I was reading through Peter Nordstrand's [While We Were Fighting] Scene Framing the Renaissance, and I hit apon an idea for kernels of this concept could be applied to the scene framing in my own game...the Eighth Sea.

(Note that my ideas have already shot off on a tangent, and that thread was just the impetus for my thought patterns.)

Background so far...

At this stage, one of the key aspects I've been having trouble with is getting the players to show a degree of originality in their concepts, while maintaining an element of continuity through the lead-up to a climax.

Think of it like an episode of House MD. Every episode begins with a key event that triggers the problem solving, this event could have a dozen possible causes, and each of the causes is whittled away by trial and error until a final attempt to cure the patient can be made.

In the Eighth Sea, each game is divided up into five acts. The first act sets the tone for the game, the second act introduces the problem, the third throws in complications to the problem, the fourth involves the characters attempting to overcome the problem once and for all, while the final scene is about the changes to the world when the characters have succeeded of failed.

I've been looking for a core way to get players involved in the story development process. The captain (a pseudo-GM figure) sets the premise for the opening scene and the event that triggers the story, but the other players contribute by adding their own twists and agendas. It's like Dr. House accepting the case, then sending his staff out to perform tests, but over the course of the story, the staff offers their own suggestions as to what might truly be happening. As the elements in play integrate with one another, the true issue at hand comes into focus and the event can be resolved.

Current Mechanics

In the current game, players begin with cards from a standard deck (two red, two black), and a number of poker chips. If they want to make things easier for their allies, they may play red cards; conversely black cards make things harder. A player may not play these cards on themself, but they face the prospect that any cards not played during the course of the story will be applied to themselves during the climax of the game (this gives all players an impetus to get rid of those black cards and make things harder for their companions along the way, so that they have a better chance of overcoming the true focus of the storyline).

The poker chips allow players to introduce unexpected plot devices, from an obscure piece of graffiti on a wall, through to a legion of Roman soldiers walking through the African jungle. These plot twists aren't necessarily good or bad, they simply are (players may then apply cards to the plot devices to see how they interact with difficulties in the game). Spending one or two poker chips allows for a very minor element to be thrown into the story, while spending a half dozen or more introduces truly spectacular events.

Acts in the game are divided into a number of scenes equal to the number of players, and each player gets the chance for their character to shine in a single scene per act. While this character is the focus of a scene, another player takes on the duties of narrating the scene for them (and any other player may apply cards to make the events easier or harder than expected). Each scene has some kind of complication to be overcome before the events of the main storyline may be affected.

For example, I need to get the golden idol for the main storyline, but first I need to swing across this pit.

The Issue

Here's the bit that drew my attention, and the bit that I think has a way to crystallise certain thoughts I've been having about the game.

Once the crisis begins, the GM frames a series of crisis scenes, one for each player, introducing problems, opponents and disasters relating to the specific crisis at hand.  Afterwards, normal play resumes, but the crisis lingers for quite a while, making an appearance every time the GM frames a scene. Eventually it ceases. In our game the crisis was the Black Plague, and one character's slaves became infected, for example. Another character was trapped inside a quarantined area, while a third became ill himself, but survived after managing to muster a veritable army of doctors and priests to his side.

Crises turned out to be a powerful tool. One player remarked that play became more stringent when the priorities of players and their characters were confronted with the harsh inhumanity of the crisis.

Once a player gets through the complications associated with an event, they may attempt to cure the symptoms by striking at a perceived cause. The player describes how they are going to accomplish this and makes a challenge to resolve the event. For every success gained (typically one to three based on current playtest sessions), they may remove a tick from it. The event has less control over the game for the remainder of the session. (I'm considering the notion that experience is gained by resolving storylines in this manner).

Okay...I can see how it all looks a bit clinic without some kind of play example to reference...

I'll use parts of the playtest session that I haven't had the chance to write up yet.

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=25724.0

Here's the example.

I'm playing the pseudo-GM role of the captain, my crew are Ingrid, Bill, Leah, Freya and Philip.

Act 3, Scene 2.

The story so far...

The captain has a map which is supposed to lead to a hidden treasure in the islands that stretch from Alaska into the north Pacific.

The crew spent the first act gathering their resources, and uncovered a few secrets about their quest. Bill got a few more successes than he needed from a local quest, so he adds the storyline elements "Demons that need to be Exorcised" and "Natives needing religious conversion". No-one else gained the extra successes, but these agendas don't go down too well among some of the other players.

Other agendas currently on the board include:

Treasure mysteriously vanishes...3 ticks (this was marked by the captain at the start of the game, he's hoping it mysteriously vanishes, because his crew has gone back in time and stolen it, and not because someone else beats him to it).
Monsters from the deep...2 ticks (this was introduced by one of the players and seconded by another player, but hasn't been addressed in the game yet)
Chinese pirates...2 ticks
Magical storms...2 ticks
Exploration of the Unknown...1 tick
Bad Vibes on board the Ship...1 tick
Unsure if the Map is Authentic...1 tick (this had a higher number of ticks at the beginning of the game, but Bill's first successes clarified the authenticity.
Running low on food...1 tick (this had a much higher number of ticks early in the game, but it was successfully addressed through some good performances by Freya and Philip).

So the scene begins, with Ingrid exploring the island with Leah and Philip following along. Bill takes over the role of narration for this scene since his character has stayed on board the ship. This leaves Freya and I to take on the roles of NPCs if they should arise, and allows us to play poker chips to add new storyline elements to the scene, or play cards to modify the difficulties of any challenges involved.

Every scene involves a complication followed by a chance to resolve one of the elements in the background. If the character is successful in overcoming the complication, they may attempt to resolve any background element they wish. If the character is unsuccessful, then their intended background element actually gets more complicated.

Bill starts to narrate the exploration of the island, Ingrid's character has a personal agenda of exploring the unknown, so naturally, she'll attempt to resolve this background element of the story. If she is successful in this, then she declares that any extra degrees of success will go toward curing the bad vibes on the ship (hopefully through finding the treasure or some other bonus).

Before Ingrid can resolve these storyline elements, she'll have to face some kind of complication. In this case, Bill could choose the complication randomly, he could weave together other parts of the storyline that Ingrid hasn't chosen to address, or he could spend poker chips to introduce new storyline elements (as active observers of this scene, Freya and I could also add new storyline elements by spending poker chips). Bill spend two black cards to apply two storylines from the board as complications. 

Bill decides that the character run into some "Chinese Pirates" who have been shipwrecked on the island due to the "Demons" that they have improperly captured. Since this is Act 3, any complication is going to be "Tricky", and the two added storyline elements push it up to "Hard" then "Very Hard". Bill's being nasty during his turn as narrator, but if the group manage to overcome the complication, then they'll have wiped out quite a few background elements and will be a lot closer to resolving the storyline.

I've got a hand full of black cards and I don't want them to apply negative affects to me at the climax of the game, so I consider using them now. I don't know what Freya's got in her hand.

Players draw initiative for their chance to resolve the complication. Leah goes first and tries to use her character's charisma to offer peace toward the Chinese Pirates. I throw down a black card and push the difficulty from "Very Hard" to "Legendary", my rationale is that it's hard for the pirates to understand her because they speak another language, Freya thinks that this is a bit unreasonable and wants to get some of the storyline resolved, she throws down a red card and makes things a bit easier by saying that one of the Chinese Pirates does speak Spanish (the common tongue of the crew). Everyone who is able to throw down a card to modify the difficulty has now done so, and Leah makes a challenge for her character. She only just fails, so things don't get much worse, but they certainly don't get better (a single tick is added to the "Chinese Pirates" storyline). Freya and I each redraw a card.

Ingrid now has the chance to confront the "Chinese Pirate" complication. Her idea was to prowl around the pirates, but now that Leah has notified them of the character's presence, that won't be possible any more. Instead she chooses to run inland, with the hopes of not getting lost. I like the complication that these Chinese pirates are presenting and play another of my black cards on the new challenge, but I throw down a poker chip as well, saying that Ingrid finds a path cutting across the island. She can choose to follow it or not...and I haven't specified whether the path is a good thing or not. Freya choose not to throw down a card at all. So Ingrid's attempt to evade the Pirates requires a "Legendary" level of skill...amazingly, she succeeds with a single success. A tick is removed from both the "Chinese Pirate" and 'Demon" storylines.

Phillip doesn't need to waste his action on overcoming the complication, and he can instead focus his attention on a storyline element. His first sucess has to follow goals laid down by the scene's current focal character (in this case Ingrid's character), so he has to explore the unknown. His second agenda is up to his own choice, and he decides to rid the story of the demon plotline once and for all. He justifies doing this by scouting the area for a place to ambush the pirates. The first success allows him to map the area and remove a tick from that part of the storyline, any additional successes allow him to get access to the Chinese demon in order to exorcise it. His difficulty is "Tricky", which is actually fairly easy for him. He accomplishes the task with two successes, so the exploration storyline is resolved, and the second success gives him a good look at the demon, so it will only take one more success to completely resolve that part of the story as well.

Act 3 Scene 3 Begins.

...

There are a lot of story lines at play in the game, and it is through the complex interactions of these storylines that twisted and elaborate plots emerge. No group of players will be able to address all of the issues at work, but it is the aim of the group to resolve as many as possible. This is a game about time-travelling swashbucklers and the more loose ends remain unaccounted, the more chaotic things will get.

I'm considering the notion that if an entire act passes with an element of the story being completely ignored, it automatically gains a tick and therefore become more prominent and harder to resolve.

I guess that this will require hefty playtesting to see if it works...

I hope this makes a bit more sense...I apologise if it seems to be heading in a slightly different direction than my last post might indicate, but this is the final part of a work in progress, and it's getting really hard to pin down.

I knew I shouldn't have based a game on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, I'll never be able to clarify all the details.

V