Adventure design - How to best integrate a background plot into a module?

[Windjammer]

I'd like to start a thread where we can share our experiences when it comes to building backgrounds plot or background histories into a module.

By "module" I mean any adventure you've at your disposal which is created from start to finish before it hits the table (could be published or self-authored).

1. The idea here is that before the characters even begin to engage with the module, the area or characters they will encounter have a story to tell - something that happened before the PCs arrive, or something that is currently going on. And

2. The idea is also that the PCs have to unearth the intricacies of that "story" to solve whatever problems they encounter there.

So given that I want the surfacing of the "story" to be integral to the players' experience when they play the module, how should I best design the unearthing of the story? How best bring the PCs into contact with the story without this undermining any creative input and effort on their side, and without it feeling contrived?

See, by way of negatives, I'd like to exclude that we have for instance an NPC walking up to the PCs and telling them "oh, this happened, and then that" in a monologue-type fashion. I'd also like to exclude the manner of relating information regarding the "story" to the PCs be them obtaining documents (books, parchments) which contain the entire story.

But once I've excluded these classic devices of bringing PCs into contact with a background story, I can't think of anything. Really!

Whence this thread. It's in the Pathfinder forum because one of the recurrent problems I encounter when DMing running Pathfinder modules is that they contain great background stories but either don't really bring the PCs into contact with it or do so by going for the aforementioned "classic devices". Since the classic devices get old after some time, I'm hoping some of the experienced DMs around here can help me. Let me know what, if anything, YOU do to tackle this problem.

Cheers!

[Starglim]

Detective stories might provide some useful models.

Often the characters' histories give rise to present events that make perfect sense as part of an ongoing story, but seem strange in themselves from the point of view of an outsider. Why was the local lord talking to that beggar or outlaw? Why would Elf B and Elf C work together to harm Elf A? Two bodies have been found, apparently killed in similar fashion - are they truly connected and what's behind certain notable differences between them?

Events of the past might recur, committed by some of the same people or by their known or secret offspring - but for one reason or another, those people who lived through the previous occurrence might not tell everything they know, or the public story of what happened might be wrong or incomplete in important respects. In this case an NPC or book might tell the story directly to the PCs, but might either be misled, partly making it up or lying about certain facts, for the character's or writer's own reasons.

[gigglestick]

Windjammer wrote:

I'd like to start a thread where we can share our experiences when it comes to building backgrounds plot or background histories into a module.

By "module" I mean any adventure you've at your disposal which is created from start to finish before it hits the table (could be published or self-authored).

1. The idea here is that before the characters even begin to engage with the module, the area or characters they will encounter have a story to tell - something that happened before the PCs arrive, or something that is currently going on. And

2. The idea is also that the PCs have to unearth the intricacies of that "story" to solve whatever problems they encounter there.

So given that I want the surfacing of the "story" to be integral to the players' experience when they play the module, how should I best design the unearthing of the story? How best bring the PCs into contact with the story without this undermining any creative input and effort on their side, and without it feeling contrived?

See, by way of negatives, I'd like to exclude that we have for instance an NPC walking up to the PCs and telling them "oh, this happened, and then that" in a monologue-type fashion. I'd also like to exclude the manner of relating information regarding the "story" to the PCs be them obtaining documents (books, parchments) which contain the entire story.

But once I've excluded these classic devices of bringing PCs into contact with a background story, I can't think of anything. Really!

Whence this thread. It's in the Pathfinder forum because one of the recurrent problems I encounter when DMing running Pathfinder modules is that they contain great background stories but either don't really bring the PCs into contact with it or do so by going for the aforementioned "classic devices". Since the classic devices get old after some time, I'm hoping some of the experienced DMs around here can help me. Let me know what, if anything, YOU do to tackle this problem.

Cheers!

I mentioned this in another thread, but my PCs in our weekly ROTR adopted an NPC into the group and I use her to add info to the game via a Journal she keeps (that I post on the yahoo group for the game). That way, I can have her comment on important plot points (names, dates, occurances that the heroes need to know) as well as having her comment on stories she may have heard from other NPCs. (If the heroes never get to talk to anyone about Nualia, our NPC can comment about the strange story she heard from the midwife that afternoon, etc.)

Its a nice way to put background into the story and also drop rumors and plot hints.

[KaeYoss]

Some Adventures (especially the PF adventure paths) recommend the use of Campaign Traits which make assumptions about the characters' background in order to incorporate them into the story.

If that's not for you, you can alter the story to integrate the characters into the plot and metaplot.

How that is accomplished depends on the situation, of course.

As a suggestion, let ever player come up with a series of events that happened to their characters and helped make them the way they are now. Make them include lists of people that were involved, like the evil duke who killed their father (nothing wrong with old stories), or anything like that. Make it at least, say, half a dozen such events.

Now you have a lot of background to work with. The evil duke might be the BBEG, or he might be the BBEG's pawn or ally.

You can tell them to be somewhat vague with their background snippets (some of it will be from their early childhood and not very keen in their minds) so you have some room to manoeuvre.

Or you can go with the "Hero = right place at the right time" approach (though some would say wrong place and wrong time...)

It's also fun to start the campaign that way, innocently asking players about their past (directly, indirectly over NPCs, or just by getting the characters to talk to each other about it) and at one point BAM! You're not just an innocent bystander in this plot!

[Rezdave]

I believe the goals you seek will necessarily involve some re-writing and expanding of the module.

One way is to plan a couple "random encounters" before and after the module that, in retrospect, aren't so random. Rather, as the PCs pick up clues and then look upon them in retrospect, they see that these events are linked or that they begin to form a story.

Adventure Hooks will almost certainly need to be replaced with something that is both keyed to the background and more personally interesting to the PCs. Basically, these "pre-encounters" will now become the set-up and the hooks.

All this assumes that, while you as the DM might like the story, the Players themselves are interested in pursuing this information.

One final thought. While your entire goal is to avoid throwing away "the cool backstory" I'm afraid that, for the most part, you must ... but not necessarily module-by-module. What I suggest is finding a group of modules that are thematically related, and then meshing and interweaving their backstories and storylines into one another. Basically, it is a "build-your-own-AP" in which you take the epic backstory for one adventure and expand it out as the over-arcing storyline for the campaign. Then take each module and keep some elements while adapting others, and sprinkle clues liberally throughout all of them.

In other threads there have been comparisons between campaign-planning/building and writing an episodic TV show with various story-arcs, sub-plots and so forth. It's a good analogy. Take the information in any given module and spread it around a bit.

A lot of information and many details will have to change from module to module, the core elements of the backstory ideas will still be there, and the adventure itself should stand largely as-is. You will have to throw away a lot and alter more, but ultimately theses sacrifices will allow your Party and PCs to come into contact with much that they never would have been able in a one-off.

HTH,

Rez

[Neil Spicer]

A couple of techniques I've used involved a healthy amount of trust in the players' ability to keep their player knowledge separate from their character knowledge...

The first method involves the use of "cut-scenes" like in a movie or TV show. Instead of the "camera" always following the heroes, occasionally it shows what's happening with the bad guys, too. So I describe in narrative terms for them some activity the villain is pursuing or his reaction to something they've done--which may or may not have an immediate impact on the next scene involving the heroes--but will most certainly help round out the background material and clue them into why things are happening the way they are.

The second method I've used involves dream sequences, quite often inspired by the gods or some mystical connection to an otherworldly spirit or ghost...or even just a "waking" dream in another time or place where they're able to experience or perceive elements of what brought the adventure to their door. I think Richard Pett used a healthy amount of this approach in how the haunts of Foxglove Manor in Rise of the Runelords "The Skinsaw Murders" helped them learn more about one of the adventure's main bad-guys. And, in Curse of the Crimson Throne Zellara's harrow deck serves a similar purpose throughout the entire campaign.

But that's just my two-cents,
--Neil

[Rezdave]

NSpicer wrote:

The first method involves the use of "cut-scenes" like in a movie or TV show

FWIW, "cut scene" is a video-game term, meaning a cinematic scene over which the user has no control. A "cross-cut" or "cut away" is the film term.

NSpicer does bring up an interesting thought, however, that is a common device in SciFi/Fantasy TV, and that is the Time-travel/Alternate-reality episode.

Every so often I'll have a session where only a couple people can make it, so we'll occasionally one-off a "rollback" episode that is set in the past of the in-world narrative and the character's lives, set whenever the specific combination of PCs available could be together without the others present.

Taking this further, one could cast the PCs in and out of dreams, history, alternate realities and so forth to experience events from different perspectives, to participate in the unfolding backstory, and so forth.

There's also no reason you couldn't had a group of pre-gens to your Group and have them one-off some of the back-story to some adventure as a "dream sequence" taking place in the middle of another adventure. It could be fun for them to explore a location under one circumstance and then re-explore it thousands of years later under another. Perhaps as adventurers they are exploring the ruins of an evil cult that was wiped out by paladins centuries before, then in the alternate timeline they are either the attacking paladins or the defending cultists.

Theoretically, you could even interweave the timelines/sessions such that the events of one influence the other.

Granted, it could get pretty complex, but it's another option.

R.

[Luna eladrin]

Here are some methods I have been using in various adventures and campaigns:

1) Using an in-game newspaper or magazine. Of course the information in this newspaper is not a direct retelling of the background story, but is "colored" by the perspective of the writer. I also use the newspaper for NPC organizations to send each other secret messages in code. My players always try to decipher the code and begin speculating what is going on behind their backs.

2) Making one of the NPCs in the adventure a relative of a PC or linking this NPC to the PC's background story in another way.

3) People mysteriously following the PCs, so that they trace this person to a place where they can find clues. Or people asking around about the PCs: in nine out of ten times the PCs will try to find these people in order to find out why they were asking around.

4) People deliberately being vague about certain information, so that the PCs can use "sense motive" (and feel very smart when they discover the person is hiding something and then e.g. follow him, use clairaudience/clairvoyance to know more, spy on him, etc.)

5) Asking for knowledge checks or spot or search checks when there is something relevant to be discovered.

6) Using "random" encounters to tell the story (which has already been mentioned earlier in this thread).

What works best, is not to give too much information at once, but let the players discover it on their own. Usually they take the bait when they are made curious, e.g. "The woman across the street is looking intently at you." "You notice that the streets are empty at night." "The village looks as if the houses have been neglected.", etc.