It's fundamental to relationship maps in Sorcerer that the protagonists' presence act as a catalyst.

This can create the illusion that the story is the NPCs' story - after all, they are making decisions and responding and running around all over the place -- but this is a misconception, because it doesn't matter to the GM how the NPCs turn out. Who dies, who gets chosen as sympathetic if anyone, who gets the money, who ends up dismembered... that's all role-playing, but it's not the story.

The __story__ goes like this:

• Player-character faces Kicker
• Kicker is elaborated by back-story (with the Kicker's details ranging from being almost entirely obscured to being arc-lit from all sides).
• Back-story blows up like a bomb
• Player-characters engage in terms of value-judgments and decisions
• Repeat, mix, blend, deconstruct, and reconstruct the previous two items
• Climax - key decisions, guts on the line, intense stuff
• Fallout, resolutions, Kickers either continuing onwards to the next "thing" or finding their final resting points

Relationship Maps: Your Story or Their Story?

Ron Edwards Relationship maps Including the missing map from Sorcerer's Soul

R-Map from Anna Karenina(approve sites) Requires Flash-plugin

See also:

• Campaign Preparation
• Versatile Preparation