Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paul Farquhar" data-source="post: 9287180" data-attributes="member: 6906155">Lets try and discuss the specific issues raised now (+), shall we, with a bit of The Farquian (if my head will fit through the door)?[Initial assumption: we are talking about traditional narrative gaming, not sandboxes or Story Now. Don't ask me about Story Now, I know nothing]On writing plot:You tend to see a fair bit of this in WotC adventures, and usually it's bad. However, there are occasions when the Adventure Path format requires it. That is, in the transition between chapters. If we consider each individual chapter is written as a situation (not always true, but it usually should be), then the next chapter is a new situation, with a certain start position (i.e. node). To get from the end of one chapter to the beginning of the next there is usually written down plot. I sometimes do this myself. For example, in the adventure I mentioned earlier, the previous adventure ended with them fleeing the ghost pirate ship (Pietra van Riese) aboard their submarine, heading into the mist, and arriving at the riverside dig site. This was basically a cut scene with nothing mechanical for the players to do. I.e, writing plot. Now one of the things I can do, because I'm basically only prepping one chapter in advance, rather than eight or so, is I can have alternative end and start points (or completely different chapters sometimes) depending on the players' actions. On this occasion, I wrote the previous adventure ending two ways, one where they handed over the McGuffin to Pietra the ghost pirate captain, and another where they stole it. It turned out the PCs were less honest than the ghost pirate. You see a lot of this kind of thing in BG3.On writing situations:This too can have drawbacks, particularly if the intention is that someone else will run the adventure. It can be unclear to the DM as to how the author intended things to progress. Again, you sometimes see this in WotC adventures. This is a reason for making the clues that lead onto the next Chapter/node clear and obvious. Not so much for the benefit of the players, but for the DM who will end up running the adventure. The DM reads the obvious clue and therefore knows how the author intends things to progress.</blockquote>

Verification