Ripple plotlines use domino chains that feed back to the main plotline while cascading out to trigger other plotlines in a chain reaction. They can start from the most apparently inconsequential act or decision and grow until whole Kingdoms hang from them like Christmas baubles.

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

Today (as I write this) is Australia Day, our equivalent of the 4th of July, and yesterday was unbearably hot and humid, so I got nothing done. Which meant, of course, that I would need something fairly quick and simple for this week’s topic.

I’ve given a pretty fair description of what a ripple plotline is in my introduction, so instead let’s look at the anatomy of one.

Anatomy Of A Ripple

Every ripple starts with an act or decision, which can be described in an abstract manner as the ‘seed’. This is similar, but not identical, to an adventure seed in that there are some very specific requirements that it has to possess. Specifically, it has to affect others in a number of different ways.

Each of those effects is a Primary Strand of the plotline. At least one primary strand has to affect a PC, usually directly but indirectly can be okay, too.

Each group or individual affected is a secondary node, and each secondary node has to have the need to act or react to the Seed Event. That, too, is a requirement of the Seed that has to be met in order for this to qualify as a Ripple Plot.

Those secondary nodes give off consequences of the decisions. One of these “Secondary Strands” has to connect back to the Seed Originator in some way, and another has to impact one or more PCs in a specific fashion. I’ll come back to that detail in a little bit.

The rest of the Secondary Strands can either connect to the campaign background, creating a change in that background moving forward, or can connect with a Tertiary Node. That tertiary node will cast of Tertiary Strands, which – just like the Secondary Strands, have to affect the original Seed Originator, and either the background, or one or more PCs, or both.

A ripple plotline grows via a chain reaction of dominoes falling, spreading outward like ripples on a pond – hence the name.

The Binding Agent

One of the characteristics of a Ripple Plot is that, initially, it’s about something other than the ripple plot itself. It starts in the background, just a backdrop to the “Through Plot” which serves as a Binding Agent. As ripples intercept the participants in this “Through Plot”, it gains momentum and significance, until the through plot is less important than the ripples that are rewriting the adventuring environment around the characters.

I’ve labeled this a ‘binding agent’ because it ties the narrative together, it ties the PCs to the ripples, and it gives the whole thing a momentum that it would otherwise be lacking. These are important functions, and it follows that the choice of through plot can be just as important as the Ripple Seed.

So what should you look for in a Through Plot?

In a word, discontinuity. It has to be something that starts and stops and then resumes, so that in the intervals in between, the ripples have time to manifest. A dungeon that has to be completed in sections, with rest and recovery away from the dungeon in between, for example. A courier job in which several different noblemen have to be taken a message, and the replies brought back to the employer. Or maybe, instead of noblemen, it’s a particular character class or occupation.

The nature of the Ripple Seed

Some types of plots lend themselves readily and obviously to Ripple Plots, in particular political events / decisions. But these are often too obvious and too significant, causing the PCs to focus on them before the full impact has time to manifest; there’s a fine line to be walked.

A lot of GMs come up with the basic idea, or some variation of it, on their own, usually based around a political seed, and this effect then causes them to lose control of the ripple plot. They then write the whole thing off as an uncontrollable force within a campaign, and never discover the power than it can have from a more subtle Seed.

What’s really desirable is something that’s going to be minor to start off with and grow.

Timing is everything

I can best explain this point by offering up an example. Suppose our Ripple Seed is the notion of disbanding the Inland Revenue Service and contracting the collection of taxes out to public groups / agencies. The theory is that in a year or two, this will save so much money that the tax rate itself can be lowered.

Right away, there’s a potential problem – what if the PCs decide to become one of these contracted groups? There are two ways of avoiding this, and I would use them both. First, the remuneration should be less than the existing tax collectors were being paid – a disincentive; and secondly, making sure the PCs are busy with something that looks far more important / useful / profitable than this before it is even an option.

That ‘something’, obviously, is the Through Plot. I might foreshadow the Ripple Plot with news of a new Advisor to the Government (the Throne in a Kingdom) who has privately proposed radical reforms of the tax code. This, of course, is only half-right; he or she is not advising changes to the Tax Code, only suggesting that such might become possible if this change is put in place. But it sounds both important and boring at the same time, and so will incline the PCs towards the Through Plot when it manifests.

The thing that makes this a suitable Ripple Seed is that there will be lots of different groups who will have different reactions. Some will embrace it, in a restricted manner – Professional Guilds, for example, collecting the Taxes from their members, and using the revenue payed to them for performing this service to lower their guild fees. Churches might embrace it, mandating that the congregations pay their taxes on the collection plate. Thief’s Guilds might also embrace it, as a way of hiding their thugs in plain sight, giving them a veneer of respectability, and fattening their coffers by ‘increasing the tax rate’ (unofficially, of course) – not to mention the money-laundering possibilities. Various bandit groups might sign up as a way of gaining, or regaining, legitimacy.

Other groups will oppose it. Some might see the potential for corruption. Others the prospect of Confusion and/or tax avoidance. Winemakers and Vintners might claim that they’ve paid their taxes through their guild (when they haven’t) and so don’t need to pay agency X – whoever it is that comes around demanding tax payments. Still others may see it as a way for the neighbors to justify intruding into their privacy. How do you prove that you’ve paid your taxes – showing a token of some sort?

“Psst, hey, kid — wanna buy a token? I can give a discount for lots of six or more. Almost as good as the real thing, I promise.”

Instead of a central authority, there would be dozens of smaller authorities – and that makes any inequities in the system harder to remove by increasing the bureaucratic burden. Some groups might take matters into their own hands – if the merchants feel that sales taxes are high enough to stifle business opportunities, they might arbitrarily reduce the amounts they are collecting to what they consider ‘reasonable’.

Some groups may hear rumors of such goings on and decide to do likewise. Others will hear such rumors and decide that the guild in question is elevating themselves and their prosperity over that of others, and start acting against the guild who is the subject of the rumor.

Everyone will have an opinion of the idea, of the way it is implemented, of the groups backing it of the groups opposing it, of the groups trying to make the system fairer and those who are trying to take advantage of it. Those opinions will shape or reshape the implementation of the idea, and some will shift from ardent supporters to vehement denialists. “I was all for this until the Seafarer’s Guild signed up to collect taxes from the docklands. You can’t trust them as far as you can throw a warehouse.”

Trust. In this Ripple Plot, trust becomes a taxable quantity that not everyone can afford.

And, at the end of the day, when society starts coming apart at the seams, it can all be undone by decree the same way as it was implemented. The old Tax Collectors can be rehired – at increased pay, no doubt – and taxes will go up to cover this increased cost. That won’t put the genie back in the bottle – the consequences and repercussions will take years to unravel and stabilize. And lots of different groups will have entirely changed attitudes toward the government who foisted this shambles off onto the public.

The Key To Success

Ripple plots succeed or fail, live or die, according to the extent which the characters are directly affected. Those impacts should start small and innocuous, as already noted, but should compound one on top of another.

Ripple Plots. Everyone should know how to make them and how to use them.