36 Plots, 3/3
Gerry Kevin Wilson
25. Adultery: deceived spouse, two adulterers. Ah, goody, yet ANOTHER
adulterous plot. This guy really has a one track mind. I'll bet he's
got incest in here somewhere, by George.
26. Crimes of Love: Lover, beloved, theme of dissolution. Hmm, this sounds
like The Hand that Rocks the Cradle or some such movie like that. Lover
finds out beloved doesn't love him anymore, so he bumps her off. I hope
there's at least one good plot in this last batch of 12, or I'm going to
look pretty silly.
27. Discovery of dishonor of a loved one: Ponder. Could've sworn he used
this one already. Anyways, just think of _The Scarlet Letter_ here.
This might make an interesting story, but if anyone takes a Victorian
romance novel and makes it into IF, I'm gonna come a' gunnin' for ya.
28. Obstacles to love: Two Lovers, Obstacle. What sort of obstacle? The
tire run? :) Anyhow, this is an element of _Romeo and Juliet_ as well.
My plot outline for _The Last Day_ uses this as character motivation.
Really, I can't think of anything better to get a player moving than a
love interest/promise of nookie in the future.
29. An enemy loved: Beloved enemy, Lover, Hater. More Romeo, but there's a
good sci-fi movie that has some of this, called _Enemy Mine_. Well, _I_
liked it, anyway. Not neccessarily love, maybe strong friendship or
comraderie instead. An inter-racial friendship in the deep South 10-20
years ago. Or, in some places, even today. The hater is going to take
his bigotry out on the enemy and lover though, I guar-on-tee it.
30. Ambition: Ambitious person, coveted thing, adversary. Man, he was hard
up for ideas toward the end. Ambition is nearly always a facet of some
other aspect of a person's makeup. There are a few people who simply
lust for power, of course. They are called politicians. If you want to
write the _Dave_ of home computing, don't let me stop you. Other
ambitions center around money, love/sex, desire to avoid manual labor,
etc. Maybe you could write a game about a would-be video game designer
who's having trouble breaking into the business. ;)
31. Conflict with a God: Mortal, Immortal. Hmm, lots of possibilities here.
You could send the Angel of death after the player in a variety of
settings, like New York, or WWI or II. Or maybe you've been hankering
to write the IF version of Job? Don't forget the Greek gods, Roman
Babylonian, Pagan, and a zillion others. This one is fun because the
player is faced at an initial disadvantage and has to work from there.
32. Mistaken Jealousy: Jealous one, object of jealousy, supposed accomplice,
author of mistake. Oh boy! _Three's Company_! Seriously, this is an
absolutely lame story premise. I suggest you take up writing sitcoms
instead of IF.
33. Faulty Judgement: Mistaken one, victim of mistake, author of mistake,
guilty party. Hmm...the player is sentenced to death for a murder he
didn't commit. This sounds like a good start to a prison escape game,
where you have to prove you didn't do it, or, alternatively, flee the
country.
34. Remorse: Culprit, victim, interrogator. _Interview with a Vampire_?
The culprit would be confessing a past crime to someone, discussing a
victim, or so I would suppose. Of course, I'm not positive on this
one. My source gives only a tiny bit of information on it.
35. Recovery of a lost one: Seeker, one found. _The Vanishing_ would be a
good example to look at. This figures into most action movies as a
sub-plot as well. Unfortunately, it also figures into way too many
video games as well. Super Mario Bros., King Kong, Final Fight, the
list goes on.
36. Loss of loved ones: Kinsman slain, friendly witness, executioner.
The player learns of an uncle, sister, parent, etc. who has been
claimed by some exotic death, or killed simply by some street thug.
He decides to go see what happened/get revenge on their killer.
Having reached the end of the 36 plots, I guess I'll finish off by
listing those plots which, in my mind, have the most merit for IF currently.
Here goes, in no particular order:
Deliverence, Pursuit, Disaster, Daring enterprise, madness, self
sacrifice for love/an ideal, an enemy loved, conflict with a god, and loss
of loved ones. That's 9 out of 36 that I think have promise. You may
disagree with my choices of course, these are just my particulars, based on
this article. I hope you enjoyed this post, and I'll be sure to add it into
_Whizzard's Guide to IF Authorship_. :)
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