Storyguiding

As stated previously, one of the participants in a roleplaying game has a special role to play. She will take on the role of Storyguide (SG). Who this is can vary from Issue to Issue, though often one person will continue being Storyguide for an entire Miniseries.

It is the Storyguide's job to guide the story. She is not telling a story for the amusement of the other participants, but is just providing the framework within which the story occurs. Her role is different, perhaps greater than, but not more important than, that of the players. Her primary responsibility is to play all of the other people that the characters meet, and describe the world around them. Often, she will also be responsible for setting up a scenario or at least providing the broad outlines of a plot -- or, better yet, just a plot set-up.

Much of the time, one of the Main characters or the group's previous exploits will provide the hooks to get them involved in the Issue, making the set-up as simple as coming up with a recurring villain's next nefarious plot, or figuring out what someone important to the Main characters is doing now. Other Issues can come from considering the latest trends in the world around the Main characters -- perhaps a change in the political or social winds will affect them.

What To Do

There are a number of important aspects to SGing, but they all fall into two broad categories: in-game and meta-game. In-game aspects are the techniques and concerns as seen from the perspective of the characters involved in the game world. Meta-game aspects are those that take place on the level of the players, and are not directly perceivable to the characters. The Storyguide should strive to always guide the game in such a way that it is satisfying at the meta-game level, while also being sufficiently in-genre at the in-game level.

Meta-game concerns primarily revolve around using appropriate frameworks to guide the story, such as determining what constitute Panels and Pages, ensuring that the feel of the Issue is appropriate for the Title it takes place within, and attempting to guide the story to utilize appropriate literary conventions, such as cliffhangers, flashbacks, and dramatic irony. Also, Meta-game concerns include making sure the game is enjoyable, by making opponents and obstacles appropriate, by creating Issues that are thematically interesting to the players, and by adjudicating actions fairly. Another important meta-game concern is respecting the players' visions for their characters. While, strictly speaking, only what is on the character sheet is canon, it is very poor form to knowingly define an element of the character in a way that conflicts with the concept or background the player had in mind. The player, of course, is free to establish any element with a Storypath Card (via retcon if necessary), and players should be given greater latitude when adding details or Traits that conflict with established precedent.

The Cardinal is played as an upstanding former clergyman, who has chosen to use his power to uphold justice and the Word of God. The SG should not, as a plot element, say that he knows an underworld crime boss due to his well-hidden shady past, as this infringes on the player's idea of The Cardinal as beyond reproach. She could, however, say that The Cardinal once took confession from this crime boss, back when she was just an amateur housebreaker. The player saying the first thing, however, would be allowed, since The Cardinal has no Descriptors that specifically contradict this.

Most in-game concerns have to do with upholding the genre conventions of 4-color superheroes. In their service, retroactive continuity (retcon) should be used in preference to being bound by a previous Issue; villains should frequently have Powers that address the heroes' Weaknesses (and vice versa); moral absolutism should guide the actions on all sides; and heroes and villains should reap what they sow.

Action Resolution

Above and beyond all of these story and genre concerns, the Storyguide is responsible for adjudicating the characters' actions. The most basic way of doing this is through simple Descriptor comparison. Look at the relevant Descriptors on all sides, and decide what occurs. Remember that someone with a relevant Descriptor should always best someone without (though the Descriptor-less character is better off than the one with a Flaw Trait in that area), and that a Power should almost always best a Trait. Circumstances should of course be considered, which may significantly alter these simple rules. If the results aren't clear from such a comparison, then the Storyguide has the Planet scores to fall back on. For rules to help with that, see Chapter V.

Genre

Don't forget that this is a four-color superhero game; this brings with it some specific considerations, in order to maintain the feel. First, obstacles, and especially opponents, should almost always be scaled to match the abilities of the Main characters. The power level of the Main characters, rather than "realism", should be what determines the power level of challenges. Secondly, death is rare. Omegas almost never need to be killed in order to be defeated -- and a body is rarely found if they do die. Innocents should only die through the tragic error of the Main characters, and other Diceless characters should die only if they voluntarily serve the villains -- and usually not even then.

On a meta-game level, you should try to always end an Issue with at least a minor cliffhanger. Even if it is the resolution of a major Miniseries, throw something into the end of the last Issue that opens up a new path or plot. Another meta-game concern is spotlight time. All of the Main characters should be approximately equally important in the Issue. This rule can be relaxed somewhat in the case of an Issue in a Main character's Title, where any other Main characters are Crossovers. But, no matter how improbable, in every Issue each of the Main characters should be faced with an obstacle that only they can overcome.

Switching Storyguides

A final concern of Storyguiding is switching Storyguides. Only one person should Storyguide for a given Issue, in order to maintain a consistent tone. You may decide for yourselves, either as a blanket rule or on a case-by-case basis, whether you want to maintain one Storyguide for an entire Miniseries. Another option would be to always use a particular Storyguide for the Main Title. But whatever you decide, you will eventually have to switch Storyguides.

There are a number of ways to pass on the role of Storyguide. The current Storyguide may have her character show up at the end of an Issue, thus signifying that she does not intend to run the next Issue. She may likewise (temporarily) remove one of the players' characters from the scenario¹⁹, thus signifying that it is that person's turn to be Storyguide next time. Especially in the latter case, you should make sure it's acceptable to the other players before turning over the reins. Ideally, everybody should take approximately equal time at being Storyguide, but if everyone is ok with it, there's nothing inherently wrong with some of the players rarely or never Storyguiding²⁰.

A couple of tricks while you are Storyguiding will help to make the transition between SGs less jarring. First, if you define a new element of the world, whether a setting, a new Diceless or Guest character, or something else, make some notes. It is important that you write down everything that you have definitely decided, even if it wasn't revealed to the players during the Issue. Be sure and mark what the Main characters know of this. Normally, you will hand these notes over to the next SG if she requests them (she may be planning on an Issue for which they don't matter).

However, there's nothing wrong with having elements of the world exclusively under your control. If you want to keep the secret of one of the villain's Powers to yourself, just make sure that the notes you hand over note that that detail is decided, but you're not revealing it. There are two advantages to doing this. First, it can make the game more enjoyable for the players, as they don't have to work as hard to separate player and character knowledge, and they can be genuinely surprised by something. Second, it tends to make the world seem more alive and real if everything isn't interconnected. By having several SGs with plots and/or plot elements that aren't shared, they weave intersecting but not interconnected Issues. It's only imperative that you don't have accidentally-conflicting ideas about the world. It's always acceptable to deliberately alter something after the fact -- "retcon" was, after all, invented to describe comic books. As a matter of manners, however, you should try not to retcon other SG's material too often -- it may take away from their feeling of contribution to the shared stories.

Another tool for aiding in the interleaving of Issues from different Titles and with different Storyguides is to drop deliberately unused clues and tidbits. Make it a practice to increase the level of detail in your descriptions, and even to throw in minor occurrences that have no significance. One of the players will often mistake these for something important, and, upon learning (from looking at your notes when they SG) that you have not fleshed them out, use them as hooks for their own plots when they next SG. After all, if they are interesting enough to catch the player's attention, they are interesting enough to matter. Also, chances are that they will have already come up with an explanation or back story (which was, at the time, "wrong") while playing, so this also cuts down on inspirational effort. As an added bonus, these sorts of details often provide hooks or inspiration for the use of Storypath Cards (see the next section) during the current Issue. And, on that note, don't forget to use the additions of Storypath cards (both your own and others') when next you Storyguide.

Villains

As Storyguide, one of your duties is to come up with opponents for the heroes. A special sort of opponent is the Nemesis²¹. As the game goes on, and the heroes face different threats and villains, sometimes a villain will prove a particularly appropriate foil to one of the Main characters. Due to issues of motivation and/or powers (preferably both), this villain may become a Nemesis for one or more of the characters. Generally, a Nemesis either selects one hero, or the entire group. Perhaps, if there is a special group of heroes within the group²², the Nemesis might focus on them, rather than the group as a whole.

Another special sort of villain is the Mastermind. Masterminds are the villains that really run things in the underworld, usually behind the scenes. They are the villains that rarely confront the Main characters, instead having a small horde of lesser villains to do their bidding. While these lesser villains are often defeated or captured, a Mastermind can always find new lackeys to serve her, at least by the next Miniseries. While the Main characters rarely get to confront the Mastermind, other heroes often do, so that they can get captured, bring back tales of how undefeatable the Mastermind is, provide the Main characters with a vital clue or bit of inside information, or, very rarely, get killed.

In order to balance things out, making the Mastermind the feared opponent that she should be, here are a couple of tricks for you to employ. First of all, you will notice a special character sheet for them. It has two significant changes from the standard character sheet. First, the Forces are given a fixed Hierarchy, rather than dice to roll. This helps to make the Mastermind a more-consistent threat. If you can count on the Mastermind to react a certain way when it comes to chance, you can make their plans more concrete. Secondly, a space for Mastermind Traits²³ has been added to the sheet. These are special, powerful Descriptors, used somewhat like Storypath cards. Only the players have Storypath cards, because the whole point of them is to shift some of the power from Storyguide to player. After all, the Story guide can get away with whatever she wants all the time²⁴, with no need for mechanical aid. But in the case of Masterminds, it may be useful to have something to provide some structure to that fudging. Not to lessen it, but to give it a consistent feel. A Mastermind Trait should be something that relates particularly to how the Mastermind thwarts the heroes. They often characterize an "ace up the sleeve" that the Mastermind has to enable her to escape or survive or do one more thing before being incapacitated.

Traps

A staple of the pulp genre is the villain's elaborate trap. When a villain defeats a hero or group of heroes, she never kills the heroes outright, and only rarely does something sensible like take away all their equipment and wall them into a deep cave. Instead, they wake to find themselves in some Rube-Goldberg-esque contraption designed to kill them slowly, and usually messily. The villain will gloat over them a bit, set the trap in motion, and leave them to their "certain deaths". This works great in literature, but is a bit harder to set up in an RPG. If you make escape too easy, it's no fun. If you make escape too hard, the characters either don't escape (and death isn't much fun, either, except perhaps martyrdom), or you have to give the players a hint, which undermines the enjoyment of triumphing over the trap.

The solution is to make the proper escape technique dependent on the players' actions, rather than the trap. There are two ways to do this. The first is to pick a specific number of distinct attempts that must be made before success is achieved. Usually 2 or 3, but you could demand more for a particularly fiendish trap. The idea is that, whatever the players come up with, no matter how good or appropriate, for some reason the first attempt does not succeed. And, usually, neither does the 2nd. But the 3rd attempt, again, no matter how outlandish it is, does, generally just in the nick of time. Another way to do this is to accept that the players come up with the proper general technique the first time around, but that some element of it needs to be changed in order to work. Perhaps using acid to melt through the lock is the right technique, but it'll never eat through the hasp in time; instead, they need to poor it into the mechanism. If you alternate between these two techniques, vary the number of attempts required with the first technique, and sometimes have a specific solution that the players must figure out, you can maintain dramatic tension quite effectively, and the players won't feel cheated, because they won't know whether they outsmarted you, or just ran down the clock.