Most published adventures are designed around a structure that looks like this:
Your start at the beginning (Blue), proceed through a series of linear scenes (Yellow), and eventually reach the end (Red).
Occasionally you may see someone get fancy and throw a pseudo-option into things:
But you’re still looking at an essentially linear path. Although the exact form of this linear path may vary depending on the adventure in question, ultimately this form of design is the plotted approach: A happens, then B happens, and then C happens.
The primary advantage of the plotted approach is its simplicity. It’s both easy to understand and easy to control. On the one hand, when you’re preparing the adventure it’s like putting together a scheduled to-do list or laying out the plot for a short story. While you’re running the adventure, on the other hand, you always know exactly where you are and exactly where you’re supposed to be going.
But the plotted approach has two major flaws:
First, it lacks flexibility. Every arrow on the plotted flow-chart is a chokepoint: If the players don’t follow that arrow (because they don’t want to or because they don’t realize they’re supposed to), then the adventure is going to grind to a painful halt.
The risk of this painful train wreck (or the necessity of railroading your players) can be mitigated by means of the Three Clue Rule. But when the Three Clue Rule is applied in a plotted structure, you run the risk of over-kill: Every yellow dot will contain three clues all pointing towards the next dot. If the players miss or misinterpret a couple of the clues, that’s fine. But if they find all of the clues in a smaller scene, they may feel as if you’re trying to spoon-feed them. (Which, ironically, may cause them to rebel against your best laid plans.)
Second, because it lacks flexibility, the plotted approach is inimical to meaningful player choice. In order for the plotted adventure to work, the PCs must follow the arrows. Choices which don’t follow the arrows will break the game.
This is why I say Don’t Prep Plots, Prep Situations.
You say spoonfeed, but I say railroad. As a player, nothing is more frustrating than my character’s decisions being meaningless. While I appreciate the necessity of having a story to have an enjoyable game, I do not appreciate attempts to dictate what my character does. I enjoyed reading this immensely.
Hi,
You probably already saw that, but I thought you might be interested. MWP have a brand new Leverage supplement : Node-Based Capers. http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/111583/Leverage-Companion-08%3A-Node-Based-Capers
[…] well to setting the tone and mood of a scene or encounter. There is usually an intricate plot (or node) structure that interweaves various overlapping storylines. Combat is deadly, and for that reason […]
[…] of the concepts presented here are partly based on Justin Alexander’s node-based scenario approach to writing Pen & Paper RPG […]
[…] Как и в случае других структур игр-загадок, тут я перехожу к проработке ключевых узлов сюжета, разбивая его на отдельные, легко управляемые и легко продумываемые части. […]
[…] The Alexandrian 27.03.2010 […]
[…] yesterday, when the RPG post I did prompted me to re-read some old posts on blogs I particularly like, which led me circuitously — as internet rambles do — to a new blog (which I’m […]
[…] types to use, and ultimately wrote down six as the “nodes” of the story (laid out in a most excellent post here). As a basic skeleton, I imagined the flow of the story going something like: start at […]
[…] has proven invaluable to my most recent campaign (and likely to my next one). His series on Node-Based Scenario Design, Urban Crawls, The Art of Pacing are top notch. Really anything from his Gamemastery 101 is great […]
[…] Now comes the more in depth methods of adventure prep, which can be short but more importantly are informed by the ideas written in the outline. I would write my own but honestly it’s been covered more thoroughly and better than I could ever do by The Alexandrian […]
[…] adventure is “node based“, which means that players can choose their own path, discovering locales and clues as they […]
[…] website The Alexandrian is chock full of excellent GMing advice, particularly their posts on “Node-Based Scenario Design.” Definitely worth checking […]