Using the Same Plots/Characters With Multiple Partners

[Minorikawa]

I began pondering this today, reflecting a bit on past experiences and current as it's been a while since I last did some plotting. Are there times you've not only used the same setting, or the same plot seed (as in, a general vague starting off point but not well detailed), but the actual same characters with plots with different partners at the same time? So, let's say you have a plot seed/setting that's simply a saloon and brothel in a Wild West town where the working girls themselves are armed. Alright, that's a starting point, but let's say your mind starts whirling around some ideas, and it turns out the town has no mayor running it, the place is closer to a commune, and they are all now forced to protect the town due to the well at its center, a water source in the parched desert environment, with a bandit and his crew looking to take things over. You then take this exact same plot to two or more potential writing partners.

Would this be considered bad etiquette? Or is this common?

This came to mind because, while I was contemplating a plot, I suddenly began wondering how other potential partners would handle the same situation. Typically I've tried to keep plots with different partners separate so as not to burn myself out on just one story, or for fear of enjoying one partner's interpretation/execution over another, but sometimes a plot and characters seem too good, too fully realized, to restrict to just one partner.

Is this a selfish perspective to have? Is it rude? Have others tangled with this before? Am I making no sense? Am I over-thinking stuff no one cares about? Just curious what the perspective of others may be.

[WickedCadrach]

It is an interesting question. I've never taken a fleshed-out setting to two separate partners or discovered a partner doing that with me, but I do feel a kind of feral jealousy at the idea. I think that feeling might come from the assumption that the setting was at least a little bit collaboratively-built though, because I don't recall ever having a partner plop a fully realized idea on the table and ask me to play it without some level of collaboration in the set-up. The other side of that jealousy could be coming from that insidious thought that 'first times' are more special, more creative, more genuine. Not true (in my opinion) but it is a hell of an instinct to try and kick.

I've run pre-made modules for tabletop RPGs in the past and run them again with different groups. It doesn't feel like that sort of thing should cause jealousy or any bad feelings, and running those sorts of games is really not too different from what you're describing. Also, it's really fun for people to compare how their run of Curse of Strahd, for instance, compared to their friends'. Accounting for all of that, we're back to the idea that 'first times' are better or more authentic somehow. 

Having talked myself through it, I think my knee-jerk reaction was off, and I don't see any particular issue with the idea of recycling a developed plot and setting. However, that initial reaction might prompt me to have a conversation with my partners before reusing a plot to be sure bad feelings don't spoil the RP. 

I think, for me, the bigger issue would be keeping the RPs separate in my mind and avoiding bleed-through from one into the other—not to mention the burn-out issue you mentioned with investing that much time into the same setting, even if the plots were to wildly diverge in the actual play. 

[LEROZERO]

Normally, instead of using the EXACT SAME idea, I'll take bits and pieces of the original to form a new world. Almost like...finishing a painting with a different type of paint than before. It looks good and is similar to what you want but it is also...noticeably different...

[IsabellaRose]

It sounds like using a module to run different groups of people through a roleplaying game.

I've run several groups through the same adventure before and it was a different enough experienced each time to make it fun. Of course, I tend to alter the world based on player's input, so things tend to start identical and quickly go in very different directions.

I can imagine taking the same plot seed and character idea and turn it into something unique with every person I play it with. I haven't done it, but it sounds interesting. I'd be curious to see how many people come up with different ideas, characters, and themes based on the same starting point.

[IsabellaRose]

47 minutes ago, WickedCadrach said:

Also, it's really fun for people to compare how their run of Curse of Strahd, for instance, compared to their friends'.

How was your run of Curse of Strahd? I'll show you mine if you show me yours. :)

[WickedCadrach]

18 minutes ago, IsabellaRose said:

How was your run of Curse of Strahd? I'll show you mine if you show me yours. :)

The group I first played it with seemed to have a philosophy of 'sometimes evil can only be beaten by another kind of evil' and spent perhaps too much time trying to justify allowing certain pastries to continue being bought and sold. There was also a decided mistrust of all clergy, despite this mistrust resulting in the release of a starving vampire from a basement early on

Coincidentally, I played a Ranger/Rogue flavored as a vampire-hunter so meeting Ezmerelda was a fun 'great, now there are two of them' moment for the party. 

Edited 13 hours ago by WickedCadrach

[Minorikawa]

I hadn't considered the comparison to modules before. Curiously enough, I've actually wound up playing the same module with two different groups before, though with enough time separating I didn't remember too much. Just enough to have a moment where I thought "Wait, I know this one!" and had to work out with the DM what to do as a result since I didn't want to meta-game. But I tell you, seeing the decisions one group would make, especially in regards to dealing with a gelatinous cube and other such creatures, is kind of fascinating.

1 hour ago, WickedCadrach said:

Having talked myself through it, I think my knee-jerk reaction was off, and I don't see any particular issue with the idea of recycling a developed plot and setting. However, that initial reaction might prompt me to have a conversation with my partners before reusing a plot to be sure bad feelings don't spoil the RP. 

This would probably be where I'd lean, ultimately. I think it could be an issue with me as well, as I might start with a loose idea, but next thing you know I'm cooking lunch or something and I'll just get sudden inspiration, which leads into one thing after the next. I can end up taking control of plot/world-building at times, which works for some but can seem a bit too controlling for others, but I end up being really curious how I'd explore the plot itself with different partners.

It's a potential conundrum, and potentially reveals that even the collaborative effort of telling a story together can become an unintentional power struggle.

1 hour ago, LEROZERO said:

Normally, instead of using the EXACT SAME idea, I'll take bits and pieces of the original to form a new world. Almost like...finishing a painting with a different type of paint than before. It looks good and is similar to what you want but it is also...noticeably different...

This is usually where things begin with me, unless I've constructed a full setting (well, full enough) that it could have different kinds of stories take place. I've come up with a loose world in the past that had a light-hearted adventure in one spot, and a darker adventure in another.

56 minutes ago, IsabellaRose said:

I can imagine taking the same plot seed and character idea and turn it into something unique with every person I play it with. I haven't done it, but it sounds interesting. I'd be curious to see how many people come up with different ideas, characters, and themes based on the same starting point.

This is where things could bleed with:

1 hour ago, WickedCadrach said:

I think, for me, the bigger issue would be keeping the RPs separate in my mind and avoiding bleed-through from one into the other—not to mention the burn-out issue you mentioned with investing that much time into the same setting, even if the plots were to wildly diverge in the actual play. 

Because that idea of someone else with different characters, and perhaps different perspective or story inclination, could certainly take the plot in an unforeseen direction even if the basis is the same. However, that possibility of "That didn't happen." "What do you mean?" "That didn't happen, that wasn't my character." seems very plausible and real.

And if you're confusing two separate stories, is that something you can laugh off or does someone get hurt?

I guess to that extent it could depend on partners, still.

[WickedCadrach]

17 minutes ago, Minorikawa said:

And if you're confusing two separate stories, is that something you can laugh off or does someone get hurt?

This would be hard for me to say. Someone in a good place emotionally and mentally can likely laugh it off (maybe they get a bit pretentiously miffed at their 'masterful storytelling' being misremembered, but we're creatives and we all need our egos humbled from time to time ). 

For someone coming from a place of insecurity and trying to share the connection of making something with another person to meet that social/emotional need though, that feels rough. Not that everyone's mental health is your personal responsibility (especially on the internet). 

Yeah... feels like the sort of thing most people laugh off and I would feel extremely guilty for doing

[LEROZERO]

1 minute ago, WickedCadrach said:

This would be hard for me to say. Someone in a good place emotionally and mentally can likely laugh it off (maybe they get a bit pretentiously miffed at their 'masterful storytelling' being misremembered, but we're creatives and we all need our egos humbled from time to time ). 

For someone coming from a place of insecurity and trying to share the connection of making something with another person to meet that social/emotional need though, that feels rough. Not that everyone's mental health is your personal responsibility (especially on the internet). 

Yeah... feels like the sort of thing most people laugh off and I would feel extremely guilty for doing

The amount of times I have ran an idea past somebody, just to randomly stumble upon a better, more fleshed out version of that same plot is...definitely humbling...