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Making an adventure whole-cloth out of a novel?
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<blockquote data-quote="Beginning of the End" data-source="post: 5589213" data-attributes="member: 55271"><p>No. In fact, quite the opposite. The linear structure of most media makes for a really terrible structure for an RPG adventure. For example, <a href="http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612" target="_blank">DM of the Rings</a>.</p><p></p><p>With that being said, you <em>can</em> use a linear structure as a starting point if you know what you're doing.</p><p></p><p>First, read <a href="http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule" target="_blank">Three Clue Rule</a> and <a href="http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/node-design/node-design.html" target="_blank">Node-Based Scenario Design</a>. q</p><p></p><p>Now, go through your source material. Every place where the protagonist reached a conclusion of some kind ("I need to talk to X", "I need to go to Y", "I need to do Z") you need to provide the additional clues necessary to fulfill the Three Clue Rule for that conclusion. In addition, you should be aware of when this can be broken out into a full node structure. (For example, what if the PCs decide to go south to the coast and rent a ship instead of going through Moria?)</p><p></p><p>But you're not quite done. Quite a few books and movies require the protagonist to NOT do something. For example, I've read a lot of noir where the detective says something like "I'll talk to Billy in the morning"... and then Billy is dead when he gets there. If only he'd talked to him the night before!</p><p></p><p>Well, you can't count on the PCs doing that. So now you need to go through the whole thing and figure out every place where the structure assumes that the PCs will <em>definitely</em> not do X. You need to figure out how to remove all those dependencies. Your adventure should <em>never</em> depend on the PCs not doing something.</p><p></p><p>So, to sum up:</p><p></p><p>(1) Make sure the PCs have at least 3 ways of figuring out everything they NEED to do in order for the adventure to be a success (because otherwise they may not do it).</p><p></p><p>(2) Make sure the adventure never requires that the PCs <em>don't</em> do something (because they will).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Beginning of the End, post: 5589213, member: 55271"] No. In fact, quite the opposite. The linear structure of most media makes for a really terrible structure for an RPG adventure. For example, [url=http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612]DM of the Rings[/url]. With that being said, you [i]can[/i] use a linear structure as a starting point if you know what you're doing. First, read [url=http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule]Three Clue Rule[/url] and [url=http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/node-design/node-design.html]Node-Based Scenario Design[/url]. q Now, go through your source material. Every place where the protagonist reached a conclusion of some kind ("I need to talk to X", "I need to go to Y", "I need to do Z") you need to provide the additional clues necessary to fulfill the Three Clue Rule for that conclusion. In addition, you should be aware of when this can be broken out into a full node structure. (For example, what if the PCs decide to go south to the coast and rent a ship instead of going through Moria?) But you're not quite done. Quite a few books and movies require the protagonist to NOT do something. For example, I've read a lot of noir where the detective says something like "I'll talk to Billy in the morning"... and then Billy is dead when he gets there. If only he'd talked to him the night before! Well, you can't count on the PCs doing that. So now you need to go through the whole thing and figure out every place where the structure assumes that the PCs will [i]definitely[/i] not do X. You need to figure out how to remove all those dependencies. Your adventure should [i]never[/i] depend on the PCs not doing something. So, to sum up: (1) Make sure the PCs have at least 3 ways of figuring out everything they NEED to do in order for the adventure to be a success (because otherwise they may not do it). (2) Make sure the adventure never requires that the PCs [i]don't[/i] do something (because they will). [/QUOTE]
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