To Cut a Long Story Short... Announcing Storylines!
With the new year comes a new type of resource from Raging Swan Press: the Storyline!
By Bart Wynants
What is a Storyline?
A Storyline is a self-contained mini-campaign which ties together three Raging Swan Press products – typically from our Dungeon Backdrops and/or Eventures line. While each of these three linked products still offers a complete, standalone adventure, they are also designed to contain plenty of hooks and clues leading to the other featured supplements. The Storyline provides an overarching narrative, tying together several elements from each of these three products in a flexible, non-prescriptive way!
So how does it work?
Because Storylines are a fairly novel concept, it’s best to use a concrete example to explain how they work. Let’s take a look at our very first Storyline: The Secret Name! The story tells of the Red Rubric, an evil cult who, long ago, learned the true name of a god. They subsequently divided this secret name into three syllables, hiding each in one of their hidden sanctums...
Art Bart Wynants
Of course, each of those sanctums is one of our Dungeon Backdrops! They are:
· Scarlock Hill (out now in 5e, OSR, Pathfinder 1 and Pathfinder 2 editions!)
· Craghollow Mine (March 2021)
· The Shard Isles (April 2021)
The cool thing is that these can be played in any order. You could start the Storyline at Scarlock Hill, where the characters find clues leading to both Craghollow Mine and the Shard Isles. But your mini-campaign could just as easily begin in The Shard Isles instead!
Because we’ve done most of the heavy lifting in embedding the necessary clues and leads into the three Dungeon Backdrops, implementing the overarching Storyline doesn’t take much extra work. Still, you, as a GM, need to make certain decisions, the most important of which are the Four “A”s:
· An Antagonist: Who seeks to uncover the Secret Name?
· Their Agenda: Why?
· Their Agents: Who’s helping them?
· Their Assets: What kind of advantage(s) do they possess?
A Storyline provides several fitting options for GMs to choose from. In our case, perhaps the Red Rubric (Antagonist) yet thrives, and they want to use power of the Secret Name to call Braal to the mortal realm (Agenda) with the help of a network of cults and fanatics spread across the Lonely Coast (Agents), all funded by wealthy noble family (Assets).But you could just as well have a mad wizard seeking to ascend to godhood and using a rival party of adventurers armed with a magical weapon to further his cause. Or you could make up your own four “A”s!
Finally, the Storyline provides guidance on how to advance the plot during or in between each of the three adventures by suggesting ways to involve your chosen combination of Antagonist, Agenda, Agents, and Assets – all set to culminate in a final, climactic conclusion!
And the Best Part Is…
We are making our Storylines available for free! The Secret Name, our very first Storyline, can be downloaded here.
Together with Scarlock Hill, it’s all you need to kickstart your own epic mini-campaign uncovering the mysteries of The Secret Name!
There’s Two Sides to Every Story...
...and we would love to hear about yours! How did you implement The Secret Name at your table? How did it go? Naturally, if you have any suggestions on how we can improve our Storylines, be sure to let us know.
Happy Adventuring!