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Worlds of Design: The Tyranny and Freedom of Player Agency
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<blockquote data-quote="Jay Verkuilen" data-source="post: 7789832" data-attributes="member: 6873517"><p>For some players more choices that "left or right down the hallway" is about as much as they can/want to handle. Three or four plot hooks is too much for them. I've seen choice cycling, where they start looking at option A, then B, then C, then back to A. This can happen for a variety of reasons, not wanting to be the guy/gal who makes the choice and offends the other players being one, but there are others. For a group like this, choices need to be pretty clear and laid out, for instance, A -> B or C (choose which order to do) -> D. </p><p></p><p>I've come to make use of this kind of structure in adventure designs a lot. I'll start in one area, say A, with the eventual goal to get to a particular other area, say G, but give a choice among different paths. It's kind of a "subway map" style dungeon.</p><p></p><p>A: Starting point</p><p>B: Plant monsters in a chasm</p><p>C: Ghouls</p><p>D: Troll</p><p>E: Phase spiders</p><p>F: Attack by soldiers of their main adversaries</p><p>G: Goal</p><p></p><p>Valid paths:</p><p></p><p>A -> C -> F -> G</p><p>A -> D -> F -> G </p><p>A -> B -> E -> G </p><p>etc. </p><p></p><p>I just chart these out on a piece of paper and budget XP accordingly so they're suitably beat up by the time they get to G, though it depends on the choices they made. This allows for player agency, but still gives me the DM enough structure to be well-prepared. I think it also helps to let exploration- or skill-oriented characters really benefit the group by letting the PCs make good choices or even bypass some of the encounters. Too often in a very narratively structured game they don't really get a chance to be useful. </p><p></p><p>Of course, the same kind of structure can be used for adventure design. Yeah, the total hex crawl or else grognard will hate this as still not providing enough player agency, but at some point I just stop listening to them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jay Verkuilen, post: 7789832, member: 6873517"] For some players more choices that "left or right down the hallway" is about as much as they can/want to handle. Three or four plot hooks is too much for them. I've seen choice cycling, where they start looking at option A, then B, then C, then back to A. This can happen for a variety of reasons, not wanting to be the guy/gal who makes the choice and offends the other players being one, but there are others. For a group like this, choices need to be pretty clear and laid out, for instance, A -> B or C (choose which order to do) -> D. I've come to make use of this kind of structure in adventure designs a lot. I'll start in one area, say A, with the eventual goal to get to a particular other area, say G, but give a choice among different paths. It's kind of a "subway map" style dungeon. A: Starting point B: Plant monsters in a chasm C: Ghouls D: Troll E: Phase spiders F: Attack by soldiers of their main adversaries G: Goal Valid paths: A -> C -> F -> G A -> D -> F -> G A -> B -> E -> G etc. I just chart these out on a piece of paper and budget XP accordingly so they're suitably beat up by the time they get to G, though it depends on the choices they made. This allows for player agency, but still gives me the DM enough structure to be well-prepared. I think it also helps to let exploration- or skill-oriented characters really benefit the group by letting the PCs make good choices or even bypass some of the encounters. Too often in a very narratively structured game they don't really get a chance to be useful. Of course, the same kind of structure can be used for adventure design. Yeah, the total hex crawl or else grognard will hate this as still not providing enough player agency, but at some point I just stop listening to them. [/QUOTE]
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