Over the years as both a Storyteller and player, not only in Live Action games, but also Tabletop games, I have come across a number of plots that were... extremely lacking in plausibility, or the Storyteller simply didn't think through the repercussions. Oddly, many of these things popped up with frightening regularity, so much that you can say "Oh, it's this plot again."
Unfortunately, most Storytellers who run these plots start off with a "Wouldn't it be cool if X happened?" to which the only response is "No, no it would not." Sadly, because they cannot come to a logical conclusion why they shouldn't do these things, I've compiled the list below:
The Virus
There's actually several variants of this, there's the Mundane Virus, the Epidemic, and then there's the Supernatural Contagion.
The Mundane Virus is anything but. It's just an amalgamation concocted by the Storyteller to be a unique and special contagion that erupts in their jurisdiction, it's something that has never before been witnessed. Unfortunately, the Storyteller doesn't go to much length to determine much about the particular pathogen, onset time varies from minutes to weeks (almost as bad as some zombie movies), the side effects, the vector for transmission is rarely well defined, etc. What they do know is the contagion is usually lethal, in a manner similar to some of the most horrid diseases already in existence, and that it can only be cured via supernatural methods.
The Epidemic is an already existing pathogen that somehow is released into the local area and quickly erupts out of control. Rarely is it something as simple as H1N1, instead the Storyteller has to ramp it up to something along the lines of Ebola or Captain Trips.
Both the Mundane Virus and the Epidemic fail in that the Storyteller is rarely well versed in biology or pathology, and has little to no understanding of how quickly and thoroughly the Center for Disease Control will react and establish a quarantine. Instead, they let the plague monkeys roam about freely until the Player Characters solve the plot, generally with their powers.
The Supernatural Contagion is something that has no real world comparison, and it only affects individuals of a specific supernatural race. Unfortunately, the reason this can never be viable as a plot is due to the severely limiting factor of the number of hosts that the contagion can gestate in, and thus it would never evolve as such. Evolution requires that a mutation of an organism be something that makes it more likely to pass on genetics to a new generation, and a mutation that requires an extremely rare circumstance causes the organism to become an evolutionary dead end.
While an infectious disease/virus/bacteria/parasite can be a very interesting plot, it is best left to mundane methods of resolution, and few characters should be capable of doing anything about it, making it a poor choice as a plot (unless it's the backdrop for a short-term campaign).
The Magic Baby
Perhaps one of the plots I despise the most is what I call "The Magic Baby". The reason that the plot arises has a whole host of psychological issues of the Storyteller, the Player, or both, insomuch that I could write a dissertation on those factors alone.
Needless to say, the "Baby" is magical for one of two reasons. The first reason is that the baby exists in a situation for which it should not be viable, and pregnancy should not be possible. Many times this is because of a vampire mother, a zombie uterus, etc.
The second definition is that the child itself is magic, anything from a fully awakened Mage in utero to a creature that shouldn't be (like a vampire female getting knocked up by her werewolf lover). What most Storytellers forget is that such creatures should develop a very alien way of looking at things, and giving them such powers is like giving a child a fully loaded assault rifle with a hair trigger. The baby has not gone through any development of ethics or intellect, and will most likely function entirely upon an instinctual basis, without morals, and without consideration for the results of it's actions. It could be quite an interesting antagonist, however, it is rarely utilized as such.
The reason the "Magic Baby" is a poor plot is because it causes the entire game to suddenly grind to a halt while everyone focuses on the baby and the player that happens to be the mother. Everything else is completely ignored by a decent amount of the player base.
And once you've unleashed this monster, there's no calling it back. Characters that act against the mother or abomination will come under fire from a decent portion of the game, and woe to the man that brings up the word that rhymes with shmashmortion. Then you have the ire of the majority of your player base if you decide to have the little monster be anything but a perfect infant. If you choose to have it chew it's way out, have horns, self-terminate, etc. you will be labelled some of the most horrid things ever and your career as a Storyteller will either be over, or you will lose players.
The Broken Masquerade
While it may be an interesting premise for an entire chronicle to revolve around, generally, as a Storyteller, having the Masquerade or whatever veil of secrecy lifted allowing the mortals to know about the supernatural world is a bad idea and something you don't want.
Many have a notion that once the Masquerade is lifted, the mortal population would be accepting and complacent with having predators and such creatures in their midst (as in True Blood). Not only would it beget a situation that would put the Red Scare of the 50's to shame, but it would also end with the destruction of the entirety of the supernatural population over time.
It would be similar to what happens when a wild animal gets loose and attacks someone in suburbia, it always ends poorly for the animal. What would you do if you knew that there was someone who was most likely not just a murderer, but a serial killer, living in your community?
That is, of course, if there is a way to bring this about. Many people have stated that by releasing videos on Youtube, or "evidence" sent to news sources would irrevocably rupture the Masquerade. Of course, how many "viral marketing" strategies have had similar videos on Youtube? And how often do you think newspapers or broadcasting stations get tapes with such evidence, and they are immediately deposited in the garbage with the belief that it is just another crackpot conspiracy theorist looking for their 15 minutes.
The truth is, the Masquerade is very, very difficult to break, because people simply do not want to know about the awful stuff happening just out of sight. For the most part, people willfully ignore horrible things, so long as it doesn't affect them (this principle actually assisted the Holocaust).
It Was All A Dream
Often Storytellers take great liberties with the source material, under the guise that they will have a grand "reveal" that it was all merely a dream and things are back to normal. They also use this to bring back characters that died and attempt to reverse situations that didn't go according to plan.
This plot is horrible because it draws player's ire to a degree that no other plot ever will. It combines the worst aspects of railroading and retroactive continuity into one festering toilet. It also gives them expectations that if something goes wrong, they can always have a free "get out of jail" by convincing you to pull the stunt again.
Now that I've ranted about the worst plot ideas, and why you shouldn't do it, my next post will be a Christmas gift on where to find plot inspirations, as well as a list of canon antagonists to use.
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