Fnordcon AARs?

[larsdangly]

My group is pretty experienced and understands both the game and the campaign setting well, and as a result I find I don't really need to plan what is likely to happen in an upcoming session, provided the local parts of the setting are sufficiently filled in. So, my prep time is mostly spent chipping away at 'background' setting work, like making notes re. NPCs or monsters, adding to locations that get re-visited fairly often, etc.

[phiwum]

Originally Posted by Shadekeep

When I write adventures it's with the idea of making them "scenarios" rather than "scripts". I want the players to have latitude in progressing and resolving the situation, and often there is no single "right" outcome. Whenever possible I include little events and hooks that the GM and players could take in a wholly new direction unexplored by the adventure. Allowing for organic roleplay is the key to a rewarding and enjoyable session.

Absolutely. But it's difficult enough to write preprogrammed adventures. In those, the latitude of choices for the player is bound to be limited or the script will grow (literally) exponentially.

[philreed]

NOTE: Please do not use trademarked titles to describe solitaire, programmed adventures. I have deleted a comment that I spotted that made this exact mistake.

[phiwum]

Quoted deleted comment. Will wait for Shadekeep's repost.

[GlennDoren]

Originally Posted by philreed

NOTE: Please do not use trademarked titles to describe solitaire, programmed adventures. I have deleted a comment that I spotted that made this exact mistake.

I edit'd my post to eliminate other games mentioned (which is a bummer, as they were mentioned to simply help give examples for discussion, but so be it...)

[Shadekeep]

Well heck, I done forgot what exactly I wrote. The gist of it was that adventures don't have to be linear paragraph affairs, but can use a more dynamic encounter-based system. For example, an approach I like and have used is a table of potential encounters based on terrain types (forest, mountain, desert, etc).

Approaches like this give the adventure a more dynamic feel and potentially higher replay factor. Probably the largest downside is that such adventures have less of a narrative plot than a paragraph adventure does, since you can't count on the players having had certain encounters, or the sequence in which they had them.

Not saying one is right or better than the other. Both styles have their uses, and it's down to what you are trying to achieve with the adventure.

[phiwum]

You also mentioned you're working on one at present. I'm looking forward to it.

[ParadoxGames]

The nice thing about programmed adventures is that you can play without a GM.