Have you ever run a campaign where players are not enjoying sessions or feel a lack of progress and development? Maybe you simply want to level up on your campaigns and create more memorable experiences. If so, then developing compelling story arcs is something to consider.
What is a story arc?
In simple game terms, it can be the path you take from starting an adventure through the various events and encounters and through to a conclusion. It can apply to scenarios, side quests and full campaigns. A story arc for a campaign can have many elements and feature smaller arcs for scenarios or even scenes along the way, including those times characters embark on activities of their own volition.
Why use them?
Even in a sandbox game (a flexible style of play allowing players to explore and interact with the world with freedom, as opposed to more linear, more managed scenarios), story arcs can help the GM manage in-game time, build tension, introduce new elements to the story that fit, avoid stories drifting and players are more likely to feel a sense of meaningful and timely achievement.
This doesn’t mean you must or should always have story arcs at every stage of a campaign and games don’t have to have a fixed end point in any event. Simply playing in a particular setting for as long as you are enjoying it, can be a lot of fun and some RPG systems cater well for this approach such as Cyberpunk Red.
So, on the one hand, allowing the players to create their own adventures, no matter how chaotic is acceptable if ultimately, they are having fun, but on the other, understanding the value of story arcs is a good tool nonetheless at the GMs disposal.
How to create them
Typically, when I set up a campaign, I think of key features like the ultimate goal or objective or maybe a basic premise as to why the characters know each other and why are they working together (helps party cohesion from the start). I then build from there adding sections of what I want to happen or a logical path for the players to follow; understanding that players will often want to undergo side-quests or follow their own path and so I give this some thought too as to how to incorporate this.
So, to give you an example, using ideas from a D&D 5e campaign I ran during lockdown, I started with the idea ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a bard NPC who could read minds and had acquired a crystal ball. Then I thought, the crystal ball would be part of spoils of war after a conflict some twenty years ago (giving a significant NPC a backstory). To add flavour, she was part of an adventuring team that took on their former mentor, who had gone rogue, who they presumed had died in the last battle. You can see where this heading… only he didn’t die. To cut a long (18 month) campaign short, he disappeared and found a way to become a lich and after the characters discover this, they are tasked with tracking him down and ending his threat once and for all. Which by the way they did.
So, I tend to work out the start and end points. This gives a solid and I hope credible start to the campaign and also it can give a clear objective to reach to signal the conclusion, although in the above example, the players didn’t know they were hunting a lich until some way into the first main story arc which was all about the backstory of the PCs patron and her plans going forward. The characters on the other hand technically didn’t know until well into the second main story arc, but having an educated guess as experienced players didn’t diminish the fun.
I then created three main story arcs, which in simple terms were, a, what is going on? (adding the who and why), b, what has happened in the twenty-year gap? ie tracking the movements and activities of the villain to discover the end objective, and c, tracking down the villain and ending the campaign.
Within the main story arcs, I then set up encounters, missions or stories which again have that initial set up or buy in ie the why are they there? an indication of the action to take and ending up with the resolution. But it doesn’t have to be GM led.
In the above campaign, one of the players had written into his backstory that he had been part of a mercenary company that ceased to operate with the details unspecified. Working with the player, I set up the storyline that the company had been staying in a village after the PC had left and they were attacked by a drow raiding party. Some had died and some were captured. Given the characters were at this point in the Underdark, I set up the chain of events that would lead them to identifying the mining site the captives were being held at.
The players then planned their scouting trip using their wizard’s familiar and then after the first two rounds of combat, I ruled that since the plan had been well conceived and well executed, against an initially unaware and ill-prepared defence, the enemy resistance would collapse and I narrated the remainder of the scene and the rescue of the captives. This had the benefit of avoiding wasting time with what I thought would be unnecessary dice rolling and going through the motions.
It went down as a very enjoyable story arc, yet it was only about three sessions in length, but in part I think the reason it worked so well, was that it had very clearly defined grounds for taking part and a clear path to success, which at the start wasn’t a given. By having a clearly marked objective and by using the sessions for specific activities ie discovery and planning, scouting and then execution, the story arc didn’t derail.
The risk with stories without a framework
Open ended play is fine, but even with this style of play, it is still advisable to structure sessions together in arcs. One of the dangers in not having this approach, is that games can drag on, with a greater risk of unnecessary monster of the week or other random encounters. It might be fine to add the odd random encounter from time to time as a filler especially if it adds atmosphere or is a mechanism for leading into another arc, but it can leave players feeling dejected and frustrated if the campaign is going nowhere. If you want to play a good old school dungeon crawl, that is an acceptable way to play, but even then, there ought to be a path to travel to reach a conclusion with opportunity to develop or level up along the way, to be a more satisfying experience.
In fairness, this issue says more about a lack of planning by the GM or a GM that is running out of ideas or has maybe lost interest. The problem is that the lack of planning and enthusiasm will generally be noticed and if the GM doesn’t put the effort it, you can’t expect the players to either.
Story arcs therefore require planning, which requires effort and even if most of your preparation goes unused, the players I’m sure will notice that as a GM you respond better to player decisions and they have meaningful encounters. I have learned over the years to plan a structure and plot the campaign in some detail, so I have an understanding of how it could all fit, but then to scale back to end up with a framework for the greater arc and smaller arcs along the way (keeping my earlier notes for reference) and then to plan for session content in a more loose way, with notes on what must happen, could happen and some idea of the options for players to consider. I usually have a few NPCs for theatre of the mind encounters to bring a scene to life and I often consider how an encounter might go unexpectedly so I can react.
Storyboards
Have you ever thought about how stories on the television or on film are created? Part of the process involves storyboarding, which is to set out events in sequence and map out scenes. The principle can apply to written stories too, not so much in drawing scenes, but drafting notes on a logical path, identifying key points along the way. It could involve mapping out a scene or encounter and helps the GM plan ahead. You can estimate how it will take to play out scenes and this in turn, with some time dedicated to downtime, can help you plan the whole campaign or story arc. By planning this way, you get a sense of whether gameplay is being dragged out or maybe even rushed. Through mapping ahead, you help avoid this.
In our current Cyberpunk Red campaign, we are base building and in part this is to playtest some homebrew rules. So, we agree to what we are trying to achieve as players, which elements to the base we want to develop first, the extent we are looking to pay for stages and the extent we are looking to take from other gangs (it is Night City after all).
The GM in turn, discusses and agrees with us what actions we want take in game sessions and decides what can effectively be carried out in downtime outside of sessions. Our missions are then mapped out by the GM who plots the encounters we will face in game, including any set up and buy in, the stages in the encounter and any finale with any potential for plot twists or shenanigans carried out by players. The result tends to involves a planning session and an action session, which may get extended depending on actions. It is quick to plan and quick to execute and with clear reward at the end resulting in a satisfying play experience.
The key takeaway
The key is to have a plan to map the journey out into stages and break the stages down, so that even if most of this framework is then left in your notes, as a GM, you still have a guiderail to refer to.
Generally, a big draw in roleplaying and why it can be so enjoyable is that sense of development, growth and success that as players we get from playing our characters, no matter what the setting or system we use.
What can potentially damage that is a lacking of planning, effort and plotlines that drift and go nowhere or lack credibility.
What helps promote it is planning, credible encounters and story arcs and timely progress and development.
About the Author:
As well as playing board games, Neil has been playing a variety of roleplaying games since 1982, including creating campaigns as a GM and espousing the art and craft of being a good GM and the therapeutic value of games generally.
