D&D General The Alexandrian’s Insights In a Nutshell [+]

[Reynard]

I get this in concept, but are hung up thinking if I do this or what the difference is with situations and encounters and plots. I might have a tribe or orcs planning to attack the village. I plan out an encounter where they attack and their size and tactics. I plan on the PCs fighting, but guess it depends on them. I also plan on the orcs taking some prisoners and going back to a cave. I plan on the PCs going to save the villagers.

The plot of the adventure is to survive the attack and rescue the villagers before they are sacrificed. I have a few situations that the PCs walk into but they could also just not want to do any of it.

I guess I'm thinking that all of these words might just be the same.

The way I do it is by establishing the factions or individuals involved, including their goals and motivations, and the figuring out what might happen if the PCs don't get involved. This makes it much easier to decide what the "bad guys" do in response to PC actions, and has the benefit of having information in place for when they don't. Because sometimes they don't.

 

[pemerton]

• Design situations not plots because then you don’t actually care what the PCs actually do; you just want to expose them to the situation so that they can begin interacting with it.

<snip>

• For any conclusion you want the PCs to make, include at least three clues.

Note the contradiction.

 

[Mistwell]

The Alexandrian blog and JA himself come in for a lot of flack partly because of the style

No. Because he has repeatedly, for years, behaved poorly to his peers. He's been banned from just about every single RPG discussion board there is, including those that ban almost nobody. He's said inexcusable things and when confronted with them he usually doubles down on them. It took him AN ENTIRE YEAR, and only after he published and was confronted by her widow, before he admitted maybe he shouldn't swiped Jannell Jaquays' concept with his own friggen name. The guy is toxic and frankly I am really tired of people dismissing his antics as just his "style." It's not his "style" he's just plain a jerk too often in his online communications.

 

[mamba]

Note the contradiction.

I am not seeing one, that is essentially saying plan what you put in front of the players (situation), but not how they 'solve' it (plot), as the players might well decide to handle the situation differently from what you had planned

 

[kenada]

I get this in concept, but are hung up thinking if I do this or what the difference is with situations and encounters and plots. I might have a tribe or orcs planning to attack the village. I plan out an encounter where they attack and their size and tactics. I plan on the PCs fighting, but guess it depends on them. I also plan on the orcs taking some prisoners and going back to a cave. I plan on the PCs going to save the villagers.

The plot of the adventure is to survive the attack and rescue the villagers before they are sacrificed. I have a few situations that the PCs walk into but they could also just not want to do any of it.

I guess I'm thinking that all of these words might just be the same.

A plot provides not just a sequence of events but also has expectations of what the PCs will do. A situation would just have the orcs attack and leave it at that. Possibly, you could have some kind of countdown or sequence building up to what happens once they breach the town. No plans though.

 

[kenada]

I am not seeing one, that is essentially saying plan what you put in front of the players (situation), but not how they 'solve' it (plot), as the players might well decide to handle the situation differently from what you had planned

If one sets up the scenario so the PCs reach a certain conclusion, then it seems one does actually care what they will do, making it more of a plot than a situation. But you’re not supposed to do that, so the advice is contradictory.

 

[mamba]

If one sets up the scenario so the PCs reach a certain conclusion, then it seems one does actually care what they will do, making it more of a plot than a situation. But you’re not supposed to do that, so the advice is contradictory.

except that JA says nothing about setting up the situations that way, which is why you need several clues in the first place

I do not see running something other than a sandbox and not having a tight plot / railroad as a contradiction.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

The thing is stuff like this isn't some insight developed by JA. It is advice that has come down since the 70s. Some personalities are better at presenting it as such. Others like JA package it like they figured it out.

Well, it IS a plus thread, and honestly I'm not sure he ever laid claim to inventing this 'insight'. Certainly if you think about it for a minute or two Apocalypse World and Dungeon World are, to a high degree, all about doing exactly this. Fronts in DW basically epitomize this kind of idea, though I have no idea whether The Alexandrian or Vincent Baker originated the idea, or neither of them. I'd say Baker's game(s) have certainly taken it from advice to actual practice though.

 

[kenada]

except that JA says nothing about setting up the situations that way

Sure he does. He has a section on using the three clue rule in his “Don’t Prep Plots” essay.

 

[kenada]

Well, it IS a plus thread, and honestly I'm not sure he ever laid claim to inventing this 'insight'. Certainly if you think about it for a minute or two Apocalypse World and Dungeon World are, to a high degree, all about doing exactly this. Fronts in DW basically epitomize this kind of idea, though I have no idea whether The Alexandrian or Vincent Baker originated the idea, or neither of them. I'd say Baker's game(s) have certainly taken it from advice to actual practice though.

Infinity RPG contains a lot of Justin’s advice in the GMing section (which makes sense because he was the line developer for that game). The ideas behind “Don’t Prep Plots” are in the section on revelation lists.