Comments on: Short Sessions: Managing Subplots

By: age

age — Fri, 23 May 2008 09:15:17 +0000

WALT: I like the idea of using subplots to give a distanced PC something to do. I sometimes find that in some sessions, only certain Players are actually "participating" and others become merely "bystanders." I must remember to keep track of individual character tangents for such times.

By: sarasuperid

sarasuperid — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:52:12 +0000

One thing we have done, is to have other players take on a temporary GMing hat and run a side subplot scene with the other players. It keeps the excitement factor up, and only requires a few minutes between the temp GM and the main GM to set up.

By: Scott Martin

Scott Martin — Sat, 17 May 2008 00:05:16 +0000

Your solution is a great one Moonhunter. It just takes a group that's willing to step into other characters. It seems like a group full of GMs is a great place to try the technique. Is your group full of GMs?

By: MoonHunter

MoonHunter — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:00:01 +0000

We solve the subplot problem in many cases by two mechanisms Orbit Characters: These are the extras and minor characters that "orbit" around a player character or NPC. These are co-workers, land lords, bosses, the receptionist, the grocer down the street, the barista he flirts with, cab drivers, all those other lab jockeys, the other librarians, etc. Players who are not involved in a current scene are often assigned to "play these" characters. They are given any information or motivation they might have, and they are let loose to interact with the PCs. The players are awarded extra eps/ bonus dice/ something extra to reward them for playing out these scenes with othe other players. Those bonuses are applied to any one of the player's characters. Players like reprising their roles. (And most players like it when other players reprise the roles). In fact, some will even stop playing their main character a moment, just to run their orbit character. Some will take their EPs earned and apply them to the orbit character. It is a fascinating thing to watch. The Second are Enhanced Minion. Often times a character is inovled with a minor conflict elsewhere which excludes everyone else int he group. To solve this, the GM assigns players, who are not going to be inolved in what the GM is running, are assigned to various Villians and Minions dealing with this side conflict. (Even if the opposition are just mooks (low level bad guys), someone actually running them with sound tactics and such can make them much more formitable. ) They play out the conflict and do a great job of roleplaying it. (Earned EPs are duplicated between players rewards and villian rewards). The GM can focus on the scenes and plot lines that most of the players are involved in, but not sacrifice the subplot conflict the other PC is inovlved in. Both Methods allow you to keep players engaged in the game, and still allow the GM to keep the story going for all the players simultaneously.

By: BryanB

BryanB — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:19:08 +0000

TOMMI – Nice way to say what I was trying to get at in a much more simple and concise manner.

As page 290 of Spirit of the Century says, “Whatever the players are interested in is more important and better than anything you came up with. If your ideas are so good that player input ruins them, you should be writing novels instead of playing roleplaying games.”

By: Tommi

Tommi — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:02:59 +0000

I try to make the subplots the actual plot; in all likelyhood, players care more about them than anything I would have done, so I'll just let them do what they want and poke them if things slow down.

By: Grogtard

Grogtard — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:38:41 +0000

For most games, we've gone with a sort play by email system for subplots that involved a single PC. Other subplots get rolled into the main plot. For Cyberpunk and Shadowrun, I house ruled that deckers and hackers were npc's only. It prevented the side adventure effect plus as a GM it let me have a little better control over when the PC's would the valuable clues and other information.

By: BryanB

BryanB — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:00:30 +0000

I have often managed to integrate most subplots into the main story arc with some form of linkage. Often times, this doesn’t have to be a direct link at all, yet a direct link can be an effective method. I have examples for what I mean by a direct link and an indirect link.
In my last Star Wars Mini-Series, our Noble character (Jaris) had a sister named Katrina. Katrina was a bit on the wild side, hanging out in places that their Senator step-father would never approve of. Katrina was Force Sensitive and had fallen under the influence of Duron Dronos, the principle villain for the opening mini-series. Katrina eventually appeared in the game as a prisoner of some ruffians, the proverbial “damsel-in-distress.” In truth, she was actually a Sith Adept under the watchful eye of Dronos. She became directly involved in the story and Jaris made it a priority to save her from the dark side. Katrina was a direct link subplot (tied directly into the main plot).
Our Scout character (Doumar) was from the planet Taris. Taris had been devastated by the Sith during the Jedi Civil War. Doumar had spent a couple of years on Taris looking for his family. At the beginning of the game, Doumar was certain that his parents and sister were long dead. During the series, Doumar encountered a Transdoshan pirate/slaver captain that thought he “smelled” a lot like a female he had captured on Taris and had sold as a slave. Doumar also discovered that the likely owner was a former employer that had left him for dead. Thus Doumar uncovered two indirect subplots: his sister was alive but “who knows where” and an old enemy was likely in possession of her. The old enemy eventually emerged as a direct subplot as he was loosely connected with Dronos’ schemes, but Doumar’s sister wasn’t seen until the very end of the mini-series once she was found at a secret smuggling base on Tatooine.
I think sometimes that indirect subplots become direct subplots based upon the player’s focus. If Doumar had convinced the rest of the group to drop everything and find his sister, then it might have become a direct subplot. But Doumar and Jaris agreed that they would try to save Katrina (immediate peril) first, while meeting their obligations to the Republic, and then find Doumar’s sister at the earliest opportunity. So really, you might say that the player’s decided which subplot stayed indirect or became direct.

I hope that made some sense.