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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 4577169" data-attributes="member: 5143">It's not a matter of forgone conclusion.  My adventures(and most adventures as far as I can tell) are a series of predetermined encounters with locations where the PCs decisions determine how they get to the next encounter.So, for instance, you might know that the BBEG kidnaps someone from a town even before the PCs get there.  They have no chance to stop him.  You know that when the PCs arrive in town the people in town will beg them for help to get back the kidnapped person.At this point, you let the players decisions matter.  Do they take the mission?  Do they ask for a reward?  How do they go about tracking down the BBEG?You probably know the likely methods they would use to find him(tracking, asking around town to see if anyone saw which way he went, hiring a guide, and so on).  They might come up with other ways that you haven't thought of, but that's ok.  You want them to eventually reach the cave where the BBEG is keeping the prisoner.  You get to make it look like their choices matter.  They get to think that there was a chance that they would fail to find the cave and that their ingenuity was what caused them to succeed.Plus, their decisions DO influence the story.  It is either the story of a group of people who ask around town until they meet the farmer who saw the prisoner being dragged off and go in that direction until they find a cave OR it is the story of a group of people who use their knowledge of the wilderness in order to track their prey through the forest.  It may be a small difference, but it is a difference in the story that was caused by the player's decisions.You know what forces the BBEG has and the layout of his cave.  You can set up the encounters and know that they will likely happen exactly like that unless the players try some completely different tactics.  Then, their decisions matter again.Once they defeat the BBEG and rescue the hostage, then they once again have a decision as to what they do with the hostage.And so on.  It is a combination of planned encounters and "decision points" where the players gets to decide which track the railroad goes down.</blockquote>

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