Plots create Descendants, most Descendants they create are automatic, as Plots fill worlds with buildings, vehicles, clothes, corporations, business, churches, in fact everything that isn’t a person or animal (and even some of them) is probably a Descendant.
Plots usually have two types of Plot Descendants, important and casual. Casual Descendants are set dressing, the TV in corner, the phone on the wall, the cars and street-lights on the roads, the trees in the wood, the flitting space-shuttles and star-fighters about the space port. These Descendants aren’t usually important enough to really worry about. They are there because the description says they are, and unless someone wants to watch the news, call a friend, drive, chop one down, or sneak aboard one, we don’t need to think about them. Even the act of using them doesn’t make them important, they are still just a casual Plot Descendant.
Important Descendants mean something to the Plot and the system too. Important Descendants might be that magic ring, or Djinn-infested lamp, holy relics, prototype weapons, the bad guy’s powered armour, space-fighter, battle-moon, castle, or lair. They are important, because the Plot needs them for some reason, most often as a Location for the Story to play out in.
Locations
Every Scene should have a Location (although it doesn’t have to be unique to that Scene). Every Plot should keep a list of its own Locations. It is recommended that each Plot, or tale, has at least one unique Location, as it helps to make Plots feel more unique. Unique, memorable Locations make for better, more memorable Narratives, and usually more fun games.
Plots don’t need to create and pay for Locations, instead some of these Locations add to the Yarn of the Plot. It is assumed each Scene has at least one Location for free, with a Size no greater than the Central Conflict Annex. Additional Locations “cost” 4 Yarn (+ the Location’s Size in Yarn). So adding a Room adds 6 Yarn to the Plot, adding a new Country (such as a small Nation State) adds 21 Yarn.
These Yarn “costs” are added to the Yarn of the Plot, and is used to pay for Gains that Characters Hooked by the Plot make.
MacGuffins, Plot Coupons and Devices
Physical Descendants can serve a variety of purposes for a Plot. First we have the MacGuffin. The MacGuffin is a Plot device, an object that Characters on all sides of the Conflict want.
The MacGuffin traditionally isn’t actually important to the Plot for any reason other than to drive the Plot forwards. However, for a MacGuffin to work the Characters have to want it, and in a game situation that usually means that the MacGuffin has to be expensive, useful or powerful. Examples might include prototype weapons and technology, magic weapons, and for some reason, Falcon statues from Malta…
Plot Coupons are probably best thought of as the pieces of a MacGuffin, although in the case of a Pact-Descendant, they can represent Members (we’re getting the band back together). They must be collected to be redeemed for an actual MacGuffin or Device. Plot Coupons turn up in video game plots quite often and occasionally in movies; just collect these shards, parts, or pieces from these dungeons, or opponents, and we can assemble the snazzy gauntlet of universal demi-genocide, the symbol of the goddesses’ powers, or whatever. Plot Coupons usually reflect the Facets of the Conflict (as Descendant, Lore or Pact-Descendants) in some way, for example, when assembling the Band each member will represent a different Facet, or if collecting Crystals each one will have a different colour, or name, and some power inspired by the Facet or one of its Proficiencies.
Devices are Descendants that aren’t really important to the Plot, but are usually important to the Characters. Devices are often things like magic weapons in high fantasy, they don’t usually drive the Plot forwards themselves, but they may help Characters move the Plot on. Devices can be as simple as a dagger, or as complex as a learning a School of Magic. What is important about a Plot Device is that a Character is given the Device by the Plot (often as a Gain), to help examine the Conflict. Because the Device is “of the Plot” it must Embody the Plot Conflict some how, usually as the Descendant Incarna, but a subtle Plot would Embody it as a Hitch, or as the Proficiencies of probably the Master Annex.
Regardless of whether the Plot is using a MacGuffin, Plot Coupons, or Devices they have to be paid for by the Plot. Plots however care nothing about the Boon of a MacGuffin, etc. only the type of the Descendant is important. Skill Descendants cost 1 Yarn, Talent 2 Yarn and so on up to 6 Yarn for an Artefact (see the Sway Table). Again these “costs” are actually granted to the Plot and paid out in Gains (usually of the actual McGuffin etc).
Pacts
Pacts are, perhaps, the most important Descendants that a Plot can have, after all Plots create Pacts with the Characters they Hook. For Narrative purposes, Pacts are often the most important Descendants a Plot can create or use.
Pacts are groups of Characters, if the party of PCs is a Pact, then the Plot can Hook the whole party with a single Hook, and then create a Pact to oppose them. Perhaps the Plot will create a Ninja Clan, Thieves Guild, or Criminal gang to oppose the PCs.
Pacts are purchased for 5 or 6 Yarn as a base, but like Locations the Size of the Pact is also important and adds the higher Yarn cost of either the Group Size or the Character Types (a Pact with one Yarn-Teller or several hundred Heroes both add 6 Yarn).
Lores
Lores are a special sort of Descendant that Plots grant to Characters (usually NPCs) through Revelations.
Perhaps a Player Character finds out that the Bad Guy is a Vampire through a Revelation (like noticing he has no Shadow or Reflection, this would create a Lore for the Bad Guy, that would grant them a “Vampire powers” Power Annex and a “Blood Dependence” Hitch (we’ll get to the sizes and details in a bit).
Lores come in three types:
- Distinction: Distinctions are the least powerful Lores. Distinctions can only create Skills, or sometimes Talents, and Quirk Hitches. They are created by 2-3 Revelation Cards.
- Reputations: Reputations are more powerful than Distinctions, they can create Powers, Talents and Skills and Quirk and Flaw Hitches. They are created by 2-8 Revelation Cards.
- Legends: Legends are the most powerful form of Lore. They can create Super-Annexes, Powers, Talents and Skills, and Woe, Flaws and Quirk Hitches. They are created by at least 4 Revelation Cards.
Building Lores from the Revelation Cards.
Lores generally are constructed from Revelation cards as follows.
Each card of the Revelation can represent a Facet (the Facet for each is noted on the Card, e.g. a 2 of Diamonds is Awe). The Facet has an effective Boon based on: 11 + Character Scale + Card Pips. Usually the Yarn-Teller will specify the Proficiencies that the Lore accesses (based on the Information revealed).
E.g. From 2 cards at Scale 0 (for simplicity’s sake), a 8 of Hearts (Nature: 19) and a King of Diamonds (Awe:24), could create a Nature-Awe “Scary” Skill with a Boon of 33 (Value 298), additional cards can add Facets as Umbrals and Nimbeds to create Talents or Powers, as required.
If the Revelation has two pairs of the same Facets, then you may make a Super-Annex Legend.
Creating Hitches is usually a matter of taking one of the Facets from the Card (or a separate card may be used, if you have any left from the Revelation) or the Facet’s Anti-Facet. Generally the Hitch will have Boon equal to Scale + Pips -1 (to the limit of that Facet Hitch Type for the Character, so Quirk Hitches are usually small enough) with multiple cards with the same Facet stacking Pips to create larger Flaws and Woes when appropriate. E.g. The 8 of Hearts could create a Boon 7 Scars or Impoverished Hitch at Scale 0, a King of Diamonds could create a Boon 12 Fear or Exposed Hitch. Multiple cards can combine together to create larger Hitches (e.g. a Queen of Diamonds could add a Boon 11 Impoverished or Scars Hitch to the 8 of Hearts, creating a Flaw or even Woe Hitch).
It is fairly common to create these Lores when preparing the Plot for play, but they can be created on the fly by experienced Referees without too much hassle. One trick to creating suitable Lores quickly is to have a suitable list of possible Lores prepared for the Game, Plot, Location, Genre, or Era as required. It can help to think of Lores as additional information that might be revealed about the Character such as:
- History — Lores are often about a Character or Descendant’s history, perhaps they lived through a plague, or a particular battle, either way the events will have left Scars and indicates that they have skills for an extreme circumstance such as surviving that event, such as immunity to the plague.
- Species — Usually human, but not always, finding out that the Bad Guy is actually an Elf, an Orc, Giant, or a Tengu, will make a big difference to the abilities they have.
- Bloodline — What family someone is from can be very important in some circumstances, tribes, clans, nobility and the fact that their grandfather was a dragon can all give a Character access to different Annexes and Hitches.
- Mutations — some mutations include weird allergies, food intolerances, unusual or strangely coloured features, tumours, skin lesions, or working bat wings… depends on the genre and setting.
- Job — what job a person does can tell you a lot about them and their capabilities, whether its an occupation like taxi-driver or forester, a vocation like priest or doctor, or a profession like architect, lawyer or scientist.
- Hobbies — knowing what a person likes to do with their spare time can be invaluable to working out what they can do, someone who practices a sport or musical instrument will have skills that others don’t.
- Descendants — knowing that someone is a member of a Pact, owns a particular Location, or is the current owner of the Talisman of Ultimate Evil can be essential information, although usually the Descendant would be specified before hand (and may even have Lores of its own).