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<blockquote data-quote="coyote6" data-source="post: 5178577" data-attributes="member: 1225">I disagree, with respect to RPGs. For me, a story arc in an RPG campaign might be &quot;Lelenia discovers the truth about her heritage&quot; or &quot;Mel deals with her father's murderer.&quot; In the former case, I did know the end point, as I knew what Lelenia's heritage was; I didn't know most of the middle, as that was highly dependent on the PCs' actions. I had some possibilities in mind, some of which worked their way into the action, some of which didn't. In the latter case, I had no idea how it would end, as I had no idea what the player or PC would choose to do upon learning her mother was secretly a crazed nobility-and-fame-hungry, Grazzt-worshipping witch. (I didn't even know if she'd find that out, really. I think they were a couple more failed saves vs. charm effects from a Total Party Charm, anyways. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> )Indeed, having watched all of the X-Files, I am confident that &quot;story arc&quot; doesn't necessarily equate to &quot;targeted end point&quot; in television writing, either. You might start an arc, with no end in mind, just to see where it goes. You might start an arc with an end in mind, and have it change as things go along. Because, as you point out, you can't perfectly predict an RPG session; stuff happens. But stuff happens in TV, movies, and writing, too, so it isn't totally dissimilar.But some games do have known desired conclusions; if the premise of an RPG campaign is that the PCs are trying to overthrow the Evil Tyrant and Restore Liberty and Justice to the People, then there is a desired conclusion -- victory over ET, and RLJP. Whether or not that desire is met is a question, and how it goes down is another (and perhaps the most interesting).So while it might not be a useful device for your gameplay, but I don't think it's true for all games, everywhere.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="coyote6, post: 5178577, member: 1225"] I disagree, with respect to RPGs. For me, a story arc in an RPG campaign might be "Lelenia discovers the truth about her heritage" or "Mel deals with her father's murderer." In the former case, I did know the end point, as I knew what Lelenia's heritage was; I didn't know most of the middle, as that was highly dependent on the PCs' actions. I had some possibilities in mind, some of which worked their way into the action, some of which didn't. In the latter case, I had no idea how it would end, as I had no idea what the player or PC would choose to do upon learning her mother was secretly a crazed nobility-and-fame-hungry, Grazzt-worshipping witch. (I didn't even know if she'd find that out, really. I think they were a couple more failed saves vs. charm effects from a Total Party Charm, anyways. :) ) Indeed, having watched all of the X-Files, I am confident that "story arc" doesn't necessarily equate to "targeted end point" in television writing, either. You might start an arc, with no end in mind, just to see where it goes. You might start an arc with an end in mind, and have it change as things go along. Because, as you point out, you can't perfectly predict an RPG session; stuff happens. But stuff happens in TV, movies, and writing, too, so it isn't totally dissimilar. But some games do have known desired conclusions; if the premise of an RPG campaign is that the PCs are trying to overthrow the Evil Tyrant and Restore Liberty and Justice to the People, then there is a desired conclusion -- victory over ET, and RLJP. Whether or not that desire is met is a question, and [I]how[/I] it goes down is another (and perhaps the most interesting). So while it might not be a useful device for your gameplay, but I don't think it's true for all games, everywhere. [/QUOTE]

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