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<blockquote data-quote="Darth Solo" data-source="post: 7700937" data-attributes="member: 6791759">Role-playing is far more unpredictable than writing a story. The article mentions story/narrative arcs, where there is an established beginning. middle, and end. Rpg adventurers don't work that way. You can run ten different groups through the same module and where each group experiences their &quot;middle&quot; and &quot;end&quot; can be different. This is fully realized in events we like to call &quot;TPKs&quot;, where the party's &quot;middle of the arc&quot; encounter turns into an ending. Writers can protect their characters with &quot;plot armor&quot;, so Indiana Jones doesn't get bitten to death by snakes. &quot;Jaws&quot; doesn't eat Brody and Hooper. Snails doesn't get a Sneak Attack crit that kills Damodar. Writers have a formula that sets events up for dramatic effect. Not so at the table. Any given session is largely &quot;anything goes&quot;. Sure a GM could write-up an adventure using an arc or multiple arcs, but it is the players who ultimately decide what happens and when. I only write this because I have tried the &quot;arc&quot; approach and ended up (1) railroading player decisions (2) disgruntled when players unknowingly changed my pre-designed narrative. In my experience, rpg adventures should be encounter-based: the GM gives them scenes, NPCs and/or monsters, and situations. Let the players decide everything else. Great writing article though <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=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Darth Solo, post: 7700937, member: 6791759"] Role-playing is far more unpredictable than writing a story. The article mentions story/narrative arcs, where there is an established beginning. middle, and end. Rpg adventurers don't work that way. You can run ten different groups through the same module and where each group experiences their "middle" and "end" can be different. This is fully realized in events we like to call "TPKs", where the party's "middle of the arc" encounter turns into an ending. Writers can protect their characters with "plot armor", so Indiana Jones doesn't get bitten to death by snakes. "Jaws" doesn't eat Brody and Hooper. Snails doesn't get a Sneak Attack crit that kills Damodar. Writers have a formula that sets events up for dramatic effect. Not so at the table. Any given session is largely "anything goes". Sure a GM could write-up an adventure using an arc or multiple arcs, but it is the players who ultimately decide what happens and when. I only write this because I have tried the "arc" approach and ended up (1) railroading player decisions (2) disgruntled when players unknowingly changed my pre-designed narrative. In my experience, rpg adventures should be encounter-based: the GM gives them scenes, NPCs and/or monsters, and situations. Let the players decide everything else. Great writing article though :) [/QUOTE]

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