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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Halivar" data-source="post: 6232679" data-attributes="member: 9327">Well, there is apparently one are where tastes do not differ all that much: everyone in this thread so far appreciates non-linearity in their adventures. A Jaquayization, if you will (never heard that term before this thread), of not just the dungeon, but the story, too. This has gotten me thinking about my own home adventure design.Quick almost-segue to help me arrange my further thoughts:Orson Scott Card suggests that speculative fiction (a broad umbrella that I believe very much applies to RPG's) can be divided into event stories, milieu stories, and character stories. The linear adventure represents an event story. This happens, then that happens, and so on and so forth. The milieu story often doesn't really care about the events, per se, but only insofar as they allow you to dwell in the milieu (Tolkien was a milieu writer by OSC's paradigm). Character stories are where the PC's and NPC's are the star of the show; the macguffin is merely a catalyst for character interaction. The story concludes with a change in the disposition of character relationships.The reason I bring this up is that I, as a DM, write purely event story adventures. I come up with the overall event and work from there ("an evil wizard is taking over the town so it can be used as a waystation for the bandit king"). Then I plug NPC's into the shaped holes in the story. Non-linearity is introduced by solely via improvisation and reactive DM'ing.I'm going to experiment with some character-based adventure design. Instead of writing "an evil wizard is taking over the town so it can be used as a waystation for the bandit king", for instance, write down the wizard, his history, his goals, his fears, his ticks. Then do the same for the bandit king. And the mayor of the town. And the comely but broken-by-life tavern wench looking for a way out. Make a web of characters, each one as compelling as possible, defining their relationships, and then, only then, decide if the wizard would really like working with a bandit king, after all. Let the events write themselves.Sorry if this is all very off-topic to my original question, but you guys are inspiring me. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />EDIT: and I forgot to even tie in the point of this post: I think this could help add player options with regards to where to take things. Players worry about story, and the DM just worries about getting the people right.</blockquote>

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