Playing out the Story

Forms of narrative development in roleplaying scenarios.

Some debate on how narratives can be achieved with the Tefr system have already occurred on this blog. The debate, I believe, stems from some confusion over what I mean by narrative. Playing out any scenario will result in some form of narrative, by their nature roleplaying is about cause and consequence. But I am talking about offering what seems to be a structured narrative, with a beginning, middle and end. This will most likely seem to be counter to any notion of freedom of choice on the part of the player characters, but bear with me; it is possible to use a progressive narrative that will still give the players freedom to act within the framework of the system and the constraints of the environment in which they find themselves.

  Delivering any kind of designed plot without forcing the players to follow a linear path will be more down to the style of the narrator, the players, and the scenario they are undertaking than the system itself. Some narrators simply create a situation, a place, a set of non-player characters, encounters and objects then let the player characters explore the environment at will; allowing the actions of the characters and the system itself to determine the sequence of play and the way the story develops. This is usually the simplest form, though it is not the same as gameplay, because it relies on the players to roleplay within the situation they create. With only a small amount of help and adaptability from the narrator, this can result in some quite fabulous narrative created amongst the players themselves.

   For example: the characters learn from a messenger that a nearby city may need mercenaries. They travel there and try to find work (or they don’t, end of story), but are offered the chance to help smuggle a child out of the city to avoid a powerful mage extracting his essence.


If they accept this work their narrative will turn one way, if they refuse, it will take a different direction.
The resolution will depend upon the character's actions following their initial decisions.

    The next form is to use an unconnected plot arc that occurs at the same time as the type explained in the previous paragraph. The characters learn snippets of this story as they are undertaking the scenario, but their actions cannot influence its outcome. However, clever delivery by the narrator can sometimes lead the players to believe that the characters are involved in this other plot arc, even though their actions and choices will not change it. Their actions will only change their immediate, and usually unconnected situation.

   The characters encounter an exhausted messenger and learn that his Duath and his army have been defeated by an army from Tukis. The Tukisi had a mage with them who could unleash incredible destructive forces. The messenger must get to the Duath’s home city and warn them that they are soon to be besieged.

    In this example the city will be besieged, even fall, whether the characters chose to help the messenger or not, but they feel somehow involved. If they deliver the message, they will meet people in the city, perhaps even get hired to try and smuggle a child out past the enemy lines. But the city will still be besieged, there is nothing they can do that will prevent that.

    A more complex narrative will involve storylines which the player characters can influence. This requires a degree of further adaptability on the part of the narrator. Generally, outcomes are based on the way the narrator believes the non-player characters should react to the actions of the player characters in the context of the plot arc. While most good narrators will write, or at least consider, a number of outcomes for various encounters and conjunctions in the scenario, if the story changes in some unpredictable fashion, then the narrator must adapt it on the fly. With this method there is always the risk that whole chunks of pre-planned story can be lost or altered. Either the narrator comes up with a secondary plan to bring the story back on track, or simply goes with the new direction and rewrites when there is time.

   After warning the people of the city, the characters are asked to try and smuggle a child out of the city, but they learn that the child is rumoured to be Aren, The Lord of Light re-born in human form, and is the reason the city is under siege. The Tukisi mage wants the child, believing he will gain god-like powers by capturing his essence. The child, however, knows a way to deactivate the magical artefact that allows the mage to wield such destructive forces.

   Thus the characters can now learn the means (if they ask the right questions) to directly influence the plot arc in several ways, how, or if, they use the knowledge, is down to them.

   Plots like this can often be nested within even wider plots, perhaps the war is on an imperial scale, perhaps whoever has the child can influence some even greater event. A good example of nested plots can be found in a fantasy book series. In general the same characters will feature in each book, and all the books are connected by some overarching global story, a story that progresses in some small way in each book, but only concludes in the last volume. The individual books also have their own complete narrative stories, and within each book, every chapter will have some independent narrative structure. There will also be sub-plots, and secondary characters that appear and play out over longer plot arcs that might cover several chapters of a book, or even several books of the series. It sounds like it ought to be complicated to implement, but for the most part such plot arcs are all things which can be delivered in discrete packets, and for the most part are self sustaining. For example if the player characters have an encounter with a non-player character, the plot element of this might simply be why that encounter occurred, or perhaps the non-player character is there to tell or let slip some piece of information that builds on some ongoing story, like the exhausted messenger detailed earlier. There is no reason why that same character might not reappear in a later scenario, developed in some way by the story, ready to deliver some new information, or perhaps the reason for his reappearance is as a result of the characters’ own actions.

   Using combinations of the above types of story delivery, it is possible to create arcs within arcs; arcs the players themselves have created; long and short arcs that cross over; subplots and backstory that combine to make a strong overall sense of narrative progression for the players. Nested plot arcs will allow them to feel like they are playing a key part in an ongoing story, raising the interest above that of a simple game, to a feeling of participation in the events of the world in which the narrative is set.

Black Orchid

Continuing with the posting of the short narratives that I'm wrtiting to front up each of the chapters in the Prelude to Rhapsody book, I've finally completed the piece for Chapter 5 (Healing, Herbs and Alchemy). For some reason, this one proved a little problematic; having set myself a 1000 word limit for each story, this one hit 2000 in its first incarnation, and even now, after heavy editing, is 1100. I wanted to pick a subject that wasn't about the obvious someone hurt gets healed story-line, and this little narrative about herb-lore seemed a good introduction to the way it could be used in a Tefr scenario.

Black Orchid

The forested landscape undulated between clusters of granite topped hills; rocky islands rising from a sea of tree filled valleys. Twice during the morning Saneshi thought she’d found a shaggy cushion of the plant they sought, but Omrahot only shook his head.
‘That one is not good, it will make your companions even more ill,’ he said.
When the shadows had crept beneath their feet, they stopped and ate some flatbreads Omrahot had stuffed with cold woodhen and herbs.
Saneshi had made Yversh and the others as comfortable as she could, before leaving the camp in the first golden slivers of dawn. Only herself and the guide had avoided succumbing to the mystery ailment that had struck the others in short succession, leaving them weak as babes and unable to take more than water without puking.
Though he looked and often behaved like a bear, Yversh had worked at one time in the houses of Atana, and his knowledge of healing and medicinal plants was considerable. He had told Saneshi to search for a herb called peldin’s thesil, that would treat the symptoms, if not cure the sickness, but with her pitiful knowledge of herb lore she had little chance of finding any without Omrahot’s help.
Omrahot himself was an odd one; he’d been surly and uncooperative when he’d learned they were seeking the old Felini citadel, but had become almost indispensable since the others started falling ill. Saneshi herself hadn’t succumbed; she had always considered her solid constitution a side benefit of her gods‘ curse, along with her coating of speckled feathers and golden hawk-like eyes. Though barely an hour after lunch her stomach gave an unexpected lurch and the feathers around her neck turned clammy as a sickly heat flushed her face.
‘Omrahot wait, I have to stop. I think I’m coming down with it.‘
Saneshi sat down on an exposed rock, trying to will the feeling away, then clutched at her midriff as a cramp shuddered through her insides.
Omrahot bit his lip and watched her.
‘What do you want to do,’ he said, ‘should I take you back?’
‘No, I’ll be alright in a minute, you continue looking for the peldin’s thesil, I’ll hea...‘ she had to pause as her guts writhed again, ‘I’ll head back over the hills,’ she said between gasps.
‘Very well, if you have not returned by the morning, I will come and look for you.’
She nodded, keeping her lips pressed together. Omrahot paused, then shouldered his satchel and walked off into the trees. A minute later Saneshi’s stomach clenched, forcing its contents back up to spatter the forest floor. She had rarely been ill before, and the prospect of dying from something so intangible terrified her. She continued retching noisily, rocking backward and forward, until the spasms subsided and she began to recover a little. Perhaps she would have the strength to make it back to the others, perhaps Omrahot would find the peldin’s thesil and by some whim of the Lords of Light it would cure them. Perhaps not.
Taking care not to provoke her delicate stomach, Sanechi hauled herself to her feet, and headed up over the ridge. She assumed it would descend into the valley where the others were camped, but she found herself climbing up towards another hilltop beyond. Leaf framed glimpses of the wooded landscape below offered no recognisable landmarks to guide her, but at least the walking seemed to be helping; though she still felt hot, her strength was returning and her guts had stopped dancing.
The snap of a breaking twig somewhere ahead made her freeze. She had made her way down the far side of the hill and was now nearly at the bottom of the slope. Whatever made the noise was not small. Ducking under an overhanging hornbeam, tawny feathers becoming dappled shade, she waited, ears straining for further sounds.
It was Omrahot.
She must have gone parallel with the ridge and caught up with him as he turned back towards the camp. As a woodsman, he should have known Saneshi was there, but he seemed preoccupied; doubtless still seeking the precious herbs to save the group. Her golden eyes followed him as he stooped to pick something near a fallen tree. He Inspected it briefly before tucking it into his satchel.
A memory came to her, of woodlands near her childhood home where her grandmother had pointed out a green-black orchid.
‘Never pick the black hyoscymus child,’ she had said ‘It may look fair, but Its very sap is a vile poison that’ll make you sick, even kill you.’
And now, here was their guide collecting these flowers instead of the plant they had been sent for.
‘What’s that you’re doing?’ Saneshi said stepping out from her hiding place.
Omrahot turned, eyes wide with surprise.
‘Oh, it’s you.’ he said, then frowned. ‘Are you not ill?’
‘I got better,’ she said. ‘Been picking flowers, have you?’ She pointed to his satchel.
‘I was just...just getting herbs for your healer.’
‘It didn’t look much like peldin’s thesil?’
‘No it’s a local plant, just as good for sickness.’ He took the black orchid out and offered it to her, ‘here it’ll make you feel better. A little of the juice?’
‘Ah yes, a little juice, perhaps that’s how you are so well, while everyone else has been getting ill?’ She took a step forward.
‘Yes, I’m sorry,’ he said, biting his lip, ‘I only had enough for me. But you can have this,’ he held the delicate flower out to her like an offering from an errant lover, ‘have the whole thing.’
‘No, I insist. You are our guide after all, what would we do without you.‘ She took another pace, and Omrahot stepped backwards.
‘No, I don’t need it.’ Another pace, and Omrahot found himself with his back to the fallen tree.
Saneshi’s sword whispered from its scabbard.
‘Eat it,’ she said.
‘No, it’s poison. You were never ill, I have given you all poison. I had to. You would have gone to the Felini citadel and disturbed the old gods of darkness. Lords forgive me, but I had to stop you from bringing their doom onto my village, my people!’ His voice rose to a hysterical shriek.
‘Eat,’ said Saneshi. ‘Is that not the punishment for a poisoner, to be given their own medicine?’ She let the steel tip catch on the thin skin across his windpipe.
He brought the flower up to his mouth and ate.
‘Now, let’s just pray Yversh knows an antidote,’ she said, prodding Omrahot back towards their camp. ‘Perhaps you should pray too.’

Can't, or Won't, Write a Narrative

Chances are you already know how to write a narrative roleplaying scenario.

What is a narrative? "Cass hit Jargo" is a statement; there is action, but no true narrative. A simple narrative needs a description of cause and effect. "Cass hit Jargo, so Jargo him back" has narrative; each element alone is merely statement, but together they start to tell a story, albeit simple. This kind of narrative is already implicit in any roleplaying game. Going from a simple narrative to a simple story is not a difficult leap at all, it merely needs a structure. A beginning, middle and end is the simplest: "Cass hit Jargo, and ran off. Jargo pursued Cass and hit him back" has a structure. Without any particular intent most roleplaying scenarios have a similar structure, the inciting incident at the start that makes the characters undertake whatever the mission, investigation, or journey that the middle of the scenario/story comprises. The resolution of the scenario: finishing the mission, the objective of the investigation discovered, completing the journey, or even failure to do these things marks the end of the story, and is a natural consequence of the first two elements. Building on these elementary premises is something we learn from being read stories as children, it isn’t hard.
Roleplaying systems also intuitively lend themselves to the creation of character motivations, both for player-characters and non-player characters. Such character motivations can be used to create sub-plot and narrative tension within the story structure. If the players begin to see motive for the way the story is turning, they begin to feel a much greater sense of narrative involvement. Detail adds the final flourish.
Using all these elements could transform a simple story, like the interaction between Jargo and Cass, into something more epic: "Cass, the bastard eldest son of the Lord of Toramas beats his brother Jargo senseless, and flees the scene. The following day Jargo hires a group of bounty hunters to search the town for his brother. After some investigation, the bounty hunters learn that Cass left Toramas in the company of a hooded companion, heading for the neighbouring province of Sekris. Jargo accompanies the bounty hunters on the journey across the mountains and corner the fugitive brother in a Sekrisian village inn. Outnumbered, Cass is subdued and bound. Jargo beats his defenceless brother demanding to know the whereabouts of a girl called Lirande, but Cass refuses to tell him". As it is possible to see from the example, the original story kernel is there, but within that we now have character motivations, as well as a developing plot with the Lirande. The story is also leading towards a point where the other characters involved, the bounty hunters, may wish to choose to switch loyalties to Cass, rather than their current employer Jargo (creating a sub-plot). A story will still happen whichever they choice they make, it will just be a different one.
As has been shown, creating a storyline is not difficult, nor is using character motivations to flesh it out. In the example above the narrator is expecting the player-characters to side with one brother or the other, but there is always a possibility that they might do something that wasn’t as predictable. Presumably, he was also banking on the player-characters successfully learning that Cass had fled across the mountains into Sekris in the first place, and that the characters manage to make that journey, but they might not have. Being adaptable and able to re-think a narrative plot-arc on the fly, or between sessions is not that difficult either, but it is the key to being a good narrator. Even if some part of a plot is compromised, a new course for the story will be available, and such dramatic and unexpected turns of events can be one of the great attractions of roleplaying.

Please Feel Free to Cheat

If the system is getting in the way of the narrative, can overriding it be the way forward?

The Tefr roleplaying system serves three functions; firstly to give both players and narrator a framework within which to tell the story: the world, combat, magic skills, religion; secondly it provides believable limits not only for the characters and their foes, but for the world of Tefr itself. Limits can, and should, be scaled to fit the magnitude of the story. Lastly it is there to provide a mechanism by which random chance can help the evolution of the story; giving the players a sense of risk and excitement over the outcome of their character's actions. This last can also provide a sense of excitement to the narrator’s own decisions as well, though as I will explain, the narrator should be able to override a chance roll that they have made, if it will have a negative effect on the narrative flow (though the need should be rare).

Creating a narrative form of roleplaying using a system like Tefr is more about the will and style of the person running it, than the system itself. This was one reason why I chose to not to use the term game-master, referee, or dungeon-master; instead using the term narrator. I also deliberately avoided such terms as game and rules to indicate that the responsibility for determining how the events in a story-scenario unfold lies with the narrator and players. This leaves the system to be a guide and framework rather than an absolute set of rules. The thought of fudging the rules to ensure a better narrative might seem a little odd to some, something akin to cheating, but if it’s not a game but a story, how can you cheat at that?  Being able to use fudging wisely, and discreetly is a skill in itself; do it too often and the story risks becoming safe and dull, too obviously and the players will begin to lose the sense of excitement that unpredictability brings.

I’m not saying don’t use the system, after all it’s been created to help the way the story progresses while ensuring some events turn on chance to make the story unpredictable and exciting, but if the system gets in the way of the story, if a random outcome is undesirable to the narrative, then change the outcome, fudge the result, cheat; go on I give you permission.

The Website is Afoot!

Tefr has been given a good metaphorical boot up the backside and the brand new www.Tefr.com website has been wound up and set running. There are still a few elements to put in, but Tefr is an on-going project so it will be updated as new elements become available.

Now the website is up and running properly, Tefr needs to move onto the exciting stage of letting people Beta test the books themselves. After a frustrating time trying to get Lulu to keep download statistics for free ebooks, I finally threw in the towel, dusted off my knowledge of flash and implemented a simple download form for both the Prelude to Rhapsody, and Knowledge is Power ebooks, please feel free to download your free copies.

 Editing of the Prelude to Rhapsody book is now roughly halfway through; the copy available reflects this, so please forgive the typos in the second half. I'm also pushing on with the short narratives that will front up each chapter, and I'll put those up on the blog as they are written. The Knowledge is Power book still remains unedited, mostly unillustrated, and more importantly, a single volume. Once the Prelude edits are complete I will move in with my red pen, but feedback at this stage is very much appreciated (please note, I've done an MA since writing it and my spelling has improved a little).

Tefr is not intended to be simply a vehicle for myself, I'm actively looking for new writers who are interested in becoming involved at this early stage. Writers who can see past a mere game system and come up with well written, narrative based scenarios/campaigns that work within the Tefr paradigm. Please get in touch if this is something that you are interested in.

Enjoy.

The Shield

Once again in a fit of avoiding my MA work, I've managed to knock out a little bit of Tefr narrative. This time to head up the Prelude to Rhapsody chapter on combat. It was an odd one to work on, I think writing action is quite hard work, and I found myself editing it over and again. I'm fairly happy with the results for now, but it will doubtless alter again before publication. In this piece, I've also sprinkled a few italicised Tefr places and terms, to get the reader into the idea of using them with their own characters.


The Shield

The shield was still propped against his pack on the other side of the campfire, where Meres had left it the night before, and now Camore was lying right beside it, a long shaft, with goose-feather flights still sticking up from his back like a ridiculous pennant. It was hard to tell if he was dead, or just pretending, either way, there was no chance of getting to him, and finding out. Not without gaining a little pennant in the back himself.
  Meres looked away and cursed; the shield would have been the best protection he had against an unknown archer, but there was no help for that now. He kept his back to the tree, it was big enough to hide him from sight for now; he was fairly sure the arrow that caught Camore had come from just up the slope behind it.
  ‘Yaruk, are ye’right?’ he shouted across the clearing in Gal. If he was guessing correctly, their assailant was probably a local scout, who might know these forests, but nothing of the tongue of the Northlands. Annu Cheviel’s men had been close on their heels for three days now; hardly surprising, considering Meres and his companions had taken the stone of Uregh from his chasator. If they could just survive long enough to get it back to the priests at Parlin before Yearsend, it may yet prevent the whole of Shelir descending into bloody war.
  ‘Aye, I’m fine.’ Yaruk called back in the same language. ‘They shot Camore,’
Meres could just see the tips of Yaruk’s horns moving behind the broken log on the far side of the camp, no-doubt so could the archer.
  ‘I think there’s only one, or there’d be two of us lying with arrows in our backs. He’s probably trying to keep us pinned down long enough for reinforcements to arrive,’ said Meres.
  ‘What’s the plan then?’ said Yaruk, horns bobbing higher. If he, stuck his head up any further, he’d find an arrow between his eyes.
  ‘The plan –we rush him.’
  ‘Simple and straight to the point, eh Meres. Very well, I’m ready when you are.’
  ‘On the count of three then,’ said Meres. ‘One, two...’ he flung himself out from behind the tree, rolling once and regaining his feet at a run; if he was going to draw fire, he wasn’t going to make it easy. He’d been right about the archer sighting on Yaruk; Meres could see him in the scanty bushes, not four standards away, swinging his bow across in his direction. He pumped his legs beneath him, his sword swinging ready in his hand, he wasn’t going to reach the archer before he could shoot, but if he missed, Meres was going to make sure he wouldn’t get another opportunity.
  He saw the bow shake as the arrow flew towards him, and Meres instinctively ducked away, but it wasn’t enough; a heavy blow slammed his shoulder backwards, almost spinning him round. There was no pain yet, but he could feel the solidity of the arrow head, a sort of wrongness that shouldn’t have been there, grating as it was held firm in his flesh where it had penetrated the stiff hide of his armour. Too bad for the archer it was his left shoulder, and with barely a check to his momentum, Meres swung his sword back round and closed the gap. Meres saw the fear in the archer’s eyes, as he flung his bow ineffectively towards him, before clawing with desperate fingers to draw the sword hanging at his belt. At the last moment the archer tried to dodge the charge, but not fast enough, and the tip of Meres’s sword caught him across the midriff, tearing through leather and flesh, to leave a deep gash.
The archer gasped in pain, but he wasn’t beaten yet, he was quick to recover, and with his, now unsheathed asafr sword, he struck towards Meres’s vulnerable left side, only to have it met by a length of good Sayanay steel as Meres parried. With his opponent still off balance, Meres stepped past him and threw a another blow at the man’s back. The archer tried desperately to reach behind and parry, but his skill as a swordsman was inadequate, and always would be; Meres’s felt his sword bite deep, and his opponent stumbled forward, then fell to the ground. He, could hear the dying archer wheezing in rapid gasps, fighting for his last breaths.
  Before Meres could do more, there was a sudden yell from behind, and, turning to meet this new threat, saw Yaruk hurtling past, to sink his axe deep into the man’s chest. Finishing it all.
  Meres lowered his sword, feeling the first sharp pain clutch his shoulder, and turned to examine the arrow sticking from it.
  ‘Where were you? The bastard nearly nailed me,’ said Meres, putting a tentative finger on the wooden shaft, it was painful, but he’d been lucky, it looked like his armour had taken most of the damage.
  Yaruk pulled his bloodied axe free, and shrugged.
  ‘You didn’t say three,’ he said.

Backstory

Continuing with my short narratives in the Prelude to Rhapsody book, I've just completed a piece introducing the theme of background for the characters. I've attempted to make it work in such a way that a character might tell the others about his background, as well as create a small amount of backstory (about a  spider in a pot) which in itself contributes to, or appears to explain, the way that the character behaves.
Like the previous short narrative, it is still a little rough in places, I'll give them all a final go through before the book is published.

The Spider in a Pot

‘Squelch, squelch, slog, slog, is there no end to this god-forsaken swamp?’ Said Endingas. He liked complaining, he was good at it.
  The other three trudged on in a line through the mud in silence, as the thin dawnlight revealed more mud-flats and reed-beds in each direction.
  ‘And just look at the state of my boots, and it stinks as well. Stink stink, squelch, squ...’
  ‘It isn’t a swamp Mexotan.’ Kebri Soor’s low voice sounded from the front, his thick accent turning each a sound into au.
  ‘Swamp, marsh –same thing– A muddy, squelchy, stinky, struggle.’
  Kebri Soor picked a wide bulrush leaf and examined it.
  ‘You know nothing of struggle Mexotan, I grow up in the swamps of Earchamon, filled with mud dragons, stinging insects, deadly snakes and silk spiders. Leaving the hut in search of food is dangerous, Mexotan, but if we don’t, we starve. Then the rains come, and the waters rise, so we starve anyway.’ He tasted the sap from the leaf he was holding, spat, and threw it away. ‘My father, he was our herb man, he know what plants to eat, which ones heal, and which kill. This he teach me, he teach me to hunt and he teach me,’ he dropped his voice, ‘to gather spider silk.’
  The others watched him walking in the growing light, he was the most mysterious member of the group. He knew his plants, he was the best of them with a bow, but his creative ways of killing with the link knife he carried, the eery tattoos that decorated his face and lean body with strange spider-like symbols, coupled with his blood red eyes also made him the most intimidating.
  ‘When I am small,’ he said, ‘they begin training me to bring in the silk, they catch baby silk spider, and put it in a pot. I am to feed it, look after it. Each month I am to put my hand in the pot, and be bitten. It hurts, I am sick for two days. As the spider grow bigger, it’s bite grow stronger, the sting hurt more, so much pain,’ he rubbed his hand as if the memory alone had reawakened the old hurt, ‘but the more times it bite you, the more you are resisting, so by time it grow to full, the poison not kill. Then we can gather the webs, the spiders spin in the swamp. Sell the silk to the Eamani, but if the webs are poor, then we get small money and we starve.’ He stopped and turned round to look at Endingas. ‘When I am grown, the Eamani say I am gods gift, I cannot stay with my people, so I am outcast, I live in the swamp alone, hunt and find plants alone, each day avoid death alone. So Mexotan, with your boots, don’t tell me about struggle, and don’t tell me marsh is swamp.’
  He turned fluidly and resumed walking, the others shrugged and followed. Endingas opened his mouth to speak, thought better of it, and continued the trudge through the marsh in silence.

Introductory Narrative

I've now been right through the Tefr Prelude to Rhapsody book and filled it with little red marks, which is an achievement by itself. The next phase is to then work through the In-Design master document and apply all those little red marks. But a pleasurable element of this process, is that I have chosen to include a number of new small narrative elements in the text, to illustrate certain sections of the book, giving both a feel for the narrative nature of the Tefr system, as well as breaking up what can sometimes be a lot of intense non fiction.

I thought it would be interesting to post up the these narrative sections as I write them. This is the first.


Dog Boy

Estial stood in the doorway of a disused warehouse on the other side of the dock, and blew through his hands in an attempt to warm them up. Despite his fur coat, the cold crept into his wiry limbs, and standing in one place wasn’t helping.
The visitors to the run down building opposite had been infrequent, but, even bundled as they were against the chill Rodien air, Estial could tell from the way they carried themselves, and the tell tale fall of their clothing, that each was well armed and well armoured. He felt for his own sword, with its worn pommel and fraying leather grip. When he’d been given it as the solemn parting gift from his father, a mere fortnight ago, he’d walked from his home village with a swaggering bravado that almost made up for the taunts and derision of the other village boys over the last year; you don’t mess with a man carrying a sword. Except now, when it came to it, Estial was barely even a man, and hardly had any idea how to swing his sword.
‘You’re new here, aren’t you dog boy?’
The voice came from right behind him, Estial nearly jumped out of his furry skin. He spun round, sword halfway from its scabbard.
‘Steady on lad, I’m not out to harm you.’ The speaker moved out of the shadow of the doorway, odd horns and ridges adorned his broad face, his eyes regarded Estial with dangerous looking cleft pupils.
‘How, how did you do that, get round behind me like that?’ Estial indicated his ears, upright and alert on top of his head, ‘I’ve good hearing, not much gets past me.’
‘There’s more to my god’s gift than a few knobbles round my head lad. Name’s Drutter.’ he stuck out his hand, and Estial shook it. ‘You look half perished out here, are you not going to come in for a bite to eat and warm up by the fire?’
Estial looked back over to the building, he couldn’t read the sign, but he recognised the crest that hung over the door as that of the Kerowan Guild.
‘I don’t have any money.’
‘I saw you watching, have you not joined yet?’
‘No, I only got into town this morning, I wanted to see first, see if it was safe. I’ve heard tales about guildmembers.’
‘You’ve nothing to fear from the guild lad, not if you’re one of them. The guild may well be the only friend for folk like you and me. Come on over I’ll introduce you to the Guildmaster.’ he set off around the dock, his motion lithe, his feet barely making a sound on the cobbled surface.
‘You think they’ll accept me.’ said Estial, following after a moment’s hesitation, ‘It’s just, you see, I’m not very good with a sword yet.’
‘Course they will lad. Once you’ve got yourself a god’s gift you’ve got to join, it’s the law. We all had to start somewhere. Take me, there I was ‘prenticed to the finest baker in Cormalon, set to marry his daughter in all, then what do you know,  I go and growed a god’s gift. Got kicked out on my backside without a penny. Guild did good by me then, took me in, sorted me out with some paid work, helped me learn the ropes. Don’t worry about  that lad. It’s a tough life, I’ll not deny that, but the guild’ll do right by you. you’ll see.’

Editing

It has been a long time since I've had anything to report on the Tefr Blog, mostly because my writing time is almost exclusively taken up now with my Novel and MA submission. But as a way to wind down my mind and get my eye in, I've been spending a few minutes each day going through the Prelude to Rhapsody manuscript and filling it with little red marks.

Given that this book was my first serious attempt at writing anything, I'm surprised at how little I need to change. Yes, admittedly I could have read a book on punctuation before starting, but I've done that now, so I'm picking my way through steadily with my red pen. I don't need to change much as far as the system is concerned, but I have to admit that some of the writing is pretty dry in places, and I feel that the addition of a few narrative examples, here and there, will liven up the text, and provide a better feel for the system ethos. The editing will take me up to Christmas, but it may take a few more months to come up with the examples. It would be great to get a fully finished edition, with a proper ISBN number, published in time for the Frankfurt book fair next year.

And then it will be time for me to tackle splitting the Knowledge is Power book into to different volumes, amongst my many other projects. Keep an eye on my other blog for developments there, next year is going to be exciting.

For a year and a half now, I've been making an effort to go to Dumnonni, a live action role-play event that occurs on a few weekends throughout the year (bar the coldest winter months). At first I was sceptical. I say at first, I'd spent 20 years being sceptical after dissing the LARP events run in the fantastic parklands that surrounded the campus at Sussex University. In hindsight, I think I was probably correct.
It was only after a great deal of encouragement by one of my players, who is one of the Dumnonni referees that I was persuaded to go, I figured a weekend of camping with entertainment laid on would be a bit of fun.
I was pleasantly surprised, the attention to detail is amazing, and yes whilst running around in armour and being bludgeoned by someone it is rather fun, what I hadn't expected was the quality of the roleplaying. The amount of background information some of the players and crew know is quite amazing, but to carry that through and play a character, or several during the event is really quite special.
I like the reality of it the mud, walking, waiting, smells, sunstroke, rain and discomfort all give it a sense of authenticity which is lacking in normal story sessions. Authenticity I will now make efforts to suggest subtly in my narratives.
I thought I knew about role playing characters, after those 20 years of running sessions, but attending these events for Dumnonni has taught me a lot of new approaches, and helped me break through some of my natural reservations.

I don't think all LARP events are like this, but it is well worth going along to one, just to find out.

The First Two Tefr Scenarios

I have now uploaded two scenarios to Lulu. All The Fun of the Fair and The Horn of the Clan.

All The Fun of The Fair, previously titled Market Madness, is a very basic introductory scenario –just to get new Tefr narrators used to the system, introduce players and give them an opportunity to play newly created characters. In addition to the scenario, it also includes a lot of useful detail about the town of Erdir, where the story takes place, as well as description of all the stalls, entertainment and folk that make up the Autumn festival in Erdir during which the scenario happens.

I wrote this in a very traditional, highly detailed manner; too detailed if I must be honest. The narrative scenario itself is probably over-written, and is possibly too complex, with too many items to find and as well as a number of things to do (coupled with all the confusion of the fair and a new system for both players and narrators). I may come back to this one and create a more streamlined version, once I've learnt how to write these scenarios in an optimised form.

The Horn of The Clan is the second scenario in the sequence and whilst it doesn't have any direct bearing on the rest of the story, it does fix the main characters of the Annuath and some of the other peripheral characters. In story terms, it presents the character's ordinary world, how they exist normally, but then beginning to turn that round so that they must question just what is the morally right thing to do, even if it goes against their instructions.

Whilst I have managed to limit the amount of excess descriptive detail, I still think I have over-written this scenario. It is probably even more scripted, in places, than All The Fun of The Fair. I hope that narrators will read through these sections in advance, to get a feel for the way they can progress the story for themselves, then play it off-the-top-of-their-heads, rather than just read it out verbatim –from experience, that is a sure fire way to deaden the narrative involvement for the players. However; I do appreciate that this sort of free-form narration from memory takes practice and a little bravado especially when dealing with a new world and system of play.

On the positive side, this scenario has a much clearer story structure, and I have provided a list of the kernel events in the introduction to show how these points will provide a guide whilst playing it out. I have also taken some advice from a friend, and provided character behaviour descriptions on the character sheets themselves. I'm hoping that this may offer a way for narrators to improvise a lot more freely when playing those characters.

Thoughts and Perspectives

I had an interesting day yesterday. Having attended a very enlightening talk by John York, the controller of BBC drama. Not only did he provide some new insights for me on how, not only to solve writing scripts, but also to marry up a five act structure to a three act structure.

-What, you might ask? Basically it's the fundamental way that most scripts work...you know: call, conflict, resolution  or beginning, middle, end; if you want to put it another way.  

Interestingly, these same principals can be applied to roleplaying scenarios and larger campaigns; and tie in rather well with some of the other narrative structure approaches I have been studying.

More on this later, when I have time.

Prelude to Rhapsody

I've taken the plunge now; re-edited what was previously known as the Tefr Gamebook, and taken out all references to game masters, and game, replacing these with narrators and story. This is a very deliberate move to distance Tefr from the raft of fantasy game products which are available out there; most of which are simply that: games, like a kind of fantasy monopoly set. I'm not criticising these products, but Tefr is not the same, even if it once had the same origins. 

What I have now made available through Lulu is the basic manual to start a group-narrative, with the slightly pretentious title of Prelude to Rhapsody, but one that fits what the book is about perfectly.

I have also been considering trying to update the Knowledge is Power book in the same way and making it available to new Tefr narrators; however, I'm still painfully aware that this book is not really ready for publication; I may yet decide to split it into two volumes and expand the guidance for writing narrative scenarios.

A New Beginning

At the suggestion of Leo Hartas, I'm moving the news part of the Tefr site into this blog format. Partly because it will be easier to update, and partly to make it a bit more insightful. By that I mean that I will be talking more about the process of developing Tefr.

As things stand, Tefr is still very much a work in progress. Yes, the Gamebook is written, as is the Knowledge is Power book, bar a number of illustrations. The main issue is creating a format for publishing the scenarios and finding the time to work on them further. It is really important to me to try to put across the narrative element involved in playing Tefr. Finding a formula that gives Game-masters a narrative structure, whilst still providing freedom for characters, and is simple enough to just pick up and play is a difficult task; one which had stalled the publishing of the first few scenarios.

Again at Leo's suggestion, I will shortly be publishing prototype versions of the Knowledge is Power Book as well as the first few scenarios, in their raw form. This will, hopefully allow for some much needed feedback as well as further play-testing.