Blaydon Grange Solo – Story Arcs

In my previous post I set up a player character and a few key NPCs for a playthrough of my new game, Blaydon Grange Solo Edition (available at Itch or DriveThruRpg, free or pay what you want). This is a solo RPG based in the genre of girls boarding school fiction, similar to the Malory Towers books (and TV series), the St Clares books, the Trebizon novels and others.

In this post I’ll use the game system to determine the four key story arcs that will play out over the course of this school term. In the course of the game a player will deal with events relating to each of the arcs as well as unconnected incidents such as side-stories and downtime scenes, and weave everything together to discover and play out the overall story.

Each term will consist of four story arcs, one dealing with each of the following four themes: – Friends, Academics, Events and Threats.

In this case the cards drawn indicate the following Arcs for this term:

Friends: The Whispering Campaign. A damaging rumour is spread about someone. About who and by whom? Is it true? What’s to be done?

Academics: New Teacher Arrives – are they a pushover or a tyrant? How do things change? Do you help them fit in or help them change their ways?

Events: The Open Day – Parents and dignitaries need to be welcomed. How do you prepare? What happens to complicate things?

Threats: The Scandal. One of the staff is involved in a scandal. Who and what? What happens?

In terms of timing, the arrival of the New Teacher is likely to appear as a story arc very early on. The teacher will arrive at the start of the new term. The Open Day is likely to be toward the end of the term, though the Arc may be introduced earlier with some of the tasks going toward completing it consist of preparation for the event rather than taking place during the event itself. (Each Arc requires a certain number of progress points to complete).

The Whispering Campaign will emerge during the course of the term, as will the Scandal threatening a teacher.

To add more meat to the bones I’ll use Oracle tables from the game to flesh out at least a couple of these Arcs, and leave the others to discover in play.

The New Teacher – she’s called Miss Penrose and has the following traits: World Weary Cynic, Emotional Confidante, Endless Lecturer. A world weary cynic who is prone to encouraging her pupils to come to her for advice sounds distinctly unhealthy. Excellent. I’m thinking a Jean Brodie figure but replacing fascism with cynicism, someone who might have an uncomfortable effect on the girls in her charge.

We already have an NPC pupil who might be the target of the Whispering Campaign – poor Evelyn Kendall who has a (yet undefined) Secret Guilt. Perhaps someone has got wind of it and is spreading rumours. I’ll leave this up to chance and consult the Oracle… is Evelyn the target? No, But… But what? Perhaps the rumour is about the same secret as Evelyn has but aimed at another girl? I’ll think about that one. In the meantime I need an NPC pupil who will be the target, and the cards present… Tabitha Talbot (thank you playing cards for the alliteration. Perhaps she will grow up to be a superhero). Tabitha has the following Traits: Show Off, Academically Pressured, Has Family Secret. Well that could hardly have worked out better for a Whispering Campaign. Someone who dislikes her showing off is spreading rumours about that family secret. I’ll leave the rest to find out in play, including details about the other two Arcs. The discovery is part of the fun!

Next time, I’ll start the play itself with a couple of introductory scenes and have Verity meet the new teacher, Miss Penrose.