Hey guys, so here's the deal. I have two games planned. One's a puzzle game with a deep plot. The other is a side scrolling RPG. And I have a general sort of idea how the RPG might work in battle and world modes more or less and the puzzle game I just came with by accident after downloading a game tile set and going though it. So what's the problem? Well if I'm posting here, you know what's going to be asked. That's right you've heard it before and I'm more then sure you'll here this one again. That's right I need help on story development... My problem is I've never really done it before, but also taking a simple idea or as my friend would call it, and expand it to a strong deep character and plot driven story. Here are the ideas, and please don't laugh because this is basically one line stuff you write in a notebook to not forget about it. RPG (Not even close to starting): A girl is looking for her older brother It's not much, but it gives a main goal (for the moment) for the character which at least is a start, but not much, obviously. :( Now how can I expand into deeper territory, taking a simple one liner and actually being able to start a rough draft? Or at least where can I start. Maybe include links to a few articles and threads which would be a great help. Thanks alot. I appreciate any help you guys are willing to give.

This is a VERY good starting point

http://www.rpglibrary.org/articles/storytelling/36plots.html

Ill admit this was designed for table top DnD games. But as with anything it applies here aswell.

It will help you identify and choose a plot, as well as gives examples on the types of plots. There are SOOO MANNYYYY of these types of plots that are not explored yet.

I know you think you have your plot laid out (girl looking for brother), but you need to go a bit deeper in order to create a story around it. Im SURE you can fit it into one of these. The idea is that you need multiple rolls in your plot in order for it to develop. (this is why many people complain about MMORPG's)

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I Find a good way to start is after choosing the plot, design and develop the charactors. Make them interact in your head. You should be able to come up with many interesting scenarios.

If your planning on introducing much in the way of character development, that is a bit harder to describe.

You might want to read through this.

I picked it up for $4 after shipping. I'm about halfway through it. It's EXCELLENT for RPG design...and many, many points can be applied to game design in general.

One the basic techniques you can use is exposition. Take your one line and expand it into a paragraph. Extract the key elements and expand them into seperate paragraphs. Keep repeating until you have your story fleshed out.

You can come up with questions based on the what you have and then answer them to help gain ideas.

For example:
Who is the girl?
Is she lost or is her brother missing?
How did they get seperated?
Why is she looking for him?
Is he looking for her or trying to avoid her?