the symptoms of the problem.
- Some Examples
- The hub is threatened in anyway.
- You are in desperate need of something to survive (food, water, shelter) and it's in short supply.
- A player or someone the player knows needs help, take reference from the Spokes, Rim or Road.
- The Upset
- A simple game has at least one upset. But multiple upsets can be stacked on top of each other to increase the game time and up the pressure.
- Some Examples
- The players don't know what is causing the problem directly and must investigate.
- The solution is heavily guarded, you will either need to work around or fight through.
- The solution, is known by someone that hates you.
- You cannot directly attack the problem, because socially they are much more powerful than you.
- The Climax
- The players are going to directly solve the major problem now. Either they bypassed all the previous upsets or handling them here. Sometimes combat, but legal tribunals, courts and heists are other forms of Climaxes.