Storytelling Adventure System Guide

Storytelling Adventure System Guide

Written by Eddy Webb and Will Hindmarch

White Wolf Publishing 2075 West Park Place Blvd. Suite G Stone Mountain, GA 30087

Edited by Jason Bolte and Genevieve Posey

Layout by Jessica Mullins

Original Product Design by matt milberger

SAS created by White Wolf Publishing

2008 CCPhf. All rights reserved. Reproduction without thewritten permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, and for blank character sheets, which may be reproducedfor personal use only. White Wolf, Vampire and World of Darkness are registered trademarks of CCPhf. All rights reserved. Vampire the Requiem, Werewolf the Forsaken, Mage the Awakening, Promethean the Created, Changeling the Lost, Hunter the Vigil, Exalted, Scion, Storytelling System and the Storytelling Adventure System are trademarks ofCCP hf. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein arecopyrighted by CCPhf. CCP North America Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CCP hf. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned. This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised. Check out White Wolf online at http://www.white-wolf.com Check out the Storytelling Adventure System online at http://www.white-wolf.com/sas

Storytelling Adventure System Guide

What Is A Storytelling Adventure System Product?

Think of a Storytelling Adventure System product (SAS) as a story kit, as if youd bought a piece of modern furniture and brought it home in a big flat box. You open it up, eager to be the Storyteller for your troupe, but what you find is a collection of pieces and parts. To put it together, youll need some tools: the rules and worlds provided in one or more of our Storytelling game rulebooks. Youll use these parts and tools to build a story together with your friends. It might not look quite like you expect it to when its all done, but as long as everyone enjoys it, it doesnt matter how you end up using all the pieces, or even if you throw some of them away. The basic parts that make up most SAS stories are simple: Storyteller characters, scenes and some advice on how you can put them together. Each of them can be used in different ways to keep the story building towards its climactic end. These parts are designed to make the job of being a Storyteller easier, faster and more fun for you. The wondrous game experiences youve read about that shock and satisfy your players come from doing a great job, and everything in an SAS product is intended to pick up the slack so you can focus on creating the best story you can.

Pacing and plotting scenes are part of the fun of being a Storyteller for some people. If its fun for you, take these scenes apart and use them however you like. You can even import scenes from other stories or create new scenes for yourself. If you prefer to just get to the table and start playing, though, youll find an example already plotted for you in each storys Treatment section.

Storytelling Adventure System Guide

Advice

Every story has unique challenges and pitfalls that can trip up even an experienced Storyteller. No matter how great the parts are, they dont do you much good if you dont have a clue how to put them together for maximum effect. An SAS product often provides specific advice on how to use those parts in just the right way to create the story you want to tell, as well as suggestions on scene flow, relevant background, and unique rules and mechanics useful to the story at hand.

SAS Structure
Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today. Robert McAfee Brown

Characters

The Storyteller characters presented in most SAS products use the same format and rules as those in our Storytelling games, with a few elaborations and expansions. The archetypal characters you find in a rulebook are intended to be used again and again, whenever you need someone like them in your story. The characters in an SAS product, however, contain special advice and notes to help you use them in a specific story. Youll find descriptions, monologues, tactics and goals for the most important Storyteller characters. Draw from them as needed during play.

Adventure Ratings

A Storytelling Adventure System product has three ratings on its cover. They look something like this:
Storytelling Adventure system

Scenes

Mental OOOOO Physical OOOOO Social OOOOO

XP Level

o-34

Scenes

The scenes that make up the story follow a specific format. Each scene is built as a discrete game encounter (or a closely-tied collection of game encounters) for the troupe to play through. As the players take their characters through these scenes, a story naturally unfolds. 2

Scenes: This is the total number of scenes in the adventure. Its used to convey a sense of the length of the adventure (how long it will take to play). If there are nine scenes (even if two of them are optional), then the Scene rating is 9.

Storytelling Adventure System Guide

MPS (Mental, Physical, Social) Dots: The adventure as a whole is given a rating based on how challenging it is in three categories: Mental (puzzles, mysteries, research), Physical (combat, endurance), and Social (interacting with and influencing others). Also, each scene is rated with its own MPS scale. While the adventure as a whole might be rated Mental , Physical and Social , its possible for one or two scenes to be rated Social or if one of the ways they can be solved is through a particularly challenging Social feat. Each MPS rating uses the familiar range of 0 to 5 dots, according to the following scale:

Introduction and Groundwork

The Introduction covers general information about the product, as well as set-up and groundwork sections like Storyteller advice, descriptions of key Storyteller characters, a flowchart of how scenes can flow together, background and set-up information, and a treatment of the story to be told.

Storytelling Adventure System Guide

Whats a Treatment?

MPS (Mental, Physical, Social) Dots:

Zero No challenge (involves no real risk, but may be dramatic) Minor challenge (slight chance of lost resources) Lesser Challenge (low risk or mild consequences) Challenging (even chances, moderate consequences) Major (real risk or serious consequences for failure) Extreme (serious peril with lasting or lethal consequences)

In Hollywood parlance, a treatment is a short prose description of a movies story, written before production begins. A treatment describes all the major dramatic beats of the story, and sometimes includes directorial or developmental information (i.e., it doesnt necessarily restrict itself to relating the story). In Storytelling terms, the treatment is the Storytellers core overview of the story, from authorial notes on subtext all the way to frank narrative tips. Nothing is implied in a Storytelling treatment; this is where the author breaks it all down in brief for the Storyteller at home.

XP Level: The amount of experience points that characters should ideally possess to play the adventure (but its not necessary; the story can be scaled to support characters who have less or more experience). The scale is similar to the charts used for advanced character creation in each of our Storytelling games, but may change slightly depending on the system the SAS is designed for. The most common scale is:

Scenes

XP Levels:
0-34 35-74 75-119 120-179 180+ Beginner Seasoned Established Veteran Legend

Scenes are the most important parts in your kit, so usually a large portion of each SAS product will be devoted to them. Theres a common structure for each SAS scene to help you quickly find information in the heat of a blazing gun-fight or during a tense negotiation, especially if you decide to snag a scene from a different product to use in your current story. Some sections may be missing if they arent appropriate for a particular scene, however (such as the Actions section if theres no defining core action for the scene). MPS Ratings: These dots are similar to the ratings for the overall story. Theyre intended to give you a quick summary of the severity of the challenges the scene presents, and of what types. Overview: This is a big-picture look at the scene, including a synopsis and a short description of what triggers the scene (e.g. Finding the homeless camp or Noticing the queens tomb). The central conflict in the scene is described here as well.

Storytelling Adventure System Guide

Description: This is a general description of the scenes atmosphere, setting and inherent game effects. The descriptive text in this section is usually suitable for reading aloud to the troupe. Storyteller Goals: This details what a scene is designed to accomplish in the story (e.g., build suspense, exposit, challenge the characters physically) and what you, as the Storyteller, should keep in mind overall when running the scene. Antagonist goals for the scene go here, too. Character Goals: What are the players characters trying to get out of this scene? Sometimes these goals will be obvious to the players and their characters at the outset (e.g., find the Vault of Osiris or get Edgar to tell his story), but sometimes not (e.g., survive the zombie ambush). Actions: This gives concrete examples of how the scenes goals can be dramatized and played out. Most scenes have a key action, which is a detailed description of the action in rules terms. You can use the dice pools, modifiers and descriptive text detailed there as you play out the scene. Hindrances: This section gives you a quick list of modifiers that make the scene more challenging, more dangerous or more dramatic for the characters, such as situational circumstances or the effects of previous scenes. Often, these have the secondary effect of making a scene longer. Help: This section describes suitable ways the characters can make the scene easier for themselves, or extra benefits they can derive through clever play in this or previous scenes. Sometimes these have the secondary effect of making a scene shorter, but they just as often add more actions to the scene as the players strive to get these aids before attempting the key action. Consequences: When the outcome of the scene has special consequences, such as a temporary supernatural ability or a chance of later police investigation, this section describes the details. It may also detail how this scene can lead to others.

Aftermath
Scene Cards

After the scenes, there are suggestions and ideas for potential story ideas that can result from the aftermath of the adventure (if the SAS was run as part of an existing chronicle), as well as suggested experience point awards.

Storytelling Adventure System Guide

There are also scene cards included in each product. Every scene in the story gets its own card, which summarizes the scene in short notes so that you can focus on the story. Print them out, cut them apart and keep them on hand as youre Storytelling. You might even keep a few scene cards on hand from other stories a fight scene, a chase scene, whatever just in case you need to toss them into the current story.

Storytelling Adventure System Guide

How to Use an SAS Product

Telling The Story

Adaptability
One of the hallmarks of the Storytelling System is its adaptability. The number of scenes, for example, is extremely flexible; you can add or subtract scenes until you get exactly the story you want. Individual scenes can be scaled up or down about the equivalent of one level on the MPS scale for example, from to or . Use the Help and Hindrance modifiers in each scene to dial the challenge up or down. When in doubt, remember that the size of the dice pool is everything add dice penalties like flickering lights, blowing rain, peeling linoleum underfoot and capable enemies to create more perilous scenes. You can use this technique to change the MPS rating or XP level for a whole story as well. Its also possible to slant the MPS ratings toward or away from a particular play style. If the story has a high Physical rating and your players arent keen on running around and kicking some ass, you can remove some of the high-rated Physical scenes and replace them with more Mental or Social scenes (swapping out fight scenes with, say, more investigation or interrogation scenes). Similarly, if the players want to do more problem-solving in a story with a low Mental rating, you can add more Mental challenges into existing scenes (perhaps by having some key information in the story encrypted or hidden in a puzzle box).

Storytelling Adventure System Guide

Reading The Product

An SAS product is a collection of situations and settings that describe the general plot a story could follow, but the story doesnt really exist until you and your players tell it. Though most SAS products will present scenes in an intuitive order, the scenes dont have to occur in exactly that sequence. That story is just one possibility, which you can use as a guide to follow when you get together with your troupe to play. The order and the outcome of the scenes depend on the choices your players make the story that you all tell together around the game table is under no obligation to imitate what we imagined when we wrote it. Each SAS will be written in a very open, functional style, meant to explain in clear language everything thats important about the story youre about to tell. Each SAS product is a blueprint, and blueprints arent subtle. We wont be coy when talking about the story. Elements like mystery and secrecy belong in the game world you construct with your friends, not when were trying to give you the parts you need to build that world.

SAS products printed in our traditional books will be formatted to fit those pages, but the layout for our electronic products is optimized for use with a computer. The layout is landscape (wider than it is tall) so that each page takes up the entire viewing area on a standard monitor. The landscape pages also fit easily behind your Storytellers screen when you print it up, and you can print only the pages youll need during play. There may be bookmarks that allow you to jump to different sections of the adventure, or hotlinks that will take you instantly to a website that provides more information. Some SAS products feature printable handouts, notes and props hand-written notes, maps, clues for use when youre telling your story. Depending on the kind of theatrics youre after, you could print these out on fancy paper or heavy cardstocks to give your players a tangible tool to help bring the game alive in their minds. 5

In Print or On Screen

Scene Flow

Although we dont know exactly what story youll be telling or how youll plot it, having a general idea in mind of how scenes flow together when you begin is a good idea. A basic plan can help you improvise by giving you a core melody of plot that you can riff on during play. On the following page is the scene flow diagram from Criminal Intent, but most SAS products include something like this. It looks complicated, but in practice its really quite simple: play one scene after another until youre done. By having scene flow mapped out ahead of time, you can get a good sense of the general shape of the story, and it makes it easier to keep track of what scene leads where when the pace is furious and the tension is cranked to eleven.

Scene Flowchart
Hired by Petrovshy

The Cardinal Sins of Storytelling

Storytelling Adventure System Guide

The Scene of the Crime

Confronting Simone

Rosarios Apartment

Confronting Melanie

The design of the Storytelling Adventure System allows you to avoid committing two of the cardinal sins of Storytelling boredom and confusion. #1: Boredom Is Poison. If players are bored, the story will die. If the story dies, the chronicle is likely to wither and perish, too. If you see that the players are spending more time reading a comic book or talking about what they saw on television last night, dig through your scene cards and throw in a scene that will get them focused on the story again. Raymond Chandler said, When in doubt, have two men come through the door with guns in their hands. If it was good enough for Chandler, its good enough for us. #2: Confusion Kills Fun. Being mystified isnt the same as being confused. A puzzle or a riddle can be fun because youre not sure how to solve it, but thats not the same as being confused about just what the hell to do with it. Clarity in every scene is important, whether that clarity comes from the big picture (We have to get out of this room before midnight so we can save Daphne!) or the little picture (We have to break down this door so we can get out of this room!). By having goals assigned to each significant scene and putting them right at the bottom of every scene card, both you and the players can keep a sharp focus on whats important in that scene.

Storytelling Adventure System Guide

The Enforcers Attack Getting the Painting

Mr. Petrovsky Arrives

6

Stories are about characters making important decisions. Games are about players making important decisions. Storytelling games are about both. Making a blind choice between two unmarked doors isnt interesting. Players need information for a decision to be important knowing that the reek of rot coming from behind one of those unmarked doors might be from the corpse of your dead brother makes the decision more interesting. When the consequences of the players decisions are known or at least can be guessed, choices become more interesting and more dramatic something is at stake. While youre telling stories with your troupe, remember the Storytellers mantra: Difficult choices make drama. So what is a difficult choice? Its a choice between two equally unwelcome outcomes. You only have time to save one of your brothers, so who do you choose? Would you kill someone yourself to prevent your child from becoming a murderer? Would you risk jail time to stop a supernatural force that youre not absolutely sure is real?

Providing Difficult Choices

Storytelling Adventure System Guide

Its fair game to use game mechanics to make tough choices real for the player. For example, a World of Darkness character can be confronted with the choice between stealing or going hungry. This decision might not be too difficult for a starving character, but the player can be confronted with the choice of risking some damage to the character in exchange for fulfilling his Virtue of Fortitude. Not every challenge should necessarily be reduced to an either/ or dilemma, of course. Deadlines, for example, automatically create situations in which decisions become important because every choice uses up the precious resource of time, but the actions a character can take between the start of the countdown and the end arent limited to binary choices. Any limited resource can be used to lend weight to any situation, to make any choice into a tough choice. The authorities will be here in two minutes what do you do with the body? You can only go four or five more miles before the car runs out of gas where do you go? There are ten arrows and twelve guards in the castle will you be able to rescue your friend? In the end, not every choice before the characters or the players will be meaningful or difficult. However, by boiling down significant scenes into discrete structures, the core choices are made clearer, and more time and energy can be devoted to scenes that matter to your troupe.

preciate each others anecdotes by comparing the flow of scenes. You might say, When I ran the story, it ended up going Scenes A > B > E > F > C then I tossed in scene G from this other adventure, and ended with a climactic scene of my own design. What was the climax like? I ask. And then you show me the scene, already sketched out in a format I can understand and plug right into my own games if I want. Scenes become a shareable commodity, and the more people that play with them and share their thoughts, the more prepared you can be to tell that same story in play and the better everyones stories will be in the end.

Storytelling Adventure System Guide

Examples in Action

The last couple of pages of this guide are sample parts of scenes from two of our SAS products. Were always working on new SAS products, and hope youll share your stories with White Wolf players across the globe. Stay tuned to the SAS page on the White Wolf website for SAS news and releases: www.white-wolf.com/sas

Sharing The Experience

The Internet is a pervasive force in our lives, and thats a unique opportunity for Storytelling games that didnt exist before. Not only can you get content for your favorite games faster and easier than ever before, but you can also share your troupes stories with others, adding different interpretations on our existing material as you do. By using a consistent structure for all our SAS products, we create a common language that makes it much easier to talk about how you ran an adventure, or how youre thinking about running it. For example, you might move a foot-chase scene in a particular SAS story elsewhere, or run it twice if the characters have multiple encounters with the perpetrators in that scene. I might cut that scene out entirely. We can compare notes, share advice and ap7

MENTAL

Confronting Simone
PHYSICAL

SOCIAL

Either from searching the alley or trying to go to Rosarios apartment, Simone approaches the coterie. She makes it clear that shes protecting Rosario, but if they prove to be willing to listen, shes inclined to arrange a meeting with him. Otherwise, the encounter can turn very ugly. Simone will attempt to get the drop on the coterie, either near the alley or by Rosarios apartment. This description assumes that she successfully surprises a member of the coterie alter it if they catch her sneaking up on them. A cool metal ring in a blanket of rough wool presses into the back of your neck. This is a gun under a coat. Its the quiet but firm voice of a woman from behind you. Were getting off the street so you can explain to me just exactly why the fuck youre snooping around. Your goals in this scene are to introduce Simone, demonstrate that she is protecting Rosario and hint that shes willing to kill the characters if necessary. Note that checks for Predators Taint can be used in this scene if desired; see Vampire: The Requiem, p. 168. Things are tense, but the characters should be able to talk their way out of the conflict fairly easily. If the scene does move into combat, make sure to let the players learn about Simones motivations. Perhaps she says Ill die before I let you kill Rosario before the fight starts, or something similar.

Overview

If they decide to talk, however, the characters will find that Simone isnt very socially savvy. Shes trained as an assassin, and she doesnt do much talking except to intimidate people. The players are encouraged to act out their attempts to convince Simone, but they might want to back up their roleplay with a dice roll. You can also choose to let the players roll if the scene is running long. Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion vs. Composure + Empathy (in Simones case, the pool is 2). Action: Instant and contested. Hindrances: Simone is paranoid (-1); Simones City Status (+2 to her pool). Help: The coterie drops Rosarios name before she does (+2); the character speaking has Mekhet Clan Status, Crone Covenant Status or City Status (+1 per dot).

Fast-Talking Simone

Criminal Internt

Description

Storyteller Goals

Roll Results Dramatic Failure: Not only do the characters not convince Simone, but she refuses to speak to them any further. She will attempt to kill them if they approach Rosario. Failure: Simone doesnt believe the characters story. Success: Simone is willing to listen, but carefully watches the coterie to see if they are planning to double-cross her. Exceptional Success: Simone believes the characters completely, and relaxes her guard around the coterie. This scene leads to Rosarios Apartment. Either the characters were already on their way there and she goes with them to protect Rosario, or the coterie has convinced her that they mean her no harm and she offers to arrange a meeting. If for some reason they get into a fight with her and she escapes, she might attack them later (such as before or during Getting the Painting). If they kill her in this scene, she wont be available for future scenes, but much of what she knows can be covered by Rosario or Melanie. While she has a significant presence in the events prior to this story, only her connection and desire to protect Rosario are really important for the players to know. It wont derail events too much if she dies in this scene. 8

Consequences

Confronting Simone

The characters try not to get killed by Simone, and hopefully find out why shes threatening them.

Character Goals Actions

There are two main options for this scene fighting Simone or convincing her to talk to them. If things get violent, its likely that Simone will be able to protect herself long enough to escape and warn Rosario, and its even more likely that the coterie will draw a lot of attention in the process.

MENTAL

Scene: Taken!
PHYSICAL

SOCIAL

The Fear-Makers Promise

Overview: A scene of great decision for the characters. Description: Disorder erupts. In the darkening forest, by the flickering torchlight, the door slams shut and there hangs a moment of bated breath what will happen? What will the characters do? Wrens unyielding faade shatters, and her eyes go wide. She matches those gazes that turn to her and she stammers, I cant go in! I must not leave the ritual space or the contract wont be written! Note: the characters have only five turns to re-open the door and enter the Hedge if they choose to go after the child. (The door will only lead to the same place in the Hedge for a number of turns equal to the Wyrd score of the original opener of the door in this case, Red Wrens Wyrd score of 5.) Thats not to say they cant open it after those five turns are done (and in fact, doing so does not require the expenditure of Glamour since the door is already keyed to the Hedge), but it will not take them to the same place that Cancer John and Joey went. Voices of dissent and protest will be certain, here. Some will demand that the child must be followed and reclaimed for the ritual. Others will demand he be claimed because well, a child in the Hedge is doubly cruel and could get him into trouble far worse than what the ritual would bring him. There will be those, however, who will loudly proclaim that whoever took him is likely taking the child to safety thus ending this dour ritual. Storyteller Goals: This scene can go ten seconds or ten minutes. If the characters leap into action, boom, the scene is swift. If indecision plagues them or they decide to remain behind, the gathered Lost will devolve into a squabbling mess of blame, insults, threats, and desperate pleas (with, of course, no action actually being taken remember that the characters are meant to be the truly dynamic presence in any story, and in this adventure its no different). 9

Give the characters a moment to take the reins themselves and make a decision: will they go into the Hedge? Or will they let someone else go and remain on this side, negotiating the situation from here? If they hesitate and seem to be fading into the background of the disorder, urge them forward with the voice of another character, someone perhaps from their own Court or someone who represents their patron figure (or even the patron himself). Its even possible that Red Wren will turn to them during the chorus of rising voices and plead with them to go into the Hedge shell make wild promises to them in a desperate bargain, though she claims there isnt time right now to commit to a formal pledge. Will they take her up on it? If they dont, assume that the scene drags on until someone finally decides to brave the Hedge to find the thief and the stolen child. (The easy assumption is that Autumn Court courtiers undergo this task: Ornithine, Mary OBrine, and probably Wrens own ensorcelled boy, Henry. Though, if you have others better-suited to the task, do whats right for your story.) Character Goals: Decisions, decisions. What informs the decisions of the motley? A number of things. First, they surely have some opinion on the Childrens Contract. If they consider it important, maybe they go after the child. Or, as others note, a child in the Hedge is a dangerous scenario for the boy, so maybe a rescue is in order even if the ritual disgusts them. On the other hand maybe the thief had the boys best interest in mind. Maybe hes taking the child to another door in the Hedge and bringing him right back out somewhere else, thus working toward the childs safety and the obviation of the Childrens Contract. Do the characters go with what their patron asked of them? Do they go against the patrons interests? Do they give in to Wrens pleas? Do they enter the Hedge within five turns? After? Or do they stay behind and let someone else do that dirty work? Action: The only action is the informal decision of what to do, as noted. The adventure hinges in part on what the motley chooses at this point. Consequences: Really, what the characters do determines how the rest of the scenes in the adventure line up. What has been up until this point a relatively linear progression of scenes, it now falls into a pattern based on the choices they make. And the choices they make have a very real effect on the freehold and all the children of the city.

Taken!