The Expanded Ultimate Story Checklist: Does the hero’s pursuit of the opportunity quickly lead to an unforeseen conflict with another person?

As any artist considering a follow-up project will tell you, it’s much easier to commit to a big undertaking if you don’t know what you’re getting into. Just because you know an opportunity is intimidating doesn’t mean you comprehend how much trouble pursuing that opportunity will cause. 

It’s best if your heroes are not fully aware of the scope of the problem before they commit. Audiences prefer heroes with a limited perspective, who quickly get in over their head. Given how bad things are going to get, it’s hard to sympathize with anyone who would intentionally put himself at risk.

This is a dangerous moment where the story can lose its momentum. You’ve finally arranged all the pieces on the playing board, so it’s tempting to take it easy for a few pages, but you need to wallop the hero right away to keep the reader from putting down your manuscript.

• The couple in The Awful Truth has just one problem with their divorce: Who gets the dog? 
• The hero of Speed has accepted the danger of leaping on the bomb-rigged bus, but he doesn’t know that a passenger will freak out and accidentally shoot the driver, instantly making the entire task a lot tougher. 
• In Goldfinger, The French Connection, and Silence of the Lambs, the hero realizes the villain is a lot smarter than anybody thought. 
• Almost always, the unexpected conflict should come from an actual person, as opposed to an animal, the weather, a physical obstruction, or a faceless bureaucracy. Sheriff Brody in Jaws isn’t just opposed by the shark or “the townspeople.” He’s specifically opposed by the mayor, who refuses to protect his own town.

The 40 Year Old Virgin	YES.  The first girl he meets is drunk, endangers him, and throws up on him.
Alien	YES. Ash opposes her throughout.
An Education	NO. Her parents put up feeble, half-hearted resistance. The true antagonist in this movie is the general notion of propriety, which nobody really stands up for (except her teacher when it’s too late) but which turns out to be well worth heeding.
The Babadook	YES. The doctor is dubious of her plan, child services is suspicious, Claire cuts her out entirely.
Blazing Saddles	YES. The townspeople want to kill him.
Blue Velvet	YES. Dorothy, then Frank.
The Bourne Identity	YES. he’s almost arrested, then Cooper finds out he’s alive, sends assassins after him.
Bridesmaids	YES. It turns out that there’s a rival for the position: Helen.
Casablanca	YES. Lazlo, it turns out that Ilsa is married. Also, Strasser has guess he has the letters.
Chinatown	YES. Lots of people: thugs, farmers, etc.
Donnie Brasco	YES.  He winds up caught between Lefty and Sonny Black.  His wife turns against him.
Do the Right Thing	NO. It’s nor really unforeseen. Buggin’ Out continues his boycott attempts despite Mookie, and Pino’s racism is also escalating.
The Farewell	YES. Well, it’s not really unforeseen, but her grandma immediately asks her what’s wrong.  Her grandma tries to teach her a Chinese exercise routine but she resists.
The Fighter	YES. His family doesn’t approve of her.
Frozen	YES. She meets Kristoff, and tries to get him to help her, but he refuses, then pushes back after agreeing.
The Fugitive	YES. it turns out that the world’s best marshal in on his trail.
Get Out	YES. He regrets it the next morning.  Georgina and Walter just keep acting more threatening to him.  So does Jeremy.
Groundhog Day	YES. The police, then Rita.
How to Train Your Dragon	NO. Not yet. The dragon is hard to train, but not as much as he thought it would be. Astrid finds out what he’s doing, but that’s later.
In a Lonely Place	YES. Laurel’s masseuse is opposed to the relationship, his cop buddy’s boss and wife both distrust Dix.
Iron Man	YES. Stane isn’t happy about his new direction. For that matter, neither are Pepper or Rhodey.
Lady Bird	YES. Her mom fights her at every turn, and she get pushback from her brother too.
Raising Arizona	YES. The brothers escape prison.
Rushmore	YES. Many. She’s not interested and Dr. Guggenheim is opposed to all of Max’s tricks.
Selma	YES. SNCC is pissed that he’s taking over their campaign.
The Shining	YES. Both: Not with another person at first, but with the demons of the hotel.  Eventually with each other and both will clash with Wendy.
Sideways	YES. Jack, who wants him to drink Merlot, and insists he be fun, but tells him right beforehand that his ex got remarried
The Silence of the Lambs	YES. with Chilton and others.
Star Wars	YES. Mos Eisley turns out to be a hive of scum and villainy. Their pilot turns out to have a price on his head.
Sunset Boulevard	YES. Norma won’t let him write a good script.

The Expanded Ultimate Story Checklist: Does the hero commit to pursuing the opportunity by the end of the first quarter?

It’s easy to overemphasize the commitment scene. It’s okay for heroes to be knee-deep before they realize they’re committed. Bruce Willis spends the entire first half of Die Hard just trying to call the cops, not realizing that as soon as he stole those detonators, he had pretty much committed himself to taking down the bad guys alone. 

Sometimes it’s possible to skip over the actual commitment scene, jump-cutting right from hesitation to a conflict that arises after committing. In Some Like It Hot, the guys are still having a heated debate about whether they should dress up as women when we suddenly cut to the two of them wobbling down the train platform in heels.

The 40 Year Old Virgin	YES. He agrees to go out with them.
Alien	Only slightly, she gingerly starts to assert herself, but waits until after the midpoint disaster to assert herself.
An Education	YES. Beforehand really. This movie has a very long 2nd act: she’s committed by ten minutes in.
The Babadook	YES. It’s late, but by a third of the way through, (32 minutes) she has a plan: Use sedatives until tests come back and a state-appointed psychiatrist can come.
Blazing Saddles	YES. Well, he commits right away, but because the movie takes time setting up its premise, it’s more than a third over by the time he rides into town.
Blue Velvet	YES. sooner.
The Bourne Identity	YES. he decides he won’t let himself be taken and takes a gun from someone else.
Bridesmaids	YES.
Casablanca	NO. he drags it out, paralyzed with indecision, and lashes out at her when she tries to explain.
Chinatown	YES. Yes.
Donnie Brasco	YES.  Lefty introduces him to Sonny Black as “a friend of ours”, the first step to getting made.
Do the Right Thing	YES. When Buggin’ Out announces his boycott, Mookie promises Sal that he’ll shut it down, which is his interpretation of “Do the right thing” at this point.
The Farewell	YES. She buys her own ticket and surprises everybody.
The Fighter	YES. She pursues him and they hook up.
Frozen	NO. Sort of.  Elsa runs away and Anna goes after her.  Will this help her solve her own problem, or is it just selfless?  Presumably, with Elsa simply missing, Anna will be in no position to become queen herself and marry whom she wants, so it’s sort of solving her own problem.
The Fugitive	YES. he’s cutting his hair and going on the run.
Get Out	YES. He sort of agrees to let Missy hypnotize him, putting himself in their power.
Groundhog Day	YES. After two repetitions, he decides that this could be fun.
How to Train Your Dragon	YES. Goes back to the dragon.
In a Lonely Place	YES. Indirectly: He commits to pursuing the girl, and she commits to solving his problems for him.
Iron Man	YES. He builds the armor and escapes.
Lady Bird	YES. She’s applying to schools, doing theater, and pursuing Danny.
Raising Arizona	YES. They take the kid.
Rushmore	YES. Earlier.
Selma	YES. He mobilizes his army.
The Shining	YES. Jack: Yes, he begins the job.  Danny: yes, he starts pursuing the ghosts.
Sideways	YES. …but just barely. At minutes 32 of a 127 minute movie, he reluctantly accepts an arranged date with Maya.
The Silence of the Lambs	YES. Follows up on Lecter’s clues.
Star Wars	YES. He commits late, at 38 minutes in: “I want to come with you to Alderan, there’s nothing here for me now. I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father.”
Sunset Boulevard	YES. In a relatively passive way: he accepts that they’ve brought his bags over.

Marvel Reread Club Episode 30: February, 1964

Steve and Matt Bird · 030 Marvel Reread Club February 1964

Marvel Reread Club visits Feb-RU-ary 1964, with Spider-Man #9, Fantastic Four #23, Journey Into Mystery #101 with Thor, Strange Tales #117 with the Human Torch and Dr. Strange, Tales of Suspense #50 with Iron Man, and Tales to Astonish #52 with Ant-Man and the Wasp. Lots of venetian blinds! Solar Waves! The Well of Centuries! Stamp collecting while slimy! De-freckled Pepper! Two different books in which someone leaps down into their helicopter!

Secrets of Dungeon-Mastering: Relics and Rarities

What is this? Deborah Ann Woll was on “True Blood” and played Karen Page on “Daredevil” and other Marvel shows, but she was always a closet geek and eventually got her own show as DM on Geek and Sundry. As with “HarmonQuest”, she invites on a celebrity guest to adventure with the regular cast every episode. These are horror stories set in the 20th Century, so you’d think they might play “Call of Cthulu,” but they’re playing DnD 5e.

The people involved:

• Deborah Ann Woll is DM
• Tommy Walker plays Veros
• Jasmine Bhullar plays Beryl
• Julian Denni plays Annabella
• Xander Jeanneret plays Rikki
• Matthew Lillard is the guest as Allister

What I learned about DM’ing from watching it:

The Power of Objects

Woll has something that other streams don’t have: props. She begins every game on a set where the PCs are encouraged to explore and find objects that will help them when they move on to the next room to actually play. She also dresses up in costumes to play the NPCs such as when she puts on a veil to play a mournful ghost. She also makes giant puzzles for the players to solve, which the players find delightful.

Enough with the Hanging Out:

You can play DnD without a lot of hanging out. One of my DnD advisors has been telling me that Critical Role totally changed DnD. Since that stream caught on, there’s a lot more of an expectation in home games that the characters will just hang out a lot and goof off in character. But some players, and DMs, would rather just play the damn game. Woll appeared on Brennan Lee Mulligan’s “Adventuring Academy” podcast and made it clear where she falls:

• Woll: I don’t have a lot of sittin’ around the campfire talking moments in my games. I’m like “Action, progress, forward”, I wanna tell the story. I don’t do downtime. I’m like “sure, you spend a week, you buy some stuff, moving on.” Don’t spend a lot of downtime. I will admit that there’s a lot of players that want to play in that space, and I’m either not the right DM for you, or that’s an aspect of my game that I have yet to develop…But for me, I don’t like playing those moments as a player. I don’t want to have a conversation in character around a campfire, I want to get to the action and storytelling and play the game, so I don’t tend to leave a lot of space for that in my games.
• Mulligan: I love plot-based players and I think that’s a very real thing because there are some players, people might lump character and plot into just being like “story”, but I really do think there are people for whom the game is an ability to just sink deeply into character, and then there are other players who are like “Nah, I am chasing this story down.” Like, “what are your deep character conflicts?” “None, baby, next puzzle!”
• Woll: Like I remember for example for example Critical Role, because they are voice actors, I think they really do love that downtime conversation, that kind of stuff that they do, and I am unversed in that, I guess, so when I went on the show, we did it, we had a great time, we did the battle, we searched the thing, and at the end, there was this extra 45 minutes to an hour of talk, and I remember sitting there being like, “Oh, I don’t know how Twiggy fits into this,” so Twiggy was basically like, “Bye! Have fun, here’s the ball,” and I just left! And I’m not beating myself up about that, because I do think that just for me, the joy that I get out of DnD is that action-plot oriented joy. It’s just not as much fun for me to sit around and talk in funny voices.

Give them multiple hooks to go on this adventure and let them choose their own

Different players play for different reasons and it’s great to have multiple reasons to go on each adventure. Here’s Woll on “Adventuring Academy” again:

• Woll: For every adventure, I try to include the emotional, the money and the plot hook, so you’ve been tracking down the henchman of the big bad, you find out that he’s kidnapped a family, and they’re staying in a cave that is known to contain treasures, and you’re like, “Great! We’re all covered! We’ll advance the plot, we can save a family, and we’ll get the money! We’re going to the cave!”
• Mulligan: I like it! A little something for everyone!

The Audiobook of The Secrets of Character is Out!

Hey, everybody, the audiobook of The Secrets of Character is out! You can get it here. I haven’t had a chance to listen to it myself yet. We got Eric Michael Summerer, the narrator of the first book, back, and I’m fascinated to hear how good of a job he did. (And if you like it, please leave a review as soon as you're finished, because someone who declined to review it just left an unexplained 2 star review, which doesn’t get me off to a good start!)

Secrets of Dungeon-Mastering: Critical Role

What is this? Matt Mercer ran a Pathfinder home game with his friends, all of whom happened to be voice actors like himself. Eventually they switched the campaign over to Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition and decided around the same time to start livestreaming their games on Twitch, partially to raise money for charity. It became the most popular Twitch Stream, expanded to YouTube and podcasts, released official DnD materials, then eventually got adapted into the Amazon show “Vox Machina”. Each campaign lasts for many hundreds of hours, and they’re now on their third campaign. The early episodes are just on YouTube and not on the podcast, for some reason, so I watched this in real time.

The people involved:

• Matthew Mercer, Dungeon Master
• Ashley Johnson as Pike Trickfoot (gnome cleric)
• Travis Willingham as Grog Strongjaw (goliath barbarian / fighter)
• Laura Bailey as Vex'ahlia “Vex” de Rolo (née Vessar) (half-elf ranger / rogue)
• Liam O'Brien as Vax'ildan “Vax” Vessar (half-elf rogue / paladin / druid)
• Taliesin Jaffe as Percival “Percy” Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III (human gunslinger)
• Marisha Ray as Keyleth of the Air Ashari (half-elf druid)
• Orion Acaba as Tiberius Stormwind (dragonborn sorcerer) (He eventually has a falling out with the group, gets written out and gets retroactively removed from Vox Machina)
• Sam Riegel as Scanlan Shorthalt (gnome bard)

What I learned about DM’ing from watching it:

This is in some ways the most traditional of the actual plays I’ve listened to. This is the only one where they have no time limit and spend half an hour haggling over the price of rooms at the inn. It can be rather tedious, but I think that’s also the secret of its success. Each of these voice actors has created very appealing characters (including the non-player characters) and it’s fun to just hang out with them, accomplishing very little.

In terms of sheer number of hours of entertainment that a franchise has foisted on the world, this ranks up with “Days of Our Lives”, and the audience seems to be somewhat bizarrely insatiable.

This is the only actual play I consumed where I really got the feeling this story could go anywhere and the DM would be willing to follow it there.

You can throw out a lot of the rules:

Matt is very much a “rule of cool” DM, which annoys some of the people who watch the stream and comment live onscreen. (How he can read the comments and still DM is beyond me.) He warns the commenters: “For all you hardcore gamers out there, a lot of this is house rules, loosey-goosey, having a good time, so all you number crunchers, stop paying attention there, just have fun with it.”

One issue is that they transferred the game over from Pathfinder (where you’re allowed to have gunslingers) to DnD mid-campaign, so they have to loosen DnD up a lot to bring over the elements they want. (“I’m playing Percy the gunslinger so I’m the reason all the rules are messed up”)

Matt doesn’t require anywhere near as many perception checks as Brennan Lee Mulligan. He just tells them that they notice things.

You can juggle different motivations for different players

Percy wants to free his hometown. Vax and Vex (Yes, there’s a Vax and Vex and they’re both members of Vox. Yes, this is confusing.) want revenge against a dragon. Scanlon is just looking for love. You can see in the Amazon show that one character’s quest predominates at all times. Ultimately it works because these characters love each other and are willing to help each other achieve what they want. It’s much harder to juggle different quests if your players and their characters aren’t bonded.

Pets aren’t worth the trouble

One of them has a pet bear, which is a fun idea, but the PC keeps forgetting that her bear would be with her (freaking out every non-player character they meet) or having to leave it behind for long periods of time. It quickly gets ditched in the Amazon show.

Marvel Reread Club Episode 29: January, 1964, Part 2

Steve and Matt Bird · 29 Marvel Reread Club January 1964 (part 2)

Marvel Reread Club wraps up January 1964 with Tales of Suspense #49 with Iron Man (and Tales of the Watcher), Tales to Astonish #51 with Giant-Man and the Wasp (and The Wonderful Wasp Tells a Tale), X-Men #3, and Avengers #3! Nuclear radiation that turns you evil! Sneepers! Inquisitive little imps! Veterans the Wasp is not attracted to! The one Professor X loves! Giant-Man vs. a bag of flour!