{"id":360,"date":"2013-04-02T17:22:28","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T17:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/plot-gimmicks\/"},"modified":"2023-02-26T22:46:40","modified_gmt":"2023-02-26T22:46:40","slug":"plot-gimmicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/plot-gimmicks\/","title":{"rendered":"Plot Gimmicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Sometimes a game will get into a rut, with characters doing basically the same thing week in and week out. Plot gimmicks can be used to break up the monotony and sometimes even help the game shift gears. <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Holiday Special:<\/b> The plot of the episode is themed to some game-world holiday: Midsummer’s Night, Halloween, Gurnenthar’s Ascendance, whatever.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. A Very Special Episode: <\/b>The PCs have to deal with some emotional issue: Planning an intervention for a GMC (or PC) with a drug problem, dealing with the death of a beloved supporting character, etc.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Special Guest Star: <\/b>A character who has previously been referenced but has never appeared “on screen” is central to the session.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Dream Sequence: <\/b>The entire session is a dream or hallucination.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Flashback: <\/b>The session takes place in the past. It may focus on the entire group or a single character (with other players taking on the roles of supporting characters). If the flashback reveals something pertinent to the current plotline, even better.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Genre Switch: <\/b>The session borrows tropes from another genre. For example, a group of fantasy characters must solve a noir-style mystery or space travelers find themselves on a planet that resembles the Wild West.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Zeppo Spotlight: <\/b>The episode focuses on the adventures of a minor character. This can be a sub-plot revolving around a PC who isn’t often in the spotlight or can focus on a GMC. Players may play their own characters or supporting GMCs.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. Mistaken Identity: <\/b>A character (or the whole group) is mistaken for someone else. This could be good or bad.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Abnormal Behavior: <\/b>A character or GMC begins acting strangely. The question is, why?
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  10. Paranormal Activity: <\/b>The players encounter evidence of ghosts, cryptids, UFOs, or some other strange phenomenon. Maybe they just have overactive imaginations, but maybe not.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  11. Amnesiac Attack: <\/b>The players wake up in a strange place with no idea how they got there.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  12. Golden Apple Corps: <\/b>Something is introduced to make the PCs work against one another.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  13. The Man Behind The Curtain: <\/b>The players learn something unexpected about a GMC.\u00a0
    \n<\/b><\/span><\/li>\n
  14. Bottle Episode: <\/b>The entire session takes place in a single location that the PCs cannot leave.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  15. Film Break: <\/b>The game picks up at some point in the future, possibly with some existing plots and subplots already resolved.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  16. Plot Archaeology: <\/b>Some forgotten plot thread from the past shows back up.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  17. Smoke Me A Kipper: <\/b>An incredibly competent GMC shows up and makes the characters look bad. He may have feet of clay or a hidden agenda, but maybe he’s just that awesome.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  18. Talent Show: <\/b>The PCs must compete in some kind of contest.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  19. Change of Scenery: <\/b>The session takes place in an exotic location.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  20. Plot Twist: <\/b>Something happens that has major repercussions on the storyline.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Sometimes a game will get into a rut, with characters doing basically the same thing week in and week out. Plot gimmicks can be used to break up the monotony and sometimes even help the game shift gears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1996],"tags":[886,1509,1510,1511,1512,1513,1514,1515,1516,1517,1520],"class_list":["post-360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dumb-tables","tag-dumb-tables","tag-mistaken-identity","tag-plot-twist","tag-vacation","tag-flashback","tag-dream-sequence","tag-guest-star","tag-very-special-episode","tag-bottle-episode","tag-holiday-special","tag-adventure-ideas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3049,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions\/3049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}