“Brainstorm. Outline. Visualize”

Once you have a basic understanding of “The Idea” of the scenario, the next thing to do is write up a basic outline. This helps as a reference to fall back to, and a secondary brainstorming exercise as you will be thinking about “The Idea” in more depth.

When writing a scenario outline, the number one rule is that “it doesn’t have to be good. It just has to connect.”

What I mean by that is that every plot point within the outline has to be connected. There needs to be a reasonably clear path from the beginning to the end. Whatever happens in the middle is up to the dice and the players.

Story Structure 101

My experience with writing has made me realize that it doesn’t matter what type of story you are trying to tell. All stories share a basic story structure. I know, what a revelation.

A very basic story structure is the beginning, climax, and ending. When we interact with stories, we want to know the beginning, as it builds up to the climax; the climax is what we are waiting for; and the end, as we want to see the aftermath of the climax.

Now, if you remember your Highschool English classes, you may remember that there are also rising actions and falling actions. Within these sections, we see the build-up to the climax, rising actions, and the aftermath of the climax, falling actions.

These concepts come from Freytag’s Pyramid, which includes two more points, but for a basic TTRPG scenario outline, we don’t need to worry about them. When making the outline, we just need to focus on the beginning, rising actions, climax, falling actions, and climax.

Collaborative Storytelling and the Rising/Falling Actions

One thing that makes TTRPGs stand out from other storytelling media is the collaborative storytelling that occurs as the stories are begin told. The entities involved in the storytelling are the players, GM, and the dice. This is an important point that is sometimes overlooked by beginners when creating scenarios or campaigns for the first time.

We get so focused on creating a fantastic story in TTRPG scenario writing that we sometimes forget that the story isn’t created until it is played by a gaming group. So when creating a scenario, we must remember that we aren’t creating a story but a guide that lets a story be told.

The reason why I kinda when off-topic there was for this next point. When it comes to the control within each section of the plot structure, in my opinion, it’s like this:

• GM: Has the control in the beginning…most of the time and the ending.
• Players: Has control during the rising actions, climax, falling actions, and the ending.
• Dice: All the control, always and forever. They are the deities of our imagination.

The Game Master does not have the most control. They set up the story, and they bring the story home. The Players and the dice are the ones that determine the “meat” of the story if that makes sense. So when creating the outline for our scenario, we must always consider the actions of the crazy, morally questionable, sugar-rushed players.

The Outline Example

So we are just going to go through writing out an outline for a scenario with what I talked about above.

I will use the “Midnight Mass” idea from my post “TTRPG Scenario Writing Tips #1| The Idea”. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll just leave this here to keep warm.

TTRPG Scenario Writing Tips #1| The Idea

So we developed these points for a CoC scenario. I’m going to change them a bit so that this outline can be relevant to other systems.

• A religious figure comes to a small mountain town suffering finically because of logging protestors.
• The religious figure supports the community and ensures that things will get better.
• Wildlife is being found dead, rumors of a giant creature stalking around town protests suddenly disappear, and people begin to hear the tree speak.
• The religious figure uses this town for a ritual to an old forest God, and an ancient creature has been aiding them behind the scene.

With these plot points, we can better understand the beginning, rising actions, climax, falling actions, and ending of our scenario.

• Beginning/Instigating Incident: A small mountain town is suffering financially. When things are really bad, an old towns member returns saying that they have experienced a religious awakening.

  • How are you suffering from the state of the town?
  • How do the PCs react to the returning town member (RTM) and their “religious awakening?”
• Rising Action: Some town members support the returning town member, while others don’t care. A few small dead animals are found near the town. Wounds look like it’s from a predator.

  • How are the other town members reacting to the PCs choice of supporting or not supporting the RTM?
  • How are the PCs reacting to the animal corpses?
• Rising Actions: More town’s people are starting to support the RTM. Rumors of an animal coming in and out of town. The drunk says it’s a monster. More animal corpses are being discovered.

  • How are the PCs reacting to the growing support for RTM?
  • How are the PCs going to react to the rumors?
  • How are the PCs going to react to the growing corpses?w
• Rising Actions: The protesters are gone (kidnapped and killed), and logging can continue without risk of sabotage. People are saying that it is because of the divine.

  • How do the PCs react to the missing protestors?
  • How do the PCs react to the people’s reaction to the situation?
• Rising Actions: The majority of the town’s people support the RTM. A human body is found. Devote supporters are claiming that they can hear the trees speak to them. The RTM claims that it is almost time to “give back” to the divine.

  • Are the PCs supporters of RTM? If not, how do the other town folks act towards them?
  • How do the PCs/town folks react to the human body?
• Climax: The ritual in the forest where the RTM tries to summon the Old Forest Deity.

  • How is the ritual affected based on the actions of the PCs during the rising actions?
• Falling Action: Ritual Success or Ritual Failed

  • Depends if and how well the PCs interfere with the climax.
• Ending: How the town recovers from the incident or how the town is forgotten and lost to ghost stories.

  • How are the PCs affected by the incident?

This is how I would create an outline for the scenario. I would add more details to the plot points and ensure that the plot points connect. Of course, an outline isn’t carved into stone, so if any changes are to be made, they can be made without editing large chunks of information.

Looking at the outline, you can see how nice it is to have a physical visualization of an idea and how much easier it is to manage. This is why outlines are very useful for any writing project.

It All Depends On The System

Since I am biased toward thrillers or horror theme scenarios, it is clear that the rising actions in my outline are a slow-burn approach. This might not be the best fit for all systems. For combat focus systems, I would shorten the rising actions down to two rising actions. I would also have the rising actions be events that the PCs have agency over, just as an environmental encounter or small combat that hints towards the climax encounter.

That being said, an outline should reflect the system that the scenario is being made for. If the system the scenario is for is combat focus, then there shouldn’t be a majority of social interactions compared to combat encounters. The reverse can be said about systems that focus on roleplaying.

Know the mechanics of the system you are writing for, and the scenario will be better.

Once the outline is finished, then after a break, you move on to the next section, The Detailing.