Sometimes, all you need is to give an impression. Image by Dzoko Stach from Pixabay

Today I’m going to discuss the art and utilization of the Synopsis.

While I might omit these from time to time in my campaigns, notably at the start of a new adventure, or even position a “big-picture status update” after an opening action / dramatic sequence, they are routinely part of my mid-adventure structure.

This examination has been driven by my preparations for the next game session, and inspired by a number of television shows’ usage of the “Previously on [x]…” mechanism.

The Principle

According to LiteraryTerms.net, a synopsis is “a brief summary that gives audiences an idea of what a composition is about. It provides an overview of the storyline or main points and other defining factors of the work, which may include style, genre, persons or characters of note, setting, and so on.”

Many usages of synopses (that’s the plural of the term) refer to the presentation of a novel or work to a prospective publisher, and the purpose of the synopsis clearly has an impact on the content.

Usage of a synopsis in an RPG adventure far more closely accords with the usage in television series, in which the story is not yet complete and the purpose is to prepare the groundwork for the plotline to continue by refreshing recollections of recent events, though there are some TV shows that also use a synopsis as a teaser and introduction of recurring characters and situations that have not been prominent in recent episodes.

Most RPG usages would omit such applications in favor of a reminder of past interactions at the time a character is reintroduced, as would be the case in a serial work of literary fiction.

Nuanced applications are also possible, if appropriate. The presentation of different perspectives, the retroactive correction of plot errors and holes, and the provision or highlighting of information that was overlooked or not available at the time, are four ways in which a synopsis can form an active part of the plot. Skipping over periods of inactivity or plot segments which are likely to be dull to actually play through is another, and one that is actually demonstrated within the example below.

The red content is a reminder of past adventures that orients and places this adventure into bigger-picture context. To that, each game session played adds to the synopsis, causing it to inflate; such growth is usually not quite in proportion to the playing time, because it focuses on significant elements and discards or compacts details, so the contribution will sometimes be less and sometimes more. The second set of bars shows a more aggressive compaction strategy.

Full Narrative

There are two basic types of synopsis: Full narrative, and compressed narrative. There are also a number of variations between these two extremes.

A synopsis, by it’s nature, is a compact summary of the story so far. It enables the highlighting of past events, a reminder of significant developments that unfolded in a more narrative form, and the placing of events into a larger context.

Arguably, what you leave out or condense is as important as what you leave in. Dialogue is rarely sufficiently quotable as to include in an RPG synopsis (while it is the dominant form of synopsis used in television), for example.

With greater distance from events, there should be greater condensation; more recent events should usually be presented in greater detail than those of several game sessions earlier, for several reasons: helping recapture the mood and thought processes of the characters as they were, most recently being the most prominent of them, in other words, recent events are of more immediate significance.

It is natural, even with this condensation, for synopses to grow in length as adventures proceed, and this is illustrated by the first of the sets of bar charts. Note that in writing the synopsis for adventure 5, the GM has tried not to let the synopsis grow any larger, compressing earlier material almost enough to ‘make room’ for the new material to be added.

Until now, this is also the pattern that describes the synopses that have appeared in the current Zenith-3 adventure. But for the next adventure, I’m looking at employing a more aggressive approach, because the current phase of the adventure is heading for a conclusion, and the phase to follow will involve the characters resetting their circumstances. Much of what they went through to get to that point will then have limited significance in comparison to the fact that they are there. In fact, information conveyed in the first game session – the briefing – will arguably bear a greater reprise in the future. Much of it has been irrelevant (beyond justifying it) during their journey, so it has been barely mentioned.

The synopsis provided at the start of each day’s play has therefore been responsive not only to the content of previous days’ play, but also of the immediate plot needs.

An example

All very good in theory, but you might like a practical example.

Below is the synopsis from the most recent game session. It omits a lot of the context and background that I would normally provide readers because the players in the campaign already have it. However, I have broken it up by game session, each in a separate panel, so that you can get a sense of how much compression has taken place.

When you see something like “(15-6-1-01)” that indicates showing the players a picture – “Adventure #15, Act VI, Scene 1, Picture 01” to be precise. These may be subject to copyright, so I can’t share them here.

It should also be noted that the early parts of the synopsis are much fuller than I would normally employ, because Covid-19 restrictions meant that this was our first game session in six months, and memories may have grown distant in that time. A refresher was indicated.

The Russian Government, after six years of War with the 4th Reich, are beginning to struggle financially, and are resorting to desperate measures. Like selling some of their obsolete nuclear weapons to arms dealers.

UNTIL got wind of just such a sale to an alliance of Domestic US terrorists. Normally they would have simply passed the information on to THUNDER, but there were some indications that the North American version of UNTIL were compromised.

This put UNTIL in a bit of a bind; it was only a few months away from a critical Federal election that would determine how the US would reintegrate with the rest of the world. The balance was delicately poised, and being seen to pursue any sort of potentially political objective on US soil would, if discovered, tip it disastrously.

Their solution: bring in agents capable of dealing with any problem and give them the cover identities they would need to form a mythical superhero team, Team Shadow, who could operate with impunity on American Soil. Of course, this might not be the last time such operatives were needed, and if a thing was worth doing, it was worth doing well, so the plan was to create a resource that could be parachuted in to solve such ‘problems’ long-term. In short, bring in Zenith-3, show them some new ways to use their powers, and disguise them as completely different heroes.

• Blackwing became Basalt (15-6-1-01), a man transformed into rock.
• Runeweaver became Spectre (15-6-1-02), a ghost from the Revolutionary War.
• Mr Image was recast as Union Jack (15-6-1-03), an identity and look that he likes so much that he thinks he’ll keep using it when he returns to Earth Regency.
• Defender became Zantar (15-6-1-04), a Kzin tourist rescued by the team who joined up to repay the debt of honor.
• St Barbara assumed the identity of Nightshade, a Ninja-like character (15-6-1-05), using her powers to perform impossibly-acrobatic maneuvers and throw Shuriken of ‘Shadow Energy’, and
• Vala became Zeitgeist (15-6-1-06), a character who seems mostly normal and very human.

Team Shadow were to be inserted into the US using contacts UNTIL had within the 5th Reich, which turned out to be nothing like the team’s expectations. This was an environment in which everyone knew who all the other spies were, and conducted elaborate games with each other, where favors and obligations were better than money as an item of trade-craft. Dr Muerte, for all his supervillainish personal inclinations and fascist leanings, turned out to be a very effective administrator.

The team made landfall in Guatemala and began their Mexican tour. Post-Ragnarok, the nations of Central America and Mexico had collapsed into a number of much smaller Kingdoms based on the old state lines. The farther south that you looked, the more primitive these societies were – and Team Shadow were starting so far south that they weren’t even in Mexico yet.

A short distance inland, they met the guide and ‘Diplomatic Escort’ from Demon House Aries that Muerte’s Intelligence Officer had arranged for them, Maynor Estuado Morales (15-6-1-07). Again, he wasn’t quite what they expected; he quickly proved to be urbane and witty, and possessed of a warm charm. The team already knew that House Aries was a little different from the other Houses of Demon, anyway, after they had helped liberate Blackwing from the curse of his Amour, which was slowly taking over his mind and body.

Maynor explained en route that in return for permission to continue traveling through their respective territories, the rulers of the local Kingdoms would expect the team to perform some service.

These services were usually something minor, but the urgency with which these arrangements had been made was enough that even the thickest, most brutish of the local rulers- Heif Zubal – could tell that Team Shadow were something extraordinary. So far, they have included recovering “Lost Jewels”..,

…hunting “Monsters”..,

…and chasing down a Bandit operating with seeming impunity (15-6-1-08).

Along the way, you have come to trust Maynor quite a lot, and have confessed your roles as ‘UNTIL agents’ with paranormal abilities to him, and dropped a few leading hints about your mission’s importance to him. He has agreed to assist in their mission as far as possible, without compromising his or their political neutrality.

They also reached a treaty with the alien Rheezok for the mutual defense of the Earth against the Ice Queen (15-6-1-09) or any other threat; the PCs intend that the Rheezok’s presence be officially sanctioned on humanitarian grounds as they are refugees, but the PCs will have to work with the more progressive elements of the UN to have the emergent nation recognized officially.

Despite the delays that these ‘services’ represent, the team has, since coming ashore, covered 2,275 km, climbing to over 1800m altitude and descending again six times in the process – in 2 days, 8 hours total – and that’s with several hours worth of delays along the way as you undertook these side-quests.

Since you have been told by your guide that the whole trip should take 2-3 days, you think you’re a behind schedule, but Specter and Nightshade have a plan to use a little time-travel when you leave your guide behind. So long as you cross the border before Noon of July 4, when UNTIL believes the Nukes are to be detonated, you should be able to give yourself a couple of days to investigate AFTER a week or so spent resting, establishing your new cover identities, and setting up a base of operations deep in the Redneck Heartland.

It is now 3:15 AM, Friday, July 4, so time is beginning to become an issue.

Just over an hour ago, the ultra-pious King Maneul de Vasquez Jalihandre Nevados, Ruler of Leon, tasked you with an hour of your time spent assisting in the reconstruction of a church here in Tampico that has lain in ruins since Ragnarok.

Normally, you would have waited until morning, but because of the press of time, you decided to go to work immediately. Maynor had warned that Magic would be used to determine whether or not each was sincerely working as hard as they could, so the cover of Darkness would enable you to use your full abilities (within the guises of Team Shadow) with relatively low risk of detection.

It worked out well. Nightshade and Zeitgeist cleared rubble from the site while Maynor and Specter dug new foundations, and Union Jack & Zantar poured concrete between the stone slabs carried into place by Basalt. Maynor and Specter took it in turns to speed up the curing of the concrete, so construction took only about half an hour (instead of the months probably expected).

The group then turned their attention to the interior, Maynor, Basalt, and Nightshade producing wooden panels, polishing and varnishing them, then mounting them, while Specter put his new woodworking skills to good use carving pews, Zantar hung silken curtains, and Zeitgeist laid tiles.

By the time you had finished, the Church was ready for decoration with appropriate religious iconography; as soon as that was complete, it would be ready to hold Services, and would look something like this: 15-6-1-10, -11.

At the end of the appointed time, one of the local priests inspected the work, and seemed to approve, unable to say much more than “It’s a miracle,” repeatedly.

The last block is significant because it represents play that didn’t happen “in real life”; past experience has shown that the players have trouble and derive little enjoyment from “mundane” applications of their powers. While I would have let them play through this if it had been at the end of the session and I needed some filler, I thought it more useful to skip over it and get to the more interesting bits.

This is a judgment call that would vary from campaign to campaign as different player mixes would react differently.

Compressed Narrative

So let’s compare that with the synopsis that I’m preparing for the next game session:

Russia sold nukes to an arms merchant.

Intelligence reports that they were purchased by an alliance of US Domestic Terrorists to be used to make a ‘grand statement’ as part of the 4th Of July festivities.

To prevent this, Zenith-3 have assumed new identities and are preparing to enter the US having traveled through Guatemala and Mexico.

At each step, they have needed to perform a task for the local ‘King’ to earn permission to continue through his territory.

They have prevented the resurrection of a Mayan deity, hunted a T-Rex and been hunted by Raptors, concluded a pact with the alien Rheezok, and rebuilt a christian church that has lain in ruins since Ragnarok, six years ago.

Maynor Estuado Morales, your ‘diplomatic escort’ and guide from DEMON House Aries, has become a trusted ally, though the full details of your mission have not been revealed to him, nor your specific true identities. But he has recognized Specter as a fellow mage, self-schooled for the most part, and given him a crash-course in Arcane Theory that filled in a lot of blanks for the mage.

At Monterrey, the capital of the Kingdom of Coahuita, they have just exited the Elemental-powered steam train that has conveyed them and gotten their first glimpse of the City Of Arcane Steam. One ruler, and one task, awaits them, and then they can cross the border and begin their real mission…

This is practically in bullet-points. The most recent day’s play gets a whole two paragraphs; the preceding six game sessions are dealt with in 5 sentences.

Shifting Focus

The degree of compression has two significant effects. First, the focus of the adventure is clearly about to shift. So far, it’s all been a road movie; soon, it will be about recuperating, establishing roots and their new cover identities, and beginning the final part of the adventure: finding and capturing the nukes before they get used somewhere.

The more you emphasize what was in your synopsis, the more you root the day’s play in a logical outgrowth of those events. The less emphasis you place on the past, the more you signal a shift in focus for the adventure.

Impact on Pacing

In terms of pacing, the adventure is heading for a false crescendo. Time is running out for the PCs – it’s already July 4th, and most parades will be starting or at their height by Noon. The rules of time travel mean that it will be much harder to prevent the act of terrorism once detonation has actually taken place. By the time the sun is overhead, they want to be crossing the US border. That gives them just hours, and still several hours traveling to do. I want the players to feel the pressure of time, and a leisurely synopsis sets the wrong tone for that.

Afterwards, it will enter a lull, before rocketing toward a climax (by way of a plot twist or two). There will be time in that lull for a fuller recap of the intelligence received in the first part of the adventure.

My intent is for this next game session to include the false crescendo and most of the lull that follows. The subsequent game session in September will begin with the end of the lull as the players are pitched into investigating the mystery of the nukes – who has them and what to they want to do with them?

Mid-adventure Usage: Travel Vignettes

But that’s not the only way to use synopses. Space is time, when you are traveling; compress one, and you also compress the other.

I have been using synopses to compact time and space when the PCs travel, giving the players to a sense of how big Mexico is, and how quickly the PCs were traveling. The adventure’s scenes are full of notes like this:

♦El Ciebo → Gracias de Dios → El Coba → Tenosique → La Pita → Rio Final → Batancan → La Libertad Chapas → Entre Hermanos → Januta → Frontera → El Bellotte → Paraiso → Comalcalco → Cardenas → Huimanguillo → Bellos Horizontas → Los Choapas → Nanchual → Coatzacealcos ★

Key:
   ♦indicates an encounter of significance.
   → means “to”.
   ★ Indicates the capital of one of the Mexican “Kingdoms” (they aren’t all called that, and they aren’t all Monarchies).

(I’ve added the key for the benefit of readers).

Fully describing each location would be tiresome and boring, because nothing of significance happens there. Simply listing the names, or even skipping to the next important location (Coatzacealcos in this example) is quick and painless – but fails to convey the bone-weariness that such a trip would cause. The PCs have literally been going at full pelt for three days now, and have only just been able to get their second lot of 2 hours sleep in that time.

Giving an impression of each locale, and any geographic transitions in between, has a cumulative effect. Turning the above transition into a single paragraph that “hits the high points” of the journey, while not necessarily naming all those towns and villages specifically, conveys the travel and its extent without going too far. This technique works in any game setting, any genre.

It makes the travel seem “real” in a way that simply hand-waving it and transitioning directly to the destination doesn’t – though if the dramatic circumstances are right, I would simply have the PCs arrive; it’s all about the dramatic needs of the plot and the pacing required.

Complex adventure structures

Contemplate two adventurers having separate adventures that don’t take place concurrently, but that are being played concurrently. That means that the outcome of Adventure #1 (still in progress) would be known to the starring character of Adventure #2, even though the players and GM concerned do NOT know that outcome.

Now expand the complexity with a third adventure, which partially overlaps both, and a fifth, and you get the ‘concurrent play’ approach that Blair and I use for the “solo chapters” of the Adventurer’s Club campaign. Sometimes, all or several of these plot threads will come together to reveal the main (all PCs) adventure, sometimes only one will, and sometimes, none of them do, they simply frame the circumstances of what the PCs are doing when the call comes and the adventure proper gets underway.

This is a complex adventure structure.

Synopses play a critical role in connecting one of these plot threads to another. We may not know how the PC will solve the situation we put before him (or even if he will make any attempt to do so); our job is to make their lives interesting, not predestined. Using a synopsis (without the punch-line of the outcome) gives us a way to refer to a solo plot-thread within another such plot thread while not preempting the outcome. This enables us to run each of these solo stories simultaneously at the gaming table as though they were one big adventure.

There’s a lot more utility and complexity to synopses than is shown by the simple definition given at the start of the article. Use them improperly, and they can steal from that potential, putting players into the wrong mindset; used wisely, and you create more room for better play.