Postmodern/non-linear adventure

[LostSoul]

I did this in a recent game. I started the group - all characters who didn't know each other - watching people load "crates" onto a ship. A fight soon broke out.

The Players didn't have any idea what was going on, who they were fighting, or what was in those crates and why it was important to them.

After the fight, I cut back to the beginning and ran from there. Everything started to come together as we played through the past.

This probably worked out better for me because I usually don't have many combat encounters - I reserve them for the climax.

 

[Volefisk]

Congratulations on generating a topic which forces me to register and reply!

One of the most successful and memorable campaigns I ever ran was structured non-sequentially. The campaign was a (largely) post-apocalyptic "Mad Max"-esque campaign, in which the players bounced back and forth between the pre-collapse 20th century (where they all met for the first time), the "beginning" of the adventure, and a "floating" point of peril in the near future.

I began every sequence with a zinger: a near future point of peril, like them hanging off of an out of control big rig, or some such thing. I made it as exciting and adrenalin packed as possible, so they never stopped to consider how they got in that situation. They would then resolve the fight/conflict/problem in a cool way, usually by the seat of their pants.

When the zinger was resolved, I'd regress things to the beginning of the situation that was just resolved. This would generally be a very role-playing heavy encounter of some sort. The beautiful thing was that the players were always so pumped by what was about to happen that they'd bend over backwards to ensure that the situation came to be... even if they lost in the flash forward, and ended up staked out on the desert highway to die (with their weapons tantilizingly out of reach), they'd have already decided what they want to do when things caught up to the end of the zinger, and thus cooperate with the unfolding story.

When the present had caught up to the beginning of the flash forward, I'd regress things to the flashback by focusing on some element of the situation (usually the description of a physical object like a car, pile of barrels, etc) and juxtapose it with an occurence of a similar situation in the past. I.E. people hiding behind flaming barrels at the end of the present/start of the zinger, would remind them of a similar situation where a combat erupted around stacks of barrels in the pre-collapse past. The flash back sequence always ended as it began, with a juxtapostion of their past situation with an element of the start of a new zinger (flash forward).

The cycle would then repeat: Flash forward, present to start of flash forward, past digression, new flash forward, etc.

In my opinion the adventure worked because of a few things: (1) the characters were new, so we were free to create their pasts as we played, (2) they never directly met or interacted with the past/future villain... flash backs were mostly a matter of information gathering, learning about the capabilities/psychology of their future nemesis, (3) the flash back ended with the onset of the apocalypse, so it didn't seem illogical that their past endeavours remained unresolved (they had bigger things to be concerned with: like basic survival), (4) I rigidly observed the cycle of flash forward/present/flash back, so the player always knew when/where they were in the story (and when/where they were going), and most importantly (5) I had very enthusiastic players.

 

[Golem Joe]

Wow! Now these are some stories!

One of the reasons I'm thinking about doing this is because its so hard to do. Most of the non-linear adventures I've played/read handle past regression in heaps of boxed text, with little room for play. I'd like to open the formula a little.

Character death in the past: Most of the scenes I have in mind are either all roleplaying (the action is taking place in the present) or only minor combats. The adventure is to use the past to enphasize the present and I don't want to stretch the gimmick too far.

Experience Levels: PCs in the adventure will be of the same level of experience in the past as they are in the present. Mostly for the sake of convienience. While this is a one-shot adventure, the characters are fairly established. Besides, I don't see the past as being years. Maybe months or weeks, but that's it.

As you can see from the outline above, all the real roleplaying takes place in the past, while the action takes place in the present. My main concern is the PCs may feel the approach is the ultimate railroad. OTOH, if the scenes are done right, I think they can work to empahsize key points in the timeline, as opposed to the whole trek from point A to Z. Instead, these regression scenes are merely highlights of information gathering and the like.

At least, that's how it all works in my mind. Difficult as hell to pull off is right, which is why I came here with the idea.

 

[Volefisk]

As you can see from the outline above, all the real roleplaying takes place in the past, while the action takes place in the present. My main concern is the PCs may feel the approach is the ultimate railroad. OTOH, if the scenes are done right, I think they can work to empahsize key points in the timeline, as opposed to the whole trek from point A to Z. Instead, these regression scenes are merely highlights of information gathering and the like.

At least, that's how it all works in my mind. Difficult as hell to pull off is right, which is why I came here with the idea.

My fear would be that your players might think you were using the storytelling device to hold back information they would normally have access to by the 'present' point in the story. If you cannot distance the present from your flashbacks in some way (I.E. they are all directly part of the same tight story), then your players might feel deprived of information and tools they would have logically had at their disposal. Flashbacks can be informative AND interactive, but they are better suited for high-lighting themes and characterizations than generating causal plot loops. Look at Highlander: flashbacks introduced new characters in a meaningful way, and layed the groundwork for the resolution of moral and thematic quandries. They weren't used simply for the sake of novelty (look how smart we writers are!) to convolute the story.

<volefisk>

 

[Golem Joe]

Good point. So perhaps the best way to handle it is to be less ambitious in the flashback scenes?

 

[Volefisk]

Good point. So perhaps the best way to handle it is to be less ambitious in the flashback scenes?

Well, you can still be ambitious... you just need to find a way to limit or control causality between the flashbacks and present.

Someone suggested amnesia, but if you employ that your PCs are going to feel just as cheated, regardless of the scenario logic.

You just need to keep the eureka moments in the present. Give them information in flashbacks, but don't let them apply it or appreciate its value until the present. For example, while exploring a mysterious haunted castle, the players in flashback live the high-lights of overthrowing the castle's evil tyrant one year ago. At the end of the flashback sequences (just before the villain in the present is revealed), the group parts company on good terms with the NPC Bard who clued them into the evil tyrant in the first place and fought along beside them. In the present, the PCs open the door into the throne room and see their Bard friend from a year ago! Gasp! How could they have expected this?

And, depending on your group you have any number of ways to go with this. Maybe the Bard was evil all along, and used you to get rid of the last Lord of the Castle so he could take over. In hindsight, some of the things the Bard did the first time through seemed strange. Then they have a stand up fight against an enemy they are familiar with. Or, maybe by comparing similarities between the flashbacks and the present they've determined that the Castle itself is an evil that has infected the Bard, much like its former master, and they need to get the possessed Bard out alive...

As long as you keep the useful discouveries firmly rooted in the present, and find a way to distance the flashbacks from the present, the possibilities are endless...

<volefisk>

 

[Tom Cashel]

You could make it really postmodern by having the characters slowly begin to realize that they are fictional alter-egos being manipulated by other-dimensional beings who roll a lot of dice, who in turn are being manipulated by an omniscient "Master."

And of course, the other-dimensional beings are in turn being manipulated by the fictional bad guys of the scenario, who are being manipulated by "Them..."

And in the end the PCs find out that they ARE "them"...

And the whole scenario is sucked into itself. POP!

 

[333 Dave]

This thread is giving me evil DM thoughts... for some reason I want to run both a CoC and D&D game with plotlines that are eerily similar but different at the same time... and watch as my incompitant players struggle to keep the two seperate... but ultimatly fail in a crossover fit to make deities cringe in insanity...

 

[Tom Cashel]

Feeling woozy....I'm rolling for my Sanity loss right now....

 

[Skywalker]

I have used them and here is what I recommend:

1. Flashbacks work well in short term games like conventions and one offs where the flashbacks can be used in a controlled fashion for a specific purpose.

2. I tend to make flashbacks more narrative in nature than the main game. I think the present game should retain the focus and be the "reality". Flashbacks are narrative tools and "dream"like. Therefore I often drop rules and just narrate the scenes, avoiding premature death porblems.

3. I like to use flashbacks for mysteries. I once ran a game where the PCs were a rescue team. They found records and rather than simply tell the PCs what was on the records we flashed back to flashbacks of the people who needed rescuing. This slowly revealed the mystery in a fun way and also was used to creep out the players as many things that were mistakes were seen being repeated by the PCs in the present.

4. Think very hard on your flashbacks. This is related to 1 and 2 but you should have a much better idea of the start and finish of the flashback and try to write them to minimise the disturbance of unexpected actions. I often make sure the "goal" or "action" of the flashback is set from the outset i.e. the flashback starts after an incident and the PCs deal with the consequences (so they can't avoid the incident entirely.

5. Related to 3, you don't need to use the PCs past as flashbacks. I often find that playing other people in flashbacks can still be entertaining, interesting and has less continuity issues.

Flashbacks are fun. try them.