Conspiracy Story Structure

# **Part 1:**

## **Chapter 1: Establish Normality.**

**Solving some cases. Learning how to play the game, learning the world, exposition and backstory.**

**The first case should somehow tie back in to the inciting incident**

## **Chapter 2: Inciting Incident.**

**Miniscule slip up in The Shepherd’s otherwise perfect plan. PCs are now aware of Their presence.**

* **Someone is murdered**
* **Someone disappears under strange circumstances**
* **Discovers an important document**

# **Part 2: Investigation Stage**

## **Chapter 3: First Threshold.**

**The first stage of the investigation is invariably a Motivating Event (ME), which differs from all others in that it doesn't have to be found, only deciphered to kick-start the investigation proper (the First Threshold). PCs pull on the first thread, starts the Investigation stage. Introduces the Threshold Guardians, The Shepherds first line of defense, designed to shoo people away so they don’t discover the truth. First introduction to just how sinister The Shepherds are.**

* **Normal People call them crazy and refuse to believe them**
* **They give demands**
* **PCs do not comply with Their Demands**
* **They will keep troubling the PCs even worse until story ends**
* **PCs gain a few precious supporters**
* **Discovers a time crunch. A deadline.**
* **A particularly devious Big Bad or Dragon may sign up as The Mole here.**

**Document Search, Person Search, or Location Search Investigation Stages:**

1. **Motivating Event:**
2. **Finding:**
3. **Deciphering:**

**Deciphering one piece of information gives the protagonist clues on where to look for the next one, in addition to being a major Reveal in itself, for considerable efforts on their part.**

## **Chapter 4: Taste of Success.**

* **They will keep troubling the PCs even worse until story ends**
* **PCs gain a few more precious supporters**
* **Discovers a time crunch. A deadline.**
* **Find [SOMETHING] that they believe will give them they upper hand.**

**Document Search, Person Search, or Location Search Investigation Stages:**

1. **Motivating Event:**
2. **Finding:**
3. **Deciphering:**

**Deciphering one piece of information gives the protagonist clues on where to look for the next one, in addition to being a major Reveal in itself, for considerable efforts on their part.**

## **Chapter 5: Despair**

**They make a big move against the hero, and literally crush the PCs. He has failed to stop Their plans. He has lost.**

* **They experience a metaphorical (or even a temporary literal) death.**
* **Trusted mentor dies**
* **True companions die**
* **True companions betray them**
* **Mole mocks them**
* **They are Erased From Existence by Them**

* + **destroying evidence of their life and brainwashing his friends and family.**
	+ **Can lead to a temporary Loss of Identity or land him straight at the asylum.**

**Document Search, Person Search, or Location Search Investigation Stages:**

1. **Motivating Event:**
2. **Finding:**
3. **Deciphering:**

**Deciphering one piece of information gives the protagonist clues on where to look for the next one, in addition to being a major Reveal in itself, for considerable efforts on their part.**

## **Chapter 6: Resurrection**

**Slowly works to recover from the Despair Stage Chapter. Still time left in the hour glass. The final stages of the investigation usually concern the location and/or identity of the final enemy, against whom the Final Battle is fought.**

* **Friends Return**
* **Memories returned**
* **Identity returned**

**Document Search, Person Search, or Location Search Investigation Stages:**

1. **Motivating Event:**
2. **Finding:**
3. **Deciphering:**

**Deciphering one piece of information gives the protagonist clues on where to look for the next one, in addition to being a major Reveal in itself, for considerable efforts on their part.**

# **Part 3: Resolution Stage**

## **Chapter 7: Final Battle.**

**Finally Confronting the nominal head of the conspiracy.**

* **Battle of Wits**
* **Physical Confrontation**

## **Chapter 8: Ending.**

**And so it comes to an ending. The conspiracy thriller is a cynical genre.**

* **They win and the hero dies**
* **They win and the hero survives, only to live with his failure.**
* **The hero may have defeated the Big Bad — but the conspiracy lives on, for They are many.**
* **The hero may have shattered Their Plan — but most of Them go unpunished.**
* **Very rarely, the hero destroys Them for good — but at a terrible price.**