I’m also collecting the various “how to write a freeform” essays and articles I’ve written over the years. I’m pulling them into a single document; when it’s done, I’ll put it on Lulu. And as I’m writing about the freeform process (overall summary here), I thought I’d better use Children of the Stars as an example (as I sometimes cut corners, as we’ll see).
Basic themes
I didn’t start writing Children of the Stars until I had run All Flesh is Grass and got all the feedback. I didn’t know what I wanted from it, other than to get the big projects that would affect world history started.
I also knew there would be another first-contact situation to deal with, as that’s a theme of the games. (I may have to ease off in future games because I’m ending up with so many aliens!)
The Roswell Incident and All Flesh is Grass are both set in the USA, and I wanted more of an international feel this time. So I’ve set Children of the Stars at a UNESCO science convention in Geneva.
So my themes became:
- First contact: There are already aliens concealed amongst humanity. I want them to think about revealing themselves to humanity.
- Science projects: The players need to decide which science projects to fund—of course, there are conflicting interests, and which projects are funded will affect future episodes.
- All Flesh is Grass followup: The last game ended with an impasse—what has happened since?
- The Cuculus: The new alien.
- Protecting national interests: With different countries represented, national interests will become important.
- The Harvesters: The Harvesters are my Big Bad. So far, they’ve only been hinted at.
And then a detour
In both the previous games, I started each game by having the players start in predetermined locations for them to roleplay a while before getting properly started. This time, I wanted to do more than that.
I also wanted to solve a problem we had in writing Diemos Down at Peaky 2022. We started Diemos Down with a flashback, but we hadn’t structured the character sheets correctly and it was confusing for the players.
I didn’t want a flashback, but I wanted two scenes separated by a few days. But I wanted to give the players their entire character sheets as I didn’t want to break the game while everyone read the second part of their character sheet.
So to address that, I structured the character sheets in two parts, each with its own background and objectives. Part 2 is at the conference in Geneva. Part 1 is one of four locations, depending on the characters.
And because this was a relatively new thing for me, I thought I’d try it out by writing a couple of the characters first.
This is not how I recommend writing a freeform, and you won’t see that suggested in my book. In my defence, I was trying something new, and I wanted to see if I could make it work before I went any further.
I think my approach will work, but I won’t find out until I run it.
The process
- Choose a subject
- Themes
- Character basics
- Outline characters
- Character Sheets
- Structure
- Plots
- Rules and mechanics
- Background
- Finishing off
Step 3 Character basics
So with 1 and 2 complete, I needed to think about character basics. I already knew I wanted some returning characters, so my first task was to choose them. I ended up with five returning characters (it’s nice if the same players play them, but I intend to write the game so that a new player can pick those characters up).
I planned this around the two-part structure I had developed. So (and without giving too much away):
- Mexico: Two characters and a revelation.
- Washington: Four American government-types discuss science projects—there’s never enough money.
- Paris: Four international scientists/intelligence officers consider an alarming alien presence.
- Morocco: Three characters discuss the future.
And that was my thirteen characters.
Next time
Next time, we talk about outline characters, character sheets and structure.
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