Get These Two Things Right For Stories To Make Sense
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0953
We want to check Congruity first because it’s faster and easier to spot errors at this level. If we get the immediate details right here, it’ll automatically fix those errors at the campaign level.
Once we’re happy with the stats, details, and reason for the game piece, we expand our thinking to the larger picture.
We think about past gameplay and check our plots to look for inconsistencies.
We read our session notes and look for disconnects and forgotten pieces.
We check our campaign and world ideas to ensure we’re still on track.
If you use Campaign Logger, it’s the perfect tool for doing this. It’s another reason I built it. I was tired of logic bombs, getting names and other gritty details wrong, and forgetting past gameplay details and then contradicting them.
The magical tagging system of Campaign Logger was specifically designed to gather up all your details about a person, place, plot, or thing so you could review and reference fast.
Regardless of what you use for tracking session notes, your plans, and ideas, review this stuff regularly to refresh your mental RAM. This will make it much easier to spot and prevent awkward Congruity and Consistency issues.
Do These Two Quick Tests
Each time you make a game element or drop it into your game, ask two questions:
Is it congruent? (Does it have good internal logic and consistency?)
Does it maintain continuity? (Does it contradict anything played before?)