In the last tutorial in this series we explored story theme, style, and laying down the initial framework of characters, plot, and setting. Today, we will talk about using causality to add details, and more importantly connections, to all the aspects of our game.

The Third Layer: Causality

Let’s take a moment to look at what we have accomplished so far. If you have followed the steps in the previous tutorial we know the following things:

• A Story Theme
• A Story Style
• Basic Setting Information
• Vague descriptions of major characters
• A few major plot points

In this step, we are going to add details to the setting, characters, and plot, but what we aren’t going to do is add them willy nilly. I know I’ve stressed this a lot, but I think its time to stress it again (hopefully if I say this enough people will really catch on): The most important part of a story is how all the parts connect and move together. So, in this layer we will add details by looking at causality. Continue reading →

Ask a dozen RPG fans what the most important part of an RPG is and eleven of them will probably respond with the same thing: Story. That’s not to say that you can skimp on the other portions of the game, but it does mean story should be a major concern.

What is a Story?

When discussing the story of an RPG, I think the first thing to do is define what we mean by story. The definition I play to use for this tutorial is this: Story is the combination of the setting, characters, and plot, and how they interact with each other. While the individual parts are important, the most important portion is the interaction. How does the setting affect the plot? How does the plot affect the characters? How do the characters affect the setting? Continue reading →