I hate balls. Help me keep them away from my story.

The Idiot Ball, the Hero Ball, the Villain Ball and the Conflict Ball. I want to avoid having my characters hold these balls at all costs, which now makes it difficult to make sure the protagonists don't reason everything down to "If we don't participate, nothing bad will happen to us.", and the antagonists won't do idiotic shit that will bug the readers.

Lets start with my basic story equation:

Green, Green 2 and Green 3= Protagonists (Green is Knight in Sour Armor, Green 2 is Cute Bruiser, Green3 is Anti-Hero.

Blue = Main Antagonist (Evil Overlord of Evil Empire)

Black = Man Behind The Man (Eldritch Abomination)

Red, Red 2 = Dark Horses/Anti-Protagonists/Bad Good Guys (Red is Ax-Crazy, Red2 is Psycho for Hire)

Green Team wants to destroy Blue, and so does Red Team. They are not lawful, rather, they are a band of rebels who fight of and kill the minions of Blue to remove his oppression from the world.

Blue has a personal hatred for Red, but treats Green Team and the other members of Red Team as generic rebels and plans to have them destroyed. Blue wants to capture people to subject them to experiments to make super soldiers, and kills whoever resists him.

Red Team is more volatile and destructive in their methods, and Red's ideals are based on the fact that Blue Team and Green Team will only help feed the power of Black when it arrives, so Red plans on destroying the Blue Team and Green Team or assimilating them into Red Team so they can fight Black.

Black plans on harvesting the souls of everyone, and is relying on Blue to do what they do best to keep the world suppressed, that way they don't fight back against it.

Only Red Team knows about Black.

My problem is how do i generate reasonable conflicts for Green vs. Red? I don't want to play the "They want everyone to die so they are bad" lines.

Current Setup Green 3 was a past friend of Red. Green 2's best friends died trying to protect Green 2 from Blue's armies. Green used to work for Blue but had a change of heart and wants to undo the tyranny he helped Blue build.

Red was subjected to mindrape by Black which led to her knowing of it's plan and set her on the path of ruin it. Red 2 only follows Red so she can offer her help killing anyone, and secretly aspires to kill Red when she least expects it. Green probably won't believe in Red's story about Black so they won't be convinced.

Theres some information on the subject at hand. Using colors so you know who is on what.

edited 28th Sep '10 11:47:49 AM by Tnophelia

Green and Red are both after the same bad guy right? Green has a method on stopping Blue that Red strongly disagrees with and viceversa, thus making them more rivals rather than sworn enemies. Maybe Red tries to warn Green about Black, but Green isnt trustful of Red, thus ignores him. It can be justified by Green and Red having several roughs against each other in the past

Is Blue aware of Black's manipulations? If so, why is Blue serving Black? For the power necesary to rule the world? Also, Why does Blue hate red? Perhaps Red once worked for Blue and ultimately betrayed him?

edited 28th Sep '10 12:20:32 PM by heartlessmushroom

Blue has a hatred for Red because Red has the most effective way of destroying blue's hold on the world through causing panic amongst the neutral citizens and directly annihilating all of their resources, not above crossing the Moral Event Horizon or commiting Pyrrhic Victory in order to make sure Blue is not winning, something Green Team is trying not to do.

Green will kill who they have to to make sure Blue does not win, but Red kills everyone without regard, which would get a lot of people not involved pissed at her, or possibly hurt someone close to the Green Team. Blue would like to capture Red alive, to submit her to humiliation and Go-Go Enslavement to accenuate his superiority over her for all the wrong she's commited against him. Red would like to kill blue just to take over the empire and have enough resources to fight Black when he eventually arrives.

Blue believes that God is answering his prayers of world domination when it's just Black pulling a Batman Gambit.

edited 29th Sep '10 9:03:41 AM by Tnophelia

Moral differences between Green and Red Teams seem like the best bet. Green Team goes 'Well, you're against Blue, but you're almost as bad!', that sort of thing. Meanwhile, Red Team might be wanting to team up with Green Team, or might be too annoyed at Green Team's judgement of them to consider it.

Set up a Let's You and Him Fight for Red Team and Green Team. Have each team be genuinely unaware of the other's existence and make the assumption that Red/Green (depending on perspective you take) Team is working for Blue.

That's not a bad scenario to work with and neatly avoids Conflict Ball and Idiot Ball.

After the first confrontation you can go two ways with it. Have Red Team set up a hostile rivalry with Green Team even though both are working for the same objective. (It also works nicely to allow two wholly separate plotlines.) Or alternatively, have Red and Green Teams team up to take down Blue. (Only recommended for very late in the story though.)

^That works. If Green used to work for Blue, Red can assume s/he still is. And if the Reds are Ax-Crazy, the Greens can reasonably assume they're up to something bad. If they each think the others are working for the Big Bad, that's a good reason for them not to just come straight out with what they're up to.

But this only works for one, maybe two fights, or else their inability to figure out whose side they're on will be an Idiot Ball.

^ That's why if you go the hostile rivalry route you make something happen in the first fight that permanently sets each team as enemies despite their common objective. Like have one of the Red guys during the confrontation actually kill one of the Green ones or something similarly unforgivable.

Or Red Team kills an innocent that Green Team was trying to protect.

all of these seem like pretty good ideas. I didn't even think about comprehending any of these before.

Another question. Is Black aware of the threat that Red peresents because the fact that they are the only ones aware of hin?

He is unnerved but believes since he is an Eldritch Abomination he would just have to go "boo" and all of them will fall into a gibbering catatonic state, except for Red, who saw Black before and got Bored with Insanity and is immune to the incomprehensibilities of Black. He plans on just killing her when he gets there, if he can get there in time.