TNEers--
I would like to open a discussion to hear your thoughts. I will not speak
on this topic while you guys share, so this will be your big chance to not
listen to me drone.
(Actually, since I'll be finishing up the couple other questions in my
backlog, I will be droning, but this will give you something to do while I
drone about something else.)
Question:
What are your thoughts about published adventures and they way they are
structured. Specifically Traveller, but could be others.
I always had problems with out-of-house adventures because most of them
just led the players around by the nose to see a thing happen, then led
them to see another thing happen, and so on.
I thought that DGP's famous "cinematic nuggets" were really just the same
premise, just flashed up a little. Still lots of predefined set-piece
scenes to arrive at and watch play out, and steps to get there.
The problem was that I found a hard time writing an adventure that
reflected the way I ref. My approach was that I knew everything about my
universe, certainly the area they were in, so I just gave them a problem
and let them come at it any way they wanted. There were no predefined
steps, paths they had to take, etc. It makes no sense to write an
adventure describing what I do: "Dear Ref: Know everything, and turn the
PCs lose. Enjoy your adventure!"
Obviously you have to give them some structure and steps to work with,
that's why they buy an adventure. What for you has been a good balance
between structure and freedom of story-telling in published adventures
you've seen?
Thanks,
dave
I would like to open a discussion to hear your thoughts. I will not speak
on this topic while you guys share, so this will be your big chance to not
listen to me drone.
(Actually, since I'll be finishing up the couple other questions in my
backlog, I will be droning, but this will give you something to do while I
drone about something else.)
Question:
What are your thoughts about published adventures and they way they are
structured. Specifically Traveller, but could be others.
I always had problems with out-of-house adventures because most of them
just led the players around by the nose to see a thing happen, then led
them to see another thing happen, and so on.
I thought that DGP's famous "cinematic nuggets" were really just the same
premise, just flashed up a little. Still lots of predefined set-piece
scenes to arrive at and watch play out, and steps to get there.
The problem was that I found a hard time writing an adventure that
reflected the way I ref. My approach was that I knew everything about my
universe, certainly the area they were in, so I just gave them a problem
and let them come at it any way they wanted. There were no predefined
steps, paths they had to take, etc. It makes no sense to write an
adventure describing what I do: "Dear Ref: Know everything, and turn the
PCs lose. Enjoy your adventure!"
Obviously you have to give them some structure and steps to work with,
that's why they buy an adventure. What for you has been a good balance
between structure and freedom of story-telling in published adventures
you've seen?
Thanks,
dave