Object oriented adventure design

buzz · Jan 13, 2005

From today's news page:

http://www.dndorks.com/ArticleID/38/PageID/1/default.aspx

The title of this article, Object Oriented Adventure, refers to a style of computer programming in which the code is very modular. Elements of the program are 'instances' of 'types' or 'classes' of things. These ideas can be ported over to adventure design as well. For example, the 'class' of NPC can have several instances. Fred the Bartender, the Beggar, the Street Urchin and the Weaponsmith, are all NPCs. As a 'class' they all have things in common. They have names, stats, and a description. They may also have a mood, and attitude, motivations and more. The same can be said of Locations, Scenes, Challenges and so forth. All of these integrate with the other elements to create your adventure. Now, for the purposes of adventure design, I've laid out a handfull of classes that will be used.

I found this whole concept very intriguing. I think it would help impose some thoroughness on the adventures I write, as well as get me out of the habit of writing an adventure as if it were a story. I think I tend to assume a natural beginning, middle, and end that players will naturally follow. Which, of course, is totally stupid. Plot is something the players create; I'm just there to give them "objects" (goals, locations, people, moods) with which to create it. The "index cards ready to be shuffled" aspect of this technique seems like a good idea to me.

Anyone else like the sound of this?

Ry · Jan 13, 2005

I've tried this for a while, with mixed results.
The good: Players start to get attached to the setting, and they poke around more.

The bad: If you design too broadly, the campaign starts to lose direction. Because all my objects were so well-developed, I ended up having over a dozen simultaneous plotlines going.

So I like what it does to my setting, but don't like using it as my core preparation tool.

FireLance · Jan 13, 2005

Sounds like a great format for published adventures, but any DM trying this in his home game needs to have a lot of time on his hands.

Might make a good product, though - Generic locations, scenes, challenges and NPCs for any game.

Fenes · Jan 13, 2005

I generally plan my adventures like that. I sketch some locations that may be visited, and line out the NPCs and their goals, potentional problems for the PCs and possible solutions. Then I let the players at it.

kolvar · Jan 13, 2005

Has anyone done a programme from that? would be kind of nice.

Pinotage · Jan 13, 2005

kolvar said:
Has anyone done a programme from that? would be kind of nice.

Not that I'm aware of. It would an interesting exercise, though, but I think your hierachy of classes and objects would become complicated very quickly. While you could arrange everything into objects and use them as such, it's the interaction between the objects which would be difficult, essentially falling back on writing a story as most RPG games have done for decades. Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures is sort of like this.

Pinotage

Gez · Jan 13, 2005

buzz said:
From today's news page:

Anyone else like the sound of this?

I don't know what to think about that, but you have the perfect username to post such a thing!

Zappo · Jan 13, 2005

As a big fan of OOP, I find this concept intriguing. You could start fitting inheritance into it, and it could be useful to quickly create diverse but richly detailed environments, but you'd need some kind of software to keep track of everything. It needs a better model for the interaction between objects, though.

hong · Jan 13, 2005

Bah. Real DMs can write Fortran adventures in any ruleset.

Ibram · Jan 13, 2005

hong said:
Bah. Real DMs can write Fortran adventures in any ruleset.

though you might have to explain this to the kiddies....

I've used an Object oriented approach for years (mostly unaware that I was doing it). My DM notebook has a large section with creatures like "Human Thug" or "Orc Raider" that I reuse in adventures.