Here, in the heart of the forest, the character embraces their new self. Knowledge is gained which can never be lost; where they have sought, here they find, and they can never go back. John Yorke, Into the Woods
I've talked a lot about campaign design. Core Concept Trees bear Core Concept Fruit, Where To Begin, the Arc. Now I want to talk about what happens midway through the campaign - or the one-shot.
The Midway point. Conflict and Drama.
Oedipus Rex, Chorus
As Director you should have a midway point in view, but may not know how to get there. This is because your players drive the narrative, and players have a tendency to go chasing moonbeams as it suits them.
That said, as Director you already know that all this shooty bang-bang is going somewhere. Stanley David Fentiman's treachery is revealed. Bankhaus Klingemann's scandals come to light. Grand schemes are seen in all their malevolent glory - and the time has come to put an end to them.
So you know what the Middle looks like, even if you're not certain how to get there.
I'm going to suggest to you that the Middle is where you resolve plot, and establish new plot. It's also where the main direction of the narrative is established, and the characters progress from this point forward knowing what that direction is - whether or not they follow it themselves.
Let's say this is a Night's Black Agents game and the agents have been following the activities of the Conspiracy, and by extension Bankhaus Klingemann, throughout the plot to date. The agents have chased up some plot threads and have a vague idea of what's going on, but don't know what the end game is. Hints have dropped, and there have been some red herrings. The overall vision is still fuzzy.
The Midpoint does several things:
It clarifies the plot stream. From this point forward there's no question what the enemy wants to achieve, and probably no question about how they want to achieve it.
It resolves some or all of the outstanding character threads. Say the Bang-and-Burner has wanted to know what happened to her son from session one. Well, now she does - and it probably isn't good news. From this point forward, her goal is probably Revenge. In any case, whatever it is her new goal arises from the resolution of that plot thread.
It resolves the Bankhaus Klingemann narrative, whatever it may have been. Its assets are scattered, its main actors dead, imprisoned or otherwise neutralized. One or two survivors might lurk in the shadows to strike back at a later date, but the main threat is dealt with.
Why do all this, you may ask. You do this because the Midpoint is also a Mini-Conclusion.
It resolves minor narrative threads, so they don't get in the way of the main narrative.
It establishes the main narrative. If there was doubt before, now there is none.
It gives the characters a little hit of victory, providing them with the energy they need to go on.
So now the agents know that all those diamonds they've been chasing are going to be used to make a deadly space laser, which the Conspiracy will use to blackmail the governments of the world. Or that the unusual secret government manufacturing facilities are actually being used to manufacture food for aliens. The question is, how do they stop it?
Quatermass 2, Hammer Horror
Bankhaus Klingemann or its equivalent has to go, because it's exhausted its role in the narrative. It was financing peculiar research laboratories all over Europe. Now the focus has to switch to those research laboratories, and by extension the main plot of the narrative.
After all, Bankhaus Klingemann isn't the main event. The main event is the top tier of the Pyramid, the Vampires themselves. They're what's hiding behind all this smoke & mirrors, and they're who the agents have to ultimately defeat. Their big plan is what the agents have to stop. If their big plan is to grow devil plants, then finding those plants and destroying them is the focus of the final chapters.
Defeating Bankhaus Klingemann sets the stage for the main event, whatever that may be. That doesn't mean it's gone for good. Crazy Uncle Albert might have survived the wreckage and now plots his revenge from some bunker in Switzerland, surrounded by zombie Lisle-a-likes. That could make a fun session, or perhaps just an action scene in the middle of a session. But the whole of the plot doesn't have to be about Uncle Albert.
How do you, as Director, know when the agents are approaching the Midpoint? After all, this is meant to be a player-facing, free-floating narrative.
Well, apart from anything else you know the Midpoint approaches when it's clear the agents have gone about as far as they can with the opening chapters. They know what Lisle wants. They've foiled her plans a time or two. They've all but destroyed Bankhaus Klingemann as a financial institution, and sown the ground with salty social media posts. Stick a fork in it; it's done.
Remember, Bankhaus Klingemann was only ever intended as an insertion point. It was the first thing the agents encountered. The next few sessions were probably about exploring the Klingemann narrative, identifying the main actors (Lisle and Albert), probably getting into a few gunfights or Thrilling scenes - meat and potatoes.
But there's only so far you can go.
World of Warcraft, which I played to death back in vanilla, has many faults but also many strengths, or it would never have lasted as long as it has. One of those strengths is its willingness to push the narrative forward, through quest completion. At the start it's all 'find me six wolf tails' or whatever it may be, but as you progress you become wrapped up in intrigue. What happened to the Angamand family? What's going on in the Scarlet Monastery?
Then you find yourself pushed into other zones - the Silverpine Forest, say - looking for answers, only to discover that those zones have things for you to do so you get wrapped up in its drama. Then someone asks you to take a message to Ogrimmar ...
The game knows that there's only so much you can do in the starting zone. It might lure you back there now and again for big events, but that's just a fleeting visit. Eventually you'll have to leave that zone if you want to progress the narrative, and the game gently pushes you out there.
Once the players find out what happened to the Angamands, what's going on at the Monastery, and have explored those threads as far as they can go, you - as Director - establish new threads.
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