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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Beginning of the End" data-source="post: 4623608" data-attributes="member: 55271">People's mileage may vary, but I'll also argue that:(a) Nothing thrills the players more than when they realize that a choice they made had a real and meaningful impact on the events of the game; and(b) As a GM I want to be surprised by my players. If I want to convey a linear series of events (i.e. a plot), I'll simply write a story. I play RPGs because I enjoy watching the players create a story. I'm never happier as a GM than when I'm completely taken aback by something the players have done.It's interesting that you would have chosen The Sunless Citadel as your original example in this thread, because I've recently been reflecting on why I've had so much success using that module as a DM. There are a couple of answers:(1) From a non-physical stand-point, the module is refreshingly non-linear. Both the kobolds and the goblins are presented as challenges which can be overcome in a variety of ways. (I think there's some mention in the module about the goblins not being amenable to diplomacy, but if you ignore that you can get even more interesting dynamics out of the scenario.)(2) From a physical stand-point, I knocked out a couple of walls and added a secret door in order to create more looping paths between the kobolds and the goblins.PCs have made treaties with the kobolds; wiped out enough goblins that the kobolds were able to take control of the entire upper level; laid siege to the goblins only to discover that they've been duped into wasting their time while the goblins looped around and wiped out the kobolds; wiped out the entire complex without care; negotiated with the goblin leader to bring back the head of the kobold queen; and so forth. There was even the one memorable session where, faced with the problem of kobold raiders coming out of the complex, the PCs simply collapsed the entrance tunnel and called it a day.As Justin Alexander says: Don't prep plots, prep situations.Even on a smaller scale, non-linearity can be fun. In Monte Cook's Night of Dissolution there is a small dungeon complex accessible from a sewer tunnel. Ignoring the single staircase down to the second level, there's nothing particularly spectacular about this small sewer complex. There are only 3 or 4 encounters.But Monte Cook did something clever: He added a second entrance to the complex through a secret door. With this simple bit of looping, PC choices now make a huge difference in how the adventure plays out: Do they enter through the heavily guarded front entrance (where they're likely to be ambushed) or do they go through the secret door (where, if they can avoid the sentries, they can instead ambush the ambushers)?This is also an example of how non-linearity doesn't necessarily mean wasted prep time: The PCs are still going to experience 90%+ of the content regardless of which entrance they use. Their choices, however, determine how they experience that content. In fact, in my experience, embracing situation-based design usually involves less prep-work than plot-based design.I think it's a false dichotomy.For example, I'm currently sitting in my house. There's an interior loop of kitchen-dining room-parlor-entry hall-kitchen. There's also a front door and a back door (which also creates an effective loop). Sub-branches (upstairs, sun room, parlor, media room, basement) extend from the entry, parlor, dining room, and kitchen.IMO, reality is far more likely to get sacrificed in effort to achieve linearity than it is in an attempt to achieve non-linearity.How often, for example, do we see the manor house of the Evil Patriarch mapped up without any windows? Why aren't there any windows? Because then the PCs could theoretically smash through the windows at the back of the complex instead of going through the front door.Design in the real world is almost always non-linear.Which doesn't mean that everything needs to connect to everything else.</blockquote>

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