The Big List of RPG Plots

[Rustdragon]

http://www.io.com/~sjohn/plots.htm

Sorry if this has been posted before. Maybe Bioware, Bethesda, etc should look at this list for what not to put in their games since it has already been done. Or maybe they could improve their current quests from it (more likely). Any plots missing??

 

[bryce777]

I just think it's stupid because it's like saying having a sword is cliche, so instead everyone will whack each other with golf clubs.

Most of those plots are ridiculously general, so it is pretty ridiculous to expect not to use any one them. Such as defending a location. Or attacking a location. It's just stupid....

 

[Twinfalls]

I got the impression the page was put up more as a resource to help ideas get jogging, rather than a list of 'cliches to avoid'....

 

[Micmu]

I got the impression the page was put up more as a resource to help ideas get jogging, rather than a list of 'cliches to avoid'....

It is. And for PnP.

 

[bryce777]

Well, in that case it's even sillier; do we genuinely need things to be yet more formulaic? If you are reduced to that, may as well give up.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Well, in that case it's even sillier; do we genuinely need things to be yet more formulaic? If you are reduced to that, may as well give up.

I think it's nearly impossible to get more formulaic than they are right now. There's several of those ideas that would be nice to see in a modern CRPG as opposed to the "Go here and kill this" and "Roam around until you find # items" which pretty much seems to be the only two quests CRPGs have these days.

Help ward off an attack on a town? That would be nice. It's been done in several games, but not exactly done enough and not always done right. Oddly enough, Fallout Tactics did a decent job with this.

The prison escape one wouldn't be bad if it involved more than "You're free! Now kill everyone in the maze and get out!", which is what most of them are like. That method has always seemed really half assed to me. There should be something a little clever about how to escape a prison.

 

[bryce777]

I liked prison in space rangers 2. You can escape, but it is not that easy, and it is easy to get killed.

 

[Section8]

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article255.asp has another list of generic plotlines to be applied when brainstorming a plot.

The original link posted is interesting though, and I think it's quite a good resource, for both PnP and CRPG campaigns. A lot of the plotlines listed are fairly generic vignettes that could theoretically be inserted and adapted into a plotline.

The tips at the end are especially applicable -

All of the plots here can provide a tried-and-true, simple structure, and structure is all you need a plot for in a roleplaying game. Remember to play to the strengths of the medium - most all of which are about character, not plot. Only in an RPG can you experience a fictional character on a personal, first-hand level. Outline your adventures to make the most of that. Any plot that contains more than a basic structure is more likely to pull attention away from character, and that's burning the bridge for firewood.

That's really an excellent summation of how an RPG narrative should function, and it's what puts Fallout head and shoulders above its kin.

And as Saint mentioned, a lot of that list is far more interesting than kill tasks or FedExing.

Help ward off an attack on a town? That would be nice. It's been done in several games, but not exactly done enough and not always done right. Oddly enough, Fallout Tactics did a decent job with this.

I honestly wasn't very impressed with the way that turned out (Help the Ghouls defend their church against the Mutants, right?) especially since the Tactics AI was far better suited to defensive positions, but people seemed to like that mission. Maybe it was a welcome respite from inching around the map and watching your squad fire automatically at everything.

I agree there's definitely potential when somebody finally gets a "Help Ward Off" quest right. They're perfectly suited to RPGs and fantasy battles in particular, because it manages to give a feeling of broad conflict between large forces, but also makes the player feel important if they're the deciding factor tipping it in favour of the side they chose.

Likewise with "Prison Break." It would be difficult to implement, but I'd love to see something where the player has to actually dedicate patience, thought and skill to planning and executing an escape over a long period of time rather than the usual "OMG teh gatez are open fite are way out!!!"

Great resource, so cheers for the link Rustdragon.

 

[LlamaGod]

I think the main problem with current plots is everyone is trying to do the same stupid fantasy moive OMGEPIC thing with the stupid 'discover you're the savior and become the hero of towns small and large, though the main and side quests'

It's crazy because RPGs have done that since forever and people are still shitting that plot out

I myself want more plots that just involve you trying to accomplish a goal for yourself. It doesn't have to be real intracate, but just something like that.

Like you've been poisoned by some wacky ass poison and you've got to go and find some cure or that you're trying to get off of an island.

The island situation wouldn't work in any 3D first person retardo games, though. All the water would have to be invisible walls and that would be kinda weird.

 

[kris]

Like you've been poisoned by some wacky ass poison and you've got to go and find some cure or that you're trying to get off of an island.

Gave me a great idea of how to start a game. You passed by a village that got hit by a sickness, got infected and the village quarantined. You could then either try to get out (but if you do you will infect others) or try to find a cure in the village before you leave.

I'd love the conclusion for a player infecting the world just because "he had to" get out of there while infected. :D

 

[Sol Invictus]

If the cure was in the village then they wouldn't be sick. No, that does not make for fun gaming. Instead, the player should be forced out of the village to find the cure, infecting those he comes into contact, to save his village. It'll create a lot of moral issues for the player to deal with.

 

[bryce777]

I think the main problem with current plots is everyone is trying to do the same stupid fantasy moive OMGEPIC thing with the stupid 'discover you're the savior and become the hero of towns small and large, though the main and side quests'

It's crazy because RPGs have done that since forever and people are still shitting that plot out

I myself want more plots that just involve you trying to accomplish a goal for yourself. It doesn't have to be real intracate, but just something like that.

Like you've been poisoned by some wacky ass poison and you've got to go and find some cure or that you're trying to get off of an island.

The island situation wouldn't work in any 3D first person retardo games, though. All the water would have to be invisible walls and that would be kinda weird.

I like the idea of the old DnDs. No plot, just the desire to find and loot dungeons. Plots might sort of happen, but the first gold box game where your goal is simply to clear phlan of mosters was just awesome.

 

[Section8]

I like the idea of the old DnDs. No plot, just the desire to find and loot dungeons. Plots might sort of happen, but the first gold box game where your goal is simply to clear phlan of mosters was just awesome.

Yeah, I think there is a certain point where story can be detrimental to the game. Doom would be my favourite shooter of all time, and any meagre portions of "plot" can be skipped almost instantly. It's a fucking great game, and it's not using the empty promise of "epic storyline" to buoy it up.

To me, storyline is all to often just another crutch, like glitzy graphics, or cutting edge physics. I believe a game should be judged by the interactivity it provides, although certainly peripheral elements such as narrative or visuals can enhance the experience.

I'm replaying ToEE at the moment, and the RPing and narrative elements are actually wearing on me. They're not terrible, they're just fairly shallow, so I feel as though time spent wandering around Hommlet is time wasted where I could be better served hacking and slashing through some great turn-based D&D battles.

 

[bryce777]

It's all about the gameplay - why designers can't get this, I have no idea. When you have a plot that has all kind of scripted crap that affects the gameplay, it is also super annoying.


The problem with toee besides the bugs is that all the quest stuff is in one area, and all the fighting in another (though there are some quests there if you are or pretend to be evil, too). If they had just broken the game up a bit it would be ten times better storywise.

 

[LlamaGod]

My idea for the poison thing was that some crazy ol' wizard/scientist developed a poison in order to cause a problem in the kingdom you live in, in order to get to some goal.

Anyways, he doesn't care much about human life so he picks you to be his test subject for the poison. It's a slow and withering poison that makes people go all batty and eventually shirvel up and die and he wants to make sure it works

You get infected with the poison and some how one of his spies he sends to monitor you dies in someway and you find a vague note talking about watching you and things about poison.

Not taking it lying down, you set out to find who poisoned you and where he's hiding, in order to get a cure for yourself.

The storyline can be progressed by small hints and clues about the world.


A fun thing for this storyline is that NPCs will generally not be throwing themselves to your cause, since it doesnt involve them. You're the one going through the poison and they will probably think you're crazy anyways.

Different from usual RPGs where some greater evil is theatening the world so people ally with you to stop that evil force.



So it'd be similiar to Fallout, where you have a time limit and an open world with NPCs generally that dont give a hoot about your problem (Who gives a damn about a water chip!?), which could be designed to have alot of non-linear goodies.

You could make the encounter with the wizard/scientist guy very interesting too, using the characters stuff for roleplaying. Lots of options to choose for the ending.

 

[bryce777]

Sounds like the plot to thingfish.

If it didn't kill you, then it sure made you ugly. And if you was already ugly, it made you mean and ugly, and if you was already mean and ugly, it turned you into some kind of strange unknown creature, never before seen on broadway. It turned you into a mammy nun!

 

[Greatatlantic]

Yes... the potion will give you abnormal defects, but which come with some sort of bonus. Sure, you now three arms, but the third arm is just perfectly situated to scratch that hard to reach place is on your back. Or you suffer from terrible nightmares, but those nightmares give you clues about your surroundings or future events. That plot could go a long way to making a good cRPG game, if anyone in the industry could take a risk on something other then defeating some ultimate evil.

 

[TheGreatGodPan]

That reminds me of Eternal Darkness where your character reads the letter intended for Charlemagne and slowly turns into a zombie, then you come back again with a later character to put that earlier character out of his misery.

 

[Keldryn]

Pretty much any plot can be great, if it's pulled off well. A cast of memorable, well-developed characters and immersive gameplay can bring depth to even the most shallow plot. And a convoluted, off-the-wall plot means nothing if the characters are boring and the gameplay is severely lacking.

Just my 2 cents.