Chronicle Creation Basics Part One by: Trunks Some of you may have years of experience setting up chronicles in the original VtM P&P. Most of you probably don't have any. But whether you're a seasoned vet or a fresh newbie to chronicle making, you still have to learn certain things from scratch when it comes to making chronicles in Redemption. Veterans will have an easier time creating plots and stories of course, but with experience and some creativity, anyone can do that. This first part will focus on the actual mechanics of setting up the actual chronicle, and assumes you have no story in mind to begin with. You only need a loose idea for a storyline to get something started, and the rest of the story can come later on. Suggestions and tips on constructing the plot will be in part two. For those of you who have a story in mind already, you'll have to adjust this guide accordingly. Part three will help you out on actually running the chronicle, suggestions for times you need to improvise, and doing things for your story that you can't do during the setup phase. Also, please note that this guide is for chronicles with some sort of preset plot line...if you're making a purely dynamic game that changes everytime, you'll have to alter these suggestions a bit. I'll try to come up with a better guide to making these types of chronicles in a future article. So let's get started... FIRST: LOOK THROUGH THE LEVEL YOU INTEND TO USE Unless you decide to make your own maps, your stories are limited to what's included with the game. If you intend to use one of the levels that has a pre-made chronicle rather than one of the blank maps, the first thing you should do is go through the level and remove all the actors...that would include NPCs and enemies. Doing so forces you to look through each part of the various maps, so you should be thinking of how to utilize the map while you clear it out. Think about how the party will progress from the start point to various areas of the level. This will make it easier to come up with a natural progression of some sort, as you predict where your players might move to depending on your story. Also keep an eye out for any switches or levers in the level, and remember that certain areas might only be accessible after using them. Some buttons or switches might also uncover secret areas. All of this might spark an idea in your head on what to do there, like the placing of a sought out item with a strong guard. Once you finish clearing out the level, save it to a blank spot and name it accordingly. With these save templates, you can then reload the level if you ever want to work from a fresh slate in the future. SECOND: PLACE KEY NPCs, ENEMIES, AND ITEMS FIRST By now, you should have a rough idea of the story you want to run. You should have at least some basic ideas, such as someone getting kidnapped or vanishing, or an Elder wanting to send the party out to recover some stolen property, or a group of Human hunters on a mission to clean out an area of suspected supernatural beings. Once you have the main premise of the story ready, you can start setting it up. Place the main NPCs you want to use for the story in the areas you see the party running into them. Perhaps the party will hear some rumors in the bar from the bartender, and run into people outside on the streets trying to get more information. From these people, they might get referred to other people. Try to place these NPCs in logical places also, so you don't have your players running all over the map in a nonsensical manner. If you're planning the group to run into combat at certain points, try to place enemies in those areas in a way that makes sense. Perhaps there will be a few sentries at the perimeter areas, with more guards towards the interior of the area. Maybe you want to setup an ambush. Whatever you decide, always keep in mind that the strength of the enemies you make should coincide with the experience level of the people playing. So if you have a group of neonates, make sure that they can actually defeat the tougher enemies you place AS A GROUP. If they can breeze through what's supposed to be a tough defense individually, you should use harder enemies. Conversely, if the party is getting trashed around by what's supposed to be cannon fodder, use easier enemies there. Finally, make sure the enemies you choose make sense in your planned storyline. You want to put a pack of Lupines in some underground catacombs? You better have a good believable reason why they're down there. Furthermore, you can also make a certain area heavily defended to the point where a direct attack shouldn't be considered an option, otherwise the party would meet a quick death. This is a good way to get players to take a more stealthy or diplomatic route of action. A good example of this may be an important Setite holding, maybe a warehouse, with a considerable amount of human and ghoul defenders. To further get your point across that a direct assualt would not be a very smart idea, if the party does proceed with a direct attack you can have police arrive to put down the disturbance, further complicating things as the players are forced with trying to uphold the Masquerade now that mortal eyes are upon them. If you have any key items or weapons that are important in the storyline, you should place them during this time as well. Perhaps you want the "end boss" protecting the item your players are after. Or you want to place some strong weaponry in a hidden side room of a catacomb as a reward for figuring out a puzzle. THIRD: PLACE KEY OBJECTS TO HELP CREATE MOOD AND ATMOSPHERE Your chronicle will require various objects and items placed at certain spots to help immerse your players into your story better. If you're playing a story where the party discovers a bunch of townspeople slaughtered in the town square, this is when you place the corpses, broken carts and other material you feel will help convey the scene to your players. Maybe you want to make your party do a little extra work before heading to that factory, so you put a police force in the way, complete with squad cars and barricades so that your players have to figure out how to get passed them or get them to leave the area. It may also make them think twice about where they're heading, maybe questioning the mission they're planning on doing. FOURTH: GO BACK AND ADD THINGS FOR SIDE QUESTS Once the basic story and mood is set in place, you probably have come up with some ideas for "side quests". Now is the time to go back and add those things in. Try to make sure that most of these other "missions" are at least a little related to the "main goal." Otherwise, if you end up with too many little side activities that have little to nothing to do with the main quest, your players may end up ignoring either of them completely. When done properly, side quests help add to the story considerably. For example, in a Dark Ages game the Sheriff of the local town may have discovered his daughter is missing, and offers a reward for her return. After further investigation, the party may run into a local Ventrue, who tells a story of his sire and his desire to control the town, risking exposure of the local Kindred to the mortals. The players may suspect that the girl's disapperance is linked to this power hungry Kindred, and the Ventrue asks the players to help run his sire out of town through the planting of incriminating evidence somewhere. In this case, the players have several options. The main goal is getting the girl back obviously. The side quest is the Ventrue's request for help. Completing the side quest is not necessary, but doing so might help make the main quest easier. The more innovate players may even use the side quest in a different manner, going to the sire with his childe's plans of betrayal, hoping that he helps the group in finding the girl in return for helping him catch his childe. FIFTH: COMPLETE THE LEVEL BY PLACING BACKGROUND OBJECTS AND NPCs Finally, make your level a little more lively by placing background objects and actors. There's a difference between a bar with only a bartender and a bar with a bartender, a few drunks at the tables, and some people conversing in the corner. Try not to put too many things on screen, though, as more objects on screen means lower frame rates, which might reduce a player's system (including your own) to a crawl if there's too much stuff on screen. So even though you might be trying to recreate Downtown Chicago, you shouldn't pack the streets with pedestrians and cars. Just add enough so that the area doesn't look too dead. SIXTH: FINAL RUN THROUGH Once you're satisfied you've placed everything correctly, start from the beginning and go through each area, making sure everything is located right. While you do this, try to work through the loose plot you have in your mind. Congratulations, you have your chronicle all setup! But you're nowhere near done. Storywise, all you have now is a bunch of loose plot points. Now you need to flesh out the storyline, including possible dialogue the various NPCs throughout the level will have to say, possible narration points, and background information about the area and major NPCs. So how do you make an extensive, deep plot with what you just did? That's for the next article to cover, so stay tuned! Articles Index