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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EpicureanDM" data-source="post: 9805656" data-attributes="member: 6996003">"Book jacket teaser text" is a good analogy for what it is and how it reads. For better or worse, RPG scenario designers think of themselves as narrative designers rather than game designers. If the adjective is "narrative," you tend to think in literary terms and tropes.I go back and forth on the usefulness of flowcharts. Proposing them suggests that someone's thinking beyond simple text formatting and that's a good impulse. (I'm not criticizing you, [USER=7031982]@Bill Zebub[/USER], just speaking generally). For more complex scenarios beyond something basic like dungeon crawling, though, I worry that they can become spaghetti. I see their value for establishing the initial connections. I definitely want a way to track what you're talking about, the "if X then Y" stuff that should be a part of good scenario design.I might want a flowchart, but I'd want something connected to the NPC, too. (This is part of what I mean by repeating information. More on that in a moment.) This is why I like the workbook idea. I would add this sort of tracking functionality to NPC stat blocks. There could be a few short, one-line reminders below an NPC's stats and traits, e.g. "PCs didn't help Gandalf find a path in Moria, so Aragorn [this is in Aragorn's stat block] sides with Gandalf in disputes." I'd put a checkbox (workbooks are for writing in!) next to each one. Maybe in play and certainly between sessions, I could look at the NPC stat blocks to see if any of those events occurred, the "x" in "if x then y." If it did, I'd check the box in the stat block. When I pull out the stat block to play the NPC, I can see the checked boxes and RP accordingly.[Edit: This is why Revelation Lists are such important design tech. Every published scenario is, in part, an investigation. The usefulness of their structure goes beyond investigations and investigation scenarios. What I'm describing in the previous paragraph is effectively how Revelation Lists are properly used.]So the information about the x/y triggers would be in two places: the flowchart summary near the front and on the stat block. The value of this repetition comes from what Bill suggests: studying it at the beginning wold give him a better framework for absorbing the scenario's design. The stat block becomes more useful as it becomes closer to GMing notes that can be used during play. So many GMs complain about having to rewrite scenario text to make it useful during play. Scenario presentation should aim to look more like GMing notes (or a worksheet?!) than core rulebook text.Finally, an undertone in Bill's post suggests that these more practical approaches to text and presentation could work as introductions do in academic text. To me, that reads like adopting a new, improved form of presentation and design before getting to, well, what, exactly? Back into two-columns of text with some bullet points? What if there were no difference between this introductory, schematic, external, "DVD commentary" presentation and the rest of the scenario? I see no reason to retreat back to the same form we've been stuck with for 50 years. Write it all as if it's the "introduction."</blockquote>

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