Alternatives to map-and-key

[DrunkonDuty]

Sorry, despite quoting the rules I still don’t know what a ‘best interest’ is? I get that they should be used to target PCs but what are they?

I’m not trying to be obtuse. The phrase itself is someone ambiguous. I feel like the quoted test seems to assume I know what this phrase should mean.

They sound like what Hero System calls complications (disadvantages in older editions.).

Complications are things you choose at character generation to be things of "interest" to the character. They should be things the player wants to interact with. They can be things the character wants to achieve "Marry the princess" or "Get rich" or "find a cure for the curse." They can be things the character wants to avoid; "Avoid personal danger at all costs" or "disappointing Uncle Ben." Could be ongoing issues like "owes a debt (bank or crimelord) and must do what is asked of them whenever it's called in." They can also be physical weaknesses likes "takes double damage from Kryptonite."

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

So..they need to move 6 spaces along the map without setting off 3 traps to get inside the fortress. Got it.

I'm a big mapper. I make a lot of physical maps, triptychs (which are properly graphs as they represent time not space) and mind maps of concepts and goals.

A mind map is not technically a map, being a graph, unless the structure actually represents space. Then it is a map. But people like maps and are afraid of graphs (X? Y? Run away!) So "mind map" is the common term for a graph.

To circle around to "how maps/graphs are used in rpgs that aren't explicitly d&d", the XDM books have plot maps (my book is packed so I can't find the exact term) for players to "move through" or "navigate" to get to the completion. XDM has only been around for a 15 years or so.

Shadowrun, which has been around for four-ish decades, uses proper maps for combat and a (poorly explained) graph for advancing plots. And I mean very poorly explained as they sprinkle relationship data on each node (character) without every drawing the map. I mean graph. Except when they discuss places, when it could be a map. But their adventures are absolutely graphs without the handy map. Diagram. Graph. Whatever.

What I'm saying is, a map is a subset of graphs, and darned near everything is a graph but lots of people hate graphs (math!) while everyone is comfortable looking at a map these days. So if you want to de-emphasize geography-based adventures, tell people to map something else. Plot map. Story map. Motivation map. Event map. Scene map.

It is much more approachable to the majority and only the truly pedantic will get huffy about it.

But every graph/diagram/map should have a key. Always, always, always.

I would not characterize, say, FitD clocks, 4e SCs, and TB2e contests as always being equivalent to a graph. In fact, my experience with SCs in particular tells me that this sort of presentation is often overly rigid. The GM is overthinking the thing when building it that way. The PCs will start at point X, but unexpectedly they will move off at a tangent to point P, which you did not anticipate at all, and now your cause-and-effect linkages, the edges of your graph, won't make sense anymore, etc. Clocks also can be structured in several ways, some of which I don't believe really map to a graph very well.

That being said, I don't think there's something inherently wrong with graphs/maps, but as the OP asserts, they do have specific purposes, usually in terms of regulating and limiting the choices available at a certain point.

 

[TheSword]

They sound like what Hero System calls complications (disadvantages in older editions.).

Complications are things you choose at character generation to be things of "interest" to the character. They should be things the player wants to interact with. They can be things the character wants to achieve "Marry the princess" or "Get rich" or "find a cure for the curse." They can be things the character wants to avoid; "Avoid personal danger at all costs" or "disappointing Uncle Ben." Could be ongoing issues like "owes a debt (bank or crimelord) and must do what is asked of them whenever it's called in." They can also be physical weaknesses likes "takes double damage from Kryptonite."

Those all sound like goals or motivations. Is that a fair way of characterizing the description you just gave?

For instance an NPC I ran on Tuesday night.

• Wanted to find out what happened to her missing husband
• Was scared of and wanted to avoid the watch (In this case the PCs)
• Was scared of and wanted to avoid getting on the wrong side of a local crimelord that ruled the slums she lived in.

Is this the kind of thing we’re talking about?

I’m assuming the phrase comes from “in your own best interests” which usually means something that benefits someone. But that isn’t necessarily a goal. In fact that phrase often relates to something done as a justification against your will.