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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7379086" data-attributes="member: 82106">I would analyze B2 as mostly inappropriate for Story Now for several critical reasons:1) The entire adventure at the Caves of Chaos, while not scripted in the sense that it must be undertaken in a strictly linear fashion, is a FIXED set of scenes. If these scenes address character needs and player agenda it by pure chance. 2) The keep itself is, again, not particularly well-adapted to Story Now. It will work as a backdrop to various scenes, but there's nothing especially compelling about it. The Evil Cleric exists as-is. You can confront him, or not, and he will only address player's interests haphazardly at best. There are other characters who are basically either quest-givers or resource dispensers, or both. These characters are mostly peripheral, they could be co-opted into playing a part in the character's story, but nothing about them is ESPECIALLY compelling in this regard, any collection of similar NPCs would do as well. 3) The general premise, the stronghold on the edge of civilization, may or may not be a suitable setting in which to play out the character's story, but we cannot say unless we know what that story is.In terms of what [MENTION=6778044]Ilbranteloth[/MENTION] has to say about it specifically:OK, the premise is the keep on the edge of civilization. What does this say about civilization? What does it say about wilderness? About their relationship, and that of people, PCs particularly, to either of those things? Establishment of a Fighter, wizard, cleric, and thief: These are generic characters built to classes which are basic archetypes. What is unique about these guys and what compels them? B/X and 1e both ASSUME fighters want to build keeps, wizards want/need components etc, rogues want riches, and clerics want to build temples. What is actually pushing these guys? Does the fighter wish to establish a keep because his family honor is at stake after they lost their holding somewhere else? Is the wizard attempting to achieve some specific magical effect? Why? What is the basis of the cleric's friendship with the fighter? Are they related, old friends, lovers?! What deity does this cleric even serve? Why is the rogue out here on the edge of civilization instead of cutting fat purses in some market town? How did he become friends with a fighter? I mean, Ilbranteloth has made a START, but we still lack specific character motives and goals that are less nebulous than 'be an adventurer' for any of them. This would be a weak start for Story Now play.The statement about "nothing indicates any issue with using pre-authored material" is a head scratcher. Story Now doesn't fuel itself on pre-authored material. The basic premise is to 'see what happens in play' and 'follow the story'. GM framing of scenes in response to player inputs is DIRECTLY antithetical to pre-authoring! I see nothing wrong with utilizing an existing 'library' of NPCs and similar elements to draw from as you frame scenes (much like in the MSRP example that you gave up thread). Simply feeding the PCs into a pre-generated scenario where we already know what challenges they will face, isn't congruent with Eero's goals or process at all. Chapter #1 The Keep. Again, only what is pre-authored is here. Only the fact that the PCs are so thinly drawn that they are just basically blank slate generic adventurers without any real agenda prevents this from explicitly failing to work right here! Chapter #2 The Wilderness. Why do they want to find these caves at all? Do the caves address the fighter's wish to build a keep? Why would he build it within 2 miles of KotB? Why not go out and find some land which is NOT monster-infested? The cleric and the thief seem to be basically along for the ride with the fighter, though perhaps the thief will consider treasure to be a draw. This is the thinnest of motives, just basic greed. The wizard may have the most compelling reason to go to the caves, they may contain magic, but AFAIK nothing so far has hinted that this is so. He is just as likely to look elsewhere.Chapter #3 The Caves of Chaos. This is basically already addressed in #2 above, we have no really compelling motive driving the PCs to find or enter the caves, beyond greed. The fighter might want cash to build with, the cleric might support that as his 'side kick', and the thief might, just on general 'thief principles'. The wizard likewise. So, we have a 'reason', but it is utterly generic, the same reason every other classic D&D party ever entered a dungeon for, loot. Chapter #4 more of the same... There's nothing compelling here because there's no substance to the character's motives. Indeed, Ilbraneloth calls it 'not the most compelling story'. Well, even most Story Now isn't 'most compelling', its just regular folks playing games, but nothing here seems even dramatic! Indeed, it is all exactly 'quite possible with the adventure as written'. In other words, the author of B2 created all the material that is input to the narrative, and the players basically just picked some of it in an order determined by their choices. Indeed, process-wise, is this really different from a choose-your-own-adventure book? A little, the players have more agency than making a binary choice here and there. Still, its only a small step removed since the actual fiction which was revealed was all pre-generated without regard to any input the players had beyond rolls of dice in combat. As for the rest, there's no Story Now approach to using the caves, except perhaps specific ones that happen to correspond with PC motives. Even the vague motives of the PCs described don't engage with all the caves.</blockquote>

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