Pre planned arc / Pre planned mysteries

[BraidsMamma]

Hi!
As you can tell by the number of new threads of this forum I'm starting up a new campaign in the post ENT-era.
One of the things I have realised by watching a lot of TV-series is that the key is not only a pre planned story arc (as in what will happen in the future) but also to have pre planned
mysteries (as in what allready has happened and what secrets the characters are hiding).


Shows like Veronica Mars and Desperate Housewives set up each season with a mystery which is allready planned through from the start but is given away to the wiewers a piece at a time
throughout the whole season with everything revealed (usually with a big twist) in the finale.

And a show like Battlestar Galactica got even further and set up a lot of big questions early in
the series and then kept the wiewers waiting for most of the answers until the final season*

Comparing there shows to Enterprise (a series that I like, despite all of it's flaws) the only big question it sets up early is the identity of the Evil Future Guy and the nature of the temporal cold war.....
And we all know how well that was handeled.
Even though most of the season 1 and 2 TCW episodes were quite good they still leave a bad taste in my mounth because of how obvious it is that nothing was planned.

Now as I'm starting to plot my new series I have two ideas for arcs/mysteries

1. The mirror universe, and the origin of the Tholians
- The Tholians are natives of the MU who are on an exodus to the prime universe because of a loosing war with the Terran Empire**

2. The mystery that is Section 31
- One of the player characters has been an agent of S31 since our last campaign


Anyway.
My question to you is what you think of all of this?
Does a Star Trek RPG series need a pre planned arc or even pre planned mysteries to be good?
And in that case, how do we create those and make them an enjoyable experience for our players?


* Yes, I know that the writers didn't make up most of the answers themselves until quite a while into the series but the questions and mysteries where there from the start and kept us in the audience wanting more clues.

** With the player's evil counterparts in major roles in the war of course

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Comparing there shows to Enterprise (a series that I like, despite all of it's flaws) the only big question it sets up early is the identity of the Evil Future Guy and the nature of the temporal cold war.....
And we all know how well that was handeled

The problem with those were that the lead writers (admittedly) didn't have a plan for them. That's not 'flexibility,' that's 'anti-plan.' Contrast this with DS9, which didn't have the entire war plot planned out, but there existed significant in-house discussion on what the Dominion wanted, how they operated and other details that made the stuff you make up later make sense within that framework.

Does a Star Trek RPG series need a pre planned arc or even pre planned mysteries to be good?

No, not really. But they can help, and if you want characters in one episode to be acting as catspaws for larger forces then you should take the time to figure out:

1. what they want.
1a. the guys at the top (behind the curtain)
1b. the guys at the bottom (the guys who show up in episodes most of the time)
2. how they operate.
3a. what the players will want from them. For antagonist groups, this is often "For them to stop."
3b. and the means the players could have of getting it. This being Trek, "Stopping the villain" doesn't necessarily mean aggressive action against them. Learning why they're doing what they're doing, and offering alternatives is not only possible but encouraged (unlike, say, default D&D, where buying off the orc guarding the pie is frowned upon).

[Pericles]

My question to you is what you think of all of this?
Does a Star Trek RPG series need a pre planned arc or even pre planned mysteries to be good?

From my perspective, I've seen and run Trek campaigns that were completely episodic like the series that were very enjoyable. So, I would say no a Trek series does not have to have a pre planned arc.

And in that case, how do we create those and make them an enjoyable experience for our players?

However, as I have grown as a GM, I have found having a 'primary story arc' can really hold a group's interest in a campaign. Typically, I pick some central driving theme, like you already have, then block out the episodes for the season. I then weave primary story arc episodes with what I call secondary plots, usually based on one of the PC's backgrounds, to keep the PCs guessing. How much progress the PCs make on the primary story arc is based on how long I think the series will run. Since I know real life likes to stick in it's two cents, I build each season with a primary story arc and wrap that story by the end of each season.

I guess if I thought I could count on a long term set of players, I'd build something on a long term plot like DS9 did, but that is asking an awful lot of players, so I personally stick to the season long structure.

[Cut]

In my oppionion a pre-planned (or at least well exexuted) story arc is something most RPG-campaigns would benefit from greatly.

Difficulties are coming up with something, that really spurs the interest of all the players in the group, is fitting to the setting and narratable in a reasonable amount of time.

1. The mirror universe, and the origin of the Tholians
- The Tholians are natives of the MU who are on an exodus to the prime universe because of a loosing war with the Terran Empire**

The first three books of the Star Trek - Vanguard series offer some interesting interpretations on the history of the Tholians. Not quite MU, but interesting non-theless.

[Alex]

In my oppionion a pre-planned (or at least well exexuted) story arc is something most RPG-campaigns would benefit from greatly.

And what do you do when your pre-planned arc is blown to smitherines by players who either fail somewhere along the way or do something so unexpected it makes you throw all your planned material out the window? I've found pre-planning RPG material to be counter productive. Growing the game dynamically as it is played has the best results but it is clearly the most challenging for the GM.

Still, setting themes for each season, including a big mystery or adversary, is helpful and gets the players/viewers more involved in your story. But be careful not to plan out specifically everything that gets revealed and when, because players always sabotage your plans.

[Cut]

There is no problem with what I said:

I think a pre planned story arc with a mystery that has been prepared is a nice thing to have. Once you have that, let the characters deal with it, as they see fit.

I said nothing about railroading or writing entire scenarios or episodes that would have to be played exactly as written.

I was more thinking about a general direction and a theme for the campaign, that would be underlying the story and could be discovered, used or left aside by the players as it comes up.

[Kirk Johnson-Weider]

Okay I am going to show how I am doing things in my current campaign set in 2377 as it is pretty typical to how I do things, for better or worse. This is a duet campaign so it is a little more detailed then most campaigns.

So what I do is develop several story arcs and then flit between them, so that if the PC scuttles one story arc I have another one to fall back on.

Arc #1 is the Coalition of Independent Worlds, which is a descendant of the Maquis and is working to form an anti-Federation. Basically, a Federation, but without the ethical and moral restrictions on its member worlds. Dipping into canon, I have Thomas Riker who got rescued by the Romulans from his Cardassian prison and have him as the guy running the show. The Romulans are providing support to this group to just stir up trouble for the Federation. The PC has only learned a little of this, but her ship is in the middle of an area where the Coalition is strengthening. The PC has encounter a Bradbury-class frigate (with a cloaking device) captained by Starfleet deserters from the War. The captain of the ship was desperate for experienced crewmen during the War and recruited former Starfleet officers from a penal colony or two - promising them pardons for their aid. After a particularly bad engagement there was a mutiny, the captain and senior officers eliminated, and they went pirate. Now they work for the Coalition of Independent Worlds - though they are a loose cannon. This is the main story arc at the moment.

Arc #2 is neural parasites. I am running with the idea that the neural parasites from TOS and TNG while very different were from the same source. I'm not sure which, but I have had the PC encounter a Kobheerian scientist who believes the parasites are active in the crumbling Cardassian Union. The PC is paranoid about neural parasites now and while they haven't shown up per se she is looking into it.

Arc #3 is the Cardassian Union has plunged into civil war. Romulans supporting one side, Federation another, and few in the middle doing their own thing. Lots of potential in this, but so far the PC and her ship has only been hearing about this in news and intel reports.

Arc #4 is the Federation being desperate to establish a stronger presence in this region - with either new colonies, recruiting members, or just securing allies. The area is contentious so that makes it difficult and Starfleet is spread thin, but this is a recurring story arc that is developing as the campaign progresses.

Okay so there are four story arcs and for each episode I can tap into one (or two) of these story arcs for an adventure. Actually, with these arcs the adventures write themselves. In addition, I have the PC (Chief Engineer) dealing with her department, which has some challenges, and working with the other officers. She also has a romance with the Chief Tactical Officer that is developing. To keep her in most issues, she is also the Intelligence Officer for the ship - which gives her intel briefings and gives her an important role in most situations.

Everything is set. Then I just toss out problems and adventures and see what happens, then I adjust things for the actions of the PC. So what if she crushes the Coalition of Independent Worlds somehow - I have three other arcs to fall back on. The trick is to keep everything moving, sometimes stuff will happen off stage and that's fine. In fact, the Cadassian Civil War may be resolved with very little influence from the PC's ship - that's okay, but as long as everything is moving forward it makes the campaign feel real.

The main trick is to not be married to any single element of the campaign. If the PC manages to snare the Bradbury-class frigate in some trap then good for her and her ship. Those bad guys are taken care off and we move on. Any GM can come up with a better idea than the one he has so let the PCs do their thing and create something new for the next adventure.

Remember, GMs create problems and not solutions, that is the responsibility of players. Just set the stage, step back, and then adjudicate things based on what the PCs have done. It does work and gives you a fluid and nonlinear campaign.

[Alex]

So what I do is develop several story arcs and then flit between them, so that if the PC scuttles one story arc I have another one to fall back on.

That's a great idea. I should have thought of that sooner!

[The Tatterdemalion King]

And if everything is going really well, then all four can be combined into one (The Romulans are funding the Coalition and both sides of the civil war, and the neural parasites are behind it all!) for a gigantic blockbuster finale.

[Kirk Johnson-Weider]

Exactly - and then you take a few weeks break from the campaign and come up four new story arcs for the next season!

[BraidsMamma]

I agree completely that the campaing should be flexible towards how the players play the game, that is the whole piont of role-playing (even though it sometimes is easier said than done).
What I'm trying to do with my new campaign is to have planned a mystery, something that allready is in place when the series starts, just that the PCs doesn't know about it yet.

Much like the murder mysteries of early Veronica Mars or Desperate Housewives or of the identity of the cylons and the nature of head six in Battlestar Galactica (oh, I miss that show!).

Then a lot of the story develops around the players finding out more and more about the truth.

In my campaign so far there are 3 such mysteries in place.
The series takes place on the first Daedalus class ship in 2161.

1. Section 31
In my last campaign (2153-2156) Section 31 was founded by one of the major NPCs and he recruited two of the PC to the section.
That means that by the year 2161 when the campaign starts Section 31 still only consists of 5 agents, one being a current PC and two of them being former PCs (all of this unknown to all but one of the players).

With only 5 agents in S31 I can easily keep track of how much they know of eachother, their internal hierarchy and their varying plans for the Section.

There are many obvious ways to create great storylines for that and to interwene this arc with the other ones.

2. Tholian Exile

As I allready has said, in my universe the Tholians are natives of the MU who are on an exodus to the Prime Universe because of a loosing war with the Terran Eprire (ruled by the PCs counterparts).
The PCs will first get hints about a new power establishing deep in the alpha quadrant.
Later they will learn more about this new power and try to fight if off.
And finally they will learn about the Tholian origin and possibly choose to assiste the rebellion against the Empire in the MU.

3. The experiment

One of the characters is the result of an genetic experiment and she joined starfleet after escaping from her creators. She is currently trying to blend in and not get the attention of the group who creathed her.
I have still to figure out what is so special about her but I'm sure that when I do Section 31 will be very interested to exploit it (and we are back to the first arc).