Mind's Eye Theatre - Vampire The Requiem.pdf - RoseRed

chapter assembling one: society the coterie of the damned • plots
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a story, instead of just one. In the end, the more that the characters feel they have a personal
stake in a story, the better the chances are that the other characters will go along.
PLOTS
The plot is the chain of cause and effect that links the events of the story.
Just like the chronicle as a whole, each story needs a central idea that you develop through
a beginning, middle and end. In the story’s beginning, you present a situation that drives the
characters to act. The middle consists of what the characters do about the situation, and how
other characters respond to their actions. The situation resolves itself at the story’s end.
A good plot needs focus. You should be able to sum up a plot’s premise in a few sentences.
For instance:
• The leader of the coterie’s covenant asks the characters to convey a gift to the Mekhet
Priscus, with whom he wants an alliance. The Nosferatu Primogen, however, wants to block
the alliance by stealing the gift.
• Members of a character’s herd are disappearing. A Carthian whom the coterie has never
met approaches to say he has a clue.
• A character’s mother, who thought he was dead, discovers that he still exists and wants
him to come home — but she doesn’t know he’s a vampire.
If you cannot explain a plot in a sentence or two, you are probably trying to do too much at
once. Very likely, you actually have two or three plots in mind. Pare your idea down into one
or two central actions. Then work out what causes these central events, and what happens
once the characters get involved.
PRIMARY PLOTS, SECONDARY PLOTS AND SUBPLOTS
Not all plots serve the same function. Primary plots help to advance the overarching plot of
the chronicle. They form chapters in a longer story. Secondary plots are more self-contained.
They may have nothing to do with the chronicle’s main plot, but provide entertaining diversions.
A subplot is a smaller story that runs alongside other plots and concerns just one or
two of the characters.
A chronicle should intersperse primary and secondary plots, with a few subplots now and
then. Unless a chronicle is very brief and focused, it just doesn’t make sense that everything
that happens to the coterie revolves around one confl ict or situation. Secondary plots and
subplots let you develop aspects of the characters that the main story might not call upon.
Diversions from the main plot also keep the players on their toes, because they don’t know
whether a particular story has some wider signifi cance. Events that look unconnected to
the main story might later turn out to be very important indeed — maybe even if you didn’t
plan them that way. For instance, the coterie could make an enemy in a secondary story who
returns to oppose them in a primary plot.
For your primary plots, refer back to your chronicle outline. Where are the characters in this
overarching story? What’s the next step the characters must take to advance the plot, or what
special challenges or decisions should they face? At the start of a chronicle, most primary plots
might involve meeting the city’s other Kindred and deciding upon their allies and enemies.
Returning to the “Revolution” sample story, one primary plot might involve one character’s sire
bringing the coterie on a visit to another infl uential vampire. In the course of this meeting, the
characters incur the jealousy of the other vampire’s childe, who will become an ongoing rival
to one character, but they also see the fi rst hint of unrest at the Prince’s heavy-handed rule.
Anything goes for secondary plots. They might serve as a change of pace. If the characters
have sweated through a series of grim and diffi cult moral dilemmas in the primary plots, maybe
it’s time to break the tension with a simple brawl or something darkly humorous. Perhaps