Methods for Planning Secrets

[Lmns Crn]

I am grappling with this issue: what is the best way to plan?

I'm doing some preliminary prepwork for a game I'm planning to run. The setting is one where double-crosses, triple-crosses, secret enemies, secret allies, and new revelations about the workings of the fabric of reality are all common. The system is one where knowledge is the best currency, and probably the best way to gain an advantage over someone is to know some of their secrets while they know none of yours. So I think it behooves me to have a pretty solid framework in place at the start of the game, so that there are things for the players to discover.

I'm just not sure how I want to go about doing this.

Right now I've got some attractive pastel index cards, color-coded for people, places, things (and eventually, when I have some, PCs.) I can lay them all out on the table and move them around, trying on different configurations and relationships. ("What if X and Y were allied against Z?" What if Z ruled place P?") I can draw from the deck at random to answer a specific question, like "what would be a good thing to use to complicate this particular PC's life?" I can pretend they're tarot cards and do a fake reading to answer the pressing question: how long will it take before I decide it's dumb to treat these like tarot cards?

Here's the thing, though: that's a dumb idea. Really, anything involving an element of randomness or chance or caprice is a dumb idea, because this whole game is predicated on the idea of players potentially being able to figure stuff out, and they can't do that if elements are essentially arbitrary.

I really want to hear about some alternate systems for planning, especially if you've got some clever tricks for planning anything involving secrets, conspiracies, etc.

[LordVreeg]

Playing with the permissions on my wiki for that right now.
I am working on the details on my Collegium Arcana game.  And there are a lot of somewhat detailed data points.  And a cool think about many wikis is that you can determine diferent levels of permissions.   

You can also tease players with carefully names and shrouded links, that thye can see, but not access....

[Xathan]

A great way to do it, in my experience, is using cats-paws. Have the players deal with threat X, a relatively minor threat that someone got access to magic/tech/knowledge/power that should have been beyond X, so it must be forwarding someone's goals, whoever gave X their intel...but what X was doing could support Y or Z. Then threat X2 (revenge of the threat) pops up, and this is a group that got pushed into acting in a threatening way - but in this case, it could support Z or it could support some unknown actor. Basically, build a pyramid of threats (or multiple pyramids) and have the players slowly work their way up them, connecting the dots as they go along. Make sure to have the goals of the pyramid's head written down, so you can add in things that support that goal in some obscure way, and gradually reveal who the heads of the pyramids are.

At least, that's what's worked for me so far. Of course, my players are maybe two steps away from finding out the initial threat they dealt with and put in jail has been the top of the pyramid all along, so nothing says these have to be linear structures.

[Lmns Crn]

So, here's what I've been toying with so far, in terms of NPCs. I'm doing this in threes.

The bulk of my notes for each NPC is just a bunch of lists of three things. Three prominent character traits ("I'm always in a good mood", "I have a holier-than-thou attitude", "I'm never without a cigarette", etc.), three relationships ("X is my uncle", "Y is my old roommate from college", "Z is my mortal enemy", etc.), three assets ("the murderous rogue AI regards me as a beloved parent", "I learned the archmage's book of spells," "the king trusts my advice", etc.) three motives ("I will reconcile with my estranged sister", "I will conquer the universe", "I will earn my father's respect at last", etc.), and three secrets that NPC knows ("my brother is the real murderer", "there's a traitor in our midst", "the cosmos could be unraveled entirely", etc.)

I call them my 3x5 cards, because each one has 3x5 tidbits of information on it, and also because they are written on literal 3x5 cards. Hilarious.

Anyway, the idea is that I need to get each NPC a filled-out card by the session after they appear (or the session after they start distantly scheming, whatevs), so that large portions of the massive web of conspiricies are fixed in place in advance, and players have something definite to discover/uncover.

[LD]

I think Xathan's idea is a good one; it's similar to how I structure things for my DnD games. I think this way lends itself better to grand schemes with armies and factions.

LC's response is how I do things for Cthulu games. I think his way lends it better to intimate settings where the focus is on more singular characters.

It's good to have the characters have opinions of each other as some guidance for what they know about each other and how they might want to interact with each other in-game--as sort of a jumping-off point.

Good questions.

[Superfluous Crow]

I have been considering how I'd would go about this myself if I were to do an intricate conspiracy and after some consideration I arrived at the conclusion that the best approach would be a top-down construction. Basically, I would start with the end goal of the conspiracy and then think "what would need to happen for this to come about?". Then apply this approach recursively until I end up at the events that will then form the beginning of the scheme.
This could be done for multiple conspiracies, and the plots could then be reviewed for potential overlap.

Another approach you could consider is to look into some of the available RPG intrigue/relation games. Fiasco would be a good start since this game is basically designed to intuitively lead to (sort of) complicated plots. I know there are people who use it as a writing aid. Basically, the players (or your NPC's) sit in a circle and from a common pool of dice they (you) buy relationships and place them between the players. Then a "Need" or two is added to define some of the relationship. Finally, "details" can be added for some extra inspiration. The characters are then built from the relationships instead of the other way around (this is the central idea of that system).
I know there is one or two about court politics and all the playsets are FREE. Look for London 1593 here. You can also get the basic rules for free, I believe, or I can give you a short introduction if you wish.
This was one of the games I was going to add to your List of Interesting Games and I heartily recommend it for actual gaming as well as inspiration :)

Skulduggery might be another option, but I don't know much (read: anything) about that game except that there was an intrigue adventure where you had to scheme to become the new pope while locked in the vatican.

EDIT: After reading Xathan's post I felt like designing conspiracy equations...

[Xathan]

EDIT: After reading Xathan's post I felt like designing conspiracy equations...

Is it bad that I'm now tempted to stop writing up stuff for Shades and Dust to start making conspiracy math?

[beejazz]

There's a blog I've been reading with a good series of articles on "node based planning" that seem particularly useful for mystery work. http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/tag/node-based-scenario-design/page/4

For myself, there are three big considerations for each individual.
Motive
Method
Means
And then you can divide each of those up into what they want you to think and what's actually true. So their stated and real motives don't have to be the same, they can claim to be moral when they're sociopaths, and they can bluff about what resources they have available to them.

The same "stats" can be used for organizations. And you can add a "misc" for useful information on private life etc.

[Xathan]

That blog is incredible - it's kind of what I had in mind when I was talking about how I do it, but it explains it so much better than I do.

And I'll agree with you that Motive, Method, and Means are all important for NPCs (really, for any NPC), but if they're part of a conspiracy I think you need to add a 4th M - Mastermind. Who do they work for, directly or indirectly, and who does that person work for - it's difficult to have a conspiracy of one.

[beejazz]

That blog is incredible - it's kind of what I had in mind when I was talking about how I do it, but it explains it so much better than I do.

And I'll agree with you that Motive, Method, and Means are all important for NPCs (really, for any NPC), but if they're part of a conspiracy I think you need to add a 4th M - Mastermind. Who do they work for, directly or indirectly, and who does that person work for - it's difficult to have a conspiracy of one.

My stuff gets a little messy for a single mastermind. But what you bring up is expressed a few ways.

Statted organizations.
False motive: Loyalty
True method: Power behind the throne.

That sort of thing.

[Xathan]

Gotcha. Make sense, but do want to point out that Mastermind is not a set variable - to use real world theories as examples, the Illuminati are one organization (Making the head of them a Mastermind), the Reptilians are another (making the head of them a Mastermind)...etc. Each individual might know who gives them their orders, and so on up the chain, but it might take the PCs awhile to work their way up.

[James McMurray]

I've used the Alexandrian's node-based design quite a lot myself. Between that and the three clue rule I've never failed to get compliments on games when I had the time to build out the node tree.

For fast and furious, the 5 Room Dungeon model is also useful, and pretty readily translates itself to scene or event based adventures as well.