Oct 14th, 2020
I took a short break over the last two weeks, but I am back now. I will be lowering the frequency of my articles as one every two days was always going to be unsustainable. Now that I have a good base of articles for all of you out there to read, I think one or two a week might be a better idea moving forward.
Now, on with the article.
***
So, you want to run a campaign, but what is the campaign about? Why would anyone want to play it? These questions are the cause of a great deal of trepidation and uncertainty in both new and old storytellers. These questions cause writer's block more than any other.
It is not a simple task to assist someone in coming up with an idea, so instead of that, I'm going to set out a few questions for any of you to ask yourselves to help spur something in that grey matter you got there. I will also ramble about some definitions of things, brace yourselves.
***
Every story deals with three things primarily: people, places, and things. A thing can be a philosophical concept or a coffee cup; a place can be a restaurant or a state of mind; and people can be a lone survivor or a fan club. Even simplifying things down to three options has already failed, but let's just push on.
People (or person - who?) -> this is an entity that can make choices. Sentience is highly likely though not recommended. An automaton can be a person in this regard if it has been programmed to accomplish a task or simply perform an action. The memory of a person can also act as a person, many actions and events have taken place in real life and in fantasy fiction because of memories.
Thing (or things - what?) -> typically, by 'thing' I mean an item incapable of making its own decisions. The body of an ancient evil king is a thing, but a thing that can become a person again through foul necromancy. The wooden bowl used by a simple peasant for scooping porridge in the morning is a thing; the poverty that peasant finds themselves in is also a thing.
Place (or places - where?) -> often this will simply be a location. That location can have different meanings; big city, home, ancient ruin, or prison, they all answer the 'where' part of our developing ideas. A place where someone meditates is a location; the state of mind someone is in after they meditate is also a 'place' if you think about it right.
***
The interesting part of developing an idea, for me at least, is when you take the three ideas above and kind of mash them together in weird ways. Here are some... Equations? Let's see if this helps:
Person + Thing = maybe an old treasure from a fallen king? His crown maybe?
Person + Place = a secret hideout or a bunker to protect themselves from what happens outside its walls.
Place + Thing = a lost blade of ancient power, needed to stop something horrific from happening.
Thing + Person = a fragment of a once massive crystal that contains the soul of a benevolent god.
Place + Thing + Person = the empty throne of a powerful kingdom, a one-year period before the throne will be filled by the evil mastermind who assassinated the previous king... Unless the true heir is found.
Person + Person + Place = two souls, joined through time, destined to work together to solve a puzzle in the same location... But different times! *** I could go on with more examples, but you know what might be more fun? Post some thoughts you have down below in the comments. Don't limit yourself to one of each, come up with permutations then expand on them.
And for a special challenge... Tell me how you would use the following:
Place + Person + Person + Thing + Person + Place + Place + Thing = ? It is silly yes; it may not even work well. Ultimately this is just an exercise, try it out and let us see what we all come up with.
Eric
No links today, that was all me up there. So... Um... Here is a link to descriptions of hats:
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