How to Design RPG Situations Instead of Writing Plots
A lot of roleplaying adventures fail before the first session begins. That’s because they're prepared like stories that are waiting to be performed. The gamemaster writes an outline of events, and identifies the important scenes. They imagine a sequence of discoveries and confrontations, that, as they unfold, will lead the characters from the beginning of the adventure to its conclusion. Preparation looks like the outline of a novel or screenplay, and the expectation is that play will move through those encounters in roughly the same order, maybe missing a few or rearranging one or two.
That expectation rarely survives contact with the players, unless the gamemaster is somehow giving them hints or leading them to make certain decisions. A lot of us have been trained to think in terms of railroads and sandboxes. The campaign either runs in a straight line with a preset conclusion, which the players need to find and follow, or everything is freeform, and the gamemaster has to fly by the seat of their pants to keep up with the whims of the table.
The characters can investigate the wrong lead or trust the wrong person. They might ignore the inciting incident that was supposed to kick off the story. When this happens, the prepared plot gets pretty difficult to maintain. The gamemaster has to either guide the characters back toward the intended path, or invent new material on the spot to replace the scenes that were skipped. Preparation feels fragile or even futile, because the entire structure depends on events unfolding in a specific way or being totally improvised.
A reliable and less stressful approach starts with designing situations instead of writing plots. Rather than deciding what the characters need to do, the gamemaster prepares the conditions that surround them. The situation contains a problem that can't remain unresolved. Several people or factions, all of whom have reasons to intervene, are in the mix. Pressures make the problem increasingly difficult to ignore. As soon as those elements exist, the player characters are free to respond however they choose.
The first step is identifying the instability at the center. Something in the world has changed, or threatens to change, and that generates tension. A city’s treasury has been robbed, or a powerful figure has vanished. Some dangerous secret has begun to circulate among rival groups. The instability doesn't determine how the story will unfold, but it establishes the reason events are in motion.
After identifying the unstable condition, the gamemaster can consider who’s affected by it and what each of those groups wants to happen next. Factions rarely share the same goals; one might attempt to conceal the truth, as another works to expose it. A third can try to profit from the confusion. These motivations guaranteed that the situation continues to evolve, even when the characters aren't present.
Picture this: the crown jewels have disappeared from the royal treasury. Three groups immediately become involved in the crisis. The city guard wants to recover the jewels quickly, before the theft undermines public confidence in the crown. The thieves’ guild insists that one of its rivals must have staged the crime, and quietly searches for proof that will protect its reputation. The royal court fears that the jewels were taken by a political enemy, and starts pressuring investigators to produce results.
When these forces exist, the situation naturally generates pressure. Rumors spread through the city, as suspects attempt to hide their involvement. Factions take risks to secure their own interests. If the characters ignore the problem, the other groups will still move forward with their plans unabated. The world continues changing, even as the players are deciding how they want to intervene.
When the characters enter the situation, they encounter a living problem rather than a sequence of scripted scenes. They can investigate the theft, bargain with a faction, expose another, or pursue a solution that no one anticipated. There is no “wrong”, but they’re opportunity to exercise imagination and creative collaboration. Every decision alters the balance between the groups, and that produces consequences that will reshape the scenario.
Those consequences create the next stage of the story. Helping the thieves’ guild can provoke retaliation against the player characters from the city guard. Discovering new information can reveal that the jewels were never stolen at all, but secretly removed by the crown. A failed attempt to solve the crime can allow the conflict between factions to escalate, resulting in deeper tension and further consequences to the setting.
Preparation based on situations fundamentally changes the role of the gamemaster. Instead of predicting the path the characters will follow, preparation centers on creating an environment where different forces pursue their goals. They react to what the characters attempt. The story grows from the interaction between player decisions and the pressures already present in the world.
Plot assumes that the story already exists, and the characters will move through it. A situation assumes the opposite. The story hasn't happened yet, and it will emerge from the actions the characters take once the world begins to move around them.
