SEEDING - CREATING CHARACTERS AND SCENARIOS THAT KEEP GIVING

 

In previous posts I have spoken about making things up, asking questions and just generally being fearless and absolutely open when it comes to creating characters, stories and laying out plots. As you develop your universe, more and more threads will present themselves into which you can weave more characters and stories. There are, however, ways in which you can even set these up intentionally and in addition to asking questions without answers, you can also create options and opening, seeding future scenarios. 

One of the things comics do best is to build off of previously established lore and events. Whether or not these things are planned or developed after to the fact (sometimes very much so), the key is that they all take some small bit of established lore and turn it into the next big thing. In many ways this is similar to asking questions but instead you are laying out potential plot threads, even if they might not be fully defined. 

Krakoa spawned several twists and later plot developments layered on by future creators

As you create characters and write your scenarios consider where the characters and events of the scenario might lead. This can almost me thought of front-loading questions. Think of any little angle that could be used from a character or situation. Does your villain have a power or ability that lends itself well to a new story atfer their defeat? Does your current scenario involve a lot of people? How might other victims of the scenario's events change or react to the scenario? 

Take Jean Grey, for example (there is a reason I used her for the pic on this post). Jean is a character who has been through a ton of changes and developments throughout her long and storied career as an X-Man. Now, we have the benefit of looking back on that all and thinking "what a wonderfully robust saga" but so much of that is he result of subsequent layering of new ideas and the development of questions either asked up front of left unanswered until a creatore decided to answer them. Sometimes, those creators invented elements whole cloth and restroactively added them intothe canon (retconning). I am pretty sure, that when Jean Grey was originally created, the Phoenix Saga, Madeline Pryor, Inferno or any of the other plotlines that developed were nowhere in anyone's mind. But, we can take this and use it to guide us.

The origins of Havic and Cyclops both spawned several future plotlines involving a third brother, their parents and even Mr. Sinister

As a player, when you create a character, ask yourself what things might develop from your character's powers and background or, even better, write things into those backgrounds that are undeveloped. The questions will help you an your GM later. A mysterious benefactor or a gap in a character's memories is fertile ground for a GM as are unknown parentages. Sometimes even your entire origin can be a mystery or series of questions. When your character gets into an accident, survives, and developes powers you can leave it at that and fill in the blanks later. It's also entirely okay to feed development ideas to your GM. Players who create seeds for their characters will be rewarded with stories that tie into their characters specifically.

In a recent scenario I wrote for my X-Men West campaign, I had a mutant out of control and causing massive wildfires in California (I know, topical). After writing that scenario, I got to thinking of another scenario that develops in the aftermath of that event - psionic manifestation of hate and anger that was born of the deaths and trauma of the fires all centered around a psionic NPC who was among the victims. I don't have the details worked out, but I took a moment to jot down the basics of that scenario idea so that, when my players get to that scenario, I have this noted down, to develop either right after or maybe down the road whe neverything seems to have settled. 

The Sentinels have made their way into countless books beyond the main X-verse titles.

Sometimes planting these seeds can be as simple as choosing to tap into existing elements of the setting that have already been proven as sources for twists and turns. For example, you might choose to have the Sentinels play a part in a scenario, tying the scenario into the greater Sentinel metaplot or perhaps, like I did, you have some Marvel Universe tech bro decide to use Sentinel tech in his new robot and watch as things go wrong. Just make a note when you insert these elements, preserving any ideas that come to mind as you write up the scenario. 

In my experience, seed ideas come naturally as I am creating. They are a natural byproduct of the creative process and, like many byproducts, are valuable in their own right. Learn to become aware of these seeds as they trickle out of your brain and practice keeping them noted down, either in the margins of your scenario or in some dedicated place where you put all your ideas. This will serve you well as your campaign progresses. This goes for players seeding for their own characters, as well and they would be well-served to make notes of any ideas they have for things that could happen to their character as they make them, pasing them to the GM. 

So, next time you make a character or write a scenario, keep these tips in mind and take notes. Don't lose those precious seeds. You can even go back through existing characters and already played or written scenarios and mine them for seeds. 

Have you made any characters with built-in seeds?

Have you ever written seeds into your scenarios?