Plots That Shine I:  Basic Elements of a Tinyplot

A lot of Tinyplotting articles start on the "definition of a
Tinyplot", which in my opinion is a discussion that tends to get
bogged down fast.  So I'll instead focus on the ingredients of the
Tinyplot, the things you absolutely must have to get started.

A Situation:

Any Tinyplot involves the introduction of a new situation.  The
situation can be simple or complicated.  It can be more "action
adventure" or more day-to-day.  A party is a situation.  So is a
plague.  So is the Great Wonderful Magical Thing That Everybody Wants
And Needs.  Construct your situation well, because it is the
situation, not whatever "outline of events" that you're probably going
to quickly abandon, that is the meat and bones of your tinyplot.
Remember a tinyplot can be long or short.   A day long tinyplot is as
valid as a 13 month one, and often more effective.  The situation
doesn't always have to involve conflict (like the party) but often
does (the caterers are late).

A Time and Place:

You'd be amazed how much can be done if you just suck it up and say,
on Thursday, March 24 at 2:00 we are doing (fill in the blank). People
will show up and situations will occur naturally. You'd be amazed how
many tinyplots don't happen because the person who thought about
running one never got around to simply putting a time and a place up
on the boards.

Participants:

You need to make sure you have hooks and reasons for
people to get involved in your tinyplot.  If their only reason is
meddling or showing up at the RP things will get pretty weak pretty
quick.  If you've never run a plot before it really is okay to just
run one for the circle of friends you RP with.  Its not cliqueism,
it's the fact that you're utterly acquainted with their backgrounds
and plothooks, so naturally you know how to run for them.  In time,
you will learn how to come up with plots that don't require you to
know anyone's background at all.

Flexibility:

Yes, you're going to write a basic outline, but a good tinyplot
doesn't try to stick too closely to it.  An outline is a guide to help
you get things going and nothing more.  Below I'm going to give
examples of a basic "one day" tinyplot and a longer tinyplot.  I'm
going to give examples of the outline, and how these outlines might
change as you work through them.
Approval:

Don't waste your hard work.  Investigate your MUSH's approval
guidelines for tinyplots.  Some will require approval.  Some, like the
party example, will not.

For each of these examples I'm going to assume GenericMUSH that is a
lot like RL, only it's a MUSH.    That way anyone playing in any genre
can understand, take, and apply what I'm showing.  I'll continue this
through my tinyplot article series.

Example #1: The Party

The party is probably the simplest tinyplot you can run.  Character
throws a party. Character poses a room description involving his
party.  Character chooses a timeframe for his party and perhaps a
reason why he is throwing it beyond the desire to get people
roleplaying.  The entire outline of a plot like this is:  Joe hosts a
birthday party at his house and invites all of his friends, and tells
all his friends to bring a date if they can (hoping to meet new
characters on the game so that he has more people to RP with if all of
his current IC friends are gone, without having to make up some lame
reason to meet them in the bar).

Joe asks around and finds out when the peak night and time will be.
He @mails invitations to everyone, perhaps, or he +bbposts the fact
that he's having a party and he does have NPC friends, so if someone
would like to show up as an NPC's date even if he doesn't know them
(or brother or friend or whatever) then they are welcome to attend.
Joe tells us that the party is going to be on March 14th at 7:30 p.m.
CST and that he himself will be present until 11:30 p.m. CST, but that
people who come will be welcome to RP at his house as long as they
wish, and just assume he's in the background talking to NPCs.

His "outline" as it were is a relatively routine birthday party.  If
he's got the element of flexibility however, he has an opportunity to
draw people in even further by just listening to their RP.  For
example, perhaps Sue shows up at the party.  While Joe is offering Sue
a drink, she mentions that her ex-husband (an NPC) had to be put on a
restraining order the other day.  It's a simple thing to page Sue and
ask her if she would like the ex-husband to crash the party, and
whether she wants to emit him or whether she'd like him emitted.
Suddenly there's an element of "adventure" in even a routine party,
whether he shows up and is simply drunk and verbally nasty – or
whether he shows up with a gun.  Either way a new situation is created
that forces people to react – and draws them further into the RP.
This might be useful if the party is winding down.  Or perhaps a
couple of the teenagers who show up are already RPing getting rowdy.
Alan the Insurance Adjuster couldn't be online tonight, but you'd like
a reason to RP with him next time he's on…so its simple enough to page
the couple and tell them to feel free to emit their entire high school
showing up to trash his house utterly.  Look for twists and hints of
things in other people's RP and you're sure to be rewarded every
time…almost nobody does something that they don't want to see results,
a reaction, or an opportunity for RP grow out of.  Just make sure you
communicate with the people you want to use or surprise in this
manner, so they can give you necessary information, or decline if they
so desire.

Example #2: The Classic Kidnapping Plot

Here comes a plot where flexibility is more important than ever!  It's
also a classic plot that everyone loves to run.  Capture and rescue
are staples of adventure fiction, and lets face it…it can be as fun to
be in trouble as it is to be the hero.  The classic outline is as
follows:

1.      Villain A has a problem which he decides to solve by kidnapping Victim A.
2.      Hero A gets wind of the kidnapping and rounds up his posse, which
can range from all of his friends to the police.
3.      Hero A and Posse go about finding the Victim and arrange a rescue.
4.      Villian A either gets away or gets arrested.

Lets do the outline for Generic MUSH.

1.      Alan the Insurance Adjuster, example from above, has proof that
Marcus the Slum Lord is burning down tenement buildings for the
insurance money.  He gets the proof, puts it in a safe deposit box,
and is about to go to Charlotte the Police Officer when Marcus the
Slum Lord calls his cell phone.  Marcus the Slum Lord has kidnapped
Brad, the Son.  This particular scene is unlikely to change simply
because it's the hook, though other players may be there to witness
it.  He takes the call and he chickens out, he has a nervous lunch
with Charlotte but doesn't tell her about the proof…or the kidnapping,
as he's been warned off of it by Marcus.  Of course, Charlotte figures
out something is up.  They've known each other a long time, so she
asks some casual questions, and, following a hunch, she makes a show
of arresting Alan.  Now he's not in a position to help the Slum
Lord…but the Slum Lord temporarily can't do anything to the son, or he
risks losing his hold over Alan.  Temporary stand off. (Alan of course
gets approval from the Area Leader who is in charge of the Police
Department, so he knows what's up and is ready to deal with any IC
consequences that may or may not come about from a false arrest – the
approval element).  They decide this scene is going to kick off on
December 14th at 2 pm CST, the time when the key players in this scene
can get involved.
2.      Charlotte goes to the house and verifies Brad isn't there. She
herself makes the calls to recognize that it's a missing person.  She
grabs Jake the Cop and Murphy the Cop and they go trying to track down
Brad, while keeping Alan in jail so he can't give the slumlord what he
wants.  They track him to an apartment building and find Brad in a
nasty apartment.
3.      Marcus is also there, there's a gunfight, he gets arrested, Brad
gets a shoulder wound, and everyone RPs the aftermath.

Simple, right?  Should take about a week, and perhaps generate some
gossip. At the very least you've gotten RP for Alan, Marcus,
Charlotte, Brad, Jake, and Murphy, assuming they're all PCs.  Six PCs,
not bad, not bad at all really, and all you had to do in this case was
some coordination with these six PCs to set a date and time for the
first major scene, the second major scene, and the third major scene.
There will of course be RP in the middle. Alan with the inmates, Alan
with Charlotte, Charlotte with her best friend Nadia the Prosecution
Lawyer who listens when Charlotte is scared about the potential out
come of her actions, etc.

Now lets look at the outline from a flexibility perspective.

Nadia the prosecution lawyer makes vague reference to the case in a
bar, and Zoe the Reporter gets wind of it.  Zoe pages Alan, who is the
plot coordinator, grinning and saying, "Dude, you're in jail?" Alan
explains the situation, and Zoe explains that she might well
misinterpret what she just heard. When nobody will comment, she writes
the story herself…and the story makes the denizens of Generic MUSH
think that Alan is being wrongfully imprisoned.  Suddenly the prison
is being picketed by well meaning players.  The DA gets involved
(there's players seven, eight, nine, and probably ten or eleven) and
Alan finds himself released.  Now Alan's out and Marcus is on the old
cell phone again, aware he may be running out of time, demanding that
Alan get to his safe deposit box and get that proof and bring it to
him.  But Alan can't even get a moment alone.  There's Zoe, and Paul
(player 12) the journalist, harassing him with questions he doesn't
want to answer all the way to his car.  But eventually he does get to
the bank…

Only to find that Maria, his wife, cleaned out the safe deposit box
this morning, disk and all, and filed for divorce so she could run off
with Raul, the pool boy (players thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen
counting the Loan Officer, Trevor).  Trevor is dreadfully sorry but at
the time she had a legal right to that box.  Alan frantically calls
Marcus and says he needs more time, and Marcus decides to give it to
him…but pages Alan to say that at this point he'd feel the need to
move Brad because he knows something was phony about the arrest.

So at step 3, instead of the cops arriving to a rescue, they arrive to
an empty apartment.  With a bomb Marcus has rigged as he decides he'd
do that too.  Charlotte and Posse are caught in the blast.  So are
Yvette and Quinn the Poor Tenants (players sixteen and seventeen).
Eric the EMT shows up with his NPC partner (player eighteen) and
whisks the five of them to the hospital to get fixed up by Hailey the
Doctor (player nineteen).  Zoe and Paul show up to cover this story
too, not even aware they sort of caused the thing.  William the Mayor
(player twenty) stands up and gives a statement about the bombing that
may or may not be so much crap.  Now they're short a posse and Alan is
running out of time so he turns to Dillion the Private Investigator.
Dillion and his partner Freeda (players twenty and twenty one) then
track Marcus to the abandoned horse farm he's now using while Alan
pleads with Maria to turn over the contents of the box.  They have a
fight when she finds out what's up (he was trying to keep it from her)
and Maria informs him that she's going to sue for custody (next
month's tinyplot).  Dillion and Freeda have to be more careful than
the cops, so Dillion calls Don the Drug Dealer (player twenty two) and
tells him where Marcus is. While Marcus is dealing with Don, Dillion
and Freeda slip in and get Brad…and the tinyplot ends.

Yes, you could have stuck to the outline…but had you not been alert to
the possibilities inherent in the scene and been open to them, you
would have missed out on the inclusion of 16 other players!  And yes
the plot might take longer, and yes you might have to coordinate a few
more dates, but you'll have provided a memorable TP for everyone.  RP
also begets more RP…when those plot scenes aren't happening everyone
who got involved will be talking to all their IC friends and family
who weren't directly involved, giving them more RP – and perhaps
sparking off other TP ideas down the pike.

Hopefully those examples and elements have given you an idea of what a
tinyplot is, and an inkling of how to manage one.  If you're new to
them…start small.  Don't try to orchestrate a Tom Clancy novel all at
once…but a plane hijacking might work out just fine.  Use your
imagination, stay flexible and organized, and have fun!

Next: Organization