Hussar
Legend
But then you run into the problem of DM workload. If you design your adventures to the point where you can possibly have so many outcomes, you're pretty much required to do a heck of a lot of heavy lifting that will never see play.
Laying out an adventure in a grid format isn't a bad idea. I like the idea of adventure flowcharts.
After all, if you, the DM, know that the princess is a succubus, then you've just reduced the total number of end results to three - they fail to rescue the "princess", they rescue her, kill her and the king believes/doesn't believe them.
I would point out though, that once you've done this, you've change the initial parameters of the scenario that Matt James outlined. Which is fine. But, once you have decided on the initial parameters, the number of end points becomes pretty limited.
If we go strictly by the initial parameters of Matt James' example, then none of those outcomes you listed actually can come up. The princess is not a succubus. The kidnappers don't immediately execute their captive. Etc.
After all, if it's true that the kidnappers immediately execute the princess, then you are left with a very limited number of outcomes. Since the PC's can't really change that, you might as well start there. The PC's have no real control in that situation - they are doing what they probably feel is right, but, the situation is such that they've failed before they even started.
Very fun scenario with the right group, but, at that point, I no longer need to worry about preparing any sort of "happy" ending, because, the end point is pretty much carved in stone before the situation begins - the party fails. How do they deal with that failure?
Laying out an adventure in a grid format isn't a bad idea. I like the idea of adventure flowcharts.
After all, if you, the DM, know that the princess is a succubus, then you've just reduced the total number of end results to three - they fail to rescue the "princess", they rescue her, kill her and the king believes/doesn't believe them.
I would point out though, that once you've done this, you've change the initial parameters of the scenario that Matt James outlined. Which is fine. But, once you have decided on the initial parameters, the number of end points becomes pretty limited.
If we go strictly by the initial parameters of Matt James' example, then none of those outcomes you listed actually can come up. The princess is not a succubus. The kidnappers don't immediately execute their captive. Etc.
After all, if it's true that the kidnappers immediately execute the princess, then you are left with a very limited number of outcomes. Since the PC's can't really change that, you might as well start there. The PC's have no real control in that situation - they are doing what they probably feel is right, but, the situation is such that they've failed before they even started.
Very fun scenario with the right group, but, at that point, I no longer need to worry about preparing any sort of "happy" ending, because, the end point is pretty much carved in stone before the situation begins - the party fails. How do they deal with that failure?