Creative Campaigning: Secrets of Success

What makes a TV series like Heroes or Lost so successful? Oh sure, there are many factors and you can argue back and forth as to what defines good TV, but a major factor is good story telling. You can have great actors and locations, but without that killer script and backstory, a TV show can fall flat.

In this edition of Creative Campaigning, I will discuss what's so special about the storytelling behind these hit TV shows. The answer is really simple: secrets. These shows are loaded with secrets. But more than just that, the writers know how and when to reveal secrets. Both of these shows handle secrets in different ways. These same techniques can be applied to your own storytelling and I will provide you with some suggestion to help you do so.

The Mysteries of Lost
Three years ago, Lost hit the airwaves with the unassuming premise of a plane crash and its survivors having to live on a deserted island. Right away we were exposed to the mysteries of the island and what to expect from the series. There were terrible roaring sounds in the night and crushed trees in the morning, a polar bear in the jungle and a French woman's 16-year-old distress call.

Mysteries are one type of secret and they are used extensively in Lost. They are secrets that are known to be secret. Mysteries form the overall arcs of the plotlines, some short for just an episode, others longer for an entire season or more.. It is the promise of having the mysteries explained that keeps viewers tuning in.

It is important to pace the revelations to maintain interest. If they only save the revelations for the end of the season, viewers might give up. So it is important to make sure that mysteries are addressed each show. This could mean revealing all the secrets or just giving extra hints. The mysteries on Lost are sometimes frustratingly slow to be revealed bu the payoff is usually worth it.

A fully developed RPG campaign will have plenty of mysteries also. There need to be overall mysteries that guide the campaign like "what does the prophecy mean?" or "is our benefactor good or evil?" And there need to be shorter ones that span an adventure like "who left the note?" or "where are all the undead coming from?". You need enough to be able to reveal something to the players each game session.

The Zingers of Heroes
I like to call the second type of secret a 'zinger'. These are secrets that no one knows are a secret until they are revealed in a flashy, ohmygawd moment. The TV series Heroes specializes in this.

Let's look at just the first episode of the series. Like Lost, there were overall mysteries for each of the characters as they were introduced. What power do they have? Who knows about it? But what got people talking about this first episode were the zingers.

One of the first zingers that Heroes used was in the first episode where the sweet, innocent Claire runs into the arms of her father, HRG (Horned Rimmed Glasses). Up until then HRG was being presented as malevolent and probably a killer. I still remember the gasps when my family realized that HRG was Claire's father. This was the first sign the show might be different.

Then at the end of the episode Peter jumps off the building to prove he can fly, only to have his brother Nathan do the flying. This was totally unexpected since they built up Peter as the possible flyer all episode and Nathan as the sarcastic non-believer. Another ohmygawd moment and then the episode was over. The talk around the water-cooler wasn't as much about the powers as it was the way it was presented in a zinger fashion that you didn't see coming.

Heroes consistently provides the zingers each show. And it did it frequently at the end of the episode which left everyone staring at the screen as the credits rolled. This is an even better zinger. In a game session last year, my players found themselves in the local gladiator arena fighting for their lives. Just before ending for the night, their PCs were told that on the 'morrow they would be forced to fight each other. This created great buzz for the next two weeks as it was debated who could kill who, and how they would do it.

Lost vs Heroes
I'm going to risk a flaming war by saying that I prefer Heroes over Lost but I suggest that most people do too. This is because Heroes delivers. In each episode Heroes has at least one ohmygawd zinger that you never see coming. There are payoffs for watching each episode that has fans coming back every week. Plus it has overarcing mysteries like "save the cheerleader, save the world" and "how do you stop an eploding man". On the other hand, the show Lost is heavy on the mystery with fewer payoffs and fewer still zingers.

Credit Where Credit is Due
Before I continue I have to give credit to Ray Winninger, the author of Dungeoncraft. He wrote a series of 29 world building articles that were published in the pages of Dragon magazine. This series of articles can be found here http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/dnd/dungeoncraft/ and I highly recommend them to any DM interested making their campaigns memorable.

Of all the articles that Mr Winninger gave out, the one peice of advice that most changed my game is his Second Rule of Dungeoncraft: Whenever you design a major piece of the campaign world, always devise at least one secret related to that piece. My comments and suggestions expand on what he originally wrote and I repeat that I give him all the credit for changing my game style.

Using Secrets in Your Game
The real secret to creating secrets is to do it up front when you are building your world. Give one NPC a backstory with a horrible past that haunts them. Or another NPC who is in love with one of the players. Or the Bartender who is secretly guildmaster of the thieves' guild. The town temple that is build on an ancient dwarven shrine. The water from the southern well in town that acts as a cure light wounds.

The secrets don't have to be all bad and shouldn't be. Maybe the drunk farmer who is always at the corner table is a retired paladin with some special insight. You can have help and resources within arms reach without them realizing, ready to be revealed at the correct time. And remember that secrets can be applicable to all elements in your world like NPCs, buildings, organizations, even the city guard.

But as the Second Rule suggests, only create secrets for major pieces in your world. Don't try to give everything a secret because you'll never finish. If the PC are passing through a town, you need a minimal amount of details. If they will be returning again and again, you would want to start thinking about fleshing out some characters and locations.

When the elements are in place and the secrets created, you will see which ones will become long term and which ones can be revealed instantly. Some of the secrets will work better as mysteries ("who stole the paladin's sword?"), while others work better as zingers ("I knew your father when he was battling dragons and he is still alive").

What I have found is that once the secrets are in place, different plots and sub-plots just seem to leap out at me and it is easy create new adventure involving a number of the elements. Or in the same way, it is easy to create an adventure, and then see how different secrets can be incorporated.

Wrapping it All Up
As I’ve mentioned, the use of secrets changed my game style. Sure, I've always had mysteries in my game because that’s the basis for most adventures. But now I understand how to zing my players and keeping them guessing. I can’t say that my games are as interesting as Lost or Heroes, but I think I do a good enough job to keep them coming back for more.

Extra:  To contribute your own secret successes, check out this thread in the forums called Zingers and Mysteries.

Creative Campaigning is an occasional series designed to provide ideas and suggestions to help build your campaign setting.

dDemonicAngels is the online identity of Bil White, a freelance writer from Montreal. Bil lives in the suburbs with his wife,two kids and a dog named Moose. No secrets there.

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