Sometimes gamemasters have great ideas for adventures. They know exactly what they want to do and how they want to do it. Sometimes, however, there may be times when a gamemaster will have to create an adventure when a game session is just a few days off and won't have a lot of time to develop a story from scratch. For those gamemasters with writer’s block and for those GMs who are relatively new to the process of creating their own adventures, the following discussion of a story development technique known as
plot slicing has been prepared.
Once the writer has their initial idea, they may select one or more descriptive verbs, which will ultimately describe what the main goals of the adventure will be. Examples of appropriate verbs for adventures in the Starflight universe include
Capture, Defeat, Defend, Discover, Destroy, Escort, Escape, Find, Intercept, Negotiate, Obtain, Patrol, Rescue, and
Survive. The more verbs an adventure has, the longer that adventure is likely to last. Selecting verbs is the first step in the slicing process, so it's necessary even if the initial idea is based on a specific set of events.
With the verbs selected, the writer should expound upon them in order to make them specific goals for the adventure. For example, if the verb
Defend was selected, it could be expanded to
Defend the disabled transport, or if
Rescue was selected, an expansion might be
Rescue the captured scientist. Once the goals have been set, the writer should put the goals in the order in which they want the characters to complete the goals. This will help set up the structure of the adventure’s storyline.
With specific goals in mind, the writer should begin asking themselves specific questions about the goals. The six writing Ws (Who, What, When, Where, Why and hoW) are all questions that should be asked (or "sliced") about each of the goals. For example, one of the goals of an adventure may be
Rescue the captured scientist. Some questions that can be asked of this goal may be “Where is the scientist being held?”, “Why is it important to rescue the scientist?”, “Who has the scientist?”, and “What will happen if the scientist is not rescued?”. A writer can and should ask as many questions to themselves about the goals as they can think of. For every question the writer thinks of, they must come up with an answer.
This is necessary, because if the writer can think of a question, so can a player in the middle of an adventure. If no answer is available, the writer (who is likely to also be the session's GM) is going to have to come up with something on the spot, and if they don't keep track of what they came up with there's going to be meta-game problems. The point of plot slicing is to keep the amount of improvisation that is absolutely necessary down to a bare minimum.
Now that the writer has answers to specific questions about their goals, the answers they came up with
should also be sliced. Ask the six questions again, this time about the answers. For example, let’s say the answer to the question "Where is the scientist being held" is “At a secret compound in the Nirvana star system.” Expanded questions on this can be “Who runs the compound?”, “Why is the scientist being held there?”, “How long will the scientist be held there?”, “When will the scientist be moved?”, ”What kind of compound is it?”, and “How complex is the compound?”. Once the initial answers to the questions have been sliced down into further answers, the writer has more of the details they need to create their story. The process of finding answers to questions, and then slicing those answers can be carried out to as much of an extreme as the writer wants. Each slice will fill in more and more details about the story, until the writer has as many details as they want. For Fast Action adventures, a writer may only need to go through a single round of slicing, while for Deep Immersion adventures, a writer will need to go through many levels. When the writer has reached the desired level of detail, they should be able to write down for themselves a specific plot-line of the adventure, outlining the goals and the specific details about each goal. This plot-line is known as an
adventure hook in RPG parlance.
With the adventure hook complete, the specific details of the story are now ready to be added to the adventure. The first of these details is a title. The purpose of the title is to distinguish the adventure from other adventures. The setting of the adventure should also be selected. Settings are particularly important, as an adventure can take place anywhere in the Starflight Universe, and can cover any imaginable type of terrain. The GM should then select their adventure's pacing (if the GM is really in a rush, it's recommended that their adventure be location-based due to the ease of creating that style of adventure).
Finally, with a title, setting and style selected, the plot should be formalized, with an introduction (how the character group gets involved in the adventure), a middle rising to a climax (the adventure itself, using the details gathered from the adventure hook), and a resolution (what happens to the characters when the adventure is completed, or what can happen to the characters should they not complete the adventure). At this point, development of the adventure splits it up into individual scenes, sites, events, encounters, and so forth. Once those details are complete, the adventure is ready for play.
Should the writer want to create a full-fledged campaign, they will need to go through this process several times, once for each adventure that makes up the campaign. These individual adventures should be considered as “episodes”, like an ongoing part of a television series. A writer can even create several linked episodic adventures even if they are not preparing a campaign, though traditional single-plot structures generally are better for single adventures.
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