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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5761830" data-attributes="member: 22779">Yeah.&nbsp; D'karr and Fana... Fannn... Fan* basically get it.Like I said, you cannot play an RPG without a story.&nbsp; It's not possible.&nbsp; Even something as basic as a single cave in Keep on the Borderlands outlines a story.&nbsp; You enter the cave, generally facing light opposition, penetrate further in, hitting larger enemies, then finally come to the boss monster at the end.&nbsp; Everything else is just variations on the theme.Now, how that actually plays out at the table will vary wildly.&nbsp; Sure.&nbsp; No problems.&nbsp; But, it's probably easy to say that the party isn't going to start digging (not really feasible), nor are they going to use advanced magics (not available), nor are they likely to start recruiting (difficult even if they wanted to given the inherent hostility in the Caves).&nbsp; So, upon entering the cave, your matrix isn't all that difficult to lay out - that's what a dungeon map is after all.In Matt's presentation, you have a fairly simple set up - Rescue the Princess.&nbsp; Sure, you can complicate it - the Princess is a Succubus - but, since you, the DM, KNOW that complication at the outset, that automatically shapes how things will turn out.&nbsp; &quot;The Princess is killed at the outset&quot; stops being an option since the kidnappers don't actually want to do that (and may very well lack the means - depending on edition, Succubi can Gate BALORS!).One of my favorite ideas that I've seen come out on Enworld is using a random map generator like <a href="http://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/" target="_blank">donjon; d20 Random Dungeon Generator</a> to create something similar to Matt's matrix framework.&nbsp; You design the adventure using the map as a flowchart.&nbsp; Start with the general shape of the adventure and then design to spec.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 5761830, member: 22779"] Yeah. D'karr and Fana... Fannn... Fan* basically get it. Like I said, you cannot play an RPG without a story. It's not possible. Even something as basic as a single cave in Keep on the Borderlands outlines a story. You enter the cave, generally facing light opposition, penetrate further in, hitting larger enemies, then finally come to the boss monster at the end. Everything else is just variations on the theme. Now, how that actually plays out at the table will vary wildly. Sure. No problems. But, it's probably easy to say that the party isn't going to start digging (not really feasible), nor are they going to use advanced magics (not available), nor are they likely to start recruiting (difficult even if they wanted to given the inherent hostility in the Caves). So, upon entering the cave, your matrix isn't all that difficult to lay out - that's what a dungeon map is after all. In Matt's presentation, you have a fairly simple set up - Rescue the Princess. Sure, you can complicate it - the Princess is a Succubus - but, since you, the DM, KNOW that complication at the outset, that automatically shapes how things will turn out. "The Princess is killed at the outset" stops being an option since the kidnappers don't actually want to do that (and may very well lack the means - depending on edition, Succubi can Gate BALORS!). One of my favorite ideas that I've seen come out on Enworld is using a random map generator like [url=http://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/]donjon; d20 Random Dungeon Generator[/url] to create something similar to Matt's matrix framework. You design the adventure using the map as a flowchart. Start with the general shape of the adventure and then design to spec. [/QUOTE]

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