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Murder in Baldur's Gate (spoilers!)
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<blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 6391287" data-attributes="member: 2011"><p>I've always been a big fan of adventure designers creating flowcharts for their adventures with multiple entry points and multiple exit points for each "encounter" (be it social, or combat, or investigative, or whatever). Especially in a murder mystery (which many DMs tend to run so infrequently). But it's obvious that most designers do not do flowcharts.</p><p></p><p>It's a shame because when the players have choices and they go with one and follow a trail of breadcrumbs, they eventually get to the same place, it feels organic instead of forced.</p><p></p><p>Simple example:</p><p></p><p>Party starts at tavern. They hear 3 rumors. One goes to the temple, one goes to the brewer, and one goes to the mayor.</p><p></p><p>From each of these locations, their are 2 to 4 clues to follow (and the clues can come from multiple NPCs on the way to those locations, not necessarily by a single NPC at that location). Rarely do any of these clues immediately head back to either of the other two locations (temple, brewer, or mayor) because that feels forced. Instead, the PCs are going off and doing other things not directly relevant to the other two original locations. If the players decide to not follow the 2 to 4 clues, they can go head to one of the other two locations.</p><p></p><p>And most of these clues should be directly or indirectly related to the original problem. In the case of Murder in Baldur's Gate, that should probably be the actual murder.</p><p></p><p>Finally, I think that all adventures should be playtested with players who are instructed to be a little contrary now and again. It's all well and nice to playtest the railroad exactly as the tracks are laid down, but getting off the tracks needs to be playtested a bit as well. That way, at least some of the obvious potholes can be filled.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="KarinsDad, post: 6391287, member: 2011"] I've always been a big fan of adventure designers creating flowcharts for their adventures with multiple entry points and multiple exit points for each "encounter" (be it social, or combat, or investigative, or whatever). Especially in a murder mystery (which many DMs tend to run so infrequently). But it's obvious that most designers do not do flowcharts. It's a shame because when the players have choices and they go with one and follow a trail of breadcrumbs, they eventually get to the same place, it feels organic instead of forced. Simple example: Party starts at tavern. They hear 3 rumors. One goes to the temple, one goes to the brewer, and one goes to the mayor. From each of these locations, their are 2 to 4 clues to follow (and the clues can come from multiple NPCs on the way to those locations, not necessarily by a single NPC at that location). Rarely do any of these clues immediately head back to either of the other two locations (temple, brewer, or mayor) because that feels forced. Instead, the PCs are going off and doing other things not directly relevant to the other two original locations. If the players decide to not follow the 2 to 4 clues, they can go head to one of the other two locations. And most of these clues should be directly or indirectly related to the original problem. In the case of Murder in Baldur's Gate, that should probably be the actual murder. Finally, I think that all adventures should be playtested with players who are instructed to be a little contrary now and again. It's all well and nice to playtest the railroad exactly as the tracks are laid down, but getting off the tracks needs to be playtested a bit as well. That way, at least some of the obvious potholes can be filled. [/QUOTE]
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