I think personally I'm a fan of the Operation Plan set up when it comes to adventures. I like a certain amount of structure, the well we're on Wariner lets find a cargo and see where that leads us has always bored me, if I wanted to balance my chequebook I'd have stayed at home. I like to have a "patron" who gives out the "mission," you need to go here here and here, and you need to x y z. How you do this is up to you but here's your scooty poof Jr., a crate full of cash and a large pair of binoculars.
I guess I'm a fan of the PoT adventure nugget, give me the world, give me the op and enough rope to hang myself.
I understand that sometimes you need to have set pieces, sometimes the guy at the podium has to die because that's the plot point that kicks off the adventure.
You know as I sit here in the dark I suppose an objective, a simple timeline, a map and a supporting cast of characters is really what I want. That gives me the who what where when and how.
Derek Stanley
Sent from my iPad
> On Mar 24, 2014, at 11:30 PM, wrote:
>
> 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 guess I'm a fan of the PoT adventure nugget, give me the world, give me the op and enough rope to hang myself.
I understand that sometimes you need to have set pieces, sometimes the guy at the podium has to die because that's the plot point that kicks off the adventure.
You know as I sit here in the dark I suppose an objective, a simple timeline, a map and a supporting cast of characters is really what I want. That gives me the who what where when and how.
Derek Stanley
Sent from my iPad
> On Mar 24, 2014, at 11:30 PM, wrote:
>
> 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
>
>