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*TTRPGs General
Act structure in adventure design
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<blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 4719903" data-attributes="member: 8835"><p>so Kask seems to disagree with my prior post and blog on "how not to railroad" as the "approach tends to led to railroading"?</p><p></p><p>the last half of this thread has nothing to do with 3 act structure.</p><p></p><p>It has morphed to "why Janx thinks sandbox don't exist" and "story is good" to "points on how to make sure any of these ideas don't become a railroad"</p><p></p><p>Whereas Kask's contribution seems to sum up as:</p><p>everything you're saying leads to railroading, even the points on avoiding railroading</p><p></p><p>Instead of a synopsis of "being concerned about railroading" for the 1st half of the thread, wouldn't talking about how to use these ideas and avoid rail-roading at the same time be more productive?</p><p></p><p>How is your DMing style different than the 3 act structure?</p><p></p><p>Here's the 3 act for EVERY adventure anybody has ever played:</p><p>Act 1: learn about problem/ decide on a task (invent a problem)</p><p>Act 2: goto problem location and work on problem</p><p>Act 3: confront the big part of problem, and see final outcome</p><p></p><p>That maps to a dungeon crawl, political takeover, murder mystery. It works whether the GM drafts a 50 page script with dialogue, or if the GM makes it up in a sandbox game he runs impromptu style with no notes.</p><p></p><p>I'm being silly there, but the point is everything is a variant of the above. Which is what writing is about, and story-telling is about, and what gming is about. Each writer takes that outline, and tries to add a twist or extra plot to make it more complex. That's it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Janx, post: 4719903, member: 8835"] so Kask seems to disagree with my prior post and blog on "how not to railroad" as the "approach tends to led to railroading"? the last half of this thread has nothing to do with 3 act structure. It has morphed to "why Janx thinks sandbox don't exist" and "story is good" to "points on how to make sure any of these ideas don't become a railroad" Whereas Kask's contribution seems to sum up as: everything you're saying leads to railroading, even the points on avoiding railroading Instead of a synopsis of "being concerned about railroading" for the 1st half of the thread, wouldn't talking about how to use these ideas and avoid rail-roading at the same time be more productive? How is your DMing style different than the 3 act structure? Here's the 3 act for EVERY adventure anybody has ever played: Act 1: learn about problem/ decide on a task (invent a problem) Act 2: goto problem location and work on problem Act 3: confront the big part of problem, and see final outcome That maps to a dungeon crawl, political takeover, murder mystery. It works whether the GM drafts a 50 page script with dialogue, or if the GM makes it up in a sandbox game he runs impromptu style with no notes. I'm being silly there, but the point is everything is a variant of the above. Which is what writing is about, and story-telling is about, and what gming is about. Each writer takes that outline, and tries to add a twist or extra plot to make it more complex. That's it. [/QUOTE]
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