Tournament Adventures: Always Linear?

[Delta]

Are tournament adventures always strictly linear (like the ones I've seen)? Or has anyone played or written one with multiple paths or branches?

 

[Lalato]

Not all of them are linear, but the vast majority are. It's really tough to write a non-linear one-shot.

--sam

 

[Glyfair]

Are tournament adventures always strictly linear (like the ones I've seen)? Or has anyone played or written one with multiple paths or branches?

Most that are done for large numbers of tables are linear or nearly linear (with very few branches). It's very hard to handle the time management issues within tournament time slots with non-linear adventures.

I have run tournament adventures that weren't linear, but that was because I was the only one running them and I had the skeleton down and could adjust events based on time. These were mostly James Bond adventures at Origins & Atlanticon where investigation played a significant role.

There are a few ways, though, you might be able to do it over a large number of tables. You could havea time-limit tied somehow to real time in the adventure, which will create reasonable end-time. You could also have a forking adventure where the players effectively choose their ending and can't go back to their old path. However, this would require a lot of work, because you are effectively designing a new adventure for each fork you create.

 

[Delta]

The other thing I thought of is: there's a single endpoint, but players must choose from path A, B, or C (each with ~3 or so encounter points) to get there. Wondering if anybody had seen that in a tournament, or if it's verboten for some reason.

 

[Glyfair]

The other thing I thought of is: there's a single endpoint, but players must choose from path A, B, or C (each with ~3 or so encounter points) to get there. Wondering if anybody had seen that in a tournament, or if it's verboten for some reason.

It's not forbidden, but it's a lot of extra work and few are willing to do that much work (and put that much extra work on their GMs). If you assume the choice between the three paths is toward the beginning of the adventure then each path should be as long as an standard tournament adventure. So, the designer has to design 3 times as much and the DMs have to familiarize themselves with 3 times as much adventure.

 

[Roger]

Are tournament adventures always strictly linear (like the ones I've seen)?

Given that in a tournament structure, the player parties are trying to compete against other parties, I'd be surprised if there was much deviation from a linear structure. It would make the scoring quite a bit trickier.


Cheers,
Roger

 

[Wik]

Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is an older (1e) adventure that isn't entirely linear. There are a lot of side-rooms that are better off ignored.

 

[delericho]

Tournament adventures are one of the few times when railroading and linear plots are not only not a bad thing, but generally considered a good thing. As noted above, adding non-linear elements means more work for the designer and more work for the DM, for a net gain of no extra fun for the players.

And, in fact, if the game is too open, it's entirely likely that the PCs may spend too much of the allotted four hours going around in circles, and not get anywhere in the plot. That's no big deal in a campaign, where you can adjurn until next week, but it's death to a tournament adventure.

 

[Silver Moon]

The best tournament modules I ever played in were non-linear, although I will mention that those were played back in the early-to-mid 1990's. Not sure about the current crop of modules out there.

 

[Glyfair]

The best tournament modules I ever played in were non-linear, although I will mention that those were played back in the early-to-mid 1990's.

And which ones were these? About how many tables were running in the adventure? Who designed it (not necessarily specifically, for example "WotC" would be a legitimate answer)?