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Atoms In Game And Adventure Design
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<blockquote data-quote="Schmoe" data-source="post: 7733243" data-attributes="member: 913"><p>This is actually a pretty interesting concept, and I think it meshes well with some other advice about DMing. I think of atoms as "scenes", and as such the framing of the scene is important. The impact of a scene directly ties to its resolution. Some scenes may result in nothing but setting the mood, and if you understand that you can resolve the scene once the mood has been set. Some scenes may provide the resolution of a conflict, such as a combat, and the resolution typically comes when the party is victorious (or not). Obviously not everything in the game strictly maps to one scene, or one atom, but being mindful of the scene can help me figure out figure out pacing to prevent boredom, help me convey important information, and help me keep the game entertaining. </p><p></p><p>When you look at it through this lens, there are several broad categories of atoms, such as combat confrontations, role-playing confrontations, role-playing "character" exposition, mood setting descriptions, dungeon/wilderness navigation, searching a room, etc. Each atom may share some similarities with other atoms in the same general category, but the specific goals and circumstances will usually be significantly different so that they don't play out the same way. Nonetheless, there are enough similarities that you can start to derive some best practices for a particular type of atom/scene.</p><p></p><p>Cool, thanks for the post. It was thought-provoking.</p><p></p><p>Edit: I also want to point out that I think the choice of terminology between loop and atom is ironic. The loops are actually the independent actions that you will do over and over again while resolving any number of different atoms. In that way, the atoms are actually composed of loops, rather than being the atomic elements of a loop, which might be intuitive. Maybe loops should have instead been called "strings" and then you could invoke string theory. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Schmoe, post: 7733243, member: 913"] This is actually a pretty interesting concept, and I think it meshes well with some other advice about DMing. I think of atoms as "scenes", and as such the framing of the scene is important. The impact of a scene directly ties to its resolution. Some scenes may result in nothing but setting the mood, and if you understand that you can resolve the scene once the mood has been set. Some scenes may provide the resolution of a conflict, such as a combat, and the resolution typically comes when the party is victorious (or not). Obviously not everything in the game strictly maps to one scene, or one atom, but being mindful of the scene can help me figure out figure out pacing to prevent boredom, help me convey important information, and help me keep the game entertaining. When you look at it through this lens, there are several broad categories of atoms, such as combat confrontations, role-playing confrontations, role-playing "character" exposition, mood setting descriptions, dungeon/wilderness navigation, searching a room, etc. Each atom may share some similarities with other atoms in the same general category, but the specific goals and circumstances will usually be significantly different so that they don't play out the same way. Nonetheless, there are enough similarities that you can start to derive some best practices for a particular type of atom/scene. Cool, thanks for the post. It was thought-provoking. Edit: I also want to point out that I think the choice of terminology between loop and atom is ironic. The loops are actually the independent actions that you will do over and over again while resolving any number of different atoms. In that way, the atoms are actually composed of loops, rather than being the atomic elements of a loop, which might be intuitive. Maybe loops should have instead been called "strings" and then you could invoke string theory. :) [/QUOTE]
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