Bumping off
Dec. 1st, 2006 07:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranThis weekend's puzzle: I've got one character who starts off accompanying my protag on an urgent and dangerous journey. The primary role this character plays is mainly just a plot device to get the protag away from a certain town. In previous versions of the outline, this role was played by such varying forces as: a river that the protag happens to fall into; some wandering "monks" who attempt to kidnap him; and a troop of soldiers who carry him off. The notion of a voluntary exit with a trusted companion works slightly better than the previous versions because it doesn't raise the question of why the protag doesn't just hurry back home at the first chance he gets.
The problem for this particular character (let's call him the Escort) is that he isn't the one that my protag will ultimately have the bulk of his adventures with (call him the Companion). I did consider putting the Companion close enough to the town that the protag could meet him there, but it began to raise too many plausibility issues. I could get away with it at a stretch, but I'd prefer to leave the stretching till later.
So, I can figure out how to get the Protag and Escort into a position where the Protag will meet the Companion. It's just a question of what to then do with the Escort. My first idea was to simply have external forces intervene to separate them, but that then raised the question of why the Protag didn't immediately abandon everything to look for him. My second idea was to bump him off, in either tragic or heroic circumstances, before the Companion turns up. My current preferred option is to have the Escort captured by external forces, which then triggers a subquest for the Protag to rescue him, which then leads to the Protag encountering the Companion. This works reasonably well, but it takes me back to the first question - what then to do with the Escort? One idea might be to give the Escort some time pressure to return to his home town, which might end up being neater dramatically than having to eliminate him. Another might be to have him bow out gracefully (and gratefully) when the Companion shows up. And then, of course, there's still the possibility of a tragic and demonstrative ending, although I'm still not sure that that idea fits the tone of the rest of the story.
The problem for this particular character (let's call him the Escort) is that he isn't the one that my protag will ultimately have the bulk of his adventures with (call him the Companion). I did consider putting the Companion close enough to the town that the protag could meet him there, but it began to raise too many plausibility issues. I could get away with it at a stretch, but I'd prefer to leave the stretching till later.
So, I can figure out how to get the Protag and Escort into a position where the Protag will meet the Companion. It's just a question of what to then do with the Escort. My first idea was to simply have external forces intervene to separate them, but that then raised the question of why the Protag didn't immediately abandon everything to look for him. My second idea was to bump him off, in either tragic or heroic circumstances, before the Companion turns up. My current preferred option is to have the Escort captured by external forces, which then triggers a subquest for the Protag to rescue him, which then leads to the Protag encountering the Companion. This works reasonably well, but it takes me back to the first question - what then to do with the Escort? One idea might be to give the Escort some time pressure to return to his home town, which might end up being neater dramatically than having to eliminate him. Another might be to have him bow out gracefully (and gratefully) when the Companion shows up. And then, of course, there's still the possibility of a tragic and demonstrative ending, although I'm still not sure that that idea fits the tone of the rest of the story.
