Relationship maps

[Peter Nordstrand]

There has been a lot of talk about relationship maps here on the HeroQuest forum lately. The purpose of this thread is to help narrators to make relationship maps that are actually useful in play. A relationship map is a tool that helps the narrator decide the reactions of the narrator characters to the conflict at hand.

Example 1 (no relationship map):

The player heroes all belong to the Bluebird Clan. The narrator wants to set up a feud between Bluebird Clan and the Toena Clan. He has made a list of important narrator characters:

Bluebird Clan
Chieftain Aranwolf
His wife Ernaldessa
Garrulf, a wealthy and well-liked farmer

The player heroes are all young warriors of the clan.

Toena Clan
Chieftain Malan
Petrad, a hotheaded warrior
Ilgalad Trollfriend, also tribal king, is a member of this clan

The narrator has also made sure to write down the important motivations and goals of each character. Here's the setup: Petrad kills Garrulf in a cattle raid.[/list:u]What will happen next? Take a couple of munutes and try to come up with good ways to involve the player heroes in the events. I am sure that you have a at least a few good ideas. Don't post them here, though, just keep reading.

Example 2 (with a relationship map):

Let's apply a part of the relationship map from my own upcoming campaign. It is a little hard to explain in words, so I suggest that you actually draw the relationships out on a piece of paper.

Ernaldessa's former husband Haloric is dead. They had a daughter, Aileena. Ernaldessa remarried Aranwolf, and moved to the Bluebird Clan a couple of years ago.

Haloric was the older brother of Ilgalad Trollfriend, the tribal king. Ergo: Ernaldessa belonged to the Toena Clan before she married Aranwolf and moved to his clan.

Petrad's mother is Niqueena, the most influential person of the Red Wool Clan.

Petrad, born into the Red Wool Clan, is married to Ernaldessa's daughter from her first marriage, Aileena, and moved to her clan; the Toena.

Garrulf is Aranwolf's cousin.

Chieftain Malan? Well, he is still chieftain, but he doesn't seem all that important anymore, does he?[/list:u] Petrad kills Garrulf in a cattle raid. What we have now is a complete and utter mess, which is a good thing. Again, take a couple of minutes and try to come up with good ways to involve the player heroes in the events.

I rest my case.

Furthermore, whatever happens during actual play, you can always take a look at your r-map and come up with even more stuff on the fly: The player heroes kidnapped Aileena? What will Ernaldessa think of it? How will chieftain Aranwolf react to having his wives daughter abducted by his own warriors? Is there anything Niqueena can do to make the conflict even worse?

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The secret of a good relationship map:

1. conflict of interest.
2. narrator characters that are emotionally involved in each other.

When this is done, it is time to

3. connect the player heroes to the relationship map

The best way to connect the heroes is to look at their character sheets, and add their relationships to your map. If one hero has "Patron: Wealthy Merchant from Swenstown", make that merchant the brother of Ernaldessa, or the secret lover of Petrad, or the murderer of Haloric, or make Niqueena his most valued trading partner. Anything that will force the players into action.

That's it for now.

Hope it helps.

All the best,

/Peter N

[Brand_Robins]

Is this fairly close to what you had in mind?

http://www.brand-publications.spaceanddeath.com/PN%20example%20relationship%20map.pdf

[RaconteurX]

An excellent example, Peter (and a handy visual aid, Brand).

Relationship maps in published games pre-date Sorceror by close to a decade (I recall first seeing them in early Vampire supplements), but I am stunned by the number of people who have never seen or used them. I cannot imagine running any game without one, these days, and in some (such as Amber) they are crucial to sustaining tension at high levels.

[Peter Nordstrand]

Hi Brand,

Yes, that's exactly what i had in mind. I especially like that you use diferent colors for different clans. There is no right or wrong way, however, and I would probably have done it slightly different myself. The trick is to make it easily to use as a quick reference for oneself as a narrator. So anyway that works for you is good.

For comparison, you may want to check out one of Ron's r-maps (this one is for one of his Sorcerer games and has nothing to do with HeroQuest or this thread): http://www.sorcerer-rpg.com/necrosorc/necromap.doc

Cheers,

/Peter

[Peter Nordstrand]

Hi Michael,

Relationship maps in published games pre-date Sorceror by close to a decade (I recall first seeing them in early Vampire supplements), but I am stunned by the number of people who have never seen or used them. I cannot imagine running any game without one, these days, and in some (such as Amber) they are crucial to sustaining tension at high levels.

It is funny you should say that. Compare with my essay The Unwitting Narrativist. How I Stopped Plotting Everything and Learned to Love Roleplaying Games at the very end of the Well of Souls scenario:

One of the games where I usually managed to pull it off to everybody's satisfaction was Vampire: The Masquerade. In Vampire I sort of mixed the two methods. I prepared a large conflict, wrote a lot of gamemaster characters with ties to either the conflict itself or to one of the other characters (thus setting up sub-conflicts). Then I started it all off with a macguffin of some kind, such as "you hear a rumor that someone in town has a piece of the original cross in their possession." The players chased the macguffin, and I improvised the rest. Whenever things began to slow down, I improvised some kind of event, usually drawing inspiration from the main conflict. This is beginning to sound familiar, isn't it? Inspired by various city sourcebooks for Vampire, I even made complex relationship maps, which I continually referred to during play.

Only in hindsight do I recognize these patterns, however. Back then, I wasn't able to separate the behavior I just described from all the other odd stunts I pulled. For example, I did not see the relationship map as a potential tool for non-Vampire campaigns. In my mind, these maps were closely connected to a game of conspiracy and intrigue. What use could they possibly serve in a Gloranthan fantasy game?

Cheers,

/Peter