Games with built-in "plot tracking" contrivances... Referenes Sought

[ynnen]

Hey all - finally delurking after 4+ years here, hot on the trail of making progress on one of my indie designs.

I'm looking for references or systems that have a built-in way to track and manage plots, sessions, encounters or story arcs.

Let me explain a bit more. In my current project, each session involves setting up the scene by players and GM alike drafting the key plot points on a sheet of paper, with room to mark any modifiers they agree on or develop during discussion and roleplay. As each scene is resolved, some notes are jotted down on the sheet to reflect long-term repercussions (for later reference).

At the end of the session, the sheet works as a great reference for what transpired. After several sessions, players and GM can quickly flip through the previous few sheets of paper to quicly and accurately recap previous action as well as see what plots have been resolved and which may still need to be addressed.

That's a very high-level, birds-eye view of the concept. The sheet I've developed is formatted and designed to hold some specific information (from a game mechanics standpoint as well as a plot/story angle), but hopefully that gives you the rough idea.

What other games feature some sort of built-in tracking system? Calendars? Scene plotters? Etc?

Thanks in advance for any advice or references you can provide!

[craigp]

"With Great Power" isn't my favorite system in the universe, but it has an excellent and fairly subtle way to control story progression. It's largely based around which cards count as wilds for the players or the GM.

There are several other games, including some not published, that follow the same basic philosophy: give the players more resources (or more push to sacrifice resources) as the story progresses, and they'll naturally seek to complete the story. To use another superhero game, Capes does this using debt. FastLane does it using debts of a different kind. My Life With Master also has a mechanic that forces your hand near end-game, producing a distinct "late game" play style.

But you're probably looking for something that's more explicit than these. I would start with "With Great Power". Where to go from there?

-Craig

[craigp]

But you're probably looking for something that's more explicit than these. I would start with "With Great Power". Where to go from there?

Ugh, no edit capabilities...

I was about to say: With Great Power (I think it's WGP, it might be Capes, I don't have either with me at the moment) also uses a tracking system via index cards, which is why I recommend looking into it. It also has an interesting "break/transform" mechanic which keeps track of where in the story any given element is.

-Craig

[hix]

Promethean (as I understand it) asks each player to come up with 'milestones' that have to be reached by their character before the campaign ends.

Burning Empires uses 'disposition' to measure how strong the 'Humans' and the 'Aliens' sides of a war are. Think of disposition as sort-of like each side's hit points. When one side is down to 0, then that phase of the war is over. You attack the other side's disposition by choosing a Manuever each session that (sort-of) defines the actions the PCs will take during that session.

Universalis creates characters and records events as they occur. The process of playing a game of Universalis automatically leads to a transcript of what's happened.

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Why are you asking, ynnen? What are you looking for in these points of comparison?

[pells]

Well, some self promotion here, but have you of Avalanche ?

It is not really a game per se, it is more a layer designs to hold the plotline, and invite people who plays the campaign to use the system they want.
But, it does well what you're asking : keeping track of storyarc, manage multiplots happening at the same time, it uses a calendar and it is meant to access quickly the information related to plots (what's in the past, in the near coming present and in the future).

For more information, my design can be found here.

You can always PM me if you have any questions ...

[ynnen]

Burning Empires uses 'disposition' to measure how strong the 'Humans' and the 'Aliens' sides of a war are. Think of disposition as sort-of like each side's hit points. When one side is down to 0, then that phase of the war is over. You attack the other side's disposition by choosing a Manuever each session that (sort-of) defines the actions the PCs will take during that session.

If Burning Empires had a formatted Disposition Tracker, or a master plotting chart to track Maneuvers and results over the course of a session/episode/phase, I think that'd definitely apply - but for all the things BE does provide, some sort of formalized tracking system for its mechanics and plot advancement isn't one of them... But this is sorta' kinda' the thing I'm looking for.

Why are you asking, ynnen? What are you looking for in these points of comparison?

I'm trying to find different examples to see what these other systems look for in plotting/tracking information - maybe something to trigger an idea or help uncover something I've overlooked. I've kept the information on my plot tracker pretty simple and high-level, hoping that it offers maximum flexibility, at the cost of some detail.

[hix]

Hi ynnen,

Another game I thought of is Nine Worlds. Its system of having players define and write down their goals (called 'muses'), and then record when they are resolved can provide that record-keeping as well.

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I suggest that a good next step for this conversation might be for you to tell us what your plot-tracker system is, what you hope it'll achieve, and why that's important to the game you're designing. From there, maybe the Forge hive-mind will be able to point out gaps or opportunities for you. At the moment, I feel we might be flailing around a little - suggesting stuff you're either already aware of or that might be completely inappropriate.

[Millsy]

Hmmm... I can't offer any help beyond what has already been posted about WGP etc...

The reason I'm posting is that it occurs to me that this might be something that could exist as a supplement to an existing system... even a non-narrativist system. I spend most of my time GMing at the moment trying to get narrativist styles into D&D and Call of Cthulhu games... and a plot development system could be developed for either one of them. Anyone fancy taking this on? Although I've a few ideas myself...

for instance, with D20 with the Players Roll the Dice mod, you could start with the DM's rolls being 15 + mods for every roll, decreasing to 12 after, say, 3 encounters, or a total EL of 3 x party level, and then decreasing to 10... by which time, the PCs are facing much stronger monsters.

Just an idea.

[contracycle]

Theatrix would be worth looking at in regards the request in the OP.  It has quite an eye-opening presentation of the way choices are made, and explicitly uses the three act play structure.

[Jason Morningstar]

I'm looking for references or systems that have a built-in way to track and manage plots, sessions, encounters or story arcs.

My games do this.  The Shab-al-Hiri Roach takes place across six Events, each of which consists of a single conflict/scene per player, and across which three named NPCs have to appear.  These NPCs reincorporate across different Events.

Grey Ranks has a similar structure, using a chapter model.  The game takes place across ten chapters and three sessions of play).  Each chapter takes place on a particular date (chapter seven, for example, is 14 August, 1944).  Each player gets two scenes (of different types) in each chapter. 

This works really well as a creative constraint and a pacing mechanism. 

Other games:

Contenders has an endgame condition that, once triggered, changes the rules and, well,  leads to the end of the game.

The Shadow of Yesterday has key scenes that the GM uses to guide sessions and further interesting agendas.  It also has refresh scenes that give the GM an opportunity to introduce new plot or theme elements outside of conflicts.

[Hans]

I was about to say: With Great Power (I think it's WGP, it might be Capes, I don't have either with me at the moment) also uses a tracking system via index cards, which is why I recommend looking into it. It also has an interesting "break/transform" mechanic which keeps track of where in the story any given element is.

Craig, its Capes that uses index cards to establish the conflicts.  WGP... has the transform/devastate thing on aspects, and also has the Story Arc, which, by changing the rules throughout the course of the game, eventually brings things to a conclusion.  Both Capes and WGP... are worth reading for ideas on how to structure pacing and plot in the rules.

Dirty Secrets, a game soon to be released from Dark Omen Games (see their forum) has this nifty Crime Grid that is, in essence, a scene clock that counts down until you reach a point that the story must end.  Jason didn't mention the Grid in Grey Ranks, which tracks each characters individual course towards their own fates in the context of the overall calendar structure he talked about.  Grey Ranks is actually a marvel of controlling plot through the rules.  I think this is also for sale beginning at GenCon.

If Burning Empires had a formatted Disposition Tracker, or a master plotting chart to track Maneuvers and results over the course of a session/episode/phase, I think that'd definitely apply - but for all the things BE does provide, some sort of formalized tracking system for its mechanics and plot advancement isn't one of them... But this is sorta' kinda' the thing I'm looking for.

Ynnen, this confuses me.  If you could desribe how the Infection Maneuvers sheet from Burning Empires is NOT what you are looking for, that would help me a lot in knowing what you ARE looking for, because the Infection Maneuvers system in BE seems to me to be exactly a "master plotting chart to track Maneuvers and results over the course of a session/episode/phase".  The link to the sheet is here: http://www.burningempires.com/wiki/images/6/63/Infection_sheet.pdf.

[ynnen]

Ynnen, this confuses me.  If you could desribe how the Infection Maneuvers sheet from Burning Empires is NOT what you are looking for, that would help me a lot in knowing what you ARE looking for, because the Infection Maneuvers system in BE seems to me to be exactly a "master plotting chart to track Maneuvers and results over the course of a session/episode/phase".  The link to the sheet is here: http://www.burningempires.com/wiki/images/6/63/Infection_sheet.pdf.

Gee whiz!! I hadn't seen that formatted PDF before... That is pretty close to what I'm talking about. I'm glad you posted that, because those sheets will be very helpful in our games.

Is it in the core rulebook, too? If so, I musta' missed it -- not to hard to do amidst the 600+ other pages in the rulebook. Thanks for the link!