How to Write with Story Beats

I've provided the notes I use to run sessions in previous posts, and I believe that going more into depth about how to write them would be helpful for GMs who want to write their own materials. The key to these notes is the development of story beats, which represent the moments in a continuous narrative that give it texture and momentum. You can create your own story beats easily and use them to guide a story that your players still get to make choices during. Let's break down how to write these story beats with examples from the mystery campaign and make up a one-shot using the same method. 

First, let's define a story beat. It's a moment in your campaign where something happens that advances the story overall. We call it a beat because it's only a moment in time lasting song enough to give the players an impression of something. Creating a story beat means isolating a specific moment in time and presenting it completely. A story beat could be a moment that moves your story forward, like discovering the next step in a mystery, or it could be a moment that develops the story you're presenting in a particular way to change the tone. What matters with story beats is that the tone will change; you're trying to control the game's momentum. So it's a good idea to have moments of high and low tension that alternate as the game progresses. Let's talk more about story beats and how a session can use them. 

In the mystery campaign, I design the sessions around a secret to be discovered. For the first session of the mystery campaign, this secret was the first bit of intelligence about a murder suspect. As it appeared in the notes, this was reflected as:

Secret to discover: A commoner from the Below witnessed someone from the Above wearing a purple turban do something suspicious and the person from the Above killed the commoner. 

This is a pretty broad statement with plenty of details to fill in. Who witnessed the crime? What suspicious action did they take? Who was the commoner? These are all questions to answer as we fill out the following steps. The important thing is that we have a focus, the key piece of information the party needs to discover. For now, this information is good enough to get us going.

We have the ending of the session--what the players will know by the end of the session, that is. The next thing we need is the beginning. The setup allows us to move from point A to point B with context. If our secret to discover is a story beat that moves the whole adventure forward, the setup should be a story beat that allows the players the potential to get moving in that direction. Here's the setup from that first session: 

Setup: The dead body of a commoner is discovered in an alleyway. The guards automatically suspect any newcomers and nearby Belows. To minimize the damage they can do, the guard calls for the chief of police, who uses magic to join the party--30 feet apart, and they all go unconscious but one. The chief only agrees to this on the condition that the party investigate the murder for him. Any information found in investigating must be confirmed before continuing the investigation. 

Here we have enough information to place our other story beats into. We have more information on who the victim was--a commoner--and the information that joins our party. If you've been following the mystery campaign, you may know that I made some tweaks between this setup and what actually happened in the campaign. The chief of police never got involved; instead, the guard on the scene joined the party and cast the spell to keep them close together. Additionally, the rules of the magic changed; I changed the 30 feet to 50 feet and adjusted that all members of the party go unconscious if too far away. I made this change because 30 feet is a little too close, and I balanced out that allowance by making all members of the party pass out, partially to remove the consideration of which party member remains conscious. Tweaks like this are fine--you'll always find that details like these need to be shifted as you go, since your guesses pre-game will never match up to what actually happens.

From this setup, we have three keys developments which will shape the game: the party is called on to investigate the crime, they are magically joined, and they must confirm information before proceeding. Each of these details places emphasis on the methods of how they will investigate the crime. If this were a second or later session, our setup would contain information about previous sessions which is coming back, but for a first session, we have relatively little information. That's because the party's job is to gather that information. In a non-mystery campaign, you'll want to present information more freely, but this case calls for some spaces to fill in. These are baby story beats, each representing a moment that will characterize the campaign. Let's move to the next step:

Characters: 

First Guard - Portia Rockhammer, 160 dwarf, fighter

Chief of Police - Horace Barnes, 54 human, rogue/sorcerer

Murdered Commoner - Hildy Analeth, 38 half-elf, commoner

Here we have characters who will certainly make an appearance in the session. Portia is the guard who assigns the mystery, so we want to have her vital information on hand. A more detailed version of this outline would describe Portia's personality a bit, perhaps her combat style, maybe even a short backstory. But I had a good idea who Portia was--common sensical, duty-driven, short-tempered, and helpful. These details can be determined ahead of time or improvised, but it's important that they remain consistent, so it can be a good idea to take notes on the personality on your vital NPCs. The chief of police, as mentioned, did not appear, but it also only took a few moments to design his basic information. And lastly, we have Hildy, the murder victim. It may seem at first glance that because Hildy is dead, she will not require much in the way of description. But since she's the center of the crime, we'll need to know about her. Who was she close with? What was she like? Did she have any enemies? These are good questions to answer before the session starts. I knew going in that Hildy was a gentle and thoughtful person, the kind of person who gets swept under the rug by society. I improvised that Hildy was mute, which I thought added a kind of tragedy to her story. I liked the idea that she supported her family for the most part, so that information would come out while investigating. The key here with these characters is to know how they fit into the story you're telling. Each one's moment of being spoken to by the players will be a story beat of its own, so having a sense of how those will go can help you guide the momentum of your story. In a mystery campaign, we need clues, so here's the next step:

Clues: 

Tavern keeper (Baldwin Weams, 29 human) testifies that a purple turban-wearing figure fled the alleyway this morning. He saw on the way to work. 

Night watch (Darla Oakfort, 67 halfling) saw a purple turban-wearing figure run from the direction of the alley with blood on their hands.

Cat burglar (Maeve Bobbin Torat Wekall, 122 gnome) was on top of building by alley and saw the entire attack: the turban-wearing figure (Maeve is colorblind) pulled out a dagger and stabbed Hildy to death. Maeve knew Hildy and is sad that she has passed. Maeve can be noticed about to break into someone’s second story. 

These clues are the most important story beats of all. Everything we've worked on up until now has been the framework of the story, but these are the content. When the players experience these moments, they will be propelled forward through the story, and it's important they go in the right directions. Let's break down each clue one by one.

Our tavern keeper, Baldwin Weams, saw the turbanned figure on his way to work this morning. This is basic information, but it provides several pieces of information. Firstly, we get the time of the crime; it happened early this morning. We also get a description of the suspect: wearing a turban and a cloak. And finally, we get the location: the alleyway. This simple sentence provides the party with enough information to go on, and it characterizes this story beat: Baldwin wants to help, he has limited information, and he did see something important. These details should inform how you play the encounter; Baldwin could be tirelessly working at the tavern while he assists the party, crushed when he finds out that Hildy is dead (I improvised that he used to give free food to Hildy for her family), and upset that the city has come to the slaughter of innocents in the street. Now it's not just a scene where the players gather information--they're learning about the gameworld and forming opinions about how things are there.

Our next clue concerns Darla Oakfort, a night guard who saw the turbanned figure running away from the alley with blood on their hands. Again, this simple sentence contains a lot of information. She confirms the time; at the end of her night shift, as the sun was rising. She confirms the location; the alleyway was definitely the scene of the crime. She confirms the disguise; the suspect was wearing a black cloak and a purple turban. And she adds the new information that the suspect was covered in blood. This new detail characterizes the crime as especially violent. When the players speak to Darla, they will get all of this information, but the story beat will also be affected by how Darla shares the information. Darla saw the suspect run and chased them, leaving Hildy behind, bleeding in the dirt. The players are likely to have strong feelings about this. But I liked something about Darla, so I added that she learned of the death of Hildy and took it upon herself to inform the family out of her guilt. As a result, the players encountered Darla at Hildy's family's house, where they were able to experience Darla's story beat.

Our final clue involved Maeve, the cat burglar. Maeve, unlike the others, witnessed the entire attack; the turbanned figure stabbed Hildy to death in the alleyway. She can confirm all details: the time, the location, and the suspect's disguise, as well as providing the information that she was stabbed repeatedly. As a cat burglar, Maeve has reasons for not jumping in to help out, and the players may have opinions about that. Maeve also knew Hildy and was sad to see her killed. (If you're keeping track, all three people with clues knew Hildy--this was a conscious decision to show that she had an impact on her community and to later juxtapose how little the larger city cares about Hildy's death.) Maeve is understandably slow to trust the party, as her identity is delicately protected; I had her refuse to give a name. What matters is that Maeve is characterized as someone sad to see Hildy go but also hardened against a difficult world. Her attitude is that it could have happened to anyone in a place like this. That's further development of the gameworld and development of Maeve as a character.

So all three clues provide distinct story beats. You should acknowledge that players will not follow your plans directly, but you can plan around your story beats. To progress, the party will have to move through the story beats you've planned. This is how you control momentum--always moving between moments of high and low intensity. You want to balance the momentum so your players aren't kept at high attention for too long or let them get bored--slide back and forth between intrigue and time to process.

With this simple process for naming our story beats, let's produce a one-shot from scratch. I'll keep things in the realm of mystery since they're great stories for roleplaying and heavy narrative, but you can use the same method for other styles of play. First, we need a secret to discover, which is the endpoint of what we're planning. For the sake of this example, let's pick something mythic and powerful, since we're only going for one session:

Secret to discover: An ancient dwarven artifact has resurfaced in a small port town, and whoever discovered it is using it to run shipping companies out of business.

This story beat will be our last, so we want to build toward it with increasingly dramatic story beats. We want our players to discover that the artifact is being used by someone to corner the shipping market, so our future steps (which include going back to the beginning to plan the first story beat) should fill in the details to get the party there. So let's jump back to the setup to establish where the players are coming from.

Setup: A small business owner approaches the party and explains that they can no longer compete the in the shipping trade because a competitor is completing trips far faster than anyone thought possible. They are offering the last of their savings if they will investigate the competitor and determine how the company is completing work so fast; if they can bring an end to the competitor's supremacy, they will also gain the party's choice of free items.

Now we have our beginning. Specifically, what we're trying to accomplish with the beginning story beat is to create the reason for getting involved at all. A quick and easy way to get players to buy into your beginning story beats is to offer a reward, but more roleplay-oriented players will often take on a project because it appeals to them, accomplishes something they agree with, or because it fits into a larger story being told. But even for the newest and most stubborn players, a big chunk of treasure like the small business owner is offering will suffice. We accomplish several goals with this story beat: we create a sense of mystery at how the competitor is achieving such fast travel, we illustrate the way that people in the community are being affected by the competitor's behavior, and we give the party cause to begin investigating with our offer of treasure. (If you wanted to drop this one-shot into a larger campaign, you could designate that the small business owner has a specific item that the players want for the larger quests they're involved in.) So now our story beat sets up the players to get involved and gives them a sense of the context; let's get into the key characters:

Characters: 

Small business owner - Harold Nyman - human 54 - desperate, alone, frustrated, confused

Competitor - Captain Lyra van Crane - half-elf 66 - bold, risky, arrogant, selfish, driven

Competitor's First Mate - Gabriel Wright - human 24 - adventurous, loyal, practical, happy-go-lucky

We really only need these three characters for now. The idea with this section is to produce any characters who will necessarily cross paths with the party. You could get by with just Harold and Lyra if you wanted to; they're the only ones identified by our setup. But I added Gabriel because I imagine that Lyra has a big, respectable business and would need a second-in-command to help her out. So we have these characters now, and each one has specific traits which will inform their story beats. Talking to Harold will give the players a moment characterized by how much at the end of his rope Harold is; speaking with Lyra will likely be frustrating and exciting because by the finale, the players will know she's up to something; Gabriel's easygoing demeanor will complicate the discussion on Lyra's ship and potentially cause some tension about how the party wants to resolve the one-shot. What matters is that each of these story beats feels different. But the real work of the story beats is done in the clues section:

Clues: 

Rival business owner (Yancy Doubledutch, halfling 45, irritable/caustic/suspicious) says that Captain Lyra completed a job for a dwarven cleric last month and has been crushing the competition ever since. He recommends asking the harbor master about the time between shipments.

The harbor master (Olga Rockpusher, dwarf 289, imperious/overwhelmed/condescending) says that Captain Lyra has doubled the frequency of her shipping trips and complains that there were issues with Lyra's paperwork for incoming magical items (one missing from the sales report she furnished). She recommends asking the local artifact museum curator about the missing item.

Artifact museum curator (Liriel Ghuman, elf 481, patient/head in the clouds/helpful) says that Captain Lyra turned in three of the four magic items she declared before arriving a month ago (she did turn in a dictation typewriter, a calming music box, and a staff which lets off light in the direction of the nearest source of clean water; she did not turn in the token of summoning a giant creature). She recommends investigating Lyra for a small platinum disc with a behemoth engraved on it. Liriel asserts that magical items are carefully regulated here and the whole community is concerned with the unbalance Lyra has created.

Unlike the mystery campaign example above, I did not make these steps interchangeable. Instead, because one-shots are more focused on moving forward than exploration, I made these story beats consecutive. The players will move from Yancy to Olga to Liriel before finally approaching Captain Lyra. Each of these steps is a story beat: Yancy suggests that the mystery has to do with magic items but mostly just refers the party to Olga, who furthers that information by an increment and adds that it has factually changed the shipping rates. Liriel provides most of the information required to advance in a story beat that is likely to be much less confrontational; Olga will push the party around (or at least try), but Liriel will try to help as much as possible. Thus the players go from vague information to increasingly specific pieces of information before finally reaching the end.

With a one-shot, I suggest having a few different possibilities in mind for ending the session. The story beat I have in mind to end this one-shot is this: when the players go to confront Captain Lyra, they will have the opportunity to notice that a massive whale is attached via chains to the ship--players can infer that the whale pulls the ship at higher speed than sailing would allow. I also like this moment being kind of tragic, so I would add that the whale looks miserable and physically compromised. This will really get your players invested--no one really wants to see a whale suffer. To resolve the one-shot, I'm imagining three different possible outcomes:

1. The players move to strike Lyra in combat. Gabriel and a few other deck hands move to join the combat, and Captain Lyra controls the whale to make it fight as well. If Lyra is killed, the whale remains chained to the ship but is no longer controlled by her. Upon killing or capturing all the enemies, the players find a cabin full of treasures and can be further rewarded by Harold after completing the scene. This is a classic heroic story beat for the game, and it is a nice resolution to the story we've developed.
2. Lyra suggests that she pay the party off. Because she has a monopoly on shipping for the moment, she is willing to offer a sizable bribe to the party--let's say enough for the whole party to get something they each really want. This will create a tense story beat, as the players will be forced to ignore the effects on the community and the harm done to the whale, but stand to benefit greatly.
3. The party takes the information they have gathered to any one of the characters involved up until then; the harbor master will summon guards, the shipping company owners will volunteer their crews, the museum curator will offer magical items. Because we've established that the whole community has an interest in Lyra's fall, most everyone is willing to help. This creates a story beat based on cooperation and heroics, less so than the first option but still with enough valor to excite the party.

Whatever they choose (and it may be none of these), it's important to keep the momentum of the story going. If the players were to choose the third option and avoid confronting Lyra directly at all, you would want to spice up that story beat so that it all ends on an exciting note. If this were the case, and the party avoided Lyra altogether, have Lyra's crew surge from the ship and begin terrorizing town. Or have the whale go rogue and start smashing things. You want to do something that gets your momentum up narratively speaking so that your players can end on an exciting note.

So you can see that designing a one-shot or a campaign session can be really simple if you pay attention to what each moment is supposed to accomplish. A well-designed story beat will be expanded by the players and turned into something even more special. So consider momentum and detail when you design your notes for a session, and the players will be given almost no choice but to engage with the story you're trying to tell.

On upcoming posts, look out for when to fudge rolls, how to improvise an encounter, and a look at homebrew materials I've created to make my games unique.

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