Arc Design Tools
Arc Design Tools
AX.GHW.14.02.06
The Five-Question Arc Framework
Answer these five questions before running a campaign arc:
1. What is the inciting truth? The underlying situation that drives the arc. Not "there are vampires in the city"; that is the setting. The inciting truth is specific: there is a Master Vampire who has been operating under diplomatic protection from the Bloodline Courts for forty years, and that protection is about to expire because of a Court succession dispute.
2. Who is hiding what, and why? Every interesting arc has information the characters are trying to find. What is it, who is controlling access to it, and what are their reasons for concealment? The reasons should be understandable, not necessarily right, but not cartoonishly wrong.
3. What is the clock? The condition under which the situation becomes irreversible. Not vague urgency but a specific threshold: if the Necromancer completes the ritual, the Breach expands past closure threshold. If the Infernal Warden's contract term expires before it's renegotiated, the Demon Lord manifests. The clock creates real stakes.
4. What does success look like? The optimal outcome, not for the characters, but for the hidden world they're operating in. What is the best possible resolution? What would it cost? This gives the GM a target to run toward and helps calibrate what "winning" means.
5. What are the acceptable failures? What happens if the characters don't fully succeed? A partial success is often more interesting than a clean win. The Necromancer escapes but the Breach is closed. The Master Vampire is destroyed but the Court succession is destabilized. Define the failure gradients before play so the consequences feel earned rather than improvised.
Session Zero Guidance
Before the first session, establish with the players:
Setting tone and genre blend: AX.GM runs from horror-focused (the threats are genuinely frightening, consequences are permanent) to action-focused (the threats are dangerous but the characters feel competent) to investigation-focused (the puzzle is primary). None of these is the default, discuss what the table wants.
Veil engagement level: How much do the players want evidence management to be a mechanical challenge versus background flavor? Some groups enjoy the Veil as an active constraint that shapes every scene; others find it interrupts the pace they prefer. Calibrate accordingly.
Organization affiliation: Where are the characters positioned in the hidden world? All affiliated with the same organization (creates team coherence), split affiliations (creates built-in tension), all unaffiliated (creates independence but removes institutional resources). Each choice has different campaign implications.
Moral complexity threshold: The possessed-host problem, the cursed-victim problem, the Reformed Threat's history; these create scenarios with no clean answer. Does the table want those scenarios? Some tables love the moral weight; others find it uncomfortable at the table level. Know before you build.
Character connections to the hidden world: Each character should have at least one pre-existing relationship to the hidden world's social fabric, a mentor, a rival organization, a family history, a community they're part of or estranged from. These connections become hooks. A character with no prior connections is harder to draw into the world's ongoing concerns.
Campaign Milestone Table
Use this as a pacing guide for a full campaign arc (Monster of the Week through Apocalypse Now):
| Sessions | XP Range | Milestone |
|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | 3–12 XP | Characters establish competence; first organization contact; threat category variety |
| 5–8 | 15–24 XP | Stage 1 unlocked; first Elite threat; organization relationship solidifies |
| 9–12 | 27–36 XP | Conspiracy pattern becomes visible; first significant moral complexity; Regional power level |
| 13–16 | 39–48 XP | Stage 2 unlocked; core conspiracy revealed; major organization relationship tested |
| 17–20 | 51–60 XP | Conspiracy confrontation; first Champion threat; National stakes enter |
| 21–25 | 63–75 XP | Stage 3 unlocked; Apocalypse Now conditions developing |
| 26–30 | 78–90 XP | Apocalypse Now arc; Legendary threat possible; campaign climax |
| 31+ | 90+ XP | Post-climax epilogue; new arc begins if campaign continues |
| ### Between-Session World Movement |
The hidden world should move between sessions, not wait for the characters. Between each session, determine:
What the active threat did: If the characters didn't destroy or bind the threat, it continued acting. A Vampire Elder consolidated their territory while the characters were investigating elsewhere. A Necromancer acquired the artifact they were looking for. The Reality Fracture expanded.
What organizations decided: Organizations make decisions based on what they know, which may not be what the characters know. The BUA may have classified an incident before the characters could report it. The Network may have connected the current scenario to a pattern the characters haven't seen yet. Obsidian Solutions may have moved on an opportunity created by the characters' actions last session.
What changed in the community: Hidden-world communities are living social environments. A Bloodline Court hearing was held. A Network contact lost access to a key archive. A Safe Harbor safe house was compromised. These changes are not always relevant to the current scenario, but they should accumulate into a world that feels like it exists between sessions.
Feed two or three pieces of between-session movement into each session's opening information. It takes thirty seconds to deliver and makes the world feel alive.