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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wraith Form" data-source="post: 1224480" data-attributes="member: 10789">OK, I have an additional question (and I'm sorry if it takes this thread in a different direction), but i've had it on my mind for a while and need to ask.    Is there a way to design a campaign where "the end is declared from the beginning" without railroading the PCs? Especially with the enjoyable "make it up as you go along" style that's been advocated in this thread?    Is there a way to have, for example, a prophecy that is announced early on in the campaign that ends up being fulfilled by the end of the campaign without railroading the PCs, and without compromising the prophecy or making it so vague/over-generalized that it can't help but happen?  I would love to have a Nostrodomus-type in my campaign, foretelling some great and terrible event on the horizon, and me (as DM) dropping hints/foreshadowing all over the place during the course of the campaign.  At the end, the players discover that the prophecy is true & has come to pass, no matter what they did--or didn't--do to stop it.  (This could also be applicable to time travel campaigns, where events from the past are not "alterable" even if the PCs travel back in time to change them.)    For example, an Agatha Christie mystery novel would never work in a D&D game because it would require too much railroading of the PCs to pull off successfully, especially one with a surprise or twist ending. Alfred Hitchcock films/stories would translate poorly for similar reasons.    I look at the X-Files as a prime example of "writing as you go along" and how it really bit the audience in the butt at the end of the series. It started off well, with a fairly clear direction that the conspiracy was going in. By the 4th season, however, you began to see big signs that the writers had NO IDEA where Chris Carter was going (if even *he* knew where he was going)! Finally, by the 8th-9th season, it was a terrible mess....the actors were trying to get out, the audience didn't understand what the hell was going on with all the conspiracies, and Chris Carter ended up with egg on his face (IMO) because the writing was unmanageable and out of control.      How does one avoid the tangled mess of making the story up on the fly, yet keep The End in mind for the course of an entire campaign without railroading the PCs? Is it possible? Or is it better to let the PCs determine the end of the story and just act/react based off them?</blockquote>

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