Story Mechanisms: creating a story profile instructions (part 7)

Click on image to enlarge

Story sheet after this session which includes this 2nd Conflict

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

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

Expanding the story part 3

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, created an argument opening scene between Dakota and Rowan, wrote an inciting event, and created a first conflict from that inciting event.

Next, I'll roll for a second conflict.

Second Conflict

Why: flashback to original cause of conflict

What I will do with this writing challenge is maybe begin with Dakota going to try finding Rowan and then begin to question what happened. I will then do a flashback I will test to find out if Dakota finds out what actually happened to help explain why and maybe help for the final conflict.

Roll for difficulty challenge of second conflict.

Moderate, Inconvenient

This probably should use soul for social ability and investigate skill.

Roll for resolution for soul & investigate = (fair (0)+ fair (0)) + roll (6) =  A die roll of 6 automatically succeeds. Despite the challenge you succeeded with great effort and luck.




Several people knew Rowan a little bit.

Despite being mostly reclusive, Rowan did speak with a few.

Rowan would speak about the great historical Expansion-age as a great elvish time in history, almost a golden age. Most interesting to Rowan, was the ancient magical arts. Rowan tried to learn everything in books and at the site about magical use, historical battles involving magic, and even the dark arts.

Dakota, through great effort and a little luck was able to track down the last known home of Rowan.

Dakota walked towards the home that Rowan had been living in recently.

Several families lived in this part of the village.

Asking around, many didn't know Rowan's name, and was known however when being described.

Finally, Dakota found the last known home.

It was empty—not even a single piece of furniture.

Asking around brought no answer at first. Dakota however, persisted deep past nightfall. When Dakota was about to leave and go home,  one person finally nodded yes. One person described a few days ago, that same day that Dakota had hit Rowan, as the last day seen there.

Rowan had come home kicking at rocks, hitting the wall, and slammed the door shut.

The following day, Rowan packed up a handcart filled with belongings and left the home, heading towards the northern gate.



Next posts So far, the story has resolved the first and second conflict. The next post will go into the final conflict.

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.