One key thing, in any RP related situation, storyline or otherwise.
Always plan for the players to do something completely unexpected. Â The more you structure things, the more you can expect things friction as things go 'off the rails'.
Nebbs has a really good list so I'm just going to add a few things that really worked for me when I was DMing on NWN persistant worlds:
- Keep a journal (A google document works, but I use a physical small ruled notebook.) Â Every player interaction goes in here so you have a reference point of who interacted with whom. Â
- Plan out your beginning (aka your hooks), and create background information. Â Your story rarely started when the players become involved. There's usually some interactions that happened before. Â Bits of history to the story. Â Plan those, build those, create little interesting tidbits from that which you can use moving forward to make the npc's and situation more 'real'. Â
- Give people a reason to care. Â You can do this by seeding important plot NPC's with the players early. Â If you want a death or a problem to be something the players care about, give them a reason to care. Â
- Don't use important characters you don't control as direct parts of your plot. Â IE: You can do something -for- House Fortemps without directly using named members of House Fortemps. Â This proofs you against FFXIV devs deciding to murder someone in a cut-scene or some such.
- Have an exit strategy aka an 'end' condition. Â
This bit from Nebbs I can't emphesise enough so I'm just going to quote it again:
"The RP on adventures happens a lot in the still moments between the activity, let the players enjoy that before hurrying them along (there is no need to rush)"
I cannot stress how important that is.
PC Character development doesn't really happen in the heat of battle, or in mid crisis. Â That can be the catalyst, certainly. The real development happens when people have downtime to process what happened, when the adrenaline wears off and there is time to look on what your actions have wrought. Â
This downtime is also where your story can reach more people as characters talk about it in taverns with others not involved. Â That's the sort of thing that makes this a living world instead of a bunch of disparate 'quests'.
Always plan for the players to do something completely unexpected. Â The more you structure things, the more you can expect things friction as things go 'off the rails'.
Nebbs has a really good list so I'm just going to add a few things that really worked for me when I was DMing on NWN persistant worlds:
- Keep a journal (A google document works, but I use a physical small ruled notebook.) Â Every player interaction goes in here so you have a reference point of who interacted with whom. Â
- Plan out your beginning (aka your hooks), and create background information. Â Your story rarely started when the players become involved. There's usually some interactions that happened before. Â Bits of history to the story. Â Plan those, build those, create little interesting tidbits from that which you can use moving forward to make the npc's and situation more 'real'. Â
- Give people a reason to care. Â You can do this by seeding important plot NPC's with the players early. Â If you want a death or a problem to be something the players care about, give them a reason to care. Â
- Don't use important characters you don't control as direct parts of your plot. Â IE: You can do something -for- House Fortemps without directly using named members of House Fortemps. Â This proofs you against FFXIV devs deciding to murder someone in a cut-scene or some such.
- Have an exit strategy aka an 'end' condition. Â
This bit from Nebbs I can't emphesise enough so I'm just going to quote it again:
"The RP on adventures happens a lot in the still moments between the activity, let the players enjoy that before hurrying them along (there is no need to rush)"
I cannot stress how important that is.
PC Character development doesn't really happen in the heat of battle, or in mid crisis. Â That can be the catalyst, certainly. The real development happens when people have downtime to process what happened, when the adrenaline wears off and there is time to look on what your actions have wrought. Â
This downtime is also where your story can reach more people as characters talk about it in taverns with others not involved. Â That's the sort of thing that makes this a living world instead of a bunch of disparate 'quests'.
