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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8656977" data-attributes="member: 42582">I think there are lot of published adventures that would be improved by this - just hard frame, rather than pretend that the outcomes of action resolution are going to matter and then encourage the GM to contrive the background fiction and/or fudge results so as to get the mandated outcome.I think what you call the higher scene-level linearity is utterly transparent in the play of The Green Knight. At the end of an encounter, the GM goes through the process of &quot;judgement&quot;, that is, noting accruals of Dishonour and also sheddings of Dishonour based on what the PCs did in the encounter. Then, once that's done, and once the players have a chance to decide whether or not one of the PCs undergoes &quot;atonement&quot; (other PCs can accrue 3 Dishonour to allow one PC to shed 1 Dishonour), the GM introduces the next scene.I see &quot;railroad&quot; as a different kettle of fish altogether! As I said, I regard node-based design as a way of designing railroads, but I doubt that anyone would call it &quot;linear&quot;.Conversely, The Green Knight is (it seems) linear but I don't see any sense in which it's a railroad. There are no dependencies between scenes, and therefore each scene can resolve however it resolves, with no need to manipulate backstory or fudge results or puts limits around permissible action declarations.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8656977, member: 42582"] I think there are lot of published adventures that would be improved by this - just hard frame, rather than pretend that the outcomes of action resolution are going to matter and then encourage the GM to contrive the background fiction and/or fudge results so as to get the mandated outcome. I think what you call the higher scene-level linearity is utterly transparent in the play of The Green Knight. At the end of an encounter, the GM goes through the process of "judgement", that is, noting accruals of Dishonour and also sheddings of Dishonour based on what the PCs did in the encounter. Then, once that's done, and once the players have a chance to decide whether or not one of the PCs undergoes "atonement" (other PCs can accrue 3 Dishonour to allow one PC to shed 1 Dishonour), the GM introduces the next scene. I see "railroad" as a different kettle of fish altogether! As I said, I regard node-based design as a way of designing railroads, but I doubt that anyone would call it "linear". Conversely, The Green Knight is (it seems) linear but I don't see any sense in which it's a railroad. There are no dependencies between scenes, and therefore each scene can resolve however it resolves, with no need to manipulate backstory or fudge results or puts limits around permissible action declarations. [/QUOTE]

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