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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nameless1" data-source="post: 5302032" data-attributes="member: 83379">Unfortunately, your desire to have a specific outcome means that this is well outside the realm of situation and well into the realm of railroad. That is fine, but a situation would have a list of antagonists/protagonists, their goals, their resources, and that is about it. When you have any A->B->C->Win!, then it is a railroad. Situations do not have predetermined outcomes. At all.So if you do want a railroad, then starting with what amounts to a plot map would be a good start. Kamikaze Midget does a really good job of outlining and then filling in a plot map for your campaign. You could very easily just rip that off and go with it. You are done.It does sound like you are trying to come up with a system for doing the same thing youself in the future. Railroads are fun to ride, as long as they are fun to ride. A proven plot map that you could use is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heros_journey" target="_blank">The Heros Journey.</a> It has been successfully used in multiple fantasy serieses, and will resonate with many players. It has 3 phases that can match up really well with the 4e heroic/paragon/epic tiers, and actually matches your stated phases really well. Go figure, it is the classic Heros Journey. By filling it in with some more Heros Journey tropes you may add some additional interest to the story in the form of things that the players may relate to from their previous experiences of The Heros Journey. If I were in your place with your goals, I would basically do exactly what Kamikaze Midget did, only starting out with the Heros Journey as the template, and filling in the details from there. I like the idea of mapping tiers to the phases, matching levels to each of the steps, matching encounters to the levels, and generally planning out the railroad if you want the whole thing to turn out the way you want. But for theme, I would use the stages of the Heros Journey, reflavored with Dark Sun tropes. In play, you will have to be really aggressive about pushing the characters the way that you want.And the last thing that I would say is to get some player buy in before you go ripping their characters into Dark Sun. That is a level of railroad that can decrease the interest of the players, and can ruin all the planning you have done. They may just walk the instant that you tell them "This game you thought that you were playing, it is now a completely different game." Asking them if it is OK from the get go, as well as stating up front that you have a really fun plot worked out, and asking them to stick to the rails will ensure that you aren't just writing things down for yourself.</blockquote>

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