Best way to lay out information in a published adventure

[RangerWickett]

I'd like to tap into the hivemind for a bit, and benefit from your ideas. I'm providing feedback to Jacob Driscoll (Kamikaze Midget) on the fourth adventure of the ZEITGEIST adventure path.

It's no spoiler to share that the adventure takes place on a train over the course of several days. The PCs need to track down a person of interest with practically no information to go on except the starting and ending points of the person's trip. About half the adventure involves trying to figure out who, among all the passengers, is your guy. The second half is when you get to the destination, and hopefully are able to follow the right guy to a secret meeting.

Now, this is not a typical sort of scenario that crops up in D&D adventures. Several threads of the plot proceed at the same time, and we want to make it as easy as possible for GMs to understand how they all fit together while reading the adventure, and then to track how the PCs' actions affect things when they run it.

What would work best for you?

Option A
One possible option is to list an overview, then present encounters and NPC actions along the journey in chronological order. So each day would have several encounters.

Like, "Here are all the people and what they're doing. Okay, ready? On day one, people 1-4 show up. Person 1 does this. Person 2 does this. etc. etc. On day two, person 4 gets off the train, and person 5 gets on. The different people do these different things."

Option B
The other option would be to have the overview, then list each NPC's thread in one long piece before going to the next NPC. This might make it easier to get a sense on your first read-through of what each NPC is up to and why they matter, but it would require a lot of jumping around while running the adventure.

For instance, "Person 1 boards on day 1. He does this on day 1, that on day 2, this other thing on day 3, then on day 4 he's killed by person 2 unless the PCs intervene." "Person 2 boards on day 1, does X, then y, then z, then kills, then does that other thing."

There would probably also be a separate thread for "stuff that affects the whole train."

Option C
Have some sort of index, with the names of all the prominent scenes and a quick tag line. Then the body of the adventure would include the scenes in alphabetical order by title. Different scenes might have notes saying, "See The Serial Killer, page xx."

I'm not really a fan of this one, though the format might work for a more sandbox-y adventure.


Finally, bear in mind that we're very conscious of the risk of having the PCs feel railroaded during an adventure which literally takes place on a railroad. We want to provide a lot of interesting NPCs and scenarios for the GM to make use of, and to explain clearly how they probably fit together, while making it easy for the GM to move stuff around as needed.

Like if the PCs finger the wrong guy, how does the real villain react? Or if the party figures out who the real villain is too early, how do you make the rest of the train ride eventful?

I'd really appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.

 

[Crothian]

Maybe a chart would also be useful. Have a list of the NPCs on top and then on the side list the days and then were they intersect sum up what each NPC is doing that day.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I would separate the NPC descriptions from the event descriptions.

The section concerning a NPC should describe her with enough detail that the DM can extrapolate her reactions to unforeseen events.

Encounter descriptions have to be complete. Of course NPC descriptions should be referenced, not repeated.

Give a timetable of events with the NSCs, so the DM can with one look determine where a specific PC is at what time, something like:

"Day 1, high noon, saloon car: NSC1 and NSC2 dining together.
Coach 1: NSC3 breaking into compartment of NSC2."

You might design these timetables to allow printing out and mounting on a screen. If any of these events is detailed somewhere in the adventure, add a page reference.

Provide some forms for the DM to keep track on, like with the relationships between NSCs, knowledge NSCs have about each other and all the minutiae which change during a social adventure.

If scenes depend on the result of other scenes or events provide a way to keep track of this info, too.

You should cross-reference a lot, so please use hyperlinks in the PDF. By the way, is there a way to have two copies of a PDF open at the same time and design the hyperlinks to be opened in the other version? I mean, something like:

PDF1 is named blablabla.pdf, file two is called blablabla_ref.pdf The have the same contents, but a hyperlink clicked on in blablabla.pdf would be shown in blablabla_ref.pdf. This way you could remain at the same position in the text and still see the linked information.

 

[Jack7]

I don't know exactly how you plan to play it RW (or at least how KM plans to play it), but I'd role play it like the PCs are Undercover Dicks. Unless the PCs are privy to advanced Intel on the possible POI then I'd play out everything as it occurs. And I'd encourage player to engage in surveillance, covert and cover identity interviews (talk to the targets in general conversation while seemingly involved in innocuous chit-chat but see if you can elicit background information or something useful off your targets).

Surveillance, covert stalking, disguise, cover identities, perhaps assigning each PC a different target, B&E of their things and papers (if it can be done without arousing suspicion or it doesn't violate orders), covert interviews, befriending targets, eavesdropping, keeping notes, and all of the other tricks of investigation that would make your Manhunters actually good at their job. I'd place the burden on the players and their characters and see how they played it, though I might insert an outside party to Run the Op (that is an outside NPC who is running the players), or at least an allied NPC (experienced investigator) in an advisory capacity so that he or she could makes suggestions to the party about how to proceed if they need it.

Let the players solve it the old fashioned way, leg-work and observation and manhunting, and good investigation techniques.

Now exactly what information the players are privy to, or can get their hands on, or steal, or acquire, that's a different matter, but I'd expose them to whatever they find out as it arises naturally, and as circumstances dictate. How they take advantage of that, or fail to, that's the player's problems. But if practically no information is truly available then this will be a "come as you are, get it when you can" party. It'll unfold as it unfolds, which will be poco a poco.

I wouldn't give me anything more than they learn minute by minute.

But an assignment like that, especially considering they know nothing of their real target or of any of the other potential targets could be a role playing goldmine, and a real intrigue factory.

It ain't easy to take up somebody on the move, especially if you know little about them. It's fascinating, exhilarating, and very dangerous work. Plus you could totally miss your mark. But that's what makes it so exciting to actually do.

I'd role play it heavy and black and make them find their own light, or make their own light. That'd be my take.

Good luck.

 

[gamerprinter]

In my free Kaidan: Frozen Wind adventure (download it - it's free, and has what I am explaining below...) has 3 distinct time divisions that occur over the course of the adventure. But since the temple and grounds is kind of like a dungeon that the PCs could be anywhere during the course of the adventure. What is going on in a particular room depends in which time divsion it is occurring. So each room listing describes what is in the room, with boxed text below that might change the description for what occurs at a different point in the adventure.

When I say time divisions, I'm not talking chronomancy, rather certain things the PCs do will trigger moves the story from the initial activity to the next one (new goals for the monsters with changes of activity.)

It sounds like it could be a workable timetable layout that the method described above could better serve.

 

[Gilladian]

I would go with an overview of the trip, and a timeline of major events. Then I would list each NPC in alphabetical order, outlining how that person behaves each day, or during each major scene, and with a brief statement of their ultimate goals and methods.

Then I would go into details on each scene, chronologically and geographically. For example: 9 am in Car One, 9 am in Car Two, and then the Dining Car, the Sleeper, etc...from front to back of the train. Then start the next major time division...if a locale isn't mentioned during a particular period, and an NPC isn't mentioned either, then the DM can decide where he/she is during that period.

I like the idea of having a chart that cross-references each major NPC with each major scene. I think that could help a lot.

 

[Mark CMG]

Finally, bear in mind that we're very conscious of the risk of having the PCs feel railroaded during an adventure which literally takes place on a railroad.

You're already in the running for best quote of 2012.