Comments on: PC Backgrounds: Opening and Closing Doors

By: of Dice and Dragons » Closing Plot Doors

of Dice and Dragons » Closing Plot Doors — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:39:15 +0000

[...] Over at Treasure Tables Martin made the following statement in his posting PC Backgrounds: Opening and Closing Doors If you imagine the hooks and plot elements in the PCs’ backgrounds as open doors, it’s a good idea to close those doors during play. [...]

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:36:58 +0000

I have a big issue with closing doors. I too seem to combine the doors. In my current campaign, I haven’t closed a single door. There are also doors open that the PCs don’t even know are open – yes, it makes as much sense as it read.

One thing that I’ve picked up on is a key question from the players: “Why are we doing such-and-such again?” If you give an answer and they don’t go “Oh, yea, that’s right!” – or worse yet, if fellow PCs can’t answer the question, then it’s time to wing it and closely tie what they are doing to someone’s door.

And for everyone’s sake, it should most defiantly close it.

By: Telas

Telas — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 03:10:57 +0000

Good way to think of it. I’ll hang on to that one.

In the campaign I just ended, I had some issues with lack of hooks from some players, but the plots rolled on regardless. :/

One player gave me a lot to work with, and was heavily rewarded with spotlight and occasional bennies (riding Dire Badger, anyone?), but he had to drop for work reasons.

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:34:26 +0000

Like several recent posts, this one was inspired by the end of my group’s Stargate campaign. Our GM was very good about closing doors, opening new doors connected to the old ones and — on occasion — reopening old doors. Good stuff.

drow: Your dungeon door photo pick is excellent. I’ve shied away from the ones that have “…and you must notify the photographer if you display this image in public” thus far, just because I don’t need one more step in the picture process.

By: drow

drow — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:12:37 +0000

good advice, and it occurs to me that i should examine my current campaign for doors to shut. i tend to tie smaller doors into bigger doors as the campaign develops, with the goal of one big gateway to hell at the end. while this has resulted in some really interesting, fun, and epic campaigns, perhaps i should shake things up a little. gawds know, i've enough doors to work with. 847543 is a good choice, though i really like 842637

By: Micah

Micah — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:05:32 +0000

This is good advice. I’ve been focusing too closely on one of the PCs and neglecting the stories of the others. On the other hand, his character is a local and everyone else is “from a faraway land…” That obviously makes it much easier to drop adventure hooks and tie things together.