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Message: <blockquote data-quote="niklinna" data-source="post: 8656100" data-attributes="member: 71235">In normal reading of a typical novel, you start at page 1 and read everything in sequence to the last page. In a Choose Your Own Adventure book, you might begin at page 1, but instructions on that page will have you go to page 3, or page 72, or page 77 (for example). Some books have footnotes, or endnotes, which you can follow from the middle of the page to the bottom, or to the end of the book (or chapter), and back to where you were. There are more possibilities but these are perhaps most relevant to the issue at hand.The level of granularity I alluded to, in a Choose Your Own Adventure book, is typically a page or two. IN a typical novel, it's every word of every sentence! There are other levels, I could get into this more if you like.Yes, like I said, linearity could be geographical, or narrative (or combine them). If the rooms are ordered A-B-C-D, you cannot get from A to D without going through B and C, in that order. Such a setup is linear, even if you run the adventure for different groups who do different things, in that, barring things like teleportation and such of course, they will all (or each) have to progress through the rooms in linear order (in either direction), regardless of what they do in the rooms. The level of granularity is here involves both rooms and individual characters. (Some adventures do not allow groups to split up.)Yes, basically:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">For (i), the players must agree to striving for the scripted objective—and attain it. If they don't, no/failed adventure). This can include not knowing or not discovering what the objective even is, a rather severe failure.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">For (ii) , the particular actions may or may not be specified by the script (this would be a lower level of granularity than situation/objective). Torg dramatic skill resolutions, for example, script 4 skill tests that must be performed in order on successive rounds (amongst other details). In that sense, dramatic skill resolutions are linear.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">For (iii), very much so, the GM must agree not to go off-script and allow options the script does not provide for. If the GM does go off-script, the adventure may become branched or nonlinear in some way. Or, as with the Torg dramatic skill resolution, the options available to the players become much broader. And as I noted, I've played in several published Torg adventures where, for example, no matter what we players did, we could not escape capture, or capture the villain—even if we tried mightily! Since the GM didn't want to waste time, he got the point of just letting us know the script so we could move right on to the next scene.</li> </ul>This all presumes a fixed script (or geography), of course—which needn't have been created beforehand. It's possible to improv a rigidly linear set of situations, too.I'll point out once again that "linear" needn't apply to an entire adventure, from beginning to end, any portion of an adventure could be linear. But the longer a linear sequence is, the more noticeable the linearity will be. Whether that is an issue for the participants is more about the participants.Absolutely possible. The Alexandrian even has some articles about doing that (with examples). I could dig them up if you like.They are dependent on the GM to tell them. Published Torg Eternity adventures often begin with the scene courageously framed as a briefing at secret headquarters, or at the dropoff point for the mission, or whatever, and the GM fills the players in on the situation. Likewise, typically when the players satisfy the termination conditions for the scene, Torg Eternity adventures courageously move on to frame the next scene.The GM imposes the cannot. If they don't, the adventure might become nonlinear. As long as the GM is ready to handle that, of course, it isn't a problem! but doing so might involve a lot of work.Linearity is a form of restriction, so yes, the cannot is the crux of the matter. It comes from whoever scripted/architected the situations, with the GM enforcing the restrictions. Those may be the same person, of course.</blockquote>

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