[Plotlines] Currency Schmurrency

I don't yet have a name for my plotline-driven game that I started talking about yesterday--so I'll continue to call it Plotlines until a better name rises to the surface.

So you need currency for these things:

• Investing in your own plotlines (though maybe this just happens when you need it to--more on this later)
• Investing in situations. So this means you are saying that not only will there be a situation in the future but that it matters to you as a player enough that you want control over it. So if we were playing Star Wars (original trilogy, thanks very much) and I was playing Luke, pretty early on I would write on a 3x5 card (confront Vader) and then I'd start investing in that situation like nobody's business. Then, when I actually get to the duel at the end of episode 5, I have extra resources to help out during that scene.
• Giving to other players when they do something cool
• Getting from the GM as a reward for playing along on his plotlines

And maybe more stuff as well.

So I'm not sure that all of these things are the same currency (though I tend to think that it is). And I have no resolution mechanic, so I can't start figuring out how it all works quite yet.

Much to think on.

Plotlines

So my first real adventure using the modified True20 rules (I call it True18 because I use the 3d6 instead of 1d20 variant found in Unearthed Arcana) was a bust. The players have assured me that they enjoyed themselves despite the failure of the session but it was bad. What was bad, you ask? Well I almost inadvertently killed them. But what's worse is that they were almost killed by an encounter that didn't mean anything.

This got me to thinking, as I often do, about the need for a system that explicitly states (and supports mechanically) how important a given encounter is to the players of the characters involved.

My stumbling block is two-fold:

1. I want a game where the GM has the ability to create a general plot into which the character plots fit, and where players are rewarded for playing along and linking their stories with those of the other players and those created by the GM.
2. I want to support campaigns of unspecified length. That is, I don't want to copy the Primetime Adventures way of things where a season is a set length and you plot out screen presence ahead of time--I want to keep things more flexible than that

Long story short, I'm inspired to create a realatively simple, plotline driven fantasy RPG. It's in the early planning stages at the moment but here's where I'm going with it:

Players (including the GM) can create and track plotlines. A plotline is a track on a play sheet that has space for marking progress and some place for writing description. Each plotline roughly follows the Freytag model (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement). I have added a "seed" stage at the beginning.

So you can start a plotline for your character whenever you want by putting a check in the seed area of a new line. The seed can be very vague ("something about betrayal"), something quite specific ("Travel to the great city to find my father"), or anything in between. By specifying a seed, you are letting the GM and other players know that you have this idea you want to play with and you are potentially opening that idea up to them. You can then add checks to the plotline (starting in the exposition area) whenever you have a conflict that relates to the plot. You need at least one check in one area before you can put one in the next (i.e. you need one conflict in exposition before you can start rising action and so forth) but other than that you are essentially free to have as many or few checks as you like.

Each check on a plotline represents the potential difficulty and risk that the plotline represents. So the more you build up a story arc, the more dangerous it is for your character.

The GM also has plotlines that apply to the overarching story. The GM and players are rewarded for linking plotlines together, though I'm not totally sure how yet.

There is some currency that gets passed around. Players can get it from the GM by buying into his plotlines, that much I know. It can be used to strengthen the odds in a conflict, among other things.

That's all I have the energy to write about tonight. Next time I'll talk about investing in scenes.