Unreleased Draft from [3-18-17]: Developing rapid synopsis system

One of my private goals this year is to develop a random synopsis tool. This could be used to create story ideas as well as adventure quest seeds.

The need comes from both writing and adventure creating perspectives.

The Character Generator that I made is part of this system. However, I am trying to retool my ABS12 Story Engine to present more story possibilities.

That way I come up with a random synopsis pieces that may present something like.

Keywords generated: Investigator, metamorphose, internal conflict, society, war

A young inquisitive man goes through a metamorphosis in the hellish battlefields of Armageddon. 

So, I kind of know how I want it to work. I just need to actually make the pieces to produce the breadth of results that I want, yet fits my current die roll limits.

[Notes to this previously unreleased draft: This longer 2nd post last updated the same day as the prior post sketches out in further detail of what the structured sentence was hoping to help create. Grammar fuel has been a massive expansion of this initial concept, which I admit now reaches further than I thought back then. I imagined the 144 tools back then, which is referred to as "my current die roll limits," as the created main vehicle for helping to create such a synopsis, but back then also wished for something more massive, open world, and flexible. If you have inferred this because of my use of the words "die roll limits" then you are correct.

Currently, I may have created an even more ambitious goal than the Grammar Fuel series, which I don't know if it will ever be created beyond a few notes and experiments that I have here or there. Sometimes I make new goals after creating something, if doing so still interests me.]

Winter Creative Writing: Plot

Winter Creative Writing: Plot

By Ken Wickham

Winter Creative Writing: Plot by Ken Wickham © 2019
All rights reserved.

This blog post or parts may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise for any other person—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Random Adventure Seed Generation

Following the steps found in the Minimalist Adventure Seed Engine

1. Conflict: Plot Generator 6,2 necessity - something is needed
2. Enemy: Foe Generator 2, 7 mammal - a vicious mammal is the antagonist or cause for what is needed
3. Theme: Theme Generator 12, 3 dueness vs undueness - the condition of being planned or expected at a certain time —timing—is the theme for this plot
4. Motivation: Motivation Generator 10, 7 experience (personality) - a personality that desires experience is the motivation for the plot
5. Mood: Mood-Emotion Generator 3, 12 dejected (sadness) - depressed, sad, dispirited

Emotional Reaction Engine: Sadness = withdrawal or slow down + loss [need to heal]

Random Plot Interpretation

A vicious mammal yesterday attacked and killed a villager. A surviving witness that experienced the attack described a ravenous hulking beast. The victim was a  prominent villager. A tremendous feeling of loss envelops the community. The village is withdrawn to the safety of their homes, terrified at the loss of life from a prominent villager. A bounty reward is placed on the beast, and it will be given to whomever hunts and takes down the beast. Hopefully, this will be accomplished before it strikes another villager. Time is of the essence.

Story Mechanisms: creating a story profile instructions (part 6)

Click on image to enlarge

This is the sheet of what has been created so far.

https://www.rpgnow.com/product/257257/Story-Mechanisms

Expanding the story part 2

So far in this series I've made a basic story structure sheet, began constructing a story by selecting the basic story elements, decided to star the main character Dakota, and in last post created an argument opening scene between Dakota and Rowan.

Next, I'll roll for an inciting event. 

Inciting Event

Something important destroyed

Now I need to brainstorm. First, I'll write some of the prior keywords.

physical-based story
Dakota's social acknowledgment and self-actualizing from ugliness motivation
stop or destroy either the foe or the foes' giant ooze creatures
trying to attack an elvish village
archaeological dig, elvish ancient ruins, Expansions-age
character might be considered ugly
magical candelabra
stinky glob of ooze
"I'll kill you," Dakota heard Rowan say.

My main question is "what is the important thing destroyed."

Maybe it can relate to the archaeological dig. Maybe it can involve the ooze. Maybe it can involve the village.

I know! A archaeological golden statue is found.




Dakota scraped away dirt revealing gold.

Soon more frantic, Dakota quickly removed dirt until face to foot, a mysterious beautiful lady stood regal and powerfully looking at Dakota.

News quickly spread throughout the camp of the discovery.

Later that day, most of the elegant statue had carefully been uncovered from layers of dirt.

Dakota had even skipped eating.

What began as screams across the dig site soon amplified.

Looking towards the screams, a large bright blob slowly was moving this way.

Quickly standing, everyone moved away from the entombed room and moved outside.

The yellow ooze moved to the gold statue and surrounded it.

A sizzling sound and gray steam came from the blob and statue.

Dakota watched as the ultimate beautiful priceless find dissolved into molten blob.

The discovery was now gone.






Okay, now that sets the story up with a foe and a danger that Dakota must now be involved with.

First Conflict

What is needed to fight this foe?


The first conflict will be to try finding something to fight this ooze foe.

Difficulty Challenge: 1, easy; annoying.

Although the final conflict is going to be a physical one, this first conflict makes more sense being an investigation type conflict. I'll use my One-Roll RPG skill and stats mixed with my Flash RPG (RFRPG) and Three Conflict Chain RPG (3CC) rules.

I'll set up the challenge at the end of the inciting event.



Dakota needs stats.

I'm wording these using One-Roll Fudge RPG (ORF) terminology and stats, since I've recently made that game.

Mind: Good
Body: fair
Soul: Fair

Skill: Academics-archaeology: good (+1); fight-martial arts: fair (0); investigate: fair (0)

Roll for resolution for mind & investigate = (good (+1)+ fair (0)) + roll (2) = great (ORF) or +2 over the difficulty challenge for 3CC results Rolling over the difficulty by 2 means victory, with a twist. Although you succeeded roll for a twist to see what has changed.

Because of Dakota's fair

Twist

Rolling for twist result.

Twist in location.


Now time to write something out. The twist of location I'll fit into a different scene. Rowan will not be living nor staying at the same frequent location.

First a reaction scene





Dakota looked at pile of molten metal and gold. Dakota felt a sinking feeling—most of the excitement now turned to dread and hopelessness.

This was supposed to by my career-making discovery!

"Why did the blob eat the statue," one younger assistant asked.

Why indeed? "I don't know," Dakota simply said.

Dakota's mind filled with painful images, the glugging, slurping, and glurping sounds amplified.

And then the horrific event ended.

Dakota looked towards the ooze moving away from the area. Rowan stood and smiled—almost in glee—holding the candelabra up and nodding this way.

I need to find something to resist acid, Dakota thought. Or destroy it! Or stop —that person...

Dakota watched Rowan walk following the ooze off into the distance.




So, already Dakota should know who did it, what was used, and what caused ooze attack.
Dakota already solved how to fight the foe. And the character will now become an active participant in future conflict events. Rowan, however as a result of the twist, will not be easy to find.


Next posts
So far, the story has resolved the first conflict sort of by solving the first question quickly. The next post will go into the next conflict.

Story Mechanisms: creating a story profile instructions (part 5)

https://www.rpgnow.com/product/257257/Story-Mechanisms

Expanding the story

So far in this series I've made a basic story structure sheet and last time I began constructing a story by selecting a fantasy genre and the basic story elements, one of which I decided to star the main character Dakota that I created in October for Character Mechanisms.

Created last time

Based on the rolled results the story is a physical-based story where the main character must destroy either the foe or the foes' giant ooze creatures that are trying to attack an elvish village because of some social affection issue. The hero must stop or destroy the ooze in order to save the village.

Maybe Dakota at some point in the past interacted with each other, Dakota did something that created this desire to attack the village with the giant ooze. In all likelihood, The foe maybe was attracted to Dakota and wanted to pursue a relationship. Maybe this character might be considered ugly, which clashes with Dakota's social acknowledgment and self-actualizing from ugliness motivation.

Story Challenge

Using Story Mechanisms has challenged me with a story that I don't think that I would have ever created on my own. That is one great I think. It forces me to expand my writing ability. I do like how the story has a motive, the affection of the foe.

Story Themes and Conflicts

Themes

Three themes naturally can be assigned to this story which I find just looking over one of my charts for ideas. The affections is listed on my Theme Generator as affections vs feelings. For looks, I have vanity vs modesty. There is also love vs hate which fits a revenge motive.

Three Conflict Chain RPG

Opening

Although I know the main conflict, I want to look into the story for further conflicts and details. First is the beginning of the story.

A dialogue can help to establish the main character and the setting.

Argument between relationship.

Okay, so I will begin the story with an argument between two characters. I'll pull out one of my Character Mechanisms tool, the Dialogue Engine to do this.

I first look at the hostile/anger mood and topic chart.

Threat.
I'm/We’re going to...

In this argument, there is going to be a threat.

What type of character would be interesting to argue with Dakota—a skeptical charismatic character? 

I'll name the foe another gender neutral name, Rowan.

Probably a guardian type character that is trying to hold onto some type of ideal is the exact opposite of a skeptical character. Instead of questioning things, the guardian tries to preserve and return back to the past when things seemed to be better. Also, I can make this character more blunt and less charismatic. Appearance wise, maybe I can do something with elf ears. Maybe one elf ear is smaller than the other elf ear. And maybe his nose is bigger than normal. These two traits plus the blunt guardian personality might make this foe into a less attractive character.

Guardian

I/We should/have to… I (don't)
like...

I'm going to maybe use the archaeology of Dakota maybe as a common thread.

Both Rowan and Dakota are archaeologists excavating ancient elvish ruins when they come across something that causes an argument maybe it is something that leads to the giant ooze conflict. It could be an ancient powerful object.

I'll use Description Generator for some keywords.

11, 3 U shaped

This reminds me of a candelabra.

I'll try to throw some notes down for an argument scene over a candelabra at an elvish archaeological site. I'll just see where the writing takes these two characters.




Opening

"It's just a broken down brass lamp," Dakota said in a low quiet voice to Rowan.

Rowan eyebrows became tense and his uneven ugly ears turned red. "This is a magical candelabra, it's not junk." he said holding the bent and mangled crappy waste-of-time object in his hand. A small stinky glob of ooze pulsed where a candle should sit. "We have to preserve and study this Expansion-age power. It could be powerful. The ancients Expansions-age elves had greater knowledge and understanding than we even know today," Rowan said, looking at the object as if it were a lover.

"Huh? It's worthless and hideous," Dakota simply said.

Dakota turned to look towards the still-to-be excavated room. "Maybe there is a exquisite golden object somewhere in here."

A hand suddenly grabbed around from behind on the shirt collar.

Dakota smashed with a backfist, the fist hitting the ear of Rowan. Dakota heard Rowan hit the ground, but Dakota began to walk away.

Rowan then was breathing harder and harder, the air rushing in and out, echoing through the dig site chambers. His bulbous nose sniffled.

"I'll kill you," Dakota heard Rowan say. And then louder ,"I'll kill you!"

"Take your crappy thing and get away from me," Dakota said, deciding to stay away from Rowan for good.


I didn't know what this argument would look like until I wrote the words. It's good enough for now. I think I have written and developed the story enough for this post.

The next post

With that opening, the next posts I will try to figure out how the story can escalate.

Story Mechanisms: creating a story profile instructions (part 4)

Now for a Story Mechanisms instruction creation, testing, and example creation.

https://www.rpgnow.com/product/257257/Story-Mechanisms

Using the Story Plot Diagram

Here is the basic story structure constructed sheet.

Click on image to enlarge

This shows the basic structure of a story flow and information found in the Story Mechanisms book.

It shows the story beginning, middle, and end.

The slope is the rising tension up to the final conflict, the climax.

1. Flash RPG is the first book in the series. Flash RPG (FRPG) game adds the several fundamental story elements on to this diagram sheet: Genre, Setting, Foe, Conflict, Character, Result, and Lasting Effects are the main elements along with supporting elements. Since Story Mechanisms includes Plot and Foe Generators, I will use two d12 rolls and consult those charts instead of the d6 FRPG results.

Genre - The only information that will not be rolled is genre. Since I'm currently working with fantasy, I will pick the genre of the story as fantasy, otherwise that would have been my first roll.

Setting - City or area. This story will take place in a city, village, or town within the fantasy world of Aioskoru.

5, 10 Conflict - Destroy. This story will take place in the setting and involve need to destroy something.

7, 7 Foe - Seeker Person. In this story a person seeking something will be the cause of the danger.

Attribute - Body. The attribute to test will be a physical task.

2. Motivation Generator -  I need to roll the Motivation of the seeker person foe.

3, 2 the Foe Motivation is social, affection.

Based on these results the story is a physical based story where the main character must destroy either the foe or something related to the foe in order to help the city or area.

I use the Description Generator to see if it helps me to identify a possible item.

[Description Gen 4, 2 bouncing; 3, 3 enlarged]

These two words remind me of giant ooze blob creatures.

So the foe has giant ooze creatures and is trying to attack an Elvish village because of some social affection issue. The hero must stop or destroy the ooze in order to save the village.

For the main character, I will use Dakota, which I created using the Character Mechanisms.

In this next section I copy and pasted everything from those 9 posts about this character. For more details on how this character was created, see that series of posts which begin in October of this year (2018).

Dakota Character sheet.

This character can be used now, with high amount of detail, with a name, race, and maybe gender. Additional details can be added to this, if the character becomes more important.

Click to enlarge image of Dakota character profile.

Description

Hazel eyes

Fit looking character:  hourglass shaped.

Dark auburn, long, and straight hair.

Porcelain skin.
Large chest or breasts (DD/E cup)

Skeptic - They seek the truth. They are tempted to be elsewhere and self-sufficient, not asking for help. They fixated on vengeance and they objectify abstract concepts into concrete actions. They desire self-protection. They fear being controlled, harmed, or violated. Debate and lust are their common expressions. When not challenging others, they desire to be innocent.

Charismatic - has high charisma and presence. He/she is outgoing and expressive.

Guard - police, cop, deputy, security, sentinel, army, patrol, sentry, watchman, warder, warden, keeper, fighter

Temperance - temperance might represent self-control, restraint, or moderation. Or it might represent justice, humanity, or concern for others.

Lust - lust might be the self-absorbed desire for something. Lust might be wanting or needing something even something mysterious or unknown.

Motivation

social type motive, acknowledgment

self-actualization, ugliness

Mood

guilty type, blamed

Body Language

this character expresses guilt with a flushed or red face and changes the topic.

A Cinderella type story if it is a female. The guard type encounter, lusty vice, and curvaceous auburn headed description however differ from Cinderella.

Skeptic Behavior

Like: Think, Discuss 

Avoid: Feel 

Common Goal: Question, data, reason 

First behavior: Oppose 

Second behavior: Question 

Pressured: Seeker 

Relaxed: Caregiver

Speaking Voice

This character speaks in a quiet vocal tone most of the time. Okay, an opposing skeptic that speaks quiet.

resonance comes from chest

speaks in complex sentences

Either the character is educated or hangs around educated people and has picked up complex sentence dialogue.

Common Words

Oppose: "I don't believe...."

Question: "Why should/would I/we (have)…."

Relaxed Caregiver: "You, He, She, They should(n't) have...."

Initial Skeptic state

analyze function; to examine details or entirety = stimulus response; questions and answers.

Character Knowledge

social science, sociology

Sociology is the scientific study of society, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and culture of everyday life.

This character knows something about social relationships, culture, and interaction. Certainly this character is biased towards the character's motivation which was this.

This character's motive has already been generated: social, acknowledgment; self-actualize, ugliness. All through a charismatic-skeptical personality perspective. A life with a guilty past.

Character Career

history, geography, and anthropology, archaeologist

Archaeologist a specialist in archaeology, the scientific study of prehistoric peoples and their cultures by analysis of their artifacts, inscriptions, monuments, etc. 

Relationships

This character knows a designer, probably a clothing or armor designer. This relationship fits in nicely with the character's social, acknowledgment & self-actualize, ugliness motives.

Character Dream

I think the dream is that the character's mother is trying to reach the family cat in the road to save it from the oncoming structure, a vehicle. A swish sounds out, however, something is preventing her from reaching the cat even though there is plenty of time. The mother is nearly escaping, but can't quite break free from a dark tentacle-like force.

Story and Main Character

If I connect the Dakota to the foe of the story, maybe Dakota at some point in the past interacted with each other, Dakota did something that created this desire to attack the village with the giant ooze. In all likelihood, The foe maybe was attracted to Dakota and wanted to pursue a relationship. Maybe this character might be considered ugly, which clashes with Dakota's social acknowledgment and self-actualizing from ugliness motivation.

Maybe Dakota actually did something with this foe which results in a guilty conscience.

This will end first creation of the Story Mechanisms example section.