Core Game-Mastery Advice

A curated collection of articles about how to be a good Game-Master from a variety of online sources.

Date: 2019-02-01
Release State: Alpha 1.1

This document is a work in progress, and will be filled in and polished over time, and articles may be removed if they are
deemed not essential or a better replacement has been found.
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Part 1: The Plotted Approach 51

Table of Contents
DMing Basics 3 Part 2: Choose Your Own Adventure 52

Don’t Prep Plots 3 Part 3: Inverting the Three Clue Rule 53

Part 1: Don’t Prep Plots 3 Part 4: Sample Scenario 54

Part 2: Tools, Not Contingencies 7 Part 5: Plot vs. Node 56

Part 3: Principles of RPG Villainy 10 Part 6: Alternative Node Design 57

Part 4: Three Point Plotting 13 Part 7: More Alternative Node Designs 59

Fronts: World Driven Adventures 15 Part 8: Freeform Design in the Cloud 60

Part 1: Fronts in D&D 15 Part 9: Types of Nodes 61

Part 2: Looking Back on Fronts 16 Advanced Node Based Design 62

Part 3: Fronts of SKT 18 Part 1: Moving Between Nodes 62

Mission Details: The Adventure Funnel 18 Part 2: Node Navigation 64

AdventureHooks 21 Part 3: Organization 66

Part 1: Adventure Hooks 21 Part 4: The Second Track 68

Part 2: Sharing Secrets 22 Part 5: The Two Prongs of Mystery Design 68

Part 3: The Three Clue Rule 24 Part 6: Node-Based Dungeons 69

Miscellaneous Tips 30 Published Adventures & Settings 71

Magic Number Seven 30 Strip-Mining Adventure Modules 71

Pacing 31 Running a Sandbox 75

Part 1: The Art of Pacing 31 Juggling Scenario Hooks in a Sandbox 75

Part 2: Scene-Framing 34 The Urban Sandbox 76

Part 3: Filling the Frame 37 How I Run Sandboxes in the City 76

Addendum: How NOT to Frame a Scene 39 Part I: The Setup 76

Part 4: Closing the Frame 40 Part II: In Play 77

Part 5: Advanced Techniques 41 Part III: Appendix N 78

Part 6: More Advanced Techniques 44 Dungeon Design 80

Film Banging: Agendas and Bangs from Part 1: Jaquaying the Dungeon 80
Non-RPG Media 46
Part 2: The Jaquays Techniques 80
The Art of Pacing: Prepping Bangs 47
Part 3: The Philosophy of Jaquaying 80
The Art of Pacing: Running Awesome Scenes 50
Part 4: Jaquaying the Keep on the Shadowfell 80
Scenario Design 51
Part 5: Jaquaying for Fun and Profit 80
Node Based Design 51

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Addendum: Dungeon Level Connections 80

Addendum: Jaquaying on the Small Scale 80

How ‘BossKeys’ Dungeon Graphs Work 80

The Megadungeon 84

The Hexcrawl 84

5th Edition Tips 85

Pathfinder 1e / 3.x Tips 86

Revisiting Encounter Design 86

Random GM Tip: How to Use Published 3rd Edition

Modules 86

Consider For Later: 87

Gamemastery 101 87

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the derelict. Following a clue given by the survivor of the

DMing Basics derelict, they will climb Mt. Tharsis and reach the Temple
of Olympus. They can then wander around the temple
Don’t Prep Plots asking questions. This will accomplish nothing, but when
Part 1: Don’t Prep Plots they reach the central sanctuary of the temple the
March 23rd, 2009 villains will attempt to assassinate them. The
assassination attempt goes awry, and the magical idol at
If you’re GMing a roleplaying game, you should never
the center of the temple is destroyed. Unfortuntely, this
prep a plot.
idol is the only thing holding the temple to the side of the
Everyone’s tastes are different. These matters are mountain — without it the entire temple begins sliding
subjective. What works for one person won’t necessarily down the mountain as the battle continues to rage
work for another. Yada, yada, yada. between the PCs and villains!”

But, seriously, don’t prep plots. (This is derived from an actual, published adventure.
Names and milieu have been changed to protect the
First, a definition of terms: A plot is the sequence of innocent. Bonus points to anyone who can correctly
events in a story. identify the original source.)

And the problem with trying to prep a plot for an RPG is A situation, on the other hand, looks like this: “The
that you’re attempting to pre-determine events that have villains have escaped on two ships heading towards
not yet happened. Your gaming session is not a story — Tarsis. One of the villains transforms during the voyage
it is a happening. It is something about which stories can into a terrible monster and kills the crew, leaving the ship
be told, but in the genesis of the moment it is not a tale floating as a derelict outside the coastal waters of
being told. It is a fact that is transpiring. Tharsis. At such-and-such a time, the ship will be
spotted by the Tharsis navy. The other villains have
PREPPING WITHOUT PLOTS reached the Temple of Olympus atop Mt. Tharsis and
Don’t prep plots, prep situations. assumed cover identities.”

What’s the difference? THE DIRTY SECRET

Many people are intimidated by the idea of prepping
A plot is a sequence of events: A happens, then B
without a plot. It seems like a lot of work. If the players
happens, then C happens. (In more complicated forms,
can do anything, how are you supposed to cope with
the sequence of events might fork like a Choose Your
that?
Own Adventure book, but the principle remains the
same.) The dirty secret, though, is that it’s actually a lot more
difficult to prep plots than situations.
A situation, on the other hand, is merely a set of
circumstances. The events that happen as a result of To understand why, let’s take a closer look at our
that situation will depend on the actions the PCs take. example of a plotted adventure. It’s a tightly-knit
sequence of events that, when broken down, looks like
For example, a plot might look like this: “Pursuing the
this:
villains who escaped during last week’s session, the PCs
will get on a ship bound for the port city of Tharsis. On 1. The PCs pursue the villains. (What if they don’t?)
their voyage they will spot a derelict. They will board the 2. The PCs have to choose to follow them by ship.
derelict and discover that one of the villains has (What if they decide to ride down the coast? Or
transformed into a monster and killed the entire crew… teleport?)
except for one lone survivor. They will fight the monster 3. The PCs have to spot the derelict. (What if they roll
and rescue the survivor. While they’re fighting the poorly on their Perception check?)
monster, the derelict will have floated into the territorial 4. The PCs have to board the derelict. (What if they just
waters of Tharsis. They will be intercepted by a fleet of sail past it?)
Tharsian ships. Once their tale is told, they will be 5. The PCs have to rescue the survivor. (What if they
greeted in Tharsis as heroes for their daring rescue of fail? Or choose to flee before realizing the survivor is

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there?) then requiring them to follow that invisible path.

6. The PCs have to question the survivor. (What if they
decide not to pressure an injured man?) ROBUST DESIGN
7. The PCs have to go to the central sanctuary of the The advantage of situation-based prep is that it’s robust.
temple. Surprisingly, however, that robustness doesn’t require a
8. The assassination attempt on the PCs has to play out lot of extra work. In fact, as we’ve shown, it usually
in a very specific way. requires a lot less work. Here are a few things to
consider while doing situation-based prep.
What you’re looking at is a chain of potential points of
failure. Each of these points is heavily designed with a THREE CLUE RULE: I’ve already devoted a lengthy
specific and expected outcome… and if that outcome essay to the Three Clue Rule. Basically, the Three Clue
doesn’t happen the GM is left to railroad the players Rule states: For any conclusion you want the PCs to
back onto the tracks he’s laid out. make, include at least three clues.

By contrast, let’s look at what we need to design this The theory is that, even if the players miss two of the
same adventure as a situation: clues, you’ve got pretty great odds that they’ll find the
third and figure things out.
1. The PCs have to pursue the villains. (This is the hook
into the entire scenario. It’s a potential failure point The Three Clue Rule can also be applied to adventure
shared by all scenarios. If the PCs aren’t interested in design in general: For any given problem in an
going to the red dragon’s lair, it doesn’t matter how adventure, you should always prep at least one solution
you prep the lair.) and remain open to any potential solutions your players
2. You need to design the city of Tharsis. (Where is it? may devise. But for any chokepoint problem (by which I
What’s it like? What can the PCs do there? Et mean “a problem which must be overcome in order for
cetera.) the adventure to continue”), try to include three possible
3. You need to design the derelict ship. routes to success.
4. You need to design the Temple of Olympus.
That may sound like a lot of work, but these distinct
5. You need to stat up the Tharsis navy, the villains, and
paths don’t need to be particularly convuluted. (In fact,
(possibly) the survivor.
they shouldn’t be.) For example, a problem might be
6. There needs to be a way for the PCs to know the
“Mickey Dee has a piece of information the PCs need”.
villains are hiding out in the Temple of Olympus. (In
The solutions can be as simple as (1) knock him out and
the plot-based design, this is one of the failure points:
take it; (2) negotiate with him for it; or (3) sneak into his
They either question the survivor or they have no way
office and steal it. The actual prep that you do for any
of knowing where to go next. In situation-based
one of these solutions takes care of 99% of the prep for
design, you would use the Three Clue Rule and figure
the other two.
out two additional methods by which the PCs could
reach this conclusion. This can be as simple as It should be noted that, just because any given solution
making a Gather Information check in Tharsis and/or is “simple”, it doesn’t mean that the scenario will be (or
questioning the captain/crew of the ship the villains should be) simple. The convulution of the scenario
took.) arises from the way in which a series of problems are
overcome. And the nice thing about situation-based prep
Here’s the dirty secret: Take a closer look at that list.
is that you don’t have to figure out exactly how these
With the exception of #6, those are all things that you
problems will be strung together — that arises naturally
also needed to prep for your plot-based design. (And
out of the actions taken by the PCs.
even #6 is one-third complete.)
GOAL-ORIENTED OPPONENTS: Instead of trying to
Here’s an analogy: Situation-based design is like
second-guess what your PCs will do and then trying to
handing the players a map and then saying “figure out
plan out specific reactions to each possibility, simply ask
where you’re going”. Plot-based design, on the other
yourself, “What is the bad guy trying to do?”
hand, is like handing the players a map on which a
specific route has been marked with invisible ink… and The most effective way of prepping this material will

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depend on the particulars of the scenario you’re KNOW YOUR TOOLKIT: In order to react, you need to
designing. It might be nothing more than a sequential list know your toolkit. If the PCs start investigating Lord
of objectives. Or it might be a detailed timeline. Bane, what resources does he have to thwart them? If
they lay siege to the slavers’ compound, what are the
Note that some scenarios won’t be based around the defenses?
bad guys trying to carry out some specific scheme. They
might just be going about business as usual when the Typical “tools” include personnel, equipment, physical
PCs decide to show up and make a mess of things. In locations, and information.
other words, the “goal” might be nothing more than
“maintain the standard guard rotation”. For example, if the PCs are investigating a local Mafia
leader then you might know that:
If you’re interested in seeing this type of prep work in
action, I’ve put together a lengthy example of using 1. He has a couple of goon squads, a trained assassin
detailed timelines from my own campaign. (My players on staff, and two bodyguards. You might also know
should not click that link.) that he has an estranged wife and two sons. (These
are all types of personnel.)
DON’T PLAN SPECIFIC CONTINGENCIES: Whatever 2. He lives in a mansion on the east side of town,
approach you take, the key aspect is that you’ll usually typically frequents his high-end illegal casino in the
be laying out what would happen if the PCs don’t get secret basement of a downtown skyscraper, and also
involved. If you get some ideas about contingency plans, has a bolt-hole set up in a seedy tavern. (These are
go ahead and jot them down, but don’t waste too much all physical locations.)
time on them. 3. He has blackmail material on one of the PCs. (This is
information.)
I say “waste your time” because that’s exactly what most 4. He has bribed a local cop. (This is a different type of
contingency planning is. The basic structure of personnel.)
contingency planning is: If the PCs interfere at point X,
then the bad guys do X2. If the PCs interfere at point Y, And just like a real toolbox, you should have some idea
then the bad guys do Y2. If the PCs interfere at point Z, what the tools are useful for. You know that a hammer is
then the bad guys do Z2. for nails and a screwdriver is for screws. Similarly, you
know that the goon squad can be used to beat-up the
Of course, if the PCs don’t interfere at point X, then all PCs as a warning or to guard the bolt-hole. You know
the time you spent prepping contingency X2 is that the estranged wife can be used as a source of
completely wasted. Even more importantly, if the PCs do information on the mansion’s security system. And so
interfere at point X then point Y and point Z will generally forth.
be fundamentally altered or even cease to exist — so all
the prep work that went into Y2 and Z2 is also wasted. You can think of this as non-specific contingency
planning. You aren’t giving yourself a hammer and then
This is where situation-based prep usually gets maligned planning out exactly which nails you’re going to hit and
for requiring more work: People think they need to try to how hard to hit them: You’re giving yourself a hammer
prepare themselves for every conceivable action the and saying, “Well, if the players give me anything that
PCs might take. But, in point of fact, that’s not looks even remotely like a nail, I know what I can hit it
situation-based prep. That’s plot-based prep juiced up on with.”
Choose Your Own Adventure steroids. It’s the type of
prep you would need to do if you were programming a (For example, you know that the estranged wife is
computer game. familiar with the details of her husband’s operations and
the security of the mansion. That’s the hammer. What
But you’re not programming a computer game. You’re you don’t have to figure out is how the PCs get that
prepping a scenario for a roleplaying game. When the information from her: Maybe they just ask her nicely. Or
PCs choose to do X or Y or Z (or A or B or C), you don’t bribe her. Or offer to protect her. Or they plant a
need a pre-programmed reaction. You’re sitting right surveillance bug on her. Or tap her phones. Or kidnap
there at the table with them. You can just react. her sons and threaten to kill them unless she plants a
bomb in her husband’s mansion. These are all nails. The

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players will provide them.) scenario-based design are huge:

The other trick to designing your toolkit is organizing the 1. It requires significantly less work to prep.
pertinent resources into usable chunks. Take the goon 2. It empowers the players and makes their choices
squads for example: You could try to track the actions of meaningful.
every individual goon while running the adventure, but
that quickly becomes incredibly complicated. By The latter really cannot be emphasized enough. For me,
organizing them into squads you give yourself a the entire reason to play a roleplaying game is to see
manageable unit that you can keep track of. what happens when the players make meaningful
choices. In my experience, the result is almost always
On the other hand, don’t let this organization shackle different than anything I could have anticipated or
you. If you need an individual goon, just peel ’em off one planned for.
of the squads and use them. You’re drawing a forest
because that’s easier to map — but if the PCs need to If I wanted to tell my players a story (which is what
chop down some firewood, don’t miss the trees for the plot-based design really boils down to), then it’s far more
forest. efficient and effective to simply write a story. In my
opinion, if you’re playing a roleplaying game then you
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS should play to the strengths of the medium: The magical
Despite my tongue-in-cheek opening to this essay, creativity which only happens when people get together.
there’s nothing inherently wrong with plot-based design.
Plenty of great games have been run with tightly or For examples of what I’m talking about, you can also
loosely plotted scenarios. And the argument can read about the Unexpected Successes from my own
certainly be made that, “The players don’t care if they’re table. The Twin Deaths of Thuren Issek are particularly
on a railroad, if the train’s heading to Awesome Town.” awesome.

But I’ll admit that, in my experience, Awesome Town is On the other hand, if you have a group that’s used to
usually a lot more awesome when I let the PCs chart being shown the Correct Path and then following it,
their own course. suddenly throwing them into the deep-end of an
open-ended scenario may have disastrous results, just
Is that because I’m such an amazingly awesome GM like any other sudden shift in the style of play. Others, of
that I can always roll with the punches and come up with course, will immediately take to it like a fish takes to
some awesome improvisation? Maybe. But I think it has water. But if you’re running into problems, just sit down
more to do with the fact that the players are actually and talk things over with your players. Explain where the
pretty good judges of what they want. And if they come disconnect is happening. Maybe give them a copy of this
up with a detailed plan for infiltrating the mob boss’ essay so that they can have a better understanding of
downtown casino as card dealers and gamblers, then what’s going on (and what’s not going on) behind the
they’ll probably have a lot more fun seeing that plan screen.
come to fruition than if I artificially quash it so that they
can go back to my “awesome” idea of kidnapping the I suspect that once they know the shackles have been
sons of the mob boss and using them to blackmail his taken off, they’ll revel in their newfound freedom.
wife.
FURTHER READING
(Which isn’t to say that the PCs should always succeed.
Don’t Prep Plots: Scenario Timelines
Overcoming adversity is awesome as well. But there’s a
difference between a plan that doesn’t work because it Gamemastery 101
didn’t work and a plan that doesn’t work because I, as a
GM, want them to be doing something else.) https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-ga
mes/dont-prep-plots
And with that so-called advantage of plot-based design
laid to one side, I’m not sure what it’s really supposed to
be offering. On the other hand, the advantages of

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Part 2: Tools, Not Contingencies Solazzio’s “special care.”

June 18th, 2015
(Note that Investigators in the hospital as patients can
That’s a maxim I first started preaching on the get dosed with Nectar or put under Dr. Solazzio’s care
Alexandrian back in 2009. And one of the key things I for two broad reasons: either the cult recognizes them as
talked about in Don’t Prep Plots is that you want to focus enemies and decides to make use of the PCs’
your prep on developing toolboxes instead of vulnerability, perhaps to draw out their comrades, or you
contingencies. Prepping contingencies catches you in as Keeper decide that Dr. Solazzio’s attentions fall on
the Choose Your Own Adventure trap, where you waste them for purely dramatic reasons such as for pacing or
a lot of time trying to second-guess your players and exposition.)
developing mutually contradictory material for every
possible choice they might make. If the Investigators attempt to slip out in pursuit of
Donovan or while his guards are in the hospital, see the
I’ve seen a lot of GMs, both before and after I wrote scene Malta 4,”Pursuing Donovan,” p. 232, for stats on
Don’t Prep Plots, discover the virtues of this lesson. And those guards. They take immediate note of strange
what frequently happens is that they begin applying the behavior in their vicinity.
lesson at the macro-level of their scenario design, but
continue making the same old mistakes at the If the Investigators try to get Alexi or Monte (or both) out
micro-level. This is ironic, because it’s actually the of the hospital, they have to get around some nurses
micro-level stuff that is frequently the biggest and most and orderlies and go through the security staff. (They
useless time sink. may even have to get through Donovan’s own guards, if
they time their escape poorly.) This is not all that hard to
I’ve been spending a lot of time with Eternal Lies lately, do, really; it’s just hard to do anonymously. Waving guns
so I’m going to use it as an example of what I’m talking around or making a total of a 2-point Intimidation spend
about. is brutish enough to clear a gap through the hospital
staff. Getting Alexi and/or Monte out of the hospital likely
SPOILERS FOR ETERNAL LIES leads to a citywide manhunt for the boys and their
St. Luke's Hospital - Malta “kidnappers,” with both crooked and legit police on the
search for the Investigators.
In Malta, the PCs find a hospital where two boys are
being held by cultists and fed a “treatment” regime which Thus the Investigators may want to wear surgical masks
is actually making them sicker. The published adventure or Disguises, since even a simple disguise (Difficulty 4 or
anticipates that the PCs might try to rescue the boys and 5) at least renders a character unidentifiable to
this happens: witnesses who might be called upon, in this era without
security cameras, to assert that “yes, that’s the one who
Leaving the Hospital Superbissima is not especially
carried that boy out of the hospital.” A surgical mask
difficult if the PCs are just visitors or patients. An
gives any character a dedicated pool point of Disguise
Investigator may use Medicine or Disguise (Difficulty 5)
within the hospital. A doctor’s white coast grants an
to pose as another Investigator’s doctor and authorize
additional pool point of Disguise. Either or both gives you
the transport of the character to another hospital. (This
a good reason for some NPCs to make lazy
probably requires the authorizing Investigator to sign a
assumptions (“Just another surgeon, I guess”) or
few forms.) A bit of Reassurance convinces hospital
obstructive assumptions (“Excuse me, doctor, can you
clerks that a patient feels fine and is ready to depart. A
help me?”) about the character, depending on the
Reassurance spend convinces a clerk to the point that
success of the attempt. NPCs might challenge a
he or she doesn’t even write a suspicious note in
disguise if the Investigators draw attention to themselves
anyone’s file or form much of a memory of the character
or interact with an NPC. Not all interactions call for the
— good for anonymity, if they need it.
Difficulty 7 test befitting proper impersonation. In this
context, it’s easier (Difficulty 5 or 6) to impersonate “a
The real challenge to escaping from the hospital appears
doctor” than it is to impersonate a particular Doctor
under two other circumstances: when Donovan’s guards
(Difficulty 7). A Medicine spend might count as a point
are there, watching who comes and goes, and when the
toward a Disguise roll if, for example, an Investigator
Investigators have patients with them that are under Dr.
wants to portray a visiting specialist (“Didn’t you get my

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telegram?”). surprisingly tight. In addition to two guards in the lobby, a

guard is also found at the nurse’s desk on each floor of
All disguises are temporary affairs, anyway, buying just the building.
enough time to take action, stymie the opposition, or
delay consequences for recklessness or failure. [Insert a stat block for the hospital security guards here.]

Once the Investigators get out onto the street, they must DONOVAN’S GUARDS: If Donovan is on the premises,
have somewhere to take the rescued boys (though see his guards are stationed at the entrance to the third-floor
“The Knight”). Thus the situation gets more complicated. Intensive Care Ward and will respond immediately to
You may want to call for a Stealth or Shadowing test anything they view as strange or suspicious.
(Difficulty 5 close to the hospital, Difficulty 4 after that) to
describe the Investigators’ attempted escape from the [Repeat the stat block for Donovan’s guards here for
scene of their rescue. Alternately, they may try simply easy reference.]
Fleeing the scene until they can make a single Stealth
GETTING THE BOYS OUT: Getting Alexi and/or Monte
test to hide.
out of the hospital, this likely leads to a citywide manhunt
If the Investigators have devised a whole scheme for for the boys and their “kidnappers,” with both the
rescuing the boys and getting them free of the cult crooked and legit police on the search for the
(perhaps involving fake papers and a ship out of Malta), investigators. Securing a place of refuge where people
let them explore it. If it proves to be too much of a can’t spot the boys and report them may be difficult.
distraction from the job at hand, gloss over details or Getting them out of the country may require securing (or
assume that the characters succeed rather than testing falsifying) legal papers.
for every damn task. Securing papers for the boys might
SIDEBAR: Remember that the Knight may already be
just require a Law or Streetwise spend among the right
watching the investigators at this point. If they get into
contacts, for example, and getting the boys to safety
trouble in the hospital, he’s likely to step in and help
might simply involve flying them out in the
them out. Or at least offer them a place of refuge.
Winston-Rogers plane to Sicily and then sorting out the
rest of it between Locales. If the logistics of a ON THE USE OF TOOLS
complicated rescue seem to be spoiling the players’ And that’s pretty much it. What’s the distinction here,
good feeling for doing the right thing, make things easier beyond a greatly reduced word count (and, thus, work
on the players (even if things stay complicated for the load)?
characters between scenes).
As the GM, note that if your players were to propose any
You can immediately see that there is a ton of verbiage of the escape plans proposed in the original text, you
being dedicated to specific plans that the PCs may or should be able to look at the tools provided in the
may not actually come up with. What I’m suggesting is second description and figure out what the result or
that the prep for this should look something more like response will be. More importantly, if the players propose
this: some completely different plan (calling in a bomb threat,
rappelling through the windows at night, taking hostages,
ESCAPING THE HOSPITAL
casting a spell to escape with the kids to another
There are two exits from the Hospital Superbissima: The
dimension, etc.) you should also be able to pick up the
front door and a side entrance used by employees.
tools (the layout of the hospital, the nurses, the security
There are tall windows in the patient wards, but many of
guards) and figure out what will happen.
these are not designed to be opened.
While prepping the adventure, you don’t need to think to
NURSES: Collectively, the nurses of the Hospital
yourself, “What will happen if my players decide to
Superbissima benefit from Awareness +2 to notice
disguise themselves as doctors? Well, I guess they’d
investigators snooping around areas they don’t have
make a Disguise check. I better write that down!” Not
permission to be in or any other suspicious activity
only because it’s self-evident, but because there are at
happening in the hospital.
least a half dozen other possibilities for what they might
HOSPITAL SECURITY: Security around the hospital is do. Whatever work you’re putting into trying to figure out

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the myriad tactics the PCs might employ in a particular themselves into. And what you want to focus on is that
tactical situation, you’d be far better off making your situation which exists without the PCs and let your
toolbox larger and more interesting. players worry about the thrust.

PREPPING YOUR TOOLBOX Which, I suppose, ultimately brings us full circle:

But what constitutes the difference between a tool and a
contingency? For example, isn’t prepping this Don’t prep plots, prep situations.
information about the hospital dependent on the PCs
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37422/roleplaying-g
going to hospital? Doesn’t that make the whole thing a
ames/dont-prep-plots-tools-not-contingencies
contingency? And even if we lay that concern aside, how
do we actually identify what the useful tools are? I mean,
the bad guy might have a collection of early Picasso
paintings. How do I know whether to prep the Picasso
collection or the alarm system on his windows?

I find this generally boils down to two questions.

First: What will the PCs be interested in? Not what

they’re going to do, but what they’ll be interested in.
Where their focus will be. (In a mystery scenario this is
relatively easy to predict because it usually equates to
wherever the clues are pointing them.) It’s possible to
get pedantic and argue that “being interested”
constitutes an action, but I think the distinction being
sought here is generally pretty clear.

Second: What are the NPCs’ plans? These can be

specific to the events of the scenario (“they want to blow
up Woodheim”) and possibly even specific to the PCs
(but not specific to the actions of the PCs) if their current
plan is aimed at the PCs (like Lex Luthor obtaining
kryptonite to deal with Superman). But most of the plans
you’ll be looking at will actually be a lot more general
and long-standing than that.

The hospital scenario is an example of this: The cult

doesn’t want the boys to escape. What precautions are
they taking to prevent that from happening?

Similarly, if you were designing a mansion for a mob

boss you’d ask questions like: What type of security
system does he have? What does he enjoy doing at
home? What does his daily schedule look like?

If the mob boss is currently planning to assassinate the

head of the local Triads, then you’d start asking yourself
questions like: Who does he hire to do that? If things go
bad, what resources does he have to protect himself?

All of these questions will guide you towards creating

either the long-standing status quo or the current
trajectory of action that the PCs are going to be thrusting

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Part 3: Principles of RPG Villainy Second, when you’re prepping your scenarios include
January 5th, 2015 lots of bad guys. You’re probably doing this any way, so
the real key here is to simply refrain from pre-investing
I get a lot of reactions to “Don’t Prep Plots” that basically one of these guys as the “big villain”. Basically, don’t get
go like this: “Oh, yeah. I don’t want to railroad my attached to any of your antagonists: Assume that the
players, but…” first time they’re in a position where the PCs might kill
them that the PCs will definitely kill them. (This attitude
The justification or rationalization which follows the “but”
will help to break any railroading habits you may still be
varies. There’s a consistent recognition that roleplaying
secretly harboring.)
games aren’t really designed for linear, predetermined
plots, but since the vast majority of the media we Third, remember that people in the real world usually
consume is purely linear (even most of the “interactive” don’t fight to the death. Have your bad guys run away.
stuff) those creative instincts get buried pretty deep in And not just your “big villain” (since you won’t have one
us. of those any way): Unless their back is truly to the wall,
most of the people your PCs fight should try to escape
One of the most common versions of the “but” I hear is,
once a fight turns against them. (If you’re finding it hard
“But I don’t want them to kill my bad guy!” The
to break the “fight to your last hit point” habit, try
justifications for this vary from a strictly predetermined
experimenting with some morale rules.) Most of them will
“finale” that’s being ruined to the more seductive version
probably still end up with a bullet in the back of their
of convincing yourself that your players won’t be
heads, but some of them will manage to escape.
“satisfied” if the bad guy is “prematurely” knocked off.
The ones that escape? Those are your memorable
These instincts aren’t necessarily wrong: Pulp fiction is
villains. Those are your major antagonists.
filled with scenes where the heroes impotently watch the
bad guys escape, building the sense of rivalry between This is the crucial inversion: Instead of figuring out who
them and baiting our appetite for the finale of the story. your major bad guy is and then predetermining that they
It’s an effective trope. will escape to wreak their vengeance, what’s happening
here is that the guy who escapes to wreak their
But I don’t think railroading is the only way to achieve
vengeance becomes the major bad guy.
that trope at the gaming table. Nor do I think it’s the most
effective: When you push your thumb onto the scales of MEDIA FAUX-EXAMPLES
fate in order to predetermine the outcome of your game, Hans Gruber - Die Hard
you deflate the value of that outcome. If you do it poorly
(or simply do it often enough), the anger and frustration Consider Die Hard for a moment. As written, this film is a
of the players will stop being focused on the NPC villain great example of our first principle: The antagonism
and start focusing on you. The value of the trope between John McClane and Hans Gruber is established
becomes depreciated when it’s achieved through almost entirely without any direct interaction between the
artificial ends. two of them: Gruber takes McClane’s wife hostage. They
talk to each other through telecommunication devices.
CREATING MEMORABLE VILLAINS Gruber sends his thugs to fight McClane elsewhere in
What I recommend instead is a three-pronged approach: the building.

First, build tension between the PCs and the villain The exception to this is the scene where Gruber
without using direct confrontations between them. Give pretends to be one of the hostages. This is actually a
the bad guy minions. Have the bad guy do horrible really clever device that heightens the conflict between
things to people, places, and organizations that the PCs McClane and Gruber by allowing them to directly interact
care about off-screen. Social interactions in situations with each other. But if this was a game table, what would
where the PCs won’t be able to simply shoot them in the happen if the PCs saw through Gruber’s bluff and put a
head without serious consequences also work well to bullet through his forehead right then and there?
build a personal relationship. (As do taunting
communiques and phone calls.) It doesn’t matter.

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Remember our second principle? Lots of bad guys. So forms of media can be useful due to the common
now Die Hard becomes the story of the hot-headed Karl understanding of the source material, but can be
Vreski taking control of Gruber’s delicate operation and somewhat misleading because the official version of
blowing it up in a mad pursuit for vengeance. Maybe he events from the original media lends a patina of
starts killing hostages and becomes the most canonicity that shouldn’t be true of actual tabletop
memorable villain of the campaign when he throws scenarios. So let me also take this opportunity to offer a
McClane’s wife off the top of Nakatomi Plaza. handful of example from my Ptolus: In the Shadow of the
Spire campaign.
Okay, so cycling through the org-chart of Villains, Inc.
works when you’re facing a team of bad guys. But what SILION: Silion was a cult leader. Using our first principle,
if the PCs really are just facing off against a single I built her up in a variety of ways: Her name was
nemesis? referenced in early foreshadowing. The PCs tangled with
her thugs and were targeted for retaliation by her
First off, remember that not every challenge needs to be organization. She was also incorporated into the
of epic proportions: Sometimes you run into some background of a new PC joining the campaign,
goblins in the woods and you kill them and you move on. becoming responsible for murdering the PCs’ family and
You don’t need every goblin to murder the priestess’ destroying their village.
cousin or become the sworn blood-enemy of the paladin.
Eventually, the PCs managed to track down her lair.
Second, even the most memorable villains from fiction They snuck in, found her digging through a box of
were often part of Villains, Inc. even when that isn’t archaeological artifacts, rolled a critical hit, and put an
immediately obvious. For example, consider Dracula: arrow through the back of her skull. She literally never
Wouldn’t it be really unsatisfying if Jonathan Harker even got a chance to look them in the face.
sneaked into Dracula’s tomb at the beginning of the book
and staked him through the heart before he ever went to My players gleefully tell this story at almost every
England? I mean… this is the Dracula, right? opportunity. They love it. It’s one of their favorite
moments from the entire campaign.
Remember, though, that Dracula is only the Dracula
because that didn’t happen at the hypothetical gaming Why did it work? Because when you heavily invest a
table. We didn’t know that he would become obsessed villain through foreshadowing, the payoff of defeating
with Harker’s wife and kill Mina’s best friend in pursuit of them is massively satisfying. It can be argued that this
her. We discovered that during play. So let’s pretend that sort of thing might not work as well in other media
play had gone a different way: Harker stakes Dracula (although consider that Luke’s actual confrontation with
and heads back to England, satisfied that he’s destroyed the Emperor in Return of the Jedi, after building up to it
an ancient evil. It’s a beautiful, happy ending… over the course of three films, lasts almost no time at
all), but in a roleplaying game the audience is
… until the Brides of Dracula pursue him to England synonymous with the protagonist. Your players don’t
seeking bloody vengeance. want to be handed their quarry on a plate, but a quick kill
shot isn’t a gimme: It’s a reward for all the work that got
As a final example, remember that you need to embrace
them to the point where they could take the shot.
the whole package: You have to allow your bad guys to
die indiscriminately and you need to include lots of bad ARVETH: Arveth was a mook. She was captured by the
guys in your scenario. If you only prep the “big villains” PCs, questioned by Tithenmamiwen, and then cut loose.
and then allow them to die indiscriminately, what you end When Elestra tried to sneak back and slit Arveth’s throat
up with are the Star Wars prequels: Darth Maul is to stop her from warning the other cultists,
replaced by Count Dooku is replaced by General Tithenmamiwen stopped her.
Grievous… and none of them ever achieve enough
narrative weight to make you really care whether they But then the cultists caught up with Arveth: Believing that
live or die. she had betrayed them to the PCs, they tortured her and
even cut out her eye. Eventually concluding that Arveth
EXAMPLES FROM THE TABLE was still loyal to their cause, the cult gave her a team of
As I’ve mentioned in the past, faux-examples from other assassins and sent her to kill Tithenmamiwen. This was

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our second principle: Use lots of bad guys and develop Deliberately designing an interaction to create a major
the ones who survive. (In some other campaign, Arveth villain is against my “rules”. But it worked.
could have easily been cut down randomly during
combat and completely forgotten by the next session.) What I consider the key thing here, however, is that I still
wasn’t invested in a particular outcome: Common sense
Arveth nearly succeeded in her assassination attempt showed that the outcome was likely, but I still wasn’t
before the rest of the party showed up. While the rest of predetermining it.
her team held the party at bay, Arveth managed to
escape (barely evading Tithenmamiwen’s angry pursuit). What if Wuntad had died? Well, I had reinforced the
This was our third principle: When they’re losing a fight, scenario by following my other design principles: He was
have your bad guys run away. supported by lots of bad guys (including Silion from the
example above). If he had died, somebody else would
At this point, things transitioned to the first principle: have stepped in and taken control of the cults. (Which is
Arveth used a magical artifact to send horrible not to say that these characters are interchangeable:
nightmares to Tithenmamiwen (often featuring Arveth Killing Wuntad would have made the PCs a major target
cutting out Tithenmamiwen’s eye). She issued threats to in the campaign a lot sooner. Factions within the cults
Tithenmamiwen’s friends. She placed a bounty on her probably would have broken away from the new
head. leadership. And so forth.)

The PCs would fight her again. This time Arveth was Similarly, returning to one of our faux-examples for a
teamed up with a medusa who turned two of the party moment, common sense tells you that the leader of the
members to stone. Arveth carved an eye out of each of terrorists who have taken over the Nakatomi Plaza is
the statues before making her escape once again. more likely to become John McClane’s nemesis than
one of his mooks. You don’t have to abandon that
By this point, of course, the PCs were absolutely furious. common sense in order to follow the principles of RPG
Tithenmamiwen, in particular, had a rage which burned villainy.
so white hot that her alignment shifted: She had shown
this bitch mercy and she was repaid with endless https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/36383/roleplaying-g
torment. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such intense hatred ames/dont-prep-plots-you-will-rue-this-day-heroes-the-pr
focused towards an NPC before. It reshaped the entire inciples-of-rpg-villainy
course of the campaign.

Arveth was a mook no more.

When she finally died, the cheers of the players rocked

the house. They literally took her miniature as a trophy
so that it could never be used in a game again.

WUNTAD: Finally, here’s an example of me breaking (or

at least bending) my own rules. Following the scenario
laid out in the excellent Night of Dissolution campaign by
Monte Cook, Wuntad and a gang of other chaos cultists
show up just as the PCs finish clearing out a dungeon.
The intention of the scenario is really clear: The PCs
have been beat up. Wuntad and his cultists should Night
of Dissolution - Monte Cookhave a really easy time of
beating them into unconsciousness and then stealing
several key items that the PCs had taken from the
dungeon.

Stealing the PCs’ stuff? That’s pretty much guaranteed

to piss them off for the rest of eternity.

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Part 4: Three Point Plotting the second paragraph very useful (particularly when it
June 2nd, 2014 comes to the emotional implication of each type of
disruption). A lot of GMs (including myself) find it easy to
John Rogers (the creator of Leverage and author of a fall into a rut with the way we handle our disruptions: If
bunch of a nifty stuff) wrote a really great essay on the PCs are exploring a dungeon, every disruption takes
“3-Point Plotting” over at Thrillbent. I recommend the form of a “knife problem” (i.e., the goblins jump out
checking out the whole thing, but I also want to pull out a and attack the players.) But given the exact same
couple of concepts from it and talk about them in the goblins, you can also frame that in terms of a “five
context of roleplaying games. minute problem” (i.e., you can hear a large group of
goblins coming towards you from the west, what do you
I’ve said in the past that you Don’t Prep Plots when
do?) or a “twenty minute problem” (i.e., the ogre told you
you’re game mastering, but a lot of what Rogers is
there was a large encampment of goblins on the second
talking about is still applicable. His basic conceit is that
level of the dungeon).
the plot of any given story consists of three points:
DISRUPTION, REVERSAL, and CONCLUSION. (By Similarly, if you’re running a Shadowrun campaign and
“plot” he’s specifically talking about the causal chain of every scenario starts with Mr. Johnson calling one of the
events that make up the narrative.) PCs and asking them for a meeting, see what happens if
you start the next scenario by having Mr. Johnson come
Let’s start with the DISRUPTION:
jumping through the window of the PC’s apartment with
a bullet in his shoulder and assassins on his tail! (In
THE DISRUPTION is readily apparent in episodic
other words, reframe your twenty minute problem as a
structure. It’s the inciting incident, the problem, the
knife problem.)
change which the characters in the show MUST deal
with. (…) “Some problems can wait twenty minutes.
Next up:
Sometimes you gotta solve a problem in the next
five minutes or unpleasantness shall occur. And THE REVERSAL is best described by my friend DJ
sometimes there’s a guy in the room with a fuckin’ McCarthey: “It’s the moment, when the movie …
knife. Deal with the guy with the fuckin’ knife, and becomes an entirely different movie.” Too many
move on from there.” scripts I’m submitted have a bunch of mini-reversals,
the dreaded “and then” syndrome. Stuff happens,
The Disruption, ideally, is the guy in the room with
and then other stuff happens … Even in a
the fuckin’ knife. Now, it’s not necessarily that. As
well-plotted story when all the plot developments
you move the intensity of the Disruption back in the
occur primarily because of the actions of the
timeline, the tone of the piece changes. “Guy in the
characters or logical but unexpected complications
room with a knife” gives you danger, pulp plotting. A
of the setting (the much loved SOUTH PARK
“five minutes from now” problem gives you urgency,
creators advice “replace all moments in the outline
but control. Part of the fun is in watching the ad hoc
of ‘and then’ with ‘therefore’ or ‘but’) the story feels
planning your characters throw together to deal with
flat.
the “five minutes from now” problem. Competence
porn lives in the world of the “five minutes from now” It’s a subtle distinction, but a good central reversal
problem. A “twenty minutes from now” problem — and the middle of the story is the right place for it
gives you dread. — always seems to elevate even a straight-ahead
episodic-style story.
In general terms, the DISRUPTION is the scenario hook.
And if we’re talking in terms of the Art of Pacing, it’s also Because the GM isn’t in control of how a scenario
the Bang that you use to launch a scene. (Rogers is actually plays out, REVERSALS can be a lot more
primarily talking about the plotting of serialized drama, difficult to pull off in roleplaying games than in other
but a lot of the stuff he’s talking about can also be seen mediums. However, I would point out that the lack of
fractally throughout a narrative.) control can actually make for some really fantastic
reversals as long as the GM remains open to them:
I find that conceptual distinction between knife
Allow the actions of the PCs to radically reframe events.
problem/five minute problem/twenty minute problem in

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For example, in my Ptolus campaign there was a fire.”)

scenario I introduced where the order of knights that one
of the PCs belonged to was experiencing a religious And finally:
schism. I had the leaders of both factions send
… THE CONCLUSION. The end. The new status
messages to the PC urging them to meet with them
quo. Not the return of the status quo, but the new
ASAP to discuss the schism. The intended scenario was
one. Whatever new equilibrium has been reached.
that the PC knight would choose which of the factions he
“Equilibrium” because it’s a situation, in serialized
wanted to join. The PC, however, decided that one of the
storytelling, which should be able to be easily
messages had to be a honeytrap: His loyalty was being
disrupted. The status quo is always a delicately
tested. So he responded by reporting the message to
balanced thing, little stepping stones of resolution as
the leader of the other faction. FIRST REVERSAL: This
you leap across the river of your season-long
is now a story about the PC accidentally betraying their
Stories.
friend. This was followed shortly thereafter by the
SECOND REVERSAL when the PC discovered their Effective conclusions can be one of the hardest things
mistake and was now faced with the need to somehow for a GM to pull off when they leave the broken training
warn and save their friend. wheels of railroading behind them. But a lot of RPGs are
essentially serial storytelling and, as a result, Rogers’
(Simpler example: You think this is the story of Noble
advice regarding conclusions is particularly useful: When
Hero A. But then Noble Hero A is arrested and, instead
the status quo or equilibrium returns, try to focus the
of being rescued or staging a daring escape, he’s
group’s attention on how the events they’ve just
summarily executed by the Evil Overlord. What the fuck?
experienced have altered that status quo. (This change
Of course, this sort of thing happens all the time when
can be either internal or external in relation to the
you’re determining the outcome of combat randomly and
characters or the group.)
don’t give your PCs or NPCs script immunity.)
You can emphasize this alteration by using it to frame
The other thing to keep in mind about REVERSALS is
the next Agenda that will disrupt the equilibrium and
that they’re frequently based on incomplete or inaccurate
drive the action forward.
information: You think one thing is happening and then
the story suddenly reveals that the reality is something https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/35216/roleplaying-g
completely different. A lot of GMs make the mistake of ames/check-this-out-three-point-plotting
having the official or unofficial mission briefing for the
current scenario accurately report exactly what the
scenario is going to be.

For example, the scenario the GM wants to run is a

ruined castle full of soul-sucking undead. So he has the
local villagers tell the PCs: “Hey, there’s a castle full of
soul-sucking undead.” Nothing wrong with that, of
course, but the GM could very easily stage the scenario
for a major reversal by simply making the villager
mistaken: “There’s something weird going on up at the
old castle ruins. We think another band of gutter goblins
have moved in there.” That way, when it turns out to be
soul-sucking undead, the PCs will be totally surprised.

(An example of this that always sticks out in my memory:

John Givler, who used to frequent the AD&D FidoNet
Echo, once ran an adventure featuring an albino red
dragon. The players, who heard reports of a “white
dragon”, bought supplies to protect themselves from
cold. “Imagine the looks on their faces when it breathed

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Fronts: World Driven Adventures potentially, envelop the PCs.

Part 1: Fronts in D&D Fronts consist of a set of dangers, each one

11 March 2013 representing a faction or a challenge tied to the front.
Dangers include many components you might be used
"Dungeon World's concept of fronts improved my D&D
to such as a band of orcs, a thieves' guild, or a
games immeasurably."
necromancer summoning a powerful beast. These
- Mike Mearls dangers contain the following components that bring
them to life:
The power of the internet and the independent backing
movement of Kickstarter has led us to a host of new and ● The Impulse: The motivation that drives this
interesting RPGs. One of these in particular, Dungeon collection of villainy forward.
World, received a lot of attention, including the 2012 ● Grim Portents: The steps this threat follows
Golden Geek Game of the Year award. Built from the when unchecked by the PCs.
foundations of Apocalypse World and the roots of ● The Impending Doom: The conclusion should
old-school D&D, Dungeon World builds a this threat not be stopped or thwarted.
narrative-focused game based on conversations
Let's look at a couple of the concepts of the front and
between players and game masters.
how they might work in our D&D game.

The Impulse
Each front has a single guiding force, a motivation,
known as an impulse. The impulse encapsulates the
motivation that moves a front forward. Think of the nine
ringwraiths hunting down the One Ring in Lord of the
Rings. Their motivation is very simple; recover the ring
and kill whoever has it.

This impulse should be specific and direct; nothing fancy

or convoluted. "Become the God of Death" might be the
impulse for a front based on Orcus's conquest for
Godhood.
Dungeon World
Dungeon World's story-building concepts fit well with the Each front moves forward, whether the PCs get involved
ideas of the Lazy Dungeon Master. Dungeon World or not. PC involvement may sway, redirect, or even stop
games grow from the improvised conversations of a front. If the PCs choose NOT to get involved, that front
players and game masters and the interactions of PCs moves forward anyway.
with the rest of the game world.
Grim Portents
One particular element of Dungeon World, the "front", Grim portents represent the steps a front or danger
has a very interesting effect on campaign building. follows as it moves forward. In the original Apocalypse
According to Dungeon World, a front is a collection of World roleplaying game, these grim portents are called
linked dangers. Think of it as a sinister campaign moving the countdown — an apt title. Whatever this threat is, it
along in parallel to the actions of the PCs. Larger threat moves forward. Things happen while the PCs go about
than a typical encounter, fronts encapsulate a series of their task. If they face more than one potential front and
threats into a single package. choose to follow through with another, the front they do
not choose moves on to its inevitable conclusion. In
The Dungeon World "front" gives you a new tool #dnd
Apocalypse World, a clock represents the countdown,
adventure preparation.
broken out into quarter hours for the first three segments
Dungeon World relies heavily on the idea of "draw maps, and five minute segments for the final three. This
leave blanks". These fronts don't build out entire story representation reminds us of the urgent nature a front
arcs; they simply capture a large moving threat that will,

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represents. A to point B.

Grim portents make the world come alive. There are no I also submit a few ways we might maximize our
monster closets in our D&D games, no static bosses preparation time to make our game great:
sitting on thrones of bone just waiting for the PCs to
show up. Things are in motion towards their impending ● Reading over the backgrounds and desires of the
doom. PCs.
● Parceling interesting treasure for the PCs to acquire.
Impending Doom ● Deciding how our next session will start strong.
If our band of heroes fails to prevent the front, the front ● Designing some fantastic locations our PCs might
concludes with an impending doom — the dark visit.
conclusion of the front or danger. Generally speaking, ● Thinking from the point of view of the antagonists in
the impending doom shouldn't be a world-ending event our campaign.
or you force your players to choose it. Impending dooms
should be sinister enough to get your players' attention It's this last one that we'll discuss in the rest of this
but not so dire that they have no other choice but tackle article.
it.

Structure Without Railroading

The format for fronts gives you just enough structure to
help you form an idea of what is going on in the world
without so much structure that you force-feed your story
to your players. As Dungeon World and Apocalypse
World state, we should draw maps and leave blanks.
The blanks you leave give you and your players the
freedom to fill in aspects of the story not yet defined. It
gives you room to improvise during the game, building
Back in 2013, Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel published
the story around the actions of your players, a story far
the roleplaying game Dungeon World, a fantasy RPG
more fantastic than any you might have written ahead of
based on the story-focused principles and mechanics of
time.
the game Apocalypse World. Dungeon World received a
Fronts are a great focused tool to build just enough lot of well-deserved attention for its focus on
structure to run a game without so much that you steal player-driven storytelling and world building, even getting
control away from the story that unfolds at your table. the attention of lead D&D designer, Mike Mearls who
said:
http://slyflourish.com/fronts_in_dnd.html
"Even if you're not looking for a new RPG, Dungeon
Part 2: Looking Back on Fronts World has some nifty elements like fronts that are useful
16 May 2016 in D&D."

We here in the Sly Flourish laboratories continually look You can read further about Dungeon World fronts here.
at where GMs can get the most from their effort and
Dungeon World fronts are a great way to move your
time. This all led to the book The Lazy Dungeon Master
mind away from designing plots and instead driving the
where we propose that limiting the time we spend
story forward through the actions of the most influential
preparing our game can actually make our games better.
aspects of the world. Fronts are the oncoming storms
Many activities potentially offer little value for the amount soon to smash into our PCs.
of time we spend. I would suggest these few:
The easiest fronts to define are major NPCs. Depending
● Designing your own monsters. on the scope of your game, these NPC fronts might be
● Writing a detailed history of your own game world. Alesburn the influential sheriff or Orcus Prince of
● Writing a significant amount of adventure text. Undeath. Focusing fronts on NPCs works well since
● Planning step by step how the PCs will get form point they're so clearly atomic entities. Other more nebulous

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fronts can work, like a malevolent plague sweeping Spine of the World under her control to wipe out Ten
across the land, but might be harder to get your head Towns.
around. It's also hard to see through the eyes of a ● The undead remains of Akar Kessel uses the power
massive blighted storm overtaking the forest of of Black Ice to return him to power.
Moonwood. ● Vaelish Gant of the Arcane Brotherhood wants to rule
over Ten Towns.
Simplifying Fronts
As written Dungeon World fronts are already nicely All three of these villains have clear motivations, goals,
stripped down ways to think about the major threats in and impending dooms. However the PCs move, these
your shared world. Some of the concepts, however, can villains move forward as well. The grim portents for
be a little obscure and, for some, not as useful. Instead, these villains are all outlined in the adventure, so we
we can break down fronts into a more simplified form. won't to over them here.

Here's an example: Looking at the 13th Age adventure, Eyes of the Stone
● Who is the major NPC? Thief, we can create another set of fronts. We'll stick to
● What is their goal? three main goals for each front since many of these are
● Who is their lieutenant? likely to change as the campaign moves on.
● What group enforces their will?
Front: The Orc Lord
This alone is usually enough to build out a nice front. In ● Lieutenant: Arkasa the Orc Shaman
any campaign its probably worth having three such ● Henchmen: Fangrot and the Black Hands
fronts to keep things complicated and engaging. As ● Impending Doom: The Orc Lord harnesses the Stone
fronts get wiped out, new fronts might appear. More than Thief into a weapon of war against the Dragon
three might become too complicated to manage. Fewer Empire.
than three makes the game feel a little too simple. ● Grim Portent: Fangrot enters the Stone Thief and
learns of the eyes.
Grim Portents, Impending Doom, and the 5x5 ● Grim Portent: The Black Hands acquire the two eyes
Method of the Stone Thief.
Apocalypse World had a wonderfully named component ● Grim Portent: The Orc Lord's shaman bind the spirit
referred to as the Armageddon Clock. Dungeon World of the previous Orc Lord, Gandrax, to the Stone
renamed this the Impending Doom. If the PCs do Thief's will.
nothing, what horror will villain unleash on the world?
Front: The Crusader
The impending doom is led to by grim portents. What are ● Lieutenant: The Red Lady
the visible steps the villains will take to inflict their doom ● Henchmen: The Ebon Gauntlet and Cackle the
upon the world? This is very similar to Dave Chalker's Assassin
5x5 Method in which you define five major threats and ● Impending Doom: The Crusader gains control of the
the five steps those threats need to take to reach their Stone Thief and binds it into the Crusader's ultimate
goal. It's a simple and elegant solution that builds a weapon of cleansing.
wonderfully complicated nest of problems and threats in ● Grim Portent: The Crusader acquires Indego Sharp
which your PCs can get involved. and learns more of the Stone Thief's history and
construction.
It also doesn't take a whole lot of time.
● Grim Portent: The Ebon Gauntlet acquires both eyes
It certainly doesn't need to be five steps either. Three of the Stone Thief.
steps are usually easier to come up with. ● Grim Portent: THe Red Lady lures the Stone Thief
into the Echo where the denizens of the Echo will
Icewind Dale and the Eyes of the Stone Thief break its will, devour pieces of history, and return it as
If we look at the D&D adventure Legacy of the Crystal a weapon of the Crusader.
Shard, we can see three clear NPC fronts and three
clear impending dooms: Front: The Prince of Shadow
● Lieutenant: Whisper the Assassin
● Hedrun The Ice Witch is bringing the beasts of the ● Henchmen: The Daybreaker Mercenary Thieves

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● Impending Doom: The Prince of Shadow captures the opportunities for the PCs to push things back. We can
Stone Thief and uses it as a threat, as protection, and also fail forward by ensuring that, even if the villains do
as influence over the Dragon Empire. get close to, or even succeed, in accomplishing their
● Grim Portent: The Daybreakers capture Indego Impending Doom, that the PCs can still get in there and
Sharp. push them right out again.
● Grim Portent: The Whisper and the Daybreakers
acquire the second Eye of the Stone Thief. Fronts and the 13th Age Icon Rolls
● Grim Portent: Whisper and the Daybreakers lure the The fantasy RPG 13th Age gives us another tool to keep
Stone Thief into the Underworld where they put it into fronts moving at the right pace without outrunning the
hibernation and establish guardians. PCs' ability to stop them. Instead of all fronts moving
forward at the same pace, we can use 13th Age icon
Exposing Fronts rolls to see which of the fronts have moved and which
All of these worldly events are great, but how do they have run into troubles outside of the PC's involvement.
affect the lives of the PCs? Good fronts, grim portents, Again, we can make these results visibile to the PCs
and impending dooms are only good if the PCs can learn through clues, secrets, and rumors.
about them. If they're too large in scale, are pushed too
far outside the PC's views, or are too secretive to be A Simple and Powerful Tool for Lazy Worldbuilding
discovered, our PCs may never benefit. That's sure a The concept of fronts continues to be a powerful tool we
waste of time. can add to our lazy dungeon master arsenal. With just a
few notes on some 3x5 cards, a sheet of paper, or a text
We can fall back to another powerful tool of the Lazy file on our computer; we can design large and powerful
Dungeon Master: secrets! After we have our larger fronts threats that bring deep complications into the lives of our
written out, before each session we can write out a PCs and into the imaginations of our players. Give them
dozen or so tweet-sized secrets that our PCs can a try.
discover. These secrets can be all about the fronts, grim
portents, and impending dooms along with any other http://slyflourish.com/looking_back_on_fronts.html
clues that might give them a view of what's going on.
Secrets are powerful GM magic, use them well. Part 3: Fronts of SKT
http://slyflourish.com/fronts_of_skt.html
The Danger of Overwhelming Threats
Pushing multiple fronts is a great way to build a living, Mission Details: The Adventure
dynamic, and dangerous world around the PCs. Some
players, however, aren't really big on this. They might
Funnel
Monday, October 09, 2006
like it in theory but in practice they feel like no matter
how well they're doing with one front, they're always two Hey! There was no game last night, on account of my
steps behind with the other two. As they take on the wife got home from work feeling tired and cranky. It's
threats of one of the fronts, the others are moving time for a new job, you ask me...
forward without them.
Anyway. In my quest to be The Perfect GM, I spent an
Looking back on the Legacy of the Crystal Shard, this inordinate amount of time searching for Processes --
can certainly be a problem. While the PCs are off saving formulae, techniques, step-by-step guides to being
the barbarians from the Ice Witch, Gant is busy awesome. Frankly, I love that stuff, and I learned a lot of
kidnapping the speaker of Bryn Shander and the useful things in my search. I especially looked for
dwarves are getting further corrupted by Akar Kessel's adventure-creation tools, mostly because I kept feeling
black ice. uncreative and stymied. If only I could find something
that would take away the pressure of being creative...the
If the fronts move too fast, the PCs can find themselves
perfect, easy process that would fulfill my requirements! I
defeating one villain only to have two others succeed
quested for it. It was my Holy Grail. My Shangri-La. My
with their nefarious plots.
Xanadu (the one with Olivia Newton-John).
We can handle this by making sure that the other fronts
Naturally, I came up with it on my own.
take some time to move forward and that there's always

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One night my wife wanted to play a game. I had no ideas STEP 3: DETAILS
for a scenario, but suddenly inspiration struck: having Here's where the real work begins. It's brainstormng on a
just read Robin Laws' damn excellent book, Robin's finer scale. Look over your previous work and start
Laws Of Good Gamemastering, I came up with a plan. sketching in the finer points, as you think of them.
Anything that fleshes out the goal, the obstacles or just
And it worked. the world (the mise-en-scene, if you're toity) goes here.
You'll be surprised at how quickly these details will start
I hereby christen it THE ADVENTURE FUNNEL
to resolve...let them. When something starts to click (and
because it helps you focus your creativity. When it's time
it will), go with it. Live!
to whip up an adventure that I'm probably not going to
run because nobody shows up or something else goes DETAILS:
wrong, The Adventure Funnel lends a hand. The media content is all pop culture stuff from Capital.
The far-future equivalents of Tiger Beat, synth music,
It's concise, it's free-form and it's interactive, so go get a
Cosmo, Carrot Top movies, etc.
piece of paper and a pencil. No, I'm serious. Get up and
do it. Okay, open up Notepad, whatever. C'mon, I'll do The head of Starport Authority on Arduun is a guy
one along withyou. It'll be fun. named Frampton Roosh, 64, near retirement.

A caveat: this process is not a subsitute for creativity, The government of Arduun just flipped over from an
just a funnel for ideas. You've been warned. oligarchy to a charismatic dictatorship, focussed on
"cultural purity". Hence, Tiger Beat is illegal.
STEP 1: GOAL
Write down a one-sentence objective for your players to RE: Conan -- A brawny barbarian from the Sword Worlds
accomplish. Resist the temptation to overcomplicate it -- gets drunk at the same bar as the PCs, and starts a
you'll have plenty of time for crazy in a minute. (Plus, you fight. Inconsequential but fun. maybe an interesting,
can count on players for one thing: to bork everything up recurring NPC?
for you.) Make danged sure that your sentence begins
with a verb! For example, here's a goal for a Traveller The pirates are Vargr, raiding not for profit but for
scenario: survival.

GOAL: Deliver and sell 200 tons of books, music and The customs office is short-staffed on account of a flu
magazines to a buyer on Arduun. epidemic.

STEP 2: OBSTACLES The new government came into power following a short
Scientific studies have proven time and again that when but bloody civil war. Fascists, the lot of 'em.
PCs just waltz in and win, it's not that much fun. Conflict
= drama, baby! So jot down some things, ANY things, Cargo is contraband, and when word gets out that it's in
that could get between the players and the goal. Write the starport, TWO buyers present themselves: organized
down stupid stuff, too, as you think of it. Brainstorm! crime and freedm-fighters. PCs must choose with whom
Starring you instead of Christopher Walken. You are to do business!
following along, right...?
The freedom fighter representative is an attractive lass
OBSTACLES: named Cami ....
● Pirates
You get the point. Obviously the whole "Contraband"
● Customs
angle appealed to me; it started clicking and I ran with it.
● The merchandise is contraband
I could've kept going, and so could you.
● No buyer, ha ha
● Conan shows up looking for a fight If you start getting a big ball of wax rolling, simply take
an idea out of your list and put it into its own Funnel,
Yes, I know Conan isn't the first guy you think of when
setting the minor goal, putting up minor obstacles and
you say Ex-Navy 4 Terms 797A86. That doesn't matter
detaling fiddly bits that relate to it. It needn't become the
right now. Sticking ideas on paper matters now.
main focus of the scenario, but if you think it'll help to

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have the stuff handy (or if the players Go There), you'll

have some notes to guide you when the crap hits the
fan.

GOAL: Sell the cargo to Cami

OBSTACLES:

● She's being watched by the Secret Police

● Nowhere to make an easy delivery
● Have to forge the cargo's papers
● She's constantly on the move

DETAILS:
Secret Police travel in packs of 4, well-armed

Cami knows of a warehouse at the old creamery, 2 mi.

from starport

Etc...

Again, resist the temptation to provide too much detail;

give yourself wiggle room. Use this stuff as a basis for
winging it, not a script for railroading.

STEP 4: ASSISTANCE AND REWARDS (Optional)

Anything that might be in the PCs favor can, but needn't
be, listed. Hell, you may have already written it down in
Step 3 for all I know. Same for what they stand to gain; I
probably would've listed Cami's offer for the cargo in my
details. I rarely, if ever, do anything for a Step 4; I'm
usually done by them.

You may not use everything you just wrote down. That's
okay. Scratch off what you did use and stick the notes in
a folder. Next time you're stuck for something...

Possibilities abound. Scale the scope up and down, and

you can do anything from a single encounter to a
multi-part epic campaign, wherein each obstacle is a a
few sessions long.

This Funnel has served me well. It is yours now.

Go forth and rock.

http://xbowvsbuddha.blogspot.com/2006/10/adventure-fu
nnel.html

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AdventureHooks ● Keep someone imprisoned

● Imprison someone
Part 1: Adventure Hooks
● Recover a powerful weapon
24 December 2018
● Clear out monsters
In an interview on D&D Beyond, legendary adventure ● Destroy dangerous artifact
writer Chris Perkins describes the requirements for a ● Sanctify unholy site
solid adventure: ● Escape
● Prevent war
● Good villains and monsters. ● Uncover treachery
● A location for the adventure to take place. ● Riches
● A clear reason for the characters to take part. ● Fame
● Protect someone
It's this last one we're going to talk about today. Getting ● Cure someone
the characters involved in the adventure is likely the ● Uncover mystery
most important part. Why do they care? Why put ● Solve murder
themselves at risk? When running Tomb of Annihilation ● Prevent apocalypse
recently, I threw in a dream sequence so horrible that the ● Restore artifact
whole group nearly abandoned the idea of stopping the ● Fulfill prophecy
death curse to return to the safety of Port Nyanzaru and ● Get gold
leave the world's woes to someone else. That's not a ● Return gold to owners
great way to motivate them. ● Give gold to needy
● Prevent gold going to villany
● Get rid of gold
● Hide gold
● Prove innocence
● Peculiar inheritance
● Missing friend or relative
● Trailblaze a new trade route
● Escort settlers
● Survive another day
● Save the lands ruler
There are many possible motivations that drive ● Murder the lands ruler
characters to adventure. Chapter 3 of the Dungeon ● Owe someone a favor
Master's Guide includes three tables full of adventure ● Castaways
hooks for both overland adventures, dungeon ● Research
adventures, and general adventures as well. They're ● On the lam
worth a read. In fact, I'd recommend going back and ● Stop a terrible ritual
flipping through the Dungeon Master's Guide every ● Lift curse
couple of months just to remember all of the awesome ● Researching an invention
stuff that's in it. ● Overthrow a corrupt power structure
● Help a new ruler come to power
I also culled a number of potential motivations from a
● Negotiate a trade deal
Twitter discussion on the topic which you can see below.
● Exchange prisoners
● Recover lost artifact ● Change the past
● Stop a villains evil plot ● Find a way home
● Rescue someone
These are all just models for the motivation an adventure
● Hunt someone down
might contain. We'll have to tune these for our particuar
● Recover lost lore
adventure and the characters within it. In fact, let's talk
● Prevent someone else from finding lost lore
about characters for a moment.
● Release someone imprisoned

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Character-Driven Adventure Hooks

One of the easiest ways to sink in an adventure hook is
to make it part of the character. There are a couple of
ways to do this. The easiest is to tie in the hook during
character creation. For single-session D&D games, like
convention games, we can tie in adventure hooks right
into the pregenerated characters. If players are making
their own characters, we can give them a list of potential
character hooks that tie them into the adventure or
campaign as well. The earlier we tie in these hooks into
character creation, the more these hooks will matter to
the players.

We need look no further than the pregenerated

characters for the D&D Starter Set. These characters
have ties right into Lost Mine of Phandelver that give
each of them a reason to care about what is going on in
the town of Phandalin.

We can also flip this whole idea around and build an

adventure from the backgrounds of the characters.
Likely you'll still want to bring up a theme from your
campaign's session zero but the players might build in
interesting hooks into their characters that you didn't
expect. You can use these hooks to build out
connections to existing adventures or build entirely new
adventures from those hooks alone.

The important part is ensuring that the characters have a

reason to go on this adventure.

Anytime you're pondering the adventure you're going to

run, ask yourself "why the characters care?"

http://slyflourish.com/adventure_hooks.html

Part 2: Sharing Secrets

28 March 2016

When we think about the components we need to run a

great RPG adventure, a bunch of things come to mind.
Interesting NPCs, fantastic adventure locations,
thought-provoking adventure seeds, fun combat
encounters, mysteries, and puzzles; these are the
building blocks of a fun and interesting adventure. Some
GMs will throw story and plot into that mix, although we
acolites of the lazy dungeon master know that we may
omit story and plot to let them grow from the actions of
the PCs.

There's one other set of components that can keep our

games interesting and give information over to the

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players to help them build out the story as they choose check is a great way to give a player a reward for their
courses of actions. We'll call these components secrets. fine roll. If they miss the check the secret may come up
some other way.
Update: Two Years of Secrets
This article has been updated since the original written in Some Example Secrets
April 2014. Since then, I've used secrets nearly every Here are a bunch of example secrets from a recent Out
time I prepare a game. Along with a starting scene and of the Abyss game.
three to five scene ideas jotted down in a pocket
notebook or on a 3x5 card, a list of ten secrets is the ● The Delzoun dwarves built a hidden outpost near
very next thing I write down and it works marvelously. Dark Lake.
● The outpost had a portal to Gauntlgrym.
When I look back over the writings in the Lazy Dungeon ● The outpost is about 2,000 years old.
Master, "Write Down Ten Secrets" is the one chapter I ● The dwarves had an alliance with Modrons.
wish I had in the book. ● The Modrons kept the magical gate working. Only
they can open the gate.
What is a Secret? ● The Delzoun dwarves fought a war against mind
For the sake of this article, a secret is a piece of flayers.
information previously unknown to the PCs that, when ● The Delzoun lost the war and retreated out their own
revealed, gives them a tweet-sized bit of useful and gate.
interesting information. ● The dwarves had to fight hundreds of dwarven thralls.
● To this day the mind flayers want to control the gate
This secret may be part of an assassin's plot. It might be
to Gauntlgrym.
a rumor about the mad king's terrible rituals. It might be
● In a dark decision, the Delzoun destroyed the
the secret love interest between the prince of smugglers
Modrons so no one could open the gate again.
and the advisor of a duchess of Baldur's Gate. Maybe it's
● It's quite possible the PCs never learn all of these
a scrap from the half-burned journal entry describing a
secrets. Maybe they can piece some of them together
villainous quest. Maybe it's a piece of the strange history
on their own. All the better. It's still nice to have ten
about the dungeon in which the PCs explore.
secrets on hand.
Secrets aren't an entire story. They're not complete
Developing Secrets
pictures. They're a single point of data in a large pool of
We develop these secrets by asking ourselves a nice
undiscovered information. Through the history of a
simple question:
magical sword, the PCs might learn the origin of the
bounty hunter who hunted them. It's not the whole "What secrets could the PCs uncover next session?"
bounty hunter's story, but it's a clue into the larger
picture. As we sit down to prepare our game, asking this
question drives us to write down our ten tweet-sized
Secrets Without Context secrets. These secrets may never come into play or they
When we're writing our secrets down, we don't need to might turn the entire course of your game when
give them context. We don't know how the PCs will learn revealed. Until they come into play, they are fluid entities.
about the mad king's terrible rituals, only that they might They don't become real until the PCs discover them.
uncover it somewhere. When we jot these secrets down They might change. They might disappear. We might
in a list of ten, we just put down the secret. It might only use four secrets in one session, scrap the other six, and
be two or three words. write a new list of ten before our next session.

We don't know nor do we care how the PCs will find it When preparing our game the lazy way, we can jot down
out. Maybe it will be an ancient carving on a wall. Maybe our ten secrets on a 3x5 card. One side of the card
it's something whispered in an alley. Maybe its might have our starting scene, our three to five fantastic
information retrieved from the charming of a thug. Maybe locations or scene ideas, and, on the back, our list of ten
it's a piece of history that comes to a character's mind secrets that might be revealed next game.
when they hold a strange small idol in their hands. That
last one is important. Passing a secret as part of a skill As our game moves forward, we can continually look

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back over previous secrets and add in new ones to keep Others might become the main focus of the campaign.
our list of ten secrets fresh.
Secrets As Game Preparation
Campaign Secrets Beyond useful aids to tie players to the story, secrets
Instead of writing a 300 page document for our huge serve us well in preparing our game. They tell us what's
epic adventure, we can instead do some campaign important too. Just like using handouts for game
building by writing down a big bunch of campaign-level organization we can use these secrets to help us
secrets. Here are some example campaign secrets for a understand the structure and threads of our game.
13th Age campaign set in shattered lands of Moonwreck. These secrets may be just as useful to us as they are to
the PCs who discover them. Good secrets serve
● The Three have sent mercenaries led by trusted double-duty as both organizational aids and useful
draconic agents into Moonwreck. information to pass to the players and keep things
● The agents of the Three seek the remains of the interesting.
White.
● The agents of the Three may be trying to resurrect Secrets Aren't Drivers, They're Fuel
the White. We don't use secrets to steer the direction of the PCs.
● The agents of the Three may be trying to ensure the We use secrets to give them interesting information that
White never returns. helps them come up with their own directions.
● The Lich King has a citadel floating over Moonwreck Sometimes we might guess what path the players will
known as Bonespire. pick after learning an interesting secret, but the most
● The Lich King has sent a trio of liches to uncover the interesting secrets are the ones that lead to more than
mystery of the Dark. one clear direction. Some secrets simplify things, but
● Local witches and soothsayers say the Dark is a many secrets complicate things. As we may learn from
malevolent form of anti-life. D&D veteran Teos Abadia it's complexity that builds all
● The Dark may be older than the Ages. the tasty nooks and crannies in our adventures.
● The Lich King may have used the Dark to battle the
White before becoming the Lich King. If you find yourself adding in secrets to simplify your
● Something happened in the last year to uncover game and streamline it down to a single clear path, you
many mysteries buried in the Moonwreck. might be oversimplifying things. Some groups are
● The former Drow city of Darkspire was shattered by perfectly fine with this, but others may want to stretch a
the Moonwreck 300 years ago. bit and explore a network of tangled secrets.
● The Drow of Darkspire no longer hear the Elf Queen.
The Missing Chapter of the Lazy Dungeon Master
● A Living Temple of the Dark has surfaced in the City
Secrets are powerful magic. A solid list of secrets helps
of Lost Temples.
GMs understand the scope and boundaries of their
● Eziel the Frost Witch likes to devour intelligent
game while, at the same time, they build a rich texture
creatures to gain their knowledge.
for PCs to discover. When we think about the tools we
● A mysterious elf was raised by nomads on the plains
need for the three pillars of exploration, interaction, and
near Blackleaf over 300 years ago.
combat; a list of ten secrets is as vaulable to exploration
● The mysterious elf traveled alone to the Cold Iron
as monster stat blocks are to combat. Next time you're
Citadel, throne of the Frost Giants.
thinking about how to organize your adventure, sit down
● The mysterious elf faced and slew King
and jot down ten secrets and see if it works for you.
Mountainhammer, lord of the Frost Giants.
● Many tribes humanoid and monstrous tribes of http://slyflourish.com/sharing_secrets.html
Moonwreck now flock to the banner of the mysterious
elf. Part 3: The Three Clue Rule
● The mysterious elf is called Veseren Moonborn. May 8th, 2008
● Veseren's eyes swirl with shadow.
Mystery scenarios for roleplaying games have earned a
These campaign secrets may split and form into all new reputation for turning into unmitigated disasters: The
secrets as our adventurers navigate through the PCs will end up veering wildly off-course or failing to find
campaign. Some may fall off, never to be seen again. a particular clue and the entire scenario will grind to a

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screeching halt or go careening off the nearest cliff. The correct deduction.
players will become unsure of what they should be
doing. The GM will feel as if they’ve done something If correctly understanding this clue is, in fact, essential to
wrong. And the whole evening will probably end in either the adventure proceeding — if, for example, the PCs
boredom or frustration or both. need to go to the nearest specialty cigar shop and start
asking questions — then the clue serves as chokepoint:
Here’s a typical example: When the PCs approach a Either the PCs understand the clue or the PCs slam into
murder scene they don’t search outside the house, so a wall.
they never find the wolf tracks which transform into the
tracks of a human. They fail the Search check to find the Chokepoints in adventure design are always a big
hidden love letters, so they never realize that both problem and need to be avoided, but we can see that
women were being courted by the same man. They find when it comes to a mystery scenario the problem is
the broken crate reading DANNER’S MEATS, but rather much worse: Each clue is not just one chokepoint, it’s
than going back to check on the local butcher they spoke actually multiple chokepoints.
to earlier they decide to go stake out the nearest meat
So the solution here is simple: Remove the chokepoints.
processing plant instead.
THE BREAD CRUMB TRAIL
As a result of problems like these, many people reach an
GUMSHOE System - Robin D. LawsFor the GUMSHOE
erroneous conclusion: Mystery scenarios in RPGs are a
system (used in The Esoterrorists, Fear Itself, and The
bad idea. In a typical murder mystery, for example, the
Trail of Cthulhu), Robin D. Laws decided to get rid of the
protagonist is a brilliant detective. The players are
concept of needing to find clues. In each “scene” of an
probably not brilliant detectives. Therefore, mysteries are
investigation scenario, there is a “clue”. It’s automatically
impossible.
assumed that the investigators will find this clue.
Or, as someone else once put it to me: “The players are
This removes three of our four chokepoints, leaving only
not Sherlock Holmes.”
the necessity of using the clue to make the correct
Although the conclusion is incorrect, there’s an element deduction (i.e., the deduction which moves you onto the
of truth in this. For example, in A Study in Scarlet, next “scene” where the next clue can be imparted). And,
Sherlock Holmes is investigating the scene of a murder. in the case of the GUMSHOE system, even this step can
He discovers a small pile of ashes in the corner of the be tackled mechanically (with the players committing
room. He studies them carefully and is able to conclude points from their character’s skills to receive increasingly
that the ashes have come from a Trichinopoly cigar. accurate “deductions” from the GM).

Now, let’s analyze how this relatively minor example of This is a mechanical solution to the problem. But while it
Holmesian deduction would play out at the game table: may result in a game session which superficially follows
the structure of a mystery story, I think it fails because it
1. The players would need to successfully search the doesn’t particularly feel as if you’re playing a mystery.
room.
2. They would need to care enough about the ashes to Laws’ fundamental mistake, I think, is in assuming that a
examine them. mystery story is fundamentally about following a “bread
3. They would need to succeed at a skill check to crumb trail” of clues. Here’s a quote from a design essay
identify them. on the subject:
4. They would need to use that knowledge to reach the
I’d argue, first of all, that these fears are misplaced, and
correct conclusion.
arise from a fundamental misperception. The trail of
That’s four potential points of failure: The PCs could fail clues, or bread crumb plot, is not the story, and does not
to search the room (either because the players don’t constitute a pre-scripted experience. What the PCs
think to do it or because their skill checks were poor). choose to do, and how they interact with each other as
The PCs could fail to examine the ashes (because they they solve the mystery, is the story. As mentioned in The
don’t think them important). The PCs could fail the skill Esoterrorist rules, we saw this at work during playtest, as
check to identify them. The PCs could fail to make the all of the groups had very different experiences of the

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sample scenario, as each GM and player combo riffed in where you wanted them to go all along.
their own unique ways off the situations it suggested.
I’m kidding, of course. But if you think of each clue as a
But, in point of fact, this type of simplistic “A leads to B plan (the PCs will find A, conclude B, and go to C), then
leads to C leads to D” plotting is not typical of the when you have three clues you’ve not only got a plan —
mystery genre. For a relatively simplistic you’ve also got two backup plans. And when you realize
counter-example, let’s return to Sherlock Holmes in A that your plans never survive contact with the players,
Study in Scarlet: the need for those backup plans becomes clear.

WATSON: “That seems simple enough,” said I; but how In a best case scenario, of course, the players will find
about the other man’s height?” all three clues. There’s nothing wrong with that. They
can use those clues to confirm their suspicions and
HOLMES: “Why, the height of a man, in nine cases out reinforce their conclusions (just like Sherlock Holmes).
of ten, can be told from the length of his stride. It is a
simple calculation enough, though there is no use my In a worst case scenario, they should be able to use at
boring you with figures. I had this fellow’s stride both on least one of these clues to reach the right conclusion
the clay outside and on the dust within. Then I had a way and keep the adventure moving.
of checking my calculation. When a man writes on a
wall, his instinct leads him to write above the level of his And here’s an important tip: There are no exceptions to
own eyes. Now that writing was just over six feet from the Three Clue Rule.
the ground. It was child’s play.”
“But Justin!” I hear you say. “This clue is really obvious.
This is just one small deduction in a much larger There is no way the players won’t figure it out.”
mystery, but you’ll note that Holmes has in fact gathered
In my experience, you’re probably wrong. For one thing,
several clues, studied them, and then distilled a
you’re the one designing the scenario. You already know
conclusion out of them. And this is, in fact, the typical
what the solution to the mystery is. This makes it very
structure of the mystery genre: The detective slowly
difficult for you to objectively judge whether something is
gathers a body of evidence until, finally, a conclusion
obvious or not.
emerges. In the famous words of Holmes himself, “When
you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, And even if you’re right, so what? Having extra clues
however improbable, must be the truth.” isn’t going to cause any problems. Why not be safe
rather than sorry?
What is true, however, is that in many cases it is
necessary for many smaller deductions to be made in EXTENDING THE THREE CLUE RULE
order for all of the evidence required to solve the If you think about it in a broader sense, the Three Clue
mystery to be gathered. However, as the example from Rule is actually a good idea to keep in mind when you’re
A Study in Scarlet demonstrates, even these smaller designing any scenario.
deductions can be based on a body of evidence and not
just one clue in isolation. Richard Garriott, the designer of the Ultima computer
games and Tabula Rasa, once said that his job as a
This observation leads us, inexorably, to the solution game designer was to make sure that at least one
we’ve been looking for. solution to a problem was possible without preventing
the player from finding other solutions on their own. For
THE THREE CLUE RULE
example, if you find a locked door in an Ultima game
Whenever you’re designing a mystery scenario, you
then there will be a key for that door somewhere. But
should invariably follow the Three Clue Rule:
you could also hack your way through it; or pick the lock;
For any conclusion you want the PCs to make, or pull a cannon up to it and blow it away.
include at least three clues.
Deus Ex - Warren SpectorWarren Spector, who started
Why three? Because the PCs will probably miss the first; working with Garriott on Ultima VI, would later go on to
ignore the second; and misinterpret the third before design Deus Ex. He follows the same design philosophy
making some incredible leap of logic that gets them and speaks glowingly of the thrill he would get watching

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someone play his game and thinking, “Wait… is that As you begin layering these Three Clue Rule
going to work?” techniques, you’ll find that your scenarios become even
more robust. For example, let’s take a murder mystery in
When designing an adventure, I actually try to take this which the killer is a werewolf who seeks out his
design philosophy one step further: For any given ex-lovers. We come up with three possible ways to
problem, I make sure there’s at least one solution and identify the killer:
remain completely open to any solutions the players
might come up with on their own. 1. Patrol the streets of the small town on the night of the
full moon.
But, for any chokepoint problem, I make sure there’s at 2. Identify the victims as all being former lovers of the
least three solutions. same man.
3. Go to the local butcher shop where the killer works
By a chokepoint, I mean any problem that must be
and find his confessions of nightmare and sin written
solved in order for the adventure to continue.
in blood on the walls of the back room.
For example, let’s say that there’s a secret door behind
For each of these conclusions (he’s a werewolf; he’s a
which is hidden some random but ultimately unimportant
former lover; we should check out the butcher shop)
treasure. Finding the secret door is a problem, but it’s
we’ll need three clues.
not a chokepoint, so I only need to come up with one
solution. In D&D this solution is easy because it’s built HE’S A WEREWOLF: Tracks that turn from wolf paw
right into the rules: The secret door can be found with a prints to human footprints. Over-sized claw marks on the
successful Search check. victims. One of the victims owned a handgun loaded with
silver bulles.
But let’s say that, instead of some random treasure,
there is something of absolutely vital importance behind HE’S A FORMER LOVER: Love letters written by the
that door. For the adventure to work, the PCs must find same guy. A diary written by one victim describing how
that secret door. he cheated on her with another victim. Pictures of the
same guy either on the victims or kept in their houses
The secret door is now a chokepoint problem and so I’ll
somewhere.
try to make sure that there are at least three solutions.
The first solution remains the same: A successful Search CHECK OUT THE BUTCHER SHOP: A broken crate
check. To this we could add a note in a different location reading DANNER’S MEATS at one of the crime scenes.
where a cultist is instructed to “hide the artifact behind A note saying “meet me at the butcher shop” crumpled
the statue of Ra” (where the secret door is); a badly up and thrown in a wastepaper basket. A jotted entry
damaged journal written by the designer of the complex saying “meet P at butcher shop” in the day planner of
which refers to the door; a second secret door leading to one of the victims.
the same location (this counts as a separate solution
because it immediately introduces the possibility of a And just like that you’ve created a scenario with nine
second Search check); a probable scenario in which the different paths to success. And if you keep your mind
main villain will attempt to flee through the secret door; open to the idea of “more clues are always better” as
the ability to interrogate captured cultists; and so forth. you’re designing the adventure, you’ll find even more
opportunities. For example, how trivial would it be to
Once you identify a chokepoint like this, it actually drop a reference to the butcher shop into one of those
becomes quite trivial to start adding solutions like this. love letters? Or to fill that diary with half-mad charcoal
sketches of wolves?
I’ve seen some GMs argue that this makes things “too
easy”. But the reality is that alternative solutions like this The fun part of all this is, once you’ve given yourself
tend to make the scenario more interesting, not less permission to include lots of clues, you’ve given yourself
interesting. Look at our secret door, for example: Before the opportunity to include some really esoteric and
we started adding alternative solutions, it was just a dice subtle clues. If the players figure them out, then they’ll
roll. Now it’s designed by a specific person; used by feel pretty awesome for having done so. If they don’t
cultists; and potentially exploited as a get-away. notice them or don’t understand them, that’s OK, too:

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You’ve got plenty of other clues for them to pursue (and In order to be open to permissive clue-finding you first
once they do solve the mystery, they’ll really enjoy have to understand the underlying situation. (Who is the
looking back at those esoteric clues and understanding werewolf? How did he kill this victim? Why did he kill
what they meant). them? When did he kill them?) Then embrace the
unexpected ideas and approaches the PCs will have,
COROLLARY: PERMISSIVE CLUE-FINDING and lean on the permissive side when deciding whether
The maxim “more clues are always better” is an or not they can find a clue you had never thought about
important one. There is a natural impulse when before.
designing a mystery, I think, to hold back information.
This is logical inclination: After all, a mystery is COROLLARY: PROACTIVE CLUES
essentially defined by a lack of information. And there’s a A.K.A. Bash Them On the Head With It.
difference between having lots of clues and having the
murderer write his home address in blood on the wall. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, the players will
work themselves into a dead-end: They don’t know what
But the desire to hold back information does more harm the clues mean or they’re ignoring the clues or they’ve
than good, I think. Whenever you hold back a piece of used the clues to reach an incorrect conclusion and are
information, you are essentially closing off a path now heading in completely the wrong direction. (When
towards potential success. This goes back to Garriott’s I’m using the Three Clue Rule, I find this will most often
advice: Unless there’s some reason why the door should happen when the PCs don’t realize that there’s actually a
be cannon-proof, the player should be rewarded for their mystery that needs to be solved — not every mystery is
clever thinking. Or, to put it another way: Just because as obvious as a dead body, after all.)
you shouldn’t leave the key to a locked door laying on
the floor in front of the door, it doesn’t mean that there This is when having a backup plan is useful. The
shouldn’t be multiple ways to get past the locked door. problem in this scenario is that the PCs are being too
passive — either because they don’t have the
With that in mind, you should consciously open yourself information they need or because they’re using the
to permissive clue-finding. By this I mean that, if the information in the wrong way. The solution, therefore, is
players come up with a clever approach to their to have something active happen to them.
investigation, you should be open to the idea of giving
them useful information as a result. Raymond Chandler’s advice for this kind of impasse
was, “Have a guy with a gun walk through the door.”
Here’s another way of thinking about it: Don’t treat the
list of clues you came up with during your prep time as a My typical fallback is in the same vein: The bad guy finds
straitjacket. Instead, think of that prep work as your out they’re the ones investigating the crime and sends
safety net. someone to kill them or bribe them.

I used to get really attached to a particularly clever Another good one is “somebody else dies”. Or, in a more
solution when I would design it. I would emotionally general sense, “the next part of the bad guy’s plan
invest in the idea of my players discovering this clever happens”. This has the effect of proactively creating a
solution that I had designed. As a result, I would tend to new location or event for the PCs to interact with.
veto other potential solutions the players came up with
The idea with all of these, of course, is not simply “have
— after all, if those other solutions worked they would
something happen”. You specifically want to have the
never discover the clever solution I had come up with.
event give them a new clue (or, better yet, multiple
Over time, I’ve learned that it’s actually a lot more fun clues) that they can follow up on.
when the players surprise me. It’s the same reason I
In a worst case scenario, though, you can design a final
avoid fudging dice rolls to preserve whatever dramatic
“Get Out of Jail Free” card that you can use to bring the
conceit I came up with. As a result, I now tend to think of
scenario to a satisfactory close no matter how badly the
my predesigned solution as a worst case scenario — the
PCs get bolloxed up. For example, in our werewolf
safety net that snaps into place when my players fail to
mystery — if the PCs get completely lost — you could
come up with anything more interesting.
simply have the werewolf show up and try to kill them

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(because he thinks they’re “getting too close”). This is couple of proactive backup plans designed to get the
usually less than satisfactory, but at least it gets you out PCs back on track if things should go awry.
of a bad situation. It’s the final backup when all other
backups have failed. Nothing could possibly go wrong!

COROLLARY: RED HERRINGS ARE OVERRATED … why do you even saying things like that?
Red herrings are a classic element of the mystery genre:
The truth is that you are either a mouse or a man and,
All the evidence points towards X, but its a red herring!
sooner or later, your plans are going to go awry. When
The real murderer is Y!
that happens, you’re going to want to be prepared for the
When it comes to designing a scenario for an RPG, possibility of spinning out new backup plans on the fly.
however, red herrings are overrated. I’m not going to go
Here’s a quote from an excellent essay by Ben Robbins:
so far as to say that you should never use them, but I will
go so far as to say that you should only use them with Normal weapons can’t kill the zombies. MicroMan
extreme caution. doesn’t trust Captain Fury. The lake monster is really Old
Man Wiggins in a rubber mask.
There are two reasons for this:
These are Revelations. They are things you want the
First, getting the players to make the deductions they’re
players to find out so that they can make good choices
supposed to make is hard enough. Throwing in a red
or just understand what is going on in the game.
herring just makes it all the harder. More importantly,
Revelations advance the plot and make the game
however, once the players have reached a conclusion
dramatically interesting. If the players don’t find them out
they’ll tend to latch onto it. It can be extremely difficult to
(or don’t find them out at the right time) they can mess
convince them to let it go and re-assess the evidence.
up your game.
(One of the ways to make a red herring work is to make
sure that there will be an absolutely incontrovertible I recommend this essay highly. It says pretty much
refutation of it: For example, the murders continue even everything I was planning to include in my discussion of
after the PCs arrest a suspect. Unfortunately, your this final corollary, so I’m not going to waste my time
concept of an “incontrovertible refutation” may hold just rephrasing something that’s already been written so well.
as much water as your concept of a “really obvious clue Instead, I’ll satisfy myself by just quoting this piece of
that cannot be missed.) advice from it:
Second, there’s really no need for you to make up a red Write Your Revelations: Writing out your revelations
herring: The players are almost certainly going to take ahead of time shows you how the game is going to flow.
care of it for you. If you fill your adventure with nothing Once play starts things can get a little hectic – you may
but clues pointing conclusively and decisively at the real accidentally have the evil mastermind show up and
killer, I can virtually guarantee you that the players will deliver his ultimatum and stomp off again without
become suspicious of at least three other people before remembering to drop that one key hint that leads the
they figure out who’s really behind it all. They will heroes to his base. If you’re lucky you recognize the
become very attached to these suspicions and begin omission and can backtrack. If you’re unlucky you don’t
weaving complicated theories explaining how the notice it at all, and you spend the rest of the game
evidence they have fits the suspect they want. wondering why the players have such a different idea of
what is going on than you do.
In other words, the big trick in designing a mystery
scenario is to try to avoid a car wreck. Throwing red As we’ve discussed, one way to avoid this type of
herrings into the mix is like boozing the players before problem is to avoid having “one key hint” on which the
putting them behind the wheel of the car. adventure hinges. But the advice of “writing out your
revelations ahead of time” is an excellent one. As
COROLLARY: NOTHING IS FOOLPROOF
Robbins says, this “should be a checklist or a trigger, not
You’ve carefully laid out a scenario in which there are
the whole explanation”.
multiple paths to the solution with each step along each
path supported by dozens of clues. You’ve even got a What I recommend is listing each conclusion you want

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the players to reach. Under each conclusion, list every

clue that might lead them to that conclusion. (This can
also serve as a good design checklist to make sure
you’ve got enough clues supporting every conclusion.)
As the PCs receive the clues, check them off. (This lets
you see, at a glance, if there are areas where the PCs
are missing too many clues.)

Finally, listen carefully to what the players are saying to

each other. When they’ve actually reached a particular
conclusion, you can check the whole conclusion off your
list. (Be careful not to check it off as soon as they
consider it as a possibility. Only check it off once they’ve
actually concluded that it’s true.)

If you see that too many clues for a conclusion are being
missed, or that all the clues have been found but the
players still haven’t figured it out, then you’ll know it’s
probably time to start thinking about new clues that can
be worked into the adventure.

THE FINAL WORD

Basically, what all of this boils down to is simple: Plan

multiple paths to success. Encourage player ingenuity.
Give yourself a failsafe.

And remember the Three Clue Rule:

For any conclusion you want the PCs to make,

include at least three clues.

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-ga
mes/three-clue-rule

Miscellaneous Tips
Magic Number Seven
SUNDAY, APRIL 15, 2007

http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2007/04/magic-number-se
ven.html

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Roleplaying is a conversation. You and the other

Pacing players go back and forth, talking about these
Part 1: The Art of Pacing fictional characters in their fictional circumstances
July 15th, 2013 doing whatever it is that they do. Like any
conversation, you take turns, but it’s not like taking
Roleplaying games are a relatively new medium. And turns, right? Sometimes you talk over each other,
like most fresh-faced mediums, this means that a lot of interrupt, build on each others’ ideas, monopolize.
advice given for creating and using the medium is being All fine.
borrowed from existing mediums. It also means that
most of this advice is wrong because the similarities
between the old and new mediums is usually a lot more
superficial than it may initially appear. (For example, it
took decades before screenplays fully stopped
mimicking theatrical scripts.)

At the moment, the subject of pacing in RPGs is a good

example of this. A lot of the GMing advice you’ll find for
pacing right now revolves around borrowing terms and
concepts directly from film or television. Like a
screenplay written using the techniques for live theater,
some of this stuff works, but a lot of it doesn’t because
film pacing is primarily about controlling the presentation
of predetermined action and RPGs don’t (or at least
arguably shouldn’t) have predetermined action.

(If you want an extreme example of this, consider

Christopher Nolan’s Memento: The pacing of that film is
entirely based on the careful presentation of information Or, to put it another way, the fundamental interaction of
known to the writer / filmmaker. I can certainly imagine an RPG can be boiled down to:
mimicking a Memento-like experience in an RPG, but
the techniques you’d use to achieve it would be radically ● GM: What do you want to do?
different from those Nolan used in the creation, filming, ● Player: I want to do X.
and editing of Memento.) ● GM: When you try to do that, this happens. What do
you want to do?
Understanding film pacing (as opposed to theatrical
pacing) requires one to understand one of the In actual practice, of course, the GM’s question is often
fundamental principles of film as a medium: The ability to implied, the conversation isn’t tidy, multiple players are
cut the film and splice it together. involved, the rules can reshape the structure of the
conversation, and so forth. But that’s the heart and core
Similarly, understanding pacing for an RPG requires one of everything that happens in a roleplaying game: The
to understand the fundamental principle of the RPG GM presents a situation; the players respond to that
medium: The conversation of meaningful choices. situation by making a choice; the GM adjudicates the
outcome of that choice (and thus presents a new
THE CONVERSATION OF MEANINGFUL CHOICES situation to which the players respond).
As I’ve said in the past, a roleplaying game is
self-evidently about playing a role. Playing a role is Regardless of how you try to fancy that interaction up,
about making choices as if you were the character. And it’s fundamentally a loop. And the GM’s ability to control
those choices are made as part of a conversation. pacing sits specifically at the moment of his response
(“when you try to do that, this happens”).
Apocalypse World’s D. Vincent Baker said in Apocalypse
World: EMPTY TIME
Although the art of pacing in a roleplaying game is

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unique compared to other mediums, in practice it can be ● Player: Straight.

remarkably simple. The GM must identify and then ● GM: Okay, you go another block down to Chicago
eliminate, conflate, or (in advanced techniques) Avenue. There’s a stoplight. It’s red. What do you
manipulate what I’m going to refer to as empty time: The want to do?
gap between one set of meaningful decisions and the ● Player: I’ll wait for the light to turn green and then
next meaningful choice. turn right.

Or, to put it another way, you want to skip over the That’s self-evidently moronic. None of those decisions
“boring bits” where nothing is happening. And the trick to are meaningful. Nobody is having fun. And that’s how we
doing that is moving the players efficiently to the next end up with interactions that look like this:
moment in which they can make an interesting and
meaningful choice without taking away such choices by ● GM: You’re at the city gate. What do you want to do?
skipping over them. ● Player: We go to the Tavern of the Lonely Wench.
● GM: Okay. As you walk through the doors of the
I find it most convenient to think of the treatment of Lonely Wench…
empty time as a continuum. At one end of this
continuum, for example, you have gameplay like that Whoa. What just happened? We skipped over a whole
found in a pure, old school dungeoncrawl: Essentially no bunch of stuff and – BAM! – we’ve suddenly framed a
time is skipped and every action is catalogued because new scene at the tavern.
the density of meaningful decisions is incredibly high. (In
INTENTIONS vs. INTERRUPTIONS / OBSTACLES
by-the-book OD&D, for example, a wandering monster
We’re going to be taking a closer look at what it means
check is made every single turn. Because of this, even if
to frame a scene later, but first I want to focus on how
you ignore the high density of geographically-significant
the new scene was selected. We’ve moved slightly up
navigation decisions being made, the decision to take or
the scene-framing continuum here by skipping to the
not take a single action remains incredibly significant.)
intention: The players said they wanted to achieve
This, by the way, is another reason why dungeoncrawls something and the GM skipped to the moment at which
are such an effective scenario structure for new GMs: they’d achieved it.
They basically eliminate any need for the GM to think
If you’re the GM, this basically involves asking yourself
about pacing. It’s an entire body of techniques that the
two questions: What is the current intention of the PCs?
GM can simply ignore while running the dungeoncrawl
And does anything interrupt that intention?
with confidence.
In this example, identifying the intention is really easy:
Once a GM leaves the dungeon, however, they’ll quickly
The player told you, point-blank, what they wanted to
realize that this technique doesn’t work. For example,
achieve. Interruptions (which you can also think of as
imagine we were playing a game of Vampire: The
obstacles standing between the PCs and their desired
Masquerade and I decided to handle the process of
outcome) could take any number of forms: Do they get
leaving my house and driving downtown like this:
ambushed by assassins? Or run into an old friend? Or
● GM: What do you want to do? have an opportunity to pick a rich nobleman’s pocket? Or
● Player: I want to head downtown. spot a rare tome of lore at bargain basement prices?
● GM: How are you getting there?
In determining these interruptions and obstacles, we
● Player: I’ll drive my car.
begin to see the motivations and techniques of the GM
● GM: Okay, you pull your car out of the garage and
coming into play: Does the interruption happen because
start driving down the alley. Do you want to turn left or
you’re using a random table of simulated events?
right at the end of the alley?
Because you need to key the next plot arc? Because the
● Player: Left.
next event on your prepared timeline is due to occur?
● GM: Okay, you go half a block down to 10th Street.
Because you have a creative whim? Because you want
Which way do you want to go?
to activate a tag on one of your PCs?
● Player: Straight.
● GM: Okay, you go another block down to Elliot.
Which way do you want to go?

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So, to sum up: back to town.

● GM: It’s two weeks later and you’re shopping for
1. Identify the intention supplies in Dink’s store. You spot a shoplifter slipping
2. Choose obstacles a gold watch into his pocket. You shout, “STOP
3. Skip to the next meaningful choice THIEF!” and he starts running for the door. What do
you do?
In the Art of Rulings I wrote that, “When in doubt, look for
the meaningful choice.” And the same principle applies The more you crank it up – the harder you frame the
here. scene – the more latitude the GM has for expressing
their creative agenda and the larger their influence over
As we continue moving up the continuum of
the course of the game becomes. This is because the
scene-framing, what basically happens is that the
decision to skip “empty time” is hiding a railroad… it’s
threshold of interest required to frame the next beat is
just that you’re “railroading” past decisions that everyone
cranked up. For example, if we nudge it up just a tick:
at the table agrees are irrelevant.
● GM: You’re at the city gate. What do you want to do?
● Player: We go looking for a tavern.
● GM: Okay, you’re in the Tavern of the Lonely Wench.

Spot the difference? The GM decided that the choice of

which tavern the PCs wanted to go to was irrelevant, so
he skipped it, picked the tavern for them, and started the
next scene. If he’d decided not to frame the scene quite
so hard, he could have asked, “You want an upscale
joint or a downscale joint?” Or offered them a selection
of different taverns and allowed them to choose. (Or
both.)

(And, conversely, by asking those questions, the GM is

basically saying, “Either you or I or both of us care about
whether the tavern is upscale or downscale.” Either
because that choice tells us something interesting about
the characters; or changes the amount of gold they will
spend; or determines the likely encounters they’ll have
there; or makes it easier to spot the spies tailing them; or Smallville Roleplaying Game - Margaret Weis
any number of other possibilities.) Productions

The harder the frame, the higher the level of interest The risk, of course, is that you skip past a decision that
needs to be before we stop fast-forwarding (and the is important to someone at the table. The Smallville
more decisions get skipped). For example, maybe the RPG, which advocates for strong and aggressive
GM decides that the tavern is completely boring and scene-framing, offers this advice:
instead we get:
If, despite your best efforts, you skip a little too far
● GM: You’re at the city gate. ahead and a player says, “But I wanted to—“ just
● Player: We go looking for a tavern. hand him a Plot Point. Tell him to spend it on
● GM: You party long and hard into the night, so you’re revealing his planned preparations in the middle of
still a little hung-over the next morning when you’re the scene. With luck, he’ll surprise the rest of the
shopping for supplies at Dink’s store and spot a table with an unforeseen turn of events.
shoplifter slipping a gold watch into his pocket.
This sort of solution is not unusual. In fact, the more you
And we can keep cranking: crank it up, the more typical it becomes for the game or
the GM to start introducing more STG / narrative control
● Player: Okay, we’re done at the dungeon. Let’s head mechanics and techniques: The GM is taking so much

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control away from the players that it becomes necessary Part 2: Scene-Framing
to compensate by giving them back control in other July 17th, 2013
ways.
Once you start skipping empty time it becomes
Of course, in actual practice GMs will vary the pace of necessary to frame the scene you’re skipping to: The
their scene-framing considerably depending on context continuous and relatively steady flow of events
and circumstance. But basically “skip the boring stuff experienced in a classic dungeoncrawl is replaced with
and get to the next meaningful choice” is all you really something inconsistent, noncontiguous, and possibly
need to know about pacing in an RPG. even non-sequential.

The difficult part, of course, is putting that simple maxim In HeroQuest, Robin D. Laws defines three different
into effective practice. types of “time” in a roleplaying game – abstract time,
now time, and slow time. These can be useful ways to
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/31509/roleplaying-g think about the pacing of your session and to them I’ll
ames/the-art-of-pacing also add the concept of a sharp cut.

HeroQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha - Robin D. Laws

and Greg Stafford

SLOW TIME: According to Laws, this is where critical

events and extended contests happen. It’s the place
where people want to fine-tune their intentions and their
actions, and as a result it’s a place where either more
rules or more attention (or both) gets applied. The
narration of events in slow time generally takes more
time to resolve in real time than it does for the characters
to experience it. (The D&D combat system is an
example of slow time.)

NOW TIME: We could also refer to this as being “in the

scene”. This is typically where the majority of our playing
time is spent: The players are making every decision for
their characters and there isn’t any empty time being

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skipped over. empty time between meaningful decisions, then you

should be trying to eliminate as much of that empty time
ABSTRACT TIME: Abstract time is a soft method of — to cut as close to the next meaningful choice — as
moving over empty time. It generally takes the form of possible. You also generally can’t go too far wrong by
what I think of as “eliding narration”: “Several days pass keeping the focus on your players; by engaging them
as you cross the Great Plain…” or “You leave the Docks constantly in the process of making meaningful choices.)
and head across town…” (This is the method I most
often use for moving between scenes, largely because it First, identify the agenda of the scene. Why are we
never fully disengages from the players: With practice it here? Why is this moment important? Agendas don’t
becomes easy to read a table’s reaction to eliding have to be portentous, but if you’re cutting into a scene
narration and “know” when you need to drop out of it and there must have been a reason why you’re doing it.
back into a scene. I also find it very conducive for the
sort of non-linear scenario structures I use, because it (Let’s take a moment to imagine a scene without an
allows the players to continue providing input even as agenda. Remember that sequence from Vampire: The
we move rapidly through the game world’s clock.) Masquerade where a PC decides to drive downtown?
Okay. The GM cuts away from the house and decides to
SHARP CUT: Finally we have the sharp cut. Here we open the next scene.
jump directly from the end of one action to the beginning
of a different action without explaining the transition or ● GM: You’re sitting at a red light on the corner of
relationship between them. For example: Chicago and Franklin. What are you doing?
● Player: I wait for the light to turn green.
● Player: Okay. I head to bed. ● GM: The light turns green. You continue driving
● GM: You fall asleep as soon as your head hits the downtown.
pillow. And we cut to – the sharp pain of the goblin’s
sword biting through your chain and deep into your End of scene. Without an agenda – without some reason
arm. for focusing on the events at Chicago and Franklin – that
was clearly a pointless waste of time. Fortunately, this
Obviously a lot of scene transitions are going to take the GM at least had the common sense to cut the scene off
form of either sharp cuts or the eliding narration of and move on. Sometimes you’ll see neophyte GMs
abstract time. But even if there’s a relative consistency of continue to linger in these sorts of pointless exchanges
“now time” between sequences, you may still find it for painfully long periods of time.)
useful to conceptually break the action into scenes and
use scene-framing techniques to structure them. The types of agendas that are prioritized, the methods
used to select them, and the way they’re presented is
Whatever the case may be, however, you will need an another place where the motivations and techniques of
understanding of both how to open a scene and how to an individual GM are strongly expressed. But, in general,
close a scene. I find it useful to think of the agenda in terms of the
question which is being answered by the scene. Another
THE AGENDA way to think of this is in terms of the scene’s stakes.
Flipping the pages of a diary. Fast-fowarding through a (Literally, what’s at stake in the scene.)
video. Cutting sharply to a fresh moment. How do we
decide when to stop flipping? Or push the play button? For example, if we’re dealing with a standard dungeon
Or what to cut to? How do we decide when a new a crawl we might think of each room as a separate scene.
scene begins? Let’s say that one of these rooms contains an ogre. We
might say that the agenda of this scene is to answer the
There are several ways that you can think about what it question, “Can the PCs kill the ogre?” (At stake are the
means to “open” a scene, but I generally think of it in lives of the PCs and the life of the ogre.) But you could
terms of rapidly establishing the moment (the who, what, also radically alter the character of this scene by asking
where, and when) and then applying a sharp impetus a different question: “How are the PCs going to get past
which creates action. the ogre?” makes the scene more open-ended. “Can the
ogre convince the PCs to help him fight the goblins?”, on
(I say “rapidly” because if the entire idea is to skip the

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the other hand, would change the scene entirely. “You’re only about halfway back to town when the
full moon fully crests the Blue Hills. Sharp lances of
Non-dungeon examples might include things like: Will pain dance down your limbs and arc across your
Billy take the heroin? Can Sherlock find the bloody back as fur erupts from your skin.”
handprint? Will Gunther betray the Jewish family living in
his secret attic? And so forth. “The cop hauls himself out of the patrol car. He’s
wearing a food-stained sheriff’s uniform. He’s got a
(If you’re railroading, then you may have already ring on a chain around his neck. You recognize your
predetermined the answers to these questions, but the wife’s wedding band.”
questions are still being asked. If you’re not railroading,
then it’s very likely that you’ll find the agenda of a scene You’ll often find that bangs require contextualization. (In
changing after it’s begun. But there’ll still have been other words, you might need to start a scene a little
some initial or intended agenda that made you frame the before the bang in order to properly set up the
scene in the first place, and that’s what we’re interested information necessary to understand the bang.) You may
in at the moment.) also find it useful to multiply or escalate the stakes of a
scene by using a sequence of multiple bangs.
THE BANG
Now that you’ve framed the agenda, you need to
actually start the scene by zooming in or refocusing or
painting a verbal sketch (or whatever other procedural
descriptor seems most appropriate to you).

What you’re looking for here is the bang.

The bang is the thing which forces the PCs to make one
or more meaningful choices (or at least provokes them
with the opportunity to do so). It’s the explosive force
which launches the scene and propels it forward.
Texas State Highway 222 - Leaflet (CC License at Link)
Let’s keep it simple for the moment by looking back at
our dungeon scene with the ogre. Assume the PCs have For example, consider the scene featuring the “wedding
failed their Stealth check. Does the scene start when the band” bang above. You might open that scene by saying
ogre jumps out and snarls in their face? Or does it start something like:
when they’re still approaching its chamber and they can
hear the crunching of bones? Or when they see a goblin “You’ve been on the road to San Antonio for the
strung up on a rack with its intestines hanging around its better part of four hours. Heat is glimmering off the
ankles… and then the deep thudding of heavy footsteps endless stretch of tar in front of you and the air
fills the corridor behind them as the ogre returns for its conditioner is straining to keep up with it. Your gas
meal? gauge has dipped below a quarter tank now and
you’re keeping a sharp outlook for any sort of
Each of these is a different bang, and you can see how service station to top it back up.”
changing the bang can dramatically shift the nature of
the ensuing scene (even if all the other elements of that (This is all context. Or exposition. It’s establishing some
scene remain the same). Choosing the “right” bang is key facts about the scene that’s about to happen: The
usually more art than science. character is in the middle of nowhere. They’re low on
gas. Et cetera.)
Outside of the dungeon, bangs might look like this:
“You’re pulling past the long-faded billboard for a bait
“Cut to Thursday afternoon. You’re cleaning your shop when the red-and-whites of some country cop
son’s room. You’re shifting around a couple of his blossom like a cherry tree behind you.”
well-read comic books when you find a syringe. A
used syringe.” (This is the first bang of the scene: Bam! There’s a cop.
Do you pull over? Or do you try to outrun him? If the PC

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has nothing to hide from the cops this is probably a Part 3: Filling the Frame
pretty weak bang. But if there’s a body hidden in the July 22nd, 2013
trunk, for example, then it’s got some potential.)
Now that you know what the scene is about and the
In this case we’ll assume that the PC decides to pull bang you’re using to launch it, you need to fill it with
over. And that’s when we deliver the second bang content. (Although, to be fair, the distinction we’re
(featuring the wedding band) which escalates the scene. drawing here is not a hard-and-fast one: By the time
you’ve set the agenda and the bang of a scene, you
In conclusion, it’s time for a personal value judgment on probably already know a lot about it.)
my part: Generally speaking, the shorter the
contextualization and the larger the number of The process of filling a scene with content is an artistic
interesting choices that can be made in response to a one. And, like most artistic processes, there’s a virtually
bang the better the bang is. unlimited variation in the methods people use to do it.
I’m not even particularly consistent in how I approach it
You don’t always need rich, complicated scenes, of and I actually think it’s a mistake to treat it as something
course. Sometimes you want the short, brutal simplicity that can be hard-coded. So I’m going to toss out a whole
of someone swinging an axe at James Bond’s head. bunch of ideas that I personally find useful. Maybe you’ll
(That sort of change-up with a clear-cut choice can be find them useful, too. But regardless of that, you should
vitally refreshing in a campaign mired with complex poke around and see what other people have to say
dilemmas.) But nine times out of ten, you’ll make your about it. And you should give yourself permission to
campaign richer and more rewarding if you make your experiment and really play around until you start getting
bangs more evocative. a feel for what works for you and for your players.

(A final note: The term “bang” was coined by Ron First, however, there’s an all-important maxim:
Edwards with a very narrow definition that applied it only
to Edwards’ preferred style of “narrativism”. I’m very You may know where the scene begins, but you
deliberately genericizing the term so that it applies to any don’t know where it ends.
style.)
You’re not writing a book or filming a movie. Unlike a
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/31520/roleplaying-g traditional author, you may know where you’re starting
ames/the-art-of-pacing-part-2-scene-framing off, but you’ve got no idea where the journey will end.
Viewed from one perspective, this is a major limitation.
But if you look at it from another angle, it’s a major
opportunity.

ELEMENTS OF A SCENE
Here’s my basic philosophy: Take all the elements of the
scene – the who, what, where, when – and fill those
elements with all sorts of toys that both you and the PCs
can play with.

(You could also think of these as “tools” that you use to

build the scene. But, personally, I find the imagery of the
toy – a thing which is meant to be played with; which
becomes the focal point for a liberated imagination – to
be far more evocative and, thus, useful.)

Hand-in-hand with this philosophy is the idea that the

more flexible these toys become the more useful they
will prove. If you include something which only has a
single utility, that’s pretty good. But if you include
something that can be used eight different ways, then

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you’re really cooking with gas. different elements with three details each.

(The good news is that your players are probably a CHARACTERS: This is the “who” of the scene. I find it
gaggle of creativity: If you let them, they’ll take even the useful to conceptually break the characters present in a
most boring stuff and spin it in ways you never imagined. scene down into three categories: Leads, Features, and
But the key here is if you let them: Remain open to the Extras.
players twisting or even completely inverting the people
and things you include in the scene. Don’t let yourself Leads are the major characters in the scene. They’re
get locked down on a preconceived notion of how things the characters who are most affected by the agenda of
are “supposed” to work out.) the scene or who are capable of having the greatest
impact on the agenda of the scene.
LOCATION: This is the “when” and the “where” of the
scene. It’s the immediate environment for the actions of Features are the supporting cast of the scene. They
the scene and it can be either claustrophobic (“the back wield an influence over the Leads; or provide crucial
room at Bill’s”) or absurdly panoramic (“the highways of information; or are important resources in whatever
Texas”), depending on the nature of the scene and the conflict is being fought.
characters in it. Ideally, remembering that minimizing
Extras are scene-dressing. They might find themselves
contextualization makes for a better bang, you want to
being taken hostage or appealed to for mob justice, but
keep things short and sweet while simultaneously
they can usually just be thought of as part of the location
maximizing the number of toys that your players can
instead of as active agents in the scene.
grab.

A few rules of thumb that I use for crafting evocative

descriptions as a GM:

Three of Five: Think about your five senses. Try to

include three of them in each description. Sight is a
gimme and Taste will rarely apply, so that means picking
a couple out of Hearing, Smell, and Touch. (Remember
that you don’t actually have to touch something in order The Matrix - The Woman in Red
to intuit what it might feel like if you did.) PCs in a scene are almost always leads. You may find it
useful to think of some PCs as being the leads in the
Two Cool Details: Try to include two irrelevant-but-cool
scene and the others PCs as features (because the
details. These are details that aren’t necessary for the
agenda of the scene is primarily of interest to the former
scene to work, but are still cool. It’s the broken cuckoo
and of less interest to the latter), but if you’ve got a
clock in the corner; the slightly noxious odor with no
scene where none of the PCs are leads you might want
identifiable source; the graffiti scrawled on the wall; the
to take a moment and triple-check what you’re doing.
bio-luminescent fungus; etc.
Unless you’ve got some amazingly good reason for
side-lining the PCs, it’s probably a good idea to find a
Three-by-Three: Delta’s 1-2-(3)-Infinity talks about
way of reframing the agenda of the scene.
psychological research demonstrating that repeating
something three times takes up the same space in our
(Off-hand, the only example I can think of is a situation
brains as repeating something infinitely. Thus, once
where the PCs are deliberately not participating in a
you’ve hit the third item in a sequence, any additional
scene. For example, maybe they’re eavesdropping on a
items in that sequence are redundant.
conversation. Although even then you should
double-check and make sure that a secondary agenda in
Extrapolating from this, for minor scenes you can
the scene isn’t about the PCs avoiding detection. And
describe three things each with a single detail. At that
then triple-check to make sure that the scene isn’t really
point, you’ve filled up the “infinity queue” in your players’
about something like, “Will the PCs stop Roberta from
brains and their imaginations will impulsively fill in the
confessing her love to Charles?”)
finer details of the scene you’ve evoked. For “epic”
scenes, use the full three-by-three: Describe three
CONFLICT vs. COLOR: The “what” of the scene is

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largely encapsulated by the agenda of the scene, but in Addendum: How NOT to Frame a Scene
actually running the scene I often find it useful to July 23rd, 2013
categorize the scene as either being primarily about
conflict or primarily about color. Yesterday I was talking about the different types of
characters in a scene and why you should think twice
Conflict scenes are about two or more characters who (and preferably three times) before having the PCs be
want mutually exclusive things. The result might be a anything other than the lead in a given scene. Before
firefight, a formal duel, a boardroom takeover, a political that, I was talking about setting agendas as part of
debate, a psychic assault, or a torrid argument. scene-framing.
Whatever form it takes, though, heads are going to butt
and (in a roleplaying game) dice are probably going to As an example of how NOT to frame a scene, I just got
be rolled. done reading the Harlequin campaign supplement for
Shadowrun.
Color scenes, on the other hand, are about exposition,
planning, and/or preparation. They’re a time for
character development; for showing what the PCs are
like (and how they relate to each other) when fireballs
aren’t flying at their heads. They’re the scenes when
your crew studies the blueprints and calls in their favors.
They also provide a valuable contrast – a negative
space to highlight the positive space; a moment of calm
to emphasize the frenetic chase.

From a purely utilitarian standpoint, color scenes are

also where the facts get established which will allow you
to minimize contextualization for later bangs. (For
example, if you know a character’s long-lost brother is
going to show up on their doorstep next week it’s more
effective to seed information about the brother into a
series of scenes leading up to that bang instead of trying
to communicate the full meaning of the bang in the same
moment that the brother arrives.)
SPOILERS AHEAD
With all of that being said, most of the time you’re going After a series of adventures, the agendas of the
to want your scenes to be about conflict: Conflict is penultimate scene in the entire campaign are, “Will Jane
usually interesting and meandering exposition is usually Foster help Harlequin?” and “Can Harlequin complete
boring, so try to find ways to build your exposition into the ritual of chal’han against Ehran?” Neither Foster nor
conflict. (For example, you might have a scene where Harlequin, you’ll note, is a PC. Most of the PCs are
the PC’s mother is angry because she feels like the PC relegated to being extras for this scene, although PC
has stopped caring about his missing brother.) This spellcasters could arguably be called features because
frequently allows you to have your cake and eat it too. they’re allowed to assist in the ritual (although they’ll
have no impact on its success or failure).
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/31528/roleplaying-g
ames/the-art-of-pacing-part-3-filling-the-frame This transitions us to the ultimate scene of the campaign
in which the agenda becomes, “Will Harlequin or Ehran
win their duel?” and the GM is specifically told to do
everything in his power to prevent the PCs from having
any impact on the outcome of the duel.

It’s a terrible way to end a campaign.

The argument can be made, of course, that sometimes

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reality just works like this: Sometimes you’re side-lined ames/thought-of-the-day-how-not-to-frame-a-scene

and all you can do is watch other people make their
decisions. Let’s ignore, for the moment, that everything Part 4: Closing the Frame
about this situation has been designed and therefore July 24th, 2013
could have been designed differently. (If a situation like
We’ve framed the top of the scene and filled the middle
this had arisen organically through simulationist play, for
of it. Now we need to close the frame.
example, it might be very different.) Instead, take a
moment to consider how easily you can shift the agenda CUTTING A SCENE
of these scenes without changing the given The actual act of cutting a scene is generally pretty
circumstances of the scene. straightforward: You stop talking about that thing and you
start talking about this other thing. Use phrases like
Instead of, “Will Jane Foster help Harlequin?” the
“meanwhile”, “we cut to”, and “two days later” to make
agenda becomes, “Will the PCs turn Jane Foster over to
the transition explicit and then move straight to banging
Harlequin?”
your next scene.
Instead of, “Can Harlequin complete the ritual of
The interesting question, however, is knowing when to
chal’han against Ehran?” we have, “Can the PC
cut. And, once again, we’re going to discover that this is
spellcasters contain the magical backlash from the failed
more of an art than a science.
ritual?”
FINISHING THE AGENDA: If the agenda of a scene is
Instead of, “Will Harlequin or Ehran win their duel?” we
defined by a question, a really obvious place to cut is the
say, “Will the PCs help one of them and, if so, which
point where that question has been answered.
one?”
This line of thinking, however, can also be a trap if you
The interesting thing about this is that even if you still
think that’s the only way to end a scene: Some of the
railroad the outcome of the scene (which I don’t
most interesting agendas develop over multiple scenes
recommend), these re-framed agendas are still clearly
before being resolved. Other conflicts literally can’t be
superior: Even if Harlequin just takes Jane Foster after
resolved until some other event has occurred. Staying
the PCs refuse to turn her over, the ethical struggle and
mired in a scene which has reached an impasse is a
moral debate that results from focusing the scene on the
quick exercise in boredom, so you’ll want to identify
decisions of the PCs still tells us something really
other moments when it’s time to move on.
interesting about the PCs and can serve as a crucible by
which they can express or grow their characters. THE SECOND LULL: The Smallville RPG offers this
advice:
Harlequin’s ritual is doomed to fail and he’ll definitely
save himself by reflecting the energy into a dormant There’s an ebb and flow to a scene, with the
volcano and causing it to explode (which, I’ll admit is dialogue coming hot and fast, the dice getting
pretty cool), but focusing the scene on the PCs trying to broken out, gloating and cheering and tense
contain the rest of the magical backlash allows them to confrontations. And then sometimes things start to
actually contribute to the proceedings. drag. That’s okay; your players may need to absorb
what’s happening and figure out which direction
Similarly, focusing the scene on the PCs’ decision of
they’re going next. Give them that moment, because
which morally ambiguous power-player they’re going to
a good pivot makes for a great scene. Things will
help is not only interesting in its own right, but will also
pick up again right after and proceed onwards. The
have potentially huge consequences for their future.
trick is to cut before the scene hits that second lull.
(Who do they make an enemy? Who do they make an
One pivot makes for a good scene; two pivots
ally?) And that’s true even if it turns out that Harlequin
makes for a muddy mess. If things start slowing
still wins the duel and cuts off Ehran’s ear no matter
down again, it’s time to move on.
what choice they make.
Not much I can add to that.
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/32589/roleplaying-g
ON THE EXIT: If all the PCs leave, that’s a pretty

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clear-cut signal that the scene is over. But often even a Part 5: Advanced Techniques
single lead leaving (whether that’s a PC or NPC) can be August 23rd, 2013
a good point to cut the scene.
Now that we’ve established the basic tools for pacing in
Until We Sink is a storytelling game which says that roleplaying games, let’s briefly visit some advanced
every scene ends “as soon as two characters have left techniques. This will be by no means an encyclopedic
the patio”. That’s not a bad rule of thumb: The exit of the treatment of the subject. In fact, we’ll barely even scratch
first lead makes it clear that the scene is coming to an the surface. But hopefully even a quick exploration of the
end, but still gives everybody else a chance to wrap up. topic will point us in some interesting directions.
When the second lead leaves, it’s a sign that interest in
the scene is waning fast and it’s probably time for a SPLITTING THE PARTY
change. Let’s start with simultaneous scenes: Half the party
leaves to explore the abandoned water tower while the
FLEE: When the bad guy gets away or the heroes are other half of the party goes to question Jim Baxter, the
forced to retreat. This is a specific type of character exit, farmer with an inexplicable supply of Nazi gold.
but it deserves a special call-out. The key thing about
this sort of scene ending is that it specifically doesn’t Order of the Stick: Don't Split the Party - Rich BurlewOn
resolve the agenda: A key lead is making the decision to two entirely separate occasions I’ve had a group I’ve
run away from the scene instead of dealing with that been GMing for spontaneously announce that they
situation. weren’t going to split up because they didn’t want to
make things tough for me. In both cases, I rapidly
Combat is an obvious example of this, but it can also dissuaded them from their “good intentions”: The truth is,
take the form of Billy running out of the house when you I love it when the PCs split up.
confront him the syringe you found in his room. Or
Susan waking up in the middle of the night and sneaking While it does take a little extra juggling to handle multiple
out of bed after sleeping with Roger. sets of continuity, that slight cost is more than worth the
fact that a split party gives you so many more options for
A NEW BANG: Sometimes, instead of going to a new effective pacing: The trick is that you no longer have to
scene, you can bring the new scene to them. If the wait for the end of a scene. Instead, you can cut back
current scene seems to have hit a lull, hit back with a and forth between the simultaneous scenes.
new bang: The doors of the inn burst open and a team of
assassins pours into the room. Betty gets a phone call ● Cut on an escalating bang. (The bang becomes a
with dire news. One of the NPCs says, “This might be a cliffhanger: “The door is suddenly blown open with
bad time to mention this, but…” plastic explosives! Colonel Kurtz steps through the
mangled wreckage… Meanwhile, on the other side of
CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION town—“)
On that note, when one scene ends it’s time for a new ● Cut on the choice. (Remember that everything in a
scene to begin. All conversations are loops and it’s time roleplaying game is a conversation of meaningful
to close this one: If the current scene has been choices. When a doozy of a choice comes along, cut
happening in “now time”, then it’s time to up-shift to to the other group.)
abstract time or cut hard to the next bang. ● Cut on the roll of dice. (Leaving the outcome in
suspense. But the other thing you’re eliminating is the
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/31533/roleplaying-g mechanical pause in which the dice are rolled and
ames/the-art-of-pacing-part-4-closing-the-frame modifiers are added. All of that is happening while
something exciting is happening to the other groups.
And when they get to an action check—BAM! You cut
back to the first group, collect the result, and move
the action forward.)
● Or, from a purely practical standpoint, cut at any point
where a player needs to look up a rule or perform a
complex calculation or read through a handout. There
may not have been a cliffhanger or a moment of

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suspense to emphasize, but you’re still eliminating those scenes to slowly and organically draw them all
dead air at the gaming table. together.

The end result is that effective cuts between Another way of using these techniques is to strengthen
simultaneous scenes allow you to easily tighten your the role of player-as-audience-member. You know that
pacing, heighten moments of suspense, and emphasize moment in a horror movie where the audience doesn’t
key choices. want a character to open a door because they know
something the character doesn’t? Hard to do in an
CROSSOVER RPG… unless the table knows it (because it was
Once you’ve mastered the basic juggling act of established in a different scene), but the PC doesn’t.
simultaneous scenes, you can enrich the experience by (This assumes, of course, that your players are mature
tying those scenes together through crossovers. enough to handle a separation of PC and player
knowledge.)
The simplest type of crossover is a direct crossover. This
is where an element or outcome from one scene NON-SEQUENTIAL SCENES
appears immediately in a different scene. For example, if It should be noted that techniques similar to crossovers
one group blows up the arms depot then the other group can obviously be used in sequential, non-simultaneous
might hear the explosion from across town. Or Colonel scenes, too. (John sees a white cobra painted on his
Kurtz flees from one group of PCs and ends up running dead wife’s face and then, later, the PCs discover the
back to his office… which the other PCs are currently white cobra cult manual.) But the specific idea of the
searching. crossover is that you’re specifically juxtaposing the two
elements both for immediate effect and to tie the
Indirect crossovers are both subtler and more varied.
simultaneous action together.
These are common or related elements in each scene
which are not identical. For example, you might have For some people, this can easily feel artificial. What are
Franklin discover a cult manual bearing the sign of a the odds, really, that both the dinner date and the
white cobra while, simultaneously, John sees a white surveillance order are both being made at the same
cobra painted on the face of his murdered wife. time? One way to work around this is through the use of
non-sequential scenes: The scene in which the dinner
An indirect crossover might not have any specific
date is made might take place on Tuesday and the
connection in the game world whatsoever: For example,
police lieutenant might order Bobby to set up the
Suzy might ask Rick out for a date at the Italian Stallion
surveillance on Thursday. But that doesn’t mean we
on Friday night. Simultaneously, in a different scene,
can’t run those two scenes simultaneously at the gaming
Bobby gets ordered by his police lieutenant to arrange
table.
surveillance for a mob boss meeting at the same
restaurant at the same time. Suzy and Rick have no This non-sequential handling of time is also a good way
connection to the mob or the police, but that’s still a of avoiding another common speed bump GMs often
crossover. encounter when splitting the party. It starts when a PC
says something like this: “Okay, you guys head across
This also demonstrates how crossovers can be used to
town to search the warehouse! We’ll stay here until
weave disconnected narratives together: Suzy, Rick, and
David can finish cracking the encryption on this
Bobby are all going to end up at that restaurant at the
database.”
same time. Franklin and John are both going to be
launching separate investigations into the white cobra. And then the GM thinks: “Well, it’ll take at least 15
It’s still not clear exactly how their paths are going to minutes for them to get to the warehouse. So I’ll have to
cross, but they’ve definitely been set on a collision play through at least 15 minutes of activity here at the
course. server farm before I can pick up the action over at the
warehouse.” But that’s not necessarily true. There’s no
This technique can be particularly effective at the
reason you can’t run the warehouse search and the
beginning of a scenario or campaign: Instead of having
server farm stuff simultaneously.
the PCs all meet in a bar, you can instead launch them
all into separate scenes and then seed crossovers into I refer to these as time-shifted scenes. For me,

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personally, the time dilation on these scenes usually isn’t joint, but that’s obviously not a desirable outcome.
significant in and of itself. The point is merely to take
advantage of more effective pacing techniques. A The advantage of a flashback is that it allows you a lot
common example is when everyone splits up to take more flexibility in how you explore both character and
care of personal errands: We know everything is situation. In addition to, for example, playing out scenes
happening at some point on Wednesday afternoon, but that took place before play begins, flashbacks can also
I’m not particularly interested in strictly figuring out what be used to mitigate or enhance hard scene framing: If
happens at 2pm as opposed to 2:15pm. Instead I’m you end up skipping over something that turns out to be
going to cut on the bangs, cut away from the dice rolls, important, you can simply flash back to it.
and do all that other nifty stuff.
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/33791/roleplaying-g
FLASHBACKS ames/the-art-of-pacing-part-5-advanced-techniques

Memento - Christopher Nolan

Flashbacks are another common form of non-sequential

scene. Or rather, they’re very common in other forms of
media. In my experience, they’re exceptionally rare in
roleplaying games.

Unlike a scene that’s been slightly time-shifted, the

nonlinearity of the flashback is often a significant feature
of its presentation: What it depicts from the past is meant
to be either thematically relevant or expositionally
revelatory to the current events of the narrative. (Some
non-RPG examples would include Godfather II, which is
an extensive but relatively straightforward handling of
the technique; Memento, which is an almost absurdly
complex use of the technique; and Iain M. Banks’ Use of
Weapons in which both sets of scenes originate at the
same point in time, with one set of scenes moving
backwards through time and the other moving forwards
through time.)

Flashbacks and non-sequential scenes in general do

require a careful handling of continuity. This is usually a
mixture of setting things up to avoid continuity errors
ahead of time and also a willingness by everyone at the
table not to deliberately violate known continuity. (“I call
him on my cellphone!” “Okay, but we already know he
went to the warehouse regardless of what you said on
the phone call. So play it accordingly.”) The occasional
retcon may be called for if things fall seriously out of

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Part 6: More Advanced Techniques you can make it work.

August 25th, 2013
In my experience, that requires a high degree of trust
IN MEDIAS RES and understanding between the GM and the players:
Framing a scene in medias res is to start things in the The GM needs to know his players and their characters
middle of the action. It’s an effective technique because well enough that he can accurately predict their
it jump-starts the scene at its most exciting or interesting reactions. And then the players need to have enough
part. In other mediums it also intrigues the audience by trust in the GM to believe that he has made an accurate
creating a mini-mystery: How did the characters find prediction.
themselves in this precarious situation?
However, there are also ways that the GM can “cheat” in
This element of mystery in the in medias res becomes order to achieve satisfactory in medias res scene
problematic in an RPG, however: While it’s all right for openings. A basic method is, “Why are you here?” The
an audience to remain ignorant of how the characters GM opens the scene by saying something like, “You’re in
found themselves in their current circumstances, that a dark tunnel underneath the Parker Corporation’s
can create significant issues when the players are headquarters. Why are you here?”
supposed to be the characters and need to know what
they know so that they can make coherent decisions. This technique basically says, “Yup, we’re railroading to
this point. But I’m going to mitigate it by giving you some
Let’s lay the mini-mystery aside for a moment, therefore, influence over exactly what model the locomotive is
and focus on a more basic form of in medias res that I going to be.” Obviously that’s a lot heavier handed than
highly recommend regardless of your predilections: a lot of people are going to be comfortable with. (It’s way
Framing past the entrance. out of my personal comfort zone.) But if it works for you
and yours, the pay-off is that you can get away with
GMs tend to frame to the arrival: If the PCs are heading much harder frames and much tighter pacing.
to a warehouse, the GM will cut to their car pulling up
outside the warehouse. If they’re going to question a Another “cheat” is to use the in medias res in
suspect, the GM will cut to them knocking on the combination with a flashback: You show the PCs mired
suspect’s door. It’s a safe choice, but it’s frequently in a situation and then use a flashback to establish how
unnecessary. For example, if you know that the PCs are they got there. The “future” knowledge of where they end
going to Boss Man’s office to search for clues, you don’t up obviously constrains choice, but once again you’re
have to go through the laborious process of having them mitigating the heavy hand you’re applying by allowing
enter the office building, pick the lock on his door, and so the players to influence (or even define) the path that
forth. Instead, you can cut straight to them rifling through leads to the events they’ve seen. (And there can be a
his filing cabinets and pulling out the incriminating fine art in portraying something compelling in your
documents. flashforward which is not particularly binding in its
content.)
This works because the assumptions you’re making in
framing the scene are obvious: You’re assuming that the EPILOGUE SCENE
PCs are, in fact, going to do what they said they were An epilogue scene is a specific type of color scene which
going to do. And you’re assuming that they will be immediately follows a major conflict or bang. During the
successful in doing it. (If the latter is in doubt, of course, epilogue scene, the characters are able to reflect and
you’d call for an action check and then frame react to the things that just happened to them.
accordingly. For example, if the PCs fail an infiltration
check then you might frame to the moment where the The purpose of the epilogue is both aesthetic and
flashlight of a security guard flashes across them.) practical. (And it’s practical in both the game world and
the metagame.) Aesthetically it provides a natural
ADVANCED IN MEDIAS RES formula for effectively varying the pacing of your game:
More dramatic examples of in medias res are common in Moments of high tension and exciting action are
other mediums, but relatively difficult to pull off in an contrasted against the relative calm of the epilogue
RPG without railroading. But it can be very rewarding if which puts those moments into a larger context of

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progress or setback or revelation. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - In the Library

In the context of the metagame, an epilogue scene is In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, epilogue scenes often
practical because it often comes at a moment when the happened at the school library or (in later seasons) at
players and/or GM need to take stock: Damage needs to the Magic Box. But Buffy is also a great example of how
be healed. Resources need to be tallied. Notes need to you can use a set piece for epilogue scenes and then
be consulted. If your group can develop the ability to shift it by occasionally dropping a conflict into the
roleplay effectively through these moments of location. This is a basic example of disruptive pacing.
mechanical bookkeeping it can greatly enhance your
game sessions. (Note that the roleplaying does not The pacing of a book or movie often falls into a repetitive
necessarily need to be about the mechanical pattern. The same is true of an RPG. This regular
bookkeeping that’s happening: It’s possible to say “we rhythm can be very satisfying in its familiarity
heal everybody up” and then handle the mechanics of (particularly when it feels like the whole group is
that while actually roleplaying a later scene in which the suddenly on the same page and participating in the
PCs are discussing their options for raiding the palace.) ineffable synergy of an instinctive collaboration), but it
can also easily become stupefying or stale in its
Meanwhile, in the context of the game world, it’s predictability. To avoid that, you need to occasionally
perfectly natural for people to kick back, relax, and take disrupt the familiar pacing by throwing in something
a moment to recover from a stressful situation. Or to sit unexpected: A scene that should be color suddenly
down and try to talk their way through earth-shaking erupts into conflict. A sequence that feels as if it’s
revelations. (“Dude, you’ve gotta bring me some beer. winding down is abruptly escalated with a fresh bang.
Betty just broke up with me. Also, I think she’s been
possessed by a demon.”) What’s interesting about disruptive pacing is that it can
easily degrade back into the expected. For example, the
In practice, these scenes will often happen quite first time a supposedly dead monster suddenly
naturally if you give the PCs a bit of rope. If you’re using reappeared during what was supposed to be the
harder scene framing, however, you really shouldn’t epilogue of the film it was wildly successful disruptive
neglect them. pacing. Now, however, it’s become part of the expected
pacing for a horror film: You’re more shocked when the
An effective technique for this sort of thing is to establish slasher villain stays dead than you are when he
common “set pieces” for epilogue scenes. For example, suddenly pops back to his feet.
in my Ptolus campaign these scenes often happen in
their rooms at the Ghostly Minstrel, during a carriage CONCLUSION
ride across the city, or while they’re looting the bodies of I really can’t emphasize enough the degree to which
the dead and tending their wounded. We’ve established we’ve barely even begun to scratch the surface of RPG
these as common themes in the campaign and when pacing in this essay.
they show up the group has naturally developed a habit
of falling into an epilogue scene. On the other hand, that may be for the best: While film,
for example, has certainly benefited from a richer
DISRUPTIVE PACING understanding of how pacing can be used in the
filmmaker’s toolkit, the process of effectively pacing a
film is still very much an art rather than a science.
Similarly, it can be a little too easy to fall down the rabbit
hole of one-true-wayism if one tries to develop trite
maxims.

Instead, I hope that I’ve managed to convey a handful of

useful conceptual tools that you can use in a myriad
number of ways to better understand and control the
pacing of your own campaigns. How you choose to use
those tools is up to you: Experiment with them. Play with
them. See what you can discover and what you can

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improve. scenario where Fury reacts to the bang very differently:

He chooses not to evacuate the facility because the
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/33796/roleplaying-g work on the Phase II prototypes is too important to be
ames/the-art-of-pacing-part-6-more-advanced-technique disrupted (and the rest of the movie looks very different).
s
Most of this scene is color.
Film Banging: Agendas and Bangs from
Non-RPG Media The Avengers
July 28th, 2013
SCENE 2 – BANG: “There’s a huge burst of energy from
To explore the concept of bangs with a little more the tesseract! Loki appears, wielding some sort of
specificity, let’s break down some scenes from popular high-tech, spear-like weapon. It looks a lot like a Phase
films. What we’re looking for here is a better II weapon.”
understanding of why a particular scene has been
chosen and how that particular scene begins. The agenda is: Can SHIELD stop Loki from stealing the
tesseract?
The danger with this sort of analysis is that we’re looking
at a linear medium. Unfortunately, one of the problems There’s also an interesting secondary agenda: Can they
with analyzing the techniques of RPG play is that it’s evacuate the compound before it collapses?
difficult to establish common reference points: Whereas
Note that both agendas are simultaneously set up with
we can all pop in a Blu-Ray and watch the same movie,
the bang.
even groups running identical scenarios won’t
necessarily have similar experiences. This scene is obviously all about conflict and it lasts from
Loki’s appearance until he makes his final escape:
For the purpose of this exercise, therefore, we’re going
Martial arts flurry in the lab. Converting the featured
to pretend that these movies aren’t linear experiences.
characters of Hawkeye and Selvig. Bluffing Agent Hill.
Even though, in reality, the outcome of each scene has
Car chase. Helicopter chase. The whole thing.
already been predetermined we’re going to act as if that
isn’t true. I’ll try to emphasize this by discussing the Let’s take a moment to imagine the agenda questions
different outcomes a given scene might have. being answered differently during the actual play of an
RPG: Maybe Coulson deprioritizes the evacuation of the
Let’s start with The Avengers.
facility and with his assistance they’re able to get the
THE AVENGERS tesseract to the helicopter before Loki can get it. As a
result, they lose the Phase II weapons (and a lot of their
At the beginning of the film, an evacuation has been researchers), which will probably have a negative impact
ordered at the tesseract facility. The leads for the first on their long-term resources. On the other hand, they’re
several scenes are Nick Fury, Agent Coulson, and Agent able to secure the tesseract onboard the helicarrier.
Hill. (Which is, of course, where Loki will end up targeting it
next.)
The Avengers
The Avengers
SCENE 1 – BANG: “Dr. Selvig read an energy surge
from the tesseract. It’s a spontaneous event. We can’t SCENE 3 – BANG: “Your ruse has worked perfectly:
shut it down.” You’re tied to a chair and being ‘interrogated’ by a
Russian general. He’s got a couple of thugs flanking him.
The agenda is: How is SHIELD going to react? And there’s a table full of gleaming torture instruments
shoved off to one side. You hear a large freight train go
The agenda of this scene is interesting because of the rumbling by outside.”
way that it ties into the entire “Phase II vs. the Avengers
Initiative” conflict that lies behind the entire film. It’s The agenda is: Can Natasha identify the other players in
expressed most directly through the debate between the general’s sale of illegal arms?
Agent Hill and Director Fury, but we could also imagine a

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Natasha is the lead here, of course. The bang and why you’re trying to reactivate the Avengers Initiative.”
agenda here are actually inconsequential (although if
Natasha had followed up on this information she might The agenda is: Can Nick Fury convince the Council to
have discovered that the thugs Loki was hiring came activate the Avengers assets as a response team?
from this guy’s network). They’re really just providing
Mostly self-explanatory. Note that the conflict in this
contextualization for the next bang: “Agent Coulson
scene isn’t actually resolved. It is, at best, postponed.
calls. Barton’s been compromised.” That’s what the
Remember that the big agendas will probably only be
scene is really about: Is Natasha going to prioritize her
resolved over the course of multiple scenes.
personal commitment to Barton or the time she’s sunk
into her current investigation? On a personal note, I found this scene interesting
because my initial impulse was to describe the bang as,
Interesting note here. Whedon actually closes the scene
“Sir. The Council is calling.” This bang is actually used
with what could be interpreted as another bang: “Oh no.
later in the film and it works there because the
I’ve got Stark. You’ve got the big guy.” This prompts a
circumstances of the call make it a big deal. Here,
scene which is actually not found in the movie (during
though, Whedon’s instinct is right: He cuts straight to the
which Natasha plans her operation to recruit Banner),
call.
but it’s an example of how effective it can be to deliver a
bang and then immediately cut away from it. You’ll leave And that would probably be the right call at the table,
your players in anticipation of what the resolution of that too: There’s really no reason to think that Nick Fury isn’t
bang will be. going to take a call from the Council at this point; ergo
the decision to “pick up the phone” is not a meaningful
The Avengers
choice and a harder frame is almost certainly the
SCENE 4 – BANG: “As you enter the house, you see the stronger, better choice.
little girl hop out a window on the far side. The whole
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/32599/roleplaying-g
place looks abandoned.”
ames/film-banging-agendas-and-bangs-from-non-rpg-me
The agenda is: Is the Big Guy gonna show up? dia

The leads here are Banner and Natasha. The Art of Pacing: Prepping Bangs
February 20th, 2015
Note that you could also express this as, “Will Natasha
successfully recruit Banner?” And while there is an Bangs are the explosive moments that define the
element of that in the scene, it’s clearly a less interesting agenda of a scene and force the PCs to start making
agenda and Whedon knows that. Which is why the meaningful choices. But you don’t necessarily need to
question of Banner’s anger is introduced in the second come up with all of your bangs on the fly. In fact,
line of the scene, the question of Banner being recruited Bandolier of Bangsprepping bangs can be a very flexible
doesn’t show up for another two minutes, and the scene and effective way to prep. In Sorcerer, Ron Edwards
ends when it’s clear Banner is able to keep it under talks about prepping a bandolier of bangs. It’s a great
control. image. The GM goes into a session armed with his
bangs, ready to escalate and respond by hurling the
The important lesson to take away here, I think, is that material he’s prepared into the fray.
the agenda of the scene is not always what the
characters are talking about on the surface. For example:

We’re also seeing how often Whedon employs Suzie calls. She’s pregnant.
escalating bangs throughout his scenes: There’s a girl
A death knight kicks down the door.
asking you for help. The girl disappears. A beautiful
superspy seems to materialize from behind a wall.
Your muse starts howling. Your system is getting hacked
by something ugly.
The Avengers
A dark miasma creeps across the surface of the moon.
SCENE 5 – BANG: “The Council is demanding to know

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The werewolves begin bleeding from their eyes. Gain 5 XP every time she takes action that completes a
major part of this mission.
Grab any of those and toss ‘em like a grenade.
Buyoff: Abandon the mission.
SPOTLIGHT BANGS
I’m going to genericize the term here and use key to
Bangs force choices. If the choices forced by a particular refer to any mechanic or method of character creation
bang – and the agenda it brings into play – are focused that formalizes the creation of flags. These mechanics
on a particular character, then the bang will shine a allow the player to specifically say, “This is important.
spotlight on them. One easy way to create a compelling You should use this.” And when these mechanics exist,
session is to simply ask, “What interesting thing is going the GM needs to respond to them with key scenes:
to happen to each of the PCs today?” Hit them with Opportunities for those keys to be turned.
those bangs and then see what develops.
Key mechanics are often called out in a lot of indie
One technique for developing spotlight bangs is the flag. games from the past decade or so, but you can find
The idea here is that a player’s character sheet and these mechanics lurking all over the place. For example,
background can tell you a lot about what they’re the keys of The Shadow of Yesterday are mechanically
interested in: If they’ve handed you a PC decked out almost identical to the “Individual Class Awards” found in
with investigation skills, you should probably be tossing the AD&D 2nd Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide. The
them juicy mysteries. If their character background is rules for creating covenants in Ars Magica are similarly
drenched in orders of chivalry, they probably want to get filled with mechanical cues for the GM to use.
involved with the royal knights. And so forth.
KICKERS
(Of course, this is more of an art than a science. Some
times, for example, people put points into an activity not In Sorcerer, Ron Edwards uses the concept of a kicker:
because they find it interesting but because they find it A specific, life-altering bang that the player defines
boring and would rather dispatch with it quickly. But during the process of character creation and which
those exceptions are rare and, when in doubt, you can basically happens at the moment that play begins: Their
just chat with them.) mother is murdered. They win the lottery. The village is
burned to the ground. By getting the players involved in
KEYS the creation of these “initiating bangs” you can give them
a lot of agency in defining the shape the campaign will
In The Shadow of Yesterday, Clinton R. Nixon introduces
take. But even if you create the kickers independently,
the concept of keys: These are motivations, problems,
this is still a solid technique for getting the PCs involved
connections, duties, and loyalties that players select
in the campaign.
during character creation. For example:
For example, one of the quickest ways to customize a
Key of Bloodlust: Your character enjoys overpowering
purchased adventure is to figure out how to tie the
others in combat.
initiating bangs of the adventure directly to the PCs (their
Gain 1 XP every time your character defeats someone in interests, their cares, their goals). Once you’ve done
battle. that, everything else will flow naturally.

Gain 3 XP for defeating someone equal to or more The kickers in Sorcerer are epic in nature because
powerful than your character. Edwards uses them to launch (and drive) entire
campaigns, but the basic concept of the kicker can be
Buyoff: Be defeated in battle. used to create adventures on a smaller scale, too.

Key of the Mission: Your character has a personal If you use an episodic approach in structuring your
mission that she must complete. campaign, for example, you can set up your situation like
a toolbox (see Don’t Prep Plots), and then figure out the
Gain 1 XP every time she takes action to complete this big, effective bangs you can use to launch that situation
mission (2 XP if action is successful). into motion. You don’t have to do anything more than

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that. From that point forward, you can just react to what (This is why I generally find it useful to keep two
the players are doing. separate timelines in my campaign notes: One for stuff
that’s generally happening in the background and one for
In this guise it may become clear that you know kickers stuff that’s going to directly affect the PCs.)
under a more common name: Scenario hooks. But the
idea of hooking players into a scenario often seems to One other thing to note about these timeline entries,
result in a limited palette: It’s the guy in the tavern who though: They aren’t fully-formed bangs. They’re more
wants to hire them. Thinking about these hooks through like bullets that are waiting to be fired. When the moment
the lens of the bang can help to expand your concept of arrives, the actual bang will be customized to the
what a “hook” really is. Instead of just thinking, “How can circumstances of the PCs.
I make the PCs aware of this cool thing?” You can start
thinking about how you can kick things off with a bang. For example, if the PCs are at home when Maystra and
Fesamere come looking to hire them, then the bang
To put this more prosaically: There’s a tendency for happens when the well-known members of a criminal
scenario hooks to be delivered with a really weak family that bears them a grudge come walking through
agenda. (“Will they accept Bob’s job offer?”) Strong the door. If the PCs aren’t at home, then the bang
kickers means using hooks with more compelling happens when they come home and find the letter that
agendas and higher stakes. was left for them.

A TIMELINE OF BANGS BANGING ON THE TABLE

Of course you don’t have to limit your prepared bangs to Another form of prepared bang which is often not
the beginning of a session, either. One effective way of thought of as such is the random encounter.
organizing prepared bangs is a simple timeline: Bang X
happens at time Y. Other things may be happening in I’ve talked in the past about the effect OD&D’s 1 in 6
direct reaction to the choices made by the PCs, but the chance per turn of generating a random encounter has
clock keeps ticking and the next bang that will on dungeon exploration. If you think of each random
complicate their lives keeps drawing inexorably closer. encounter as a bang, the net effect of this system is to
automatically deliver a steady pace of them. (This is
I’ve also found that timelines are often a useful another example of how the classic dungeoncrawl
conceptual tool for people who are struggling to grok the structure delivers effective pacing in the hands of
concept of bangs in general. For example, here’s the neophyte GMs.)
timeline from an old campaign status document from my
Ptolus campaign: One problem with this form of bang, however, is that it is
so often just the same bang (“A WILD POKEMON
09/27/790: The PCs gain access to their Hammersong APPEARED!”) leading to the same agenda (“Can you
vaults. defeat the wild Pokemon?”). As I described in Breathing
Life Into the Wandering Monster, you can solve that
09/28/790: Arveth uses the dais of vengeance on Tee. problem by finding new ways to contextualize the
encounter.
09/28/790: A Pactlords strike team arrives at Alchestrin’s
Tomb. For example, if you generate a random encounter of “8
skeletons” you can go for the predictable bang by
09/29/790: Maystra and Fesamere Balacazar approach
saying, “You see eight skeletons and they attack you.”
the PCs. They want to hire them to break into the White
You can enrich that by varying the bang and saying,
House.
“From within the sarcophagi to either side, you hear the
Some of these things are appointments the PCs have sounds of bone scratching against stone.” Or you can
made. Others are ambushes. But every single one of switch it up by changing the agenda and saying, “You
them is a bang waiting to happen: When the clock see eight skeletons. They are arrayed around some
reaches that moment, we’re going to frame a new scene, huge mechanism of wooden gears. Some of the
set an agenda, and bang our way into it. skeletons are pulling at levers, others are pushing on

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wheels.” https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/36768/roleplaying-g
ames/the-art-of-pacing-prepping-bangs
OD&D accomplished agenda shifts mechanically
through the use of random reaction tables. Judges Guild The Art of Pacing: Running Awesome
applied similar techniques to urban encounters, Scenes
separating the generation of what you were July 23rd, 2015
encountering from how and why you were encountering
them. Something I discussed in The Art of Pacing is how
scenes are framed and filled. The basic idea is that any
BANG, BANG, BANG GOES THE RAILROAD scene in an RPG has an agenda (the question the scene
is trying to answer) and the content of the scene is about
One risk in preparing specific, evocative bangs before trying to resolve that agenda. Most of your scenes will be
play begins is that it can encourage railroading. (Or about conflict: Two or more characters want mutually
directly create it depending on the techniques exclusive things and the scene is about which character
employed.) A few tips for avoiding this: gets what they want.
First, bangs should never dictate a character’s response. One problem GMs can run into once they understand
In fact, as I’ve mentioned before, the best bangs are the this framework are non-combat scenes that end up
ones that provoke the most choices. Note the subtle being short and unsatisfying: The PCs have an
distinction between: objective. They briefly interact with the environment or
an NPC. And then the scene is over and done.
“Saving the princess” / “Discovering that the princess is
trapped” First: In order for an objective to be interesting, there
needs to be an obstacle preventing you from
“Killing the wolf” / “Hearing the wolf howl”
accomplishing it.
“Escaping the police” / “Hearing the police sirens pull up
For example, let’s say that you have an objective of
outside”
going to the corner store and buying a Coke. In general,
Second, as I described in my use of timelines above, that’s not going to result in an interesting scene because
you can often prepare bullets instead of bangs. These there’s no meaningful obstacle. But if there’s a team of
half-formed bangs can be quickly actualized during play ninjas hunting you through the neighborhood, it gets
based on the current circumstances of the PCs. interesting. If you can’t leave your sister alone because
you’re afraid she might commit suicide while you’re
Third, don’t over-prepare the bangs. As the name gone, it gets interesting.
implies, bangs are supposed to be short and sweet in
any case. If you’re writing more than a sentence or two For your combat scenes, the combat mechanics are
about your cool ideas for bangs, you’re probably generally taking care of providing interesting obstacles.
investing too much in them. Invest less time in bangs But we could imagine a combat scene which was fairly
(which will make it easier to let them go if the players go boring: Imagine a single attack roll that resulted in all of
a different direction) and invest more time in preparing the PCs’ opponents getting wiped out. (That’s not to say
the toolbox of your scenario. you should never have combat scenes like that, of
course, any more than you should always have ninjas
At the beginning of this I talked about having a bandolier guarding the corner store.)
of bangs: Bandoliers give you explosive options, but the
stuff in the bandolier isn’t loaded. You haven’t pulled the For your non-combat scenes, you need to figure out
pins. The bangs are there and ready and waiting for you; what the obstacle is. And you’ll get even better scenes if
but when you pull them and how you pull them and there are multiple obstacles, multiple objectives, or both.
where you throw them is stuff that gets discovered (In many cases you can simply set up the objectives of
during play. the scene so that they conflict with each other and,
presto, you’ve got both.)
Boom.
Technoir introduces a useful concept called “vectors”:

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You often can’t just jump directly to making an “I solve

the problem” die roll. Instead, you have to make some Scenario Design
preparatory rolls in order to establish a vector to the
thing you actually want to effect.
Node Based Design
NODE-BASED SCENARIO DESIGN
For example: You want to shoot Victor inside his club. Part 2: Choose Your Own Adventure
But you can’t just drive up outside the club and shoot Part 3: Inverting the Three Clue Rule
Part 4: Sample Scenario
him. First you’ll have to find some way to get inside
Part 5: Plot vs. Node
(sneaking or fast-talking your way past the bouncers),
Part 6: Alternative Node Design
then track him down, and then take your shot.
Part 7: More Alternative Node Designs
For example: You want to convince Michael to sell you Part 8: Freeform Design in the Cloud
Part 9: Types of Nodes
the datachip. But first you’re going to have to get him to
admit that he has it. Then you’ve got to convince him Part 1: The Plotted Approach
that there’s another way to save his sister. And then May 27th, 2010
you’ve got to convince him that you’re offering him
Most published adventures are designed around a
something worth the risk.
structure that looks like this:
As with anything else you prep, you don’t want to fall into
the trap of predetermining how the PCs are going to
overcome the obstacles. Instead, just set the obstacles:
Michael doesn’t want to admit he has the datachip.
Michael needs it to save his sister. Let the players worry
about how they’re going to overcome those obstacles.
Your start at the beginning (Blue), proceed through a
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37544/roleplaying-g series of linear scenes (Yellow), and eventually reach the
ames/thought-of-the-day-running-awesome-scenes end (Red).

Occasionally you may see someone get fancy and throw

a pseudo-option into things:

But you’re still looking at an essentially linear path.

Although the exact form of this linear path may vary
depending on the adventure in question, ultimately this
form of design is the plotted approach: A happens, then
B happens, and then C happens.

The primary advantage of the plotted approach is its

simplicity. It’s both easy to understand and easy to
control. On the one hand, when you’re preparing the
adventure it’s like putting together a scheduled to-do list
or laying out the plot for a short story. While you’re
running the adventure, on the other hand, you always
know exactly where you are and exactly where you’re
supposed to be going.

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But the plotted approach has two major flaws: 2. I need to have a structure for my adventure.
3. Therefore, I need to prepare for each choice the
First, it lacks flexibility. Every arrow on the plotted players might make.
flow-chart is a chokepoint: If the players don’t follow that
arrow (because they don’t want to or because they don’t And the result is an exponentially expanding adventure
realize they’re supposed to), then the adventure is going path:
to grind to a painful halt.

The risk of this painful train wreck (or the necessity of

railroading your players) can be mitigated by means of
the Three Clue Rule. But when the Three Clue Rule is
applied in a plotted structure, you run the risk of over-kill:
Every yellow dot will contain three clues all pointing
towards the next dot. If the players miss or misinterpret a
couple of the clues, that’s fine. But if they find all of the
clues in a smaller scene, they may feel as if you’re trying
to spoon-feed them. (Which, ironically, may cause them
to rebel against your best laid plans.)

Second, because it lacks flexibility, the plotted approach

Node-Based Scenario Design - Exponential Expanding
is inimical to meaningful player choice. In order for the
Adventure Path
plotted adventure to work, the PCs must follow the
arrows. Choices which don’t follow the arrows will break The problem with this design should be self-evident:
the game. You’re preparing 5 times as much material to supply the
same amount of playing time. And most of the material
This is why I say Don’t Prep Plots, Prep Situations.
you’re preparing will never be seen by the players.
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7949/roleplaying-ga
In some ways, of course, this is an extreme example.
mes/node-based-scenario-design-part-1-the-plotted-appr
You could simplify your task by collapsing some of these
oach
forks into each other:
Part 2: Choose Your Own Adventure
May 28th, 2010

Of course, it’s all well and good to say, “Prep Situations.”

But one of the reasons people prefer the plotted
approach is that it provides a meaningful structure: It
tells you where you’re going and it gives you a way to
get there.

Without that kind of structure, it’s really easy for a

gaming session to derail. It’s certainly not impossible to
simply turn the PCs loose, roll with the punches, and end
up somewhere interesting. Similarly, it’s quite possible to
jump in a car, drive aimlessly for a few hours, and have a Node-Based Scenario Design - Collapsed Forks
really exciting time of it.
But even here you’re designing eight steps worth of
But it’s often useful to have a map of the territory. material in order to provide three steps of actual play.
You’re still specifically designing material that you know
This line of thought, however, often leads to a false
will never be used.
dilemma. The logic goes something like this:
And in other ways it’s actually not that extreme at all:
1. I want my players to have meaningful choice.
The original example assumes that there are only two

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potential choices at any given point on the path. In design. Here’s a simple example:
reality, it’s quite possible for there to be three or four or
even more – and each additional choice adds a whole
new series of contingencies that you need to account for.

Ultimately, this sort of “Choose Your Own Adventure”

prep is a dead end: No matter how much you try to
predict ahead of time, your players will still find options
you never considered — forcing you back into the
position of artificially constraining their choices to keep
your prep intact and leaving you with the exact same Node-Based Scenario Design - Basic Node Design
problem you were trying to solve in the first place. And
The scenario starts in the blue node, which contains
even if that wasn’t true, you’re still burdening yourself
three clues – one pointing to node A, one to node B, and
with an overwrought preparation process filled with
one to node C. Following the inverse of the Three Clue
unnecessary work.
Rule, we therefore know that the PCs will be able to
The solution to this problem is node-based scenario conclude that they need to go to at least one of these
design. And the root of that solution lies in the inversion nodes.
of the Three Clue Rule.
Let’s assume they go to node A. Node A contains two
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7961/roleplaying-ga additional clues – one pointing to node B and the other
mes/node-based-scenario-design-part-2-choose-your-ow pointing to node C.
n-adventure
At this point the PCs have had access to 5 different
Part 3: Inverting the Three Clue Rule clues. One of these has successfully led them to node A
May 31st, 2010 and can now be discarded. But this leaves them with
four clues (two pointing to node B and two pointing to
The Three Clue Rule states: node C), and the inverse of the Three Clue Rule once
again shows us that they have more than enough
For any conclusion you want the PCs to make, information to proceed on.
include at least three clues.
Let’s assume they now go to node C. Here they find
The underlying theory behind the rule is that having clues to nodes A and B. They now have access to a total
three distinct options provides sufficient redundancy to of seven clues. Four of these clues now point to nodes
create a robust scenario: Even if the PCs miss the first they have already visited, but that still leaves them with
clue and misinterpret the second, the third clue provides three clues pointing to node B. The Three Clue Rule
a final safety net to keep the scenario on track. itself shows that they now have access to enough
information to finish the scenario.
This logic, however, also leads us to the inversion of the
Three Clue Rule: (Note that we’re only talking about clue access here.
That doesn’t mean that they’re guaranteed to find or
If the PCs have access to ANY three clues, they will
correctly interpret every single clue. In fact, we’re
reach at least ONE conclusion.
assuming that they don’t.)
In other words, if you need the PCs to reach three
Now, compare this node-based design to a comparable
conclusions (A, B, and C) and the PCs have access to
plotted approach:
three clues (each of which would theoretically allow them
to reach one of those conclusions) then it is very likely
that they will, in fact, reach at least one of those
conclusions.

And understanding this inversion of the Three Clue Rule

allows us to embrace the full flexibility of node-based

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Node-Based Scenario Design - Plotted Approach With

Clues

Note that the plotted approach can also be broken down

into distinct nodes. And in terms of preparation, the
plotted approach requires the exact same resources:
Four nodes and nine clues. But the non-plotted design is
richer, more flexible, and leaves the PCs in the driver’s Node-Based Scenario Design - North Las Vegas
seat. In other words, even in the simplest examples, Self-Storage
node-based design allows you to get more mileage out
of the same amount of work. The storage space itself is stacked high with empty
cardboard boxes. Anyone walking past the storage
Of course, this entire discussion has been rather dry and space when the door was open would see a bunch of
technical. So let’s put some flesh on these bones. boxes labeled “LIVING ROOM”, “DISHES”, and the like
– but it’s all just for a show. However, there is a large gap
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7985/roleplaying-ga
towards the back where several boxes have recently
mes/node-based-scenario-design-part-3-inverting-the-thr
been removed: Something was being stored here and
ee-clue-rule
now it’s gone.

Part 4: Sample Scenario CLUE 1: Checking the rental records reveals that Yassif
June 2nd, 2010 Mansoor signed the lease on the storage space. The
address given on the lease agreement is a fake, but a
routine database search turns up a Yassif Mansoor living
in the Broadstone Indigo apartment complex on Azure
Avenue (NODE A).

CLUE 2: The storage space contains a bellboy uniform

belonging to the Bellagio hotel and casino (NODE B).

CLUE 3: There is also a disposable cell phone in the

The PCs are playing agents in the Las Vegas branch of storage space. Checking the call log reveals several
CTU. This mini-scenario begins when they receive an calls being placed to a number that can be traced to
inter-agency intelligence report that a monitoring Officer Frank Nasser (NODE C).
program established on a known terrorist operation’s
bank account information has recorded payments being ANCILLARY CLUE: Two detonation caps can be found
made on a storage unit in Las Vegas. The PCs have behind the metal track of the storage space door. (They
been authorized to execute a search warrant on the rolled back there and were lost.)
storage unit.
NODE A: YASSIF MANSOOR’S APARTMENT
The scenario starts at the North Las Vegas Self-Storage
on Lake Mead Boulevard (the BLUE NODE).

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was covering his tracks). Sifting through the ashes

reveals a few partially preserved scraps of paper,
including part of a Radio Shack shipping manifest
including an order number. Tracking the order reveals
several pieces of electronic equipment that could be
useful in building bombs. More importantly, it also gives
them a credit card number and one of the fake names
Mansoor was using. If they track recent activity on the
credit card, they’ll find that it was used to rent a room at
the Bellagio (NODE B).

CLUE 2: If the PCs can get one of the terrorists to crack

under questioning, they can tell them that Yassif
Mansoor was at the apartment yesterday with a cop
named Nasser (NODE C).
Node-Based Scenario Design - Yassif Mansoor's
ANCILLARY CLUE: There are six suicide-bomb vests
Apartment
stored in the walk-in closet. After the big bomb went off
Yassif Mansoor isn’t at his apartment, but there are eight at the Bellagio, these suicide bombers were going to
terrorists hanging out. Four of them play cards in the deliver a second wave of terror throughout Vegas.
living room; two are watching TV in one of the (These bombers, however, do not know the actual target
bedrooms; and two more are on the balcony smoking. of the big bomb. That information was sequestered.)

NODE B: THE BELLAGIO

Node-Based Scenario Design - The Bellagio

If the PCs tracked Mansoor’s credit card activity, then

they know exactly which suite he’s rented at the Bellagio.
If they only know that something might be happening at
the Bellagio then the room can be tracked down in a
number of ways: Bomb-sniffing dogs; questioning the
staff; surveillance; room-by-room canvassing; reviewing
Node-Based Scenario Design - Apartment Floorplan
security tapes; and so forth.
CLUE 1: A large metal trash can in the storage closet off
the balcony contains the charcoaled remnants of a
massive amount of documentary evidence (Mansoor

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Part 5: Plot vs. Node

June 4th, 2010

As I noted before, the plotted approach gives control to

the designer of the scenario by taking that control away
from the players.

For example, if we were to re-design our Las Vegas CTU

scenario using the plotted approach, we could carefully
control the flow of events:

Node-Based Scenario Design - Hotel Room

Mansoor and six nervous, heavily armed terrorists are

waiting in the suite with the Big Bomb (which they snuck
into the room on luggage trolleys using bellboy
uniforms).

CLUE 1: Yassif Mansoor probably won’t break under Node-Based Scenario Design - Plotted Approach
questioning, but merely identifying him should allow the
PCs to track down his home address (NODE A). Evidence at the self-storage facility (BLUE NODE) leads
the PCs to Yassif Mansoor’s apartment (NODE A) where
CLUE 2: Sewn into the lining of Mansoor’s jacket is a they have a frenzied gun-fight with the suicide bombers.
small packet of microfilm. These contain records But Mansoor is missing and there’s evidence of an even
indicating that Frank Nasser of the Las Vegas police bigger bomb somewhere in Vegas! Their only hope is to
department is guilty of embezzling from a fund used for track down the corrupt cop Frank Nasser (NODE C) and
undercover drug buys. Mansoor was using these records force him to break under questioning. But will they reach
to blackmail Nasser. (NODE C) the Bellagio in time (NODE B)?

NODE C: FRANK NASSER This is obviously an effective way for the scenario to play
Having been blackmailed by Mansoor, Nasser has been out: Everything builds naturally up to a satisfying
helping the terrorist in a number of different ways. (The confrontation with the Bad Guy and his Big Bomb. The
C4 for the suicide bombers, for example, was taken from argument can certainly be made that you would want to
a police lock-up Nasser was responsible for. And Nasser enforce this linearity to make sure that the PCs don’t
intimidated a beat cop into dropping a speeding ticket take out Mansoor and the Big Bomb half-way through
issued on one of Mansoor’s men.) the scenario and end up with a massive anti-climax.

CLUE 1: Nasser is more likely to crack under But in making that argument, I think we’re overlooking
questioning than Mansoor (particularly if the PCs reveal some equally viable alternatives.
that they have hard evidence of any of his wrong-doing).
But he’s also aware of the consequences: If he can, he’ll For example: Following evidence at the self-storage
try to cut a deal before answering their questions. facility the PCs head to the Bellagio. There they capture
the internationally infamous terrorist Yassif Mansoor and
CLUE 2: Nasser can also be placed under surveillance. disarm the Big Bomb. It looks like they’ve wrapped
He will check in at both the Bellagio and Mansoor’s everything up, but then they discover the truth: There are
apartment before the bombings occur. more bombs! The Bellagio bombing was only the tip of
the iceberg, and even from behind bars Mansoor is
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7999/roleplaying-ga
about to turn the Las Vegas Strip into a Boulevard of
mes/node-based-scenario-design-part-4-sample-scenari
Terror!
o
(And in a more reactive scenario, you might even

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introduce the possibility of the undiscovered Nasser lead? (Is that even a safe option if they have evidence
somehow freeing Mansoor from his cell.) pointing to a mole inside the department?)

My point here is that when you create individually Furthermore, when an individual scenario is placed
interesting nodes, you’ll generally find that those nodes within the context of a larger campaign it allows the
can be shuffled into virtually any order and still end up choices made within that scenario to have a wider
with an interesting result. The PCs might even decide to impact. For example, if they tip off Mansoor and allow
split up and pursue two leads at the same time (in true him to escape by rushing their investigation, it means
CTU style). that he can return as a future antagonist. Similarly, if they
don’t find or follow the leads to Nasser, the continued
As a GM I find these types of scenarios more interesting presence of a terrorist-compromised mole in the Las
to run because I’m also being shocked and surprised at Vegas police force can create ongoing problems for their
how the events play out at the gaming table. And as a investigations.
player I find them more interesting because I’m being
allowed to make meaningful choices. (And if the Bellagio gets blown up there will obviously be
a long-lasting impact on the campaign.)
Of course, the argument can be made that there’s no
“meaningful choice” here because there are three nodes On a more basic level, in my opinion, the fact that the
in the scenario and the PCs are going to visit all three players are being offered the driver’s seat is meaningful
nodes no matter what they do. In the big picture, the in its own right. Even if the choice doesn’t have any
exact order in which they visit those nodes isn’t lasting impact on the final conclusion of “good guys win,
meaningful. bad guys lose”, the fact that the players were the ones
who decided how the good guys were going to win is
Or is it? important. If for no other reason than that, in my
experience, it’s more fun for everybody involved. And
Even in this small, simple scenario, the choices the PCs
more memorable.
make can have a significant impact on how events play
out. If they go to the Bellagio after they’ve identified https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/8008/roleplaying-ga
exactly which room Yassif Mansoor is in, for example, mes/node-based-scenario-design-part-5-plot-vs-node
they’ll have a much easier time of confronting the
terrorists without tipping them off. If they have to perform Part 6: Alternative Node Design
a major search operation on the hotel, on the other June 7th, 2010
hand, the terrorists may have laid a trap for them;
Mansoor might have a chance to escape; or there might On the other hand, there is something to be said for the
have been time to make a phone call and warn the Big Conclusion. There are plenty of scenarios that don’t
terrorists back at the apartment. lend themselves to a shuffling between nodes of equal
importance: Sometimes Dr. No’s laboratory is intrinsically
And in more complex scenarios, of course, there will be more important than Strangeways’ library. And the
more meaningful contexts for choices to be made within. Architect’s inner sanctum requires the Keymaker.
For example, something as simple as adding a timeline
to our sample scenario can make a big difference: If CIA So let’s talk about some alternative node structures.
communication intercepts indicate a high threat of a
CONCLUSIONS
terrorist attack in Vegas timed for 6:00 pm, then PCs
standing in the storage facility with multiple leads to
pursue suddenly have a tough choice to make. Do they
go to the Bellagio because it’s a high-profile target
despite the fact they aren’t sure exactly what they should
be looking for there? Do they go to Mansoor’s apartment
in the hope that they can find out more information about
the Bellagio attack? Do they split up and pursue both
leads in tandem? Do they call in the Vegas police to
evacuate the Bellagio while they pursue the apartment

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they aren’t mopped up ahead of time (a stick).

(That last example also shows how you can create

multi-purpose content. It now becomes a question of
how you use the goon squad content you prepped rather
than whether you’ll use it.)

FUNNELS
The basic structuring principles of the conclusion can be
expanded into the general purpose utility of funneling:

Node-Based Scenario Design - Conclusions

In this design, each node in the second layer contains a

third clue that points to the concluding node D. The
function should be fairly self-explanatory: The PCs can
chart their own course through nodes A, B, and C while
being gently funneled towards the big conclusion located
at node D.

(Note: They aren’t being railroaded to D. Rather, D is the

place they want to be and the other nodes allow them to
figure out how to get there.)

One potential “problem” with this structure is that it

allows the PCs to potentially bypass content: They could
easily go to node A, find the clue for node D, and finish
the adventure without ever visiting nodes B or C.

Although this reintroduces the possibility for creating

unused content, I put the word “problem” in quotes here
because in many ways this is actually desirable: When Node-Based Scenario Design - Funnels
the PCs make the choice to avoid something (either
because they don’t want to face it or because they don’t Each layer in this design (A, B, C and E, F, G)
want to invest the resources) and figure out a way to constitutes a free-form environment for investigation or
bypass it or make do without it, that’s almost always the exploration which gradually leads towards the funnel
fodder for an interesting moment at the gaming table in point (D or H) which contains the seeds leading them to
my experience. Nor is that content “wasted” — it is still the next free-form environment.
serving a purpose (although its role in the game may
now be out of proportion with the amount of work you I generally find this structure useful for campaigns where
spent prepping it). an escalation of stakes or opposition is desirable. For
example, the PCs might start out investigating local drug
Therefore, it can also be valuable to incentivize the dealers (A, B, C) in an effort to find out who’s supplying
funneling nodes in order to encourage the PCs to drugs to the neighborhood. When they identify the local
explore them. In designing these incentives you can use distributor (D), his contacts lead them into a wider
a mixture of carrots and sticks: For example, the clue in investigation of city-wide gangs (E, F, G). Investigating
node A might be a map of node D (useful for planning the gangs takes them to the Tyrell crime family (H), and
tactical assaults). The clue in node B might be a snitch mopping up the crime family gets them tapped for a
who can tell them about a secret entrance that doesn’t national Mafia task force (another layer of free-form
appear on the map (another carrot). And node C might investigation), culminating in the discovery that the Mafia
include a squad of goons who will reinforce node D if are actually being secretly run by the Illuminati (another

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funnel point). clues to any single node on the second layer, they will
have access to three clues pointing to a node on the
(The Illuminati, of course, are being run by alien second level. Therefore, the Inverted Three Clue Rule
reptoids. The reptoids by Celestials. And the Celestials means that the players will probably get to at least one
by the sentient network of blackholes at the center of our node on the second layer. And from there they can begin
galaxy. The blackhole consciousness, meanwhile, has collecting additional second layer clues.
suffered a schizord bifurcation due to an incursion by the
Andromedan Alliance…. wait, where was I?) Whereas PCs in a funnel design are unlikely to backup
past the last funnel point (once they reach node E they
In particular, I find this structure well-suited for D&D generally won’t go back to node C since it has nothing to
campaigns. You don’t want 1st-level characters suddenly offer them), in a layer cake design such inter-layer
“skipping ahead” to the mind flayers, so you can use the movement is common.
“chokepoints” or “gateways” of the funnel structure to
move them from one power level to the next. And if they Layer cakes have a slightly larger design profile than
hit a gateway that’s too tough for them right now, that’s funnels, but allow the GM to clearly curtail the scope of
OK: They’ll simply be forced to back off, gather their their prep work (you only need to prep through the next
resources (level up), and come back when they’re ready. layer) while allowing the PCs to move through a more
realistic environment. You’ll often find the underlying
Another advantage of the funnel structure is that, in structure of the layer cake arising naturally out of the
terms of prep, it gives you manageable chunks to work game world.
on: Since the PCs can’t proceed to the next layer until
they reach the funnel point, you only need to prep the https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/8015/roleplaying-ga
current “layer” of the campaign. mes/node-based-scenario-design-part-6-alternative-nod
e-design
LAYER CAKES
Part 7: More Alternative Node Designs
June 9th, 2010

LARGE LAYERS
In case it hasn’t been clear, I’ve been using three-node
layers in these examples because it’s a convenient
number for showing structure. But there’s nothing
magical about the number. Each “layer” in the previous
examples constitutes an interlinked environment (either
literal or metaphorical) for exploration or investigation,
and you can make these environments as large as you’d
like.

As long as each node has a minimum of three clues in it

and a minimum of three clues pointing to it, the Three
Node-Based Scenarios Designs - Layer Cakes Clue Rule and its inversion will be naturally satisfied and
guarantee you a sufficiently robust flow through the
A layer cake design achieves the same general sense of layer. But as you increase the number of nodes, you also
progression that a funnel design gives you, but allows open the possibility for varying clue density: Particularly
you to use a lighter and looser touch in structuring the dense clue locations could have six or ten clues all
scenario. pointing in different directions.

The most basic structure of the layer cake is that each Obviously, however, the larger each layer is, the more
node in a particular “layer” gives you clues that lead to prep work it requires.
other nodes on the same layer, but also gives you one
clue pointing to a node on the second layer. Although a DEAD ENDS
full exploration of the first layer won’t give the PCs three Dead ends in a plotted mystery structure are generally

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disasters. They mean that the PCs have taken a a special weapon attuned to their enemy.
wrong-turn or failed to draw the right conclusions and
now the train is going to crash into a wall: There should Which leads to a broader point: Dead ends may be
be a clue here for them to follow, but they’re not seeing logistical blind alleys, but that doesn’t mean they should
it, so there’s nowhere to go, and the whole adventure is be boring or meaningless. Quite the opposite, in fact.
going to fall apart.
In the same vein as dead ends, you can also use “clue
But handled properly in a node-based structure, dead light” locations. (In other words, locations with less than
ends aren’t a problem: This lead may not have panned three clues in them.) Structurally such locations
out, but the PCs will still have other clues to follow. generally work like dead ends, by which I mean that
clues pointing to clue light locations need to be “bonus
clues” to make sure that the structure remains robust.

The exception to this guideline is that you can generally

have a number of two-clue locations equal to the number
of clues accessible in a starting node. (For example, in
the layer cake structure diagram you have three nodes
in the bottom layer with only two clues each because the
starting node contains three clues. If there wasn’t a
starting node with three clues in it, the same structure
would have potential problems.)

LOOPS
Node-Based Scenario Design - Dead Ends Node-Based Scenario Design - Loops

In this example, node E is a dead end. Clues at nodes B In this simple loop structure all four nodes contain three
and C suggest that it should be checked out, but there’s clues pointing to the other three nodes. The advantage
nothing to be found there. Maybe the clues were just of this simple structure is that the PCs can enter the
wrong; or the bad guys have already cleared out; or it scenario at any point and navigate it completely.
looked like a good idea but it didn’t pan out into usable
information; or it’s a trap deliberately laid to catch the Obviously, this is only useful if the PCs have multiple
PCs off-guard. The possibilities are pretty much limitless. ways to engage the material. In a published product this
might be a matter of giving the GM several adventure
The trick to implementing a dead end is to think of clues hooks which can be used (each giving a unique
pointing to the dead end as “bonus clues”. They don’t approach to the adventure). In a personal campaign,
count towards the maxim that each node needs to clues for nodes A, B, C, and D might be scattered
include three different clues. (Otherwise you risk creating around a hexcrawl: Whatever clues the PCs find or
paths through the scenario that could result in the PCs pursue first will still lead them into this chunk of content
being left with less than three clues. Which may not be and allow them to explore it completely
disastrous, but, according to the Inverse Three Clue
Rule, might be.) https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/8032/roleplaying-ga
mes/node-based-scenario-design-part-7-more-alternativ
On the other hand, as you can see, you also don’t need e-node-designs
to include three clues leading to a dead end: It’s a dead
end, so if the PCs don’t see it there’s nothing to worry Part 8: Freeform Design in the Cloud
about. June 11th, 2010

Of course, if you include less than three clues pointing to Everything we’ve been discussing here are basic,
the dead end then you’re increasing the chances that systematic designs. But there’s no reason you need to
you’re prepping content that will never be seen. But this be symmetrical. Maybe node A has two clues pointing to
also means that the discovery of the dead end might node B while node C is clue-happy for node A.
constitute a special reward: Extra treasure or lost lore or

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being forced to pull back, it was very easy for me to look

around, grab a different node full of bad guys, and plug
them in as reinforcements.

In other words, it was as easy for me to call in the

reinforcements as it was for the NPCs to pick up the
phone. Node-based design gives you, by default, the
scenario-based toolkit I talked about in “Don’t Prep
Node-Based Scenario Design - Asymmetrical Nodes Plots”. And the underlying structural function of that node
hadn’t changed: The NPCs still had the same clues to
On a larger scale, you’ll probably find yourself mashing provide that they’d been designed to provide at their
together lop-sided conglomerations of disparate previous location.
structures.
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/8044/roleplaying-ga
For example, a good-sized chunk of my current mes/node-based-scenario-design-part-8-freeform-design
campaign is based around a general layer cake -in-the-cloud
approach: An interconnected web of criminal
organizations allow the PCs to generally make their way Part 9: Types of Nodes
up the “chain of command”. But this layer cake naturally June 14th, 2010
funnels towards various sub-conclusions, and I’ve also
included loops designed to carry the PCs back to points Up to this point I’ve been fairly vague about exactly what
prior to the various funnels. I mean by a “node”. This is largely because there isn’t
really a hard-and-fast definition of the term.
That approach may seem jargon-filled, but it’s really just
a matter of embracing the fundamentally flexible In generic terms, you can think of each node as a “point
principles of node-based design, strewing clues liberally, of interest”. It’s the place (either literally or
and spot-checking to avoid problem areas. metaphorically) where something interesting can happen
and (in most cases) information about other interesting
Looking over my notes for this campaign, I’ve come to things can be found.
think of this as the “cloud”: Dozens of nodes all
containing clues and linked to by clues. Even if we In my experience, nodes are most useful when they’re
discount all the different ways in which the PCs can modular and self-contained. I think of each node as a
approach each of these nodes, the complex tool that I can pick up and use to solve a problem.
relationships which emerge from the node structure Sometimes the appropriate node is self-evident. (“The
make literally hundreds of potential outcomes possible. PCs are canvassing for information on recent gang
activity. And I have a Gather Information table about
But I didn’t have to think about that emergent complexity recent gang activity. Done.”) Sometimes a choice of tool
as I was designing the campaign-scale scenario: All I needs to be made. (“The PCs have pissed off Mr. Tyrell.
needed to do was design the criminal organization, Does he send a goon squad or an assassin?”) But when
break it into node-sized chunks, and then lay down the I look at an adventure, I tend to break it down into
clues necessary to navigate to and from each node. discrete, useful chunks.

As I write this, my players are about mid-way through Chunks that become too large or complex are generally
this section of the campaign. It’s been filled with more useful if broken into several smaller nodes. Chunks
countless surprises for all of us, and these surprises lead that are too small or fiddly are generally more useful if
me to a final point regarding the strengths of node-based grouped together into larger nodes. The “sweet spot” is
design: It’s flexible in play. about identifying the most utilitarian middle-ground.

Because each node is, effectively, a modular chunk of (To take an extreme example: “All the forestland in the
material, it becomes very easy to rearrange the nodes Kingdom of Numbia” is probably too large for a single
on-the-fly. For example, when the PCs raided an enemy node. On the other hand, 86,213 separate nodes each
compound and wiped out half of their personnel before labeled “a tree in the Forest of Arden” are almost

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certainly too fiddly. Is the appropriate node the “Forest of a place, or a thing.
Arden”? Or is it twelve different nodes each depicting a
different location in the Forest of Arden? I don’t know. It As suggested above, however, nodes can actually be
depends on how you’re using the Forest of Arden.) fairly complex in their own right. For example, the entire
Temple of Elemental Evil (with hundreds of keyed
Let’s get more specific. Here are the sorts of things I locations) could be thought of as a single node: Clues
think of as “nodes”: from the village of Hommlet and the surrounding
countryside lead the PCs there, and then they’re free to
LOCATIONS: A place that the PCs can physically go. If explore that node/dungeon in any way that they wish.
you think of a clue as being anything that “tells you
where to go next”, telling the PCs about a specific place Similarly, once the PCs start looking at the Tyrell
that they’re supposed to go is the most literal Corporation they might become aware of CEO James
interpretation of the concept. Once PCs arrive at the Tyrell, the corporate headquarters, their shipping facility,
location, they’ll generally find more clues by searching the server farm they rent, and the annual Christmas
the place. party being thrown at Tyrell’s house — all of which can
be thought of as “sub-nodes”. Whether all of these
PEOPLE: A specific individual that the PCs should pay “sub-nodes” are immediately apparent to anyone looking
attention to. It may be someone they’ve already met or it at the Tyrell Corporation or if they have to be discovered
may be someone they’ll have to track down. PCs will through their own sub-network of clues is largely a
generally get clues from people by either observing them question of design.
or interrogating them.
In short, you can have nodes within nodes. You can plan
ORGANIZATIONS: Organizations can often be thought your campaign at a macro-level (Tyrell Corporation,
of as a collection of locations and people (see Nodes Project MK-ALTER, the Chicago Sub-City, and the
Within Nodes, below), but it’s not unusual for a particular Kronos Detective Agency), look at how those
organization to come collectively within the PCs’ sights. macro-nodes relate to each other, and then develop
Organizations can be both formal and informal; each node as a separate node-based structure in its own
acknowledged and unacknowledged. right. Spread a few clues leading to other macro-nodes
within each network of sub-nodes and you can achieve
EVENTS: Something that happens at a specific time and
highly complex intrigues from simple, easy-to-use
(generally) a specific place. Although PCs will often be
building blocks.
tasked with preventing a particular event from
happening, when events are used as nodes (i.e., https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/8049/roleplaying-ga
something from which clues can be gathered), it’s mes/node-based-scenario-design-part-9-types-of-nodes
actually more typical for the PCs to actually attend the
event. (On the other hand, learning about the plans for
Advanced Node Based Design
an event may lead the PCs to the location it’s supposed
Part 1: Moving Between Nodes
to be held; the organization responsible for holding it; or
the people attending it.)

ACTIVITY: Something that the PCs are supposed to do.

If the PCs are supposed to learn about a cult’s plan to
perform a binding ritual, that’s an event. But if the PCs
are supposed to perform a magical binding ritual, then
that’s an activity. The clues pointing to an activity may
tell the PCs exactly what they’re supposed to be doing;
or they may tell the PCs that they need to do something; In Node-Based Scenario Design we explored an
or both. alternative to the typical plotted approach to scenario
design: By designing a situation instead of a plot we
NODES WITHIN NODES create a flexible environment in which the meaningful
In other words, at its most basic level a node is a person, choices of the players are allowed to flourish. And by
organizing the elements of that situation into nodes we

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retain the clarity of the plotted approach without bank or your girlfriend dies”), but it doesn’t necessarily
accepting the limitations of its straitjacket. require it. For example, the PCs can be pushed into an
encounter with the assassin hunting them (by way of
Now that we’ve established the basic elements of ambush) without ever being aware that the assassin was
node-based design, however, I want to explore some of coming. In other cases, the PCs’ ignorance may be the
the tips and tricks I’ve learned in working with entire difference between a push and a pull. For
node-based prep. example, they might have loved to seek out the Hidden
Citadel of the Golden Empire if they had ever heard
Let’s start by taking a closer look at the fundamental
about it. But since they didn’t, it was a complete push
structure of node-based design: How do the players
when they randomly stumbled across it during a
move from one node to the next?
hexcrawl.

In practice, the distinction between a push and a pull can

be somewhat muddy. This is particularly true once you
start layering motivations. (For example, the PCs might
be forced to investigate the recent raids by giant war
parties when the duke threatens to execute them if they
don’t. But once they’re engaged in the investigation, the
pursuit of individual clues might still be pulls. And maybe
they’d already been pulled by the giant raids because
Advanced Node-Based Design 2
Patric’s father was killed by frost giants.)
In discussing basic node-based design I defaulted to
It should also be noted that pushes don’t need to be fait
clue-based movement because (a) it’s simple; (b) it’s
accompli. The duke threatening to kill them if they don’t
versatile; and (c) it clearly demonstrates just how
investigate the giant raids is certainly a push, but it
powerful and flexible the node-based approach can be.
doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t have the option to
It’s also fairly universal in my experience: Whatever
leave the duchy and seek their fortunes elsewhere. (Or
other methods I may be using, the clue-based approach
assassinate the duke. Or bribe him to leave them alone.
is virtually always part of the mix.
Or kidnap his daughter and hold her hostage until he
But it’s not the only way. grants them a pardon. Or any number of other things.) In
other words, the game world can push at the PCs
PUSH vs. PULL without the GM railroading them.
Let’s start with a general principle.
Pulls and pushes also don’t have to be limited to
In discussing narrative velocity in computer games, character motivations; they can also act on player
Andrew Doull coined the terms “push” and “pull”. I find motivations. If you’ve ever heard your players say “let’s
Doull’s usage of the terminology a little vague, but find some orcs to kill so that we can level up”, then
nonetheless useful as a basic concept: A “pull” happens you’ve heard the siren call of the metagame pull. But this
when the players want to explore, experience, or can also take the simple form of “let’s explore the Eyrie
discover a node. A “push” happens when the players are of the Raven Queen ‘cause it sounds like the most fun”.
forced to do these things.
Whether pushing or pulling or both, a node still needs to
A pull, by its nature, requires that the players have some overcome a certain “gravity” in order to be explored. For
sort of knowledge about the node which makes it some groups, this gravity is simple apathy. (You need to
desirable for them. The appeal of the pull can take the make the place sound a lot more interesting or threaten
form of a reward, an opportunity, or any other form of them with a lot more consequences before they’ll drag
benefit. In a typical D&D dungeon, the pull is the promise their sorry asses out of the local tavern.) Sometimes it’s
of treasure. In a mystery scenario, the simple promise the competition with other active pulls and pushes.
that “you might find some clues over there” is often more (“We’d love to deal with the Temple of Deep Chaos, but
than enough of a pull. first we need to make sure the Pactlords can’t breach
the Banewarrens.”) Or it might be the known and
A push can similarly rely on player knowledge (“rob the suspected costs of going to the node. (“The Tomb of

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Horrors may contain a ton of treasure and that’s a

fantastic pull… but it’s still a bloody death trap and I don’t
want to go there.”)

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/8171/roleplaying-ga
mes/advanced-node-based-design-part-1-moving-betwe
en-nodes

Part 2: Node Navigation

October 5th, 2011
Advanced Node-Design 3
Let’s turn our attention now to specifics: What are the
Moving from A to B to C requires no redundancy
exact navigation methods that can be used to guide
because the hallway provides a clear and unmistakable
characters into a node?
geographic connection.
CLUES: Clues turn each node into a conclusion. When
However, geographical structure can occasionally create
the PCs put the clues together, they’ll tell them where to
a sense of false security. For example, consider this very
go, who to look at, and/or what to do.
similar dungeon:
Clue-based scenarios are often considered fragile, but
by using the Three Clue Rule and the Inverted Three
Clue Rule you can make them robust.

One pitfall to watch for: In order to reach the next node,

the PCs must know both what they’re looking for and
how to find it. If you only give the PCs one clue telling
them how to reach the Lost City of Shandrala, your
scenario will remain fragile even if you include 20 clues
telling them the Lost City of Shandrala is interesting and
they should totally check it out. Advanced Node-Based Design 4

On the other hand, clue-based node navigation Now you have a potential problem: If the PCs fail to
conveniently organizes itself into mystery scenarios detect the secret door your adventure can easily go off
which provide over-arching push/pull motivations: Once the rails. (Assuming they need to reach C.)
the PCs are interested in unraveling the mystery, all you
Hexcrawls can be similarly problematic in that there’s no
need to do is put a node on the bread crumb trails and
guarantee that any given piece of content will actually be
they’ll follow it.
encountered. (When I was 12 years old I remember
GEOGRAPHY: In other words, the choice of which way pouring over a copy of X1 Isle of Dread and never quite
to go. The archetypal example is the dungeon, which figuring out how the PCs were supposed to “know where
generally provides a far more robust structure than a to go” in order to find all the keyed encounters.) Properly
clue-based scenario. For example, consider this simple designed hexcrawls, however, employ a mode of
dungeon: redundancy similar to the Three Clue Rule: They don’t
require you to encounter any particular piece of
interesting content, but rather spread interesting content
liberally so that you are almost certain to encounter at
least one piece of interesting content even if you’re just
exploring randomly. (This, of course, creates a high
degree of extraneous prep. But hexcrawls are meant to
be used over and over again, utilizing that extra content
over the course of several passes.)

In geographical arrangements, obstacles serve as

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pushes. For example, if the PCs are in Room A and they often run small complexes in “real time” by splitting the
want to get to Room C, then Room B is encountered enemy NPCs into small squads. I can then track the
only because it’s an obstacle. The PCs are pushed into actual movement of each squad in response to the
encountering Room B because the geography of the actions of the PCs.
dungeon requires it.
One could also easily imagine an “Alert Track”: Every
TEMPORALLY: The phone call that comes at 2 PM. The time the PCs do something risky or expose their
goblin attacks on the 18th. The festival that lasts for a activities in some way, the alertness level of their
fortnight. opponents rises. The rising alertness level could change
the content of some nodes in addition to triggering a
Although lots of nodes can include time-sensitive variety of proactive nodes.
components (“if the PCs arrive after the 14th, the Forzi
crime family has cleared out the warehouse”), nodes that In reading many published adventures, it’s not unusual
are triggered temporally are almost always a push: for the first node to be entirely proactive. (The classic
Something or someone comes looking for the PCs, example being “an NPC wants to hire you for a job”.) But
pushing them into engaging with the node. then many adventures will suddenly stop being
proactive. Neither of these things need to be true.
(Of course, temporal triggers can also be coincidental –
like a red dragon attacking the Ghostly Minstrel when the It can also be tempting to think of proactive nodes as
PCs just happen to be dining there or the sun becoming being a railroading technique. While they certainly can
eclipsed – but those are still pushes.) be used in that way, there’s no need for that to be true.
Examples entirely free of predetermined GM
Temporal triggers can also have some variability built machinations might include NPCs making
into them. For example, you might decide that the Forzis counter-intelligence checks to discover the PCs’
hire a hitman to kill one of the PCs on the 16th. That identities or the PCs being tracked through the
doesn’t necessarily mean that the hitman will wilderness by enemy forces after they escape from the
immediately find them. Dread Lord’s Castle.

RANDOMLY: Wandering monsters are the classic In general, proactive nodes are useful for creating a
example of a randomly generated node, but they’re far living world in which there are both short-term and
from the only example. The early Dragonlance modules, long-term reactions to the PCs’ choices.
for example, coded story events into their random
encounter tables. Jeff Rients’ table for carousing FOLLOWING A TRAIL: I’m not sure if following a trail
mishaps offers a different set of possibilities. from node A to node B constitutes navigating by clue,
geography, both, or neither, so I’m including it here as a
Because of their long association with wandering common sort of special-case hybrid.
monster checks, the random triggering of a node is often
associated with the random generation of a node. A trail, of course, doesn’t have to be limited to following
Although both can be useful techniques, when we’re tracks in the mud: Tracing data trails through the ‘net;
talking about navigating between nodes we’re primarily hacking jumpgate logs; a high-speed car chase. There
focusing on the random triggering of a node. are lots of options.

For example, in my current hexcrawl campaign the PLAYER-INITIATED: In their quest to get from A to C, it’s
content of each hex has been fully keyed. But I use a set not unusual for players to invent their own B’s without
of mechanics to randomly determine whether or not that any particular prompting. Sometimes these can be
content is encountered by a group moving through the anticipated (like most Gather Information checks, for
hex (i.e., triggering the node). example), but in many cases the players will find ways of
tackling a problem that you never imagined (like the time
PROACTIVE NODES: A proactive node comes looking my players inadvertently started a shipping company in
for the PCs. These are often triggered temporally or order to find a missing person).
randomly, but this isn’t necessarily the case.
In the same spirit as permissive clue-finding, it’s almost
For example, instead of using random encounters I will

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always a good idea to follow the player’s lead: Your prep will be easier to reference and use your nodes if you key
should be a safety net, not a straitjacket. (That doesn’t them. For the most part, I just use numerical codes:
mean all their schemes should prove successful, but Node 1 is First Central Bank. Node 2 is the security
when in doubt play it as it lies.) guard who didn’t show up for work during the robbery.
Node 3 is the stolen car that was used as a get-away
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/8176/roleplaying-ga vehicle. And so forth.
mes/advanced-node-based-design-part-2-node-navigatio
n KEEP A CONNECTION LIST: I’ve talked in the past
about the importance that The Masks of Nyarlathotep
Part 3: Organization played in developing the Three Clue Rule and, by
October 10th, 2011 extension, node-based scenario design. The concept of
a “connection list” is taken directly from that campaign:
One of the challenges a GM faces is in presenting the
complex reality of a living world: Players have the luxury
of focusing on a single character, but the GM often finds
themselves needing to juggle dozens of characters and
potentially hundreds of pieces of information.

One of the most important skills for a GM to master,

therefore, is better organization.

Take a dungeon, for example. Simple stuff like using a

numbered key to describe the dungeon may seem
obvious, but take a second to imagine the alternative
where that basic level of organization isn’t applied. (And
I have, in fact, seen published adventures where it
wasn’t applied. It isn’t pretty.)

Now, how could we improve that organization even

more? Well, we could start by clearly segregating
“information anyone entering the room should Advanced Node-Based Design 5
immediately know” from “information that can only be
gained with further investigation”. (Properly written It shouldn’t take much imagination to see how much
boxed text is one way of doing that, of course.) easier such a list will be to design and maintain if you’ve
specifically keyed your nodes.
Might it be useful to also distinguish “information
characters might notice immediately upon entering the KNOW YOUR NODE HIERARCHY: At a basic level, you
room without taking any particular action”? Probably. should have some rough sense of how you want the
various nodes of the scenario to hook up. (Bearing in
And so forth. mind that (a) your players will probably find all kinds of
ways to connect the nodes that you never intended and
Note that I’m not talking about performing any extra prep
(b) you don’t really need to pursue some sort of rigid
work. I’m just talking about organizing your prep work so
ideal.
that it’s easier to use at the table. (I’ve actually found that
proper organization can actually reduce the amount of And if you’re dealing with a relatively small number of
prep you need to do.) nodes, that’s probably all you need to know. But as the
number of nodes begins to grow, you’ll probably find it
The node-based structure itself, of course, is one way of
useful to break them up into more manageable packets:
organizing your prep work. In terms of organizing the
Can you break one large scenario into multiple smaller
node-based design itself, here are a few tips that I’ve
scenarios?
learned—
Those scenarios, of course, can hook into each other.
KEY YOUR NODES: Just like the rooms in a dungeon, it
But by breaking them up into distinct packets, I find it’s

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easier to keep the overall structure of the campaign For example, here’s Act I:
manageable and comprehensible.
1. The Awakening
For my games, I typically maintain a document I refer to 2. 2. The Murderer’s Trail (Ptolus – Adventure #1)
as the “Adventure Track” which details the macro-level a. Following the Ledger
node structure of the campaign. For my current b. House of Demassac
campaign, I broke the macro-structure into five acts. And c. Jirraith and the Pale Dogs
then, within each act, I created clusters of related nodes 3. 3. The Trouble With Goblins (Ptolus – Interlude #1)
using a simple outline structure. a. Complex of Zombies
b. Laboratory of the Beast
c. Goblin Caverns of the Ooze Lord
4. 4. Smuggler’s Daughter (Ptolus – Adventure #2)
a. The Slavers’ Enclave
5. 5. End of the Trail (Ptolus – Adventure #3)
a. Swords of Ptolus
b. Cloud Theater
6. Shilukar’s Lair (Ptolus – Adventure #4)

Each line here is a major scenario, with the various

scenarios interconnected as nodes. (Some of these
individual scenarios are also designed using node-based
techniques.) The indented lines are closely associated
with the “major nodes” above them. (In other words, I’m
using a basic outline structure to conveniently group the
content of Act I into convenient conceptual packages.
This outline also keys each node: “The Awakening” is
Node 1; “Laboratory of the Beast” is Node 3B; and so
forth.)

Act II of the campaign is even more complicated,

featuring a total of 42 major scenarios. In order to keep
the structure of that act manageable, I broke it down into
three semi-independent “chunks”, each of which was
then organized in a fashion similar to the outline for Act I
you see above.

I’ve found this Adventure Track + Connection List

method to be very useful for both preparing and running
a node-based campaign. But there’s nothing magical
about it. You should find the method that works best for
you. My general point, however, is that you should strive
to achieve a high-level understanding of your node
structure – chunking that node structure into larger and
more manageable pieces as necessary.

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/8188/roleplaying-ga
mes/advanced-node-based-design-part-3-organization

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Part 4: The Second Track Easy to design. Easy to run.

October 12th, 2011
But for the players – who aren’t privy to that structure –
Something I touched on lightly when discussing the there are 10-12 nodes. This pushes it past the Magic
organization of your nodes was the difficulty of working Number Seven and presents them with enough
with large networks of nodes. complexity to become enigmatic.

This ties into Delta’s “Magic Number Seven”, which I’ve (To put it a different way: The GM can easily handle the
talked about before. To sum it up: reactions of Conspiracy 1 independently from the
reactions of Conspiracy 2. Until the players figure out
Working memory capacity for most adults is in the range that there are two different conspiracies, however, they
of 7 +/- 2 objects. Short-term memory capacity is also 7 can’t even start to unravel what’s happening to them.)
+/- 2 when memorizing strings of random digits.
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/8197/roleplaying-ga
Beyond these limits, mental functioning drops off rapidly. mes/advanced-node-based-design-part-4-the-second-tra
ck
In other words, we are generally pretty good at holding
somewhere between 5 and 9 objects in our mind at a Part 5: The Two Prongs of Mystery Design
given time. Any more than that and it becomes October 17th, 2011
increasingly difficult (or impossible).
I’ve often found it useful to think of mystery-based
So if you start trying to tackle large networks of nodes, scenarios as having two “prongs”: First, the clues
you can quickly reach a point at which you can’t keep required to figure out what happened or is happening
the whole network “in your head” at the same time. At (the concept solve). Second, the clues that take the PCs
this point, the network becomes difficult to design and to another location or event where more clues can be
manage (particularly in real-time at a game table). gathered (the scenario solve).

Properly organizing your network can make it easier to This is somewhat similar, of course, to the concept of the
manage, of course. (The Act I structure I posted, for Second Track, but where a second track presents a
example, took 15 difficult-to-manage nodes and broke secondary set of nodes, here I’m talking about using a
them down into 6 major nodes with a varying number of single node structure containing two sets of clues.
sub-nodes. I could easily grasp the structure of the 6
major nodes and then “zoom in” to focus on the In practice, of course, you’ll often end up with quite a bit
sub-nodes as necessary.) of overlap between the two sets of clues: When the
players discover that Altair Electronics is somehow
But this principle also offers us an opportunity as involved with the recent string of cyber-jackings, that
designers: A quick and easy way to add complexity to a tells the players something about what’s going on, but it
node-based scenario is to simply add a second set of will also point them in the direction of Altair’s corporate
nodes that are largely or entirely disconnected from the headquarters.
first set.
On the other hand, of course, there’s also the exception
I call this technique the Second Track. which proves the Three Clue Rule: In certain mystery
structures you can actually be certain that the PCs will
In my experience, it’s particularly easy to run a second
know about some locations without needing three clues.
track if the tracks use different methods of linking their
(Or any clues.) For example, if they’re police officers
nodes. For example, you might create a timeline of
tracking bank robbers and another bank gets robbed,
“backdrop events” combined with a primary network of
they’re going to get called to that location.
clue-linked nodes. But this division of methods isn’t
strictly necessary. In such scenarios, of course, you can simply focus on
delivering the clues necessary to reveal the mystery.
The reason this works well is that, from your perspective
(With three clues per necessary revelation.) But when
behind the screen, there are just two “chunks” of 4-6
faced with a more traditional two-prong approach, the
nodes each: Easy to keep track of. Easy to understand.
important thing to understand is that you can spread the

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clues necessary to solve the mystery thinly (as long as Part 6: Node-Based Dungeons
you include the necessary density of clues to keep PCs October 19th, 2011
moving from node to node). There may be entire nodes
where there are no clues for unraveling the deeper It’s a fairly typical piece of advice for neophyte GMs that
mystery – just clues for moving on to the next node they can design scenarios “just like dungeons”: Replace
(where, hopefully, answers can be found). each room with a location or scene; replace each door
with a clue.
How thin can you go? Well, it depends on what effect
you’re trying to achieve. If you’ve got a mystery that’s The logic behind this approach is fairly clear: Most GMs
serving as the metaplot of an entire campaign, for get started by running dungeon scenarios, most GMs
example, you may be spreading those clues very thin are very successful in running dungeon scenarios, and
indeed. most GMs find it relatively easy to prep dungeon
scenarios.
Another option, of course, is to vary the clue density.
Nodes that are difficult to find or difficult to exploit (due to (The reason for this is the dungeon’s clarity of structure,
armed resistance, for example) might offer more rewards self-controlled pacing, and robust design. But that’s
in terms of mystery-solving clues. largely a topic for another day.)

Or perhaps the deeper you move into a conspiracy, the But this analogy is problematic from both directions.
more clues you might discover. For example, the early First, as we discussed previously, doors or hallways in a
stages of a layer cake node design might have only dungeon are a robust transition:
sparse or enigmatic clues. The deeper you move into the
scenario, however, the thicker and more explicit the
clues might become.

Conversely, it’s important to remember not to mistake

mystery-solving clues for node-transition clues. What I
mean is that including a mystery-solving clue in a node
doesn’t actually satisfy the Inverted Three Clue Rule: If it
isn’t helping you find another node, then it doesn’t count
towards the “necessary” quota of clues for keeping the
adventure in motion. Advanced Node-Based Design 3

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/8202/roleplaying-ga If you’re standing in a room, the presence of a door or

mes/advanced-node-based-design-part-5-the-two-prong hallway into the next room is generally obvious and its
s-of-mystery-design purpose self-evident. Clues, on the other hand, are
fragile in isolation: They can be missed, mistaken, or
ignored.

Clues also allow for omni-directional relationships. A

dungeon room, however, typically can’t have a door to
another location on the opposite side of the dungeon.
The geography of the dungeon is rigid (and usually
reversible). The geography of a mystery can be flexible
(and is often one-way).

So, in general, I think – despite its ubiquity – this is

actually really bad advice to give to neophyte GMs.

ROBUST STRUCTURES: But there are lessons that can

be learned from the analogy.

First, dungeons work because the doors are robust

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transitions. Ergo, we should try to find equally robust learned from node-based scenario design can be
transitions in other scenario structures. The Three Clue usefully applied to your dungeon scenarios: Effective
Rule, for example, is a way of accomplishing that with a node-based design, after all, is all about creating centers
mystery scenario. of gravity for your nodes.

Similarly, as we’ve discussed before, it’s possible for the In designing your dungeons, look at each room or major
typical robustness of the dungeon geography to mislead area: Is there a way to make the PCs want to go there
us into a false sense of complacency: A mandatory and experience that content? Or, alternatively, is there a
secret door, for example, can create a very fragile way to make the content proactive so that it will come
dungeon structure. That’s something to be aware of and seek out the PCs?
when designing dungeon scenarios.
CLUE-BASED DUNGEON NAVIGATION: Consider, too,
EPHEMERAL BARRIERS: Consider our simple dungeon what happens when you bring clue-based navigation into
example again: the dungeon.

For example, the players might find a diary indicating

that a “silver throne” can be “pushed aside to reveal a
staircase”. Such a clue can easily send them to rooms
on the opposite side of the complex, leave them looking
for more information about the location of silver thrones,
or anything inbetween.

In other words, dungeons can be thought of as a

collection of nodes (with each room or area being a
Advanced Node-Based Design 3 separate node). Traditionally we default to thinking of the
transition between these dungeon nodes as strictly a
Note that the structure of the dungeon essentially geographical affair. Occasionally we may also throw in
“forces” the players to experience area B: If they could some randomly-triggered content, but even when we do
pass directly from area A to their goal in area C, they that, we’re still limiting ourselves. There’s no reason we
would. In this sense, area B functions as a “barrier” for can’t lace a dungeon scenario with other forms of node
the PCs. navigation: Clues, temporally-triggered events, proactive
content, trails, and the like.
Most dungeons are filled with such “barrier content” –
content experienced only because the PCs are forced to The result is a richer and more rewarding dungeon
physically move through those areas in order to reach scenario that will keep your players engaged in a
the areas they want to go to. multitude of ways.

But as the PCs gain resources to become proactive, the FURTHER READING
GM can’t just put barriers in their way. This is why
Game Structures
high-level dungeons so often fail: The PCs can simply
Hexcrawls
scry, fly, stoneshape, and/or teleport their way past the
5 Node Mystery
old geographical or terrain-based barriers the GM was Gamemastery 101
once able to use to force them into experiencing content. https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/8210/roleplaying-ga
mes/advanced-node-based-design-part-6-node-based-d
Some think empowering players like this is a bug. I tend
ungeons
to think of it as a feature. But it does mean that if you
want your players to take a journey, you’ll need to make
each pit stop interesting. Actually, more than interesting:
Each pit stop needs to become a center of gravity,
capable of drawing the PCs in for a closer look.

This is where applying some of the lessons you’ve

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run the module would necessitate completely replacing

Published Adventures & or drastically overhauling at least 90% of the content.

Settings

The Grok Threshold

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/36890/roleplaying-g
ames/random-gm-tip-rewind-your-timeline-how-to-use-p
ublished-sourcebooks

Strip-Mining Adventure Modules

December 29th, 2009

A question I’m asked with surprising regularity is, “Why

do you waste money on adventure modules?” It’s a
question generally voiced with varying degrees of
disdain, and the not-so-hidden subtext lying behind it is
that published adventure modules are worthless. There A QUICK REVIEW
are different reasons proffered for why they should be The only thing worse than a railroaded adventure is a
ignored, but they generally boil down to a couple of core railroaded adventure with poorly constructed tracks.
variations:
For example, it’s virtually a truism that whenever a
1. Published adventures are for people too stupid or module says “the PCs are very likely to [do X]” that it’s
uncreative to make up their own adventures. code for “the GM is about to get screwed“. (Personally, I
2. Published adventures are crap. can’t predict what my PCs are “very likely to do” 9 times
out of 10, and I’m sitting at the same table with them
The former makes about as much sense to me as every other week. How likely is it that some guy in
saying, “Published novels are for people too stupid or Georgia is going to puzzle it out?) But Serpent in the
uncreative to write their own stories.” And the latter Fold keeps repeating this phrase over and over again.
seems to be derived entirely from an ignorance of And to make matters worse, the co-authors seem to be
Sturgeon’s Law. in a competition with each other to find the most absurd
use of the phrase.
On the other hand, I look at my multiple bookcases of
gaming material and I know with an absolute certainty (My personal winner would be the assumption that the
that I own more adventure modules than I could ever PCs are likely to see a group of known enemies casting
hope to play in my entire lifetime. (And that’s assuming a spell and — instead of immediately attacking — they
that I never use any of my own material.) will wait for them to finish casting the spell so that they
can spy on the results.)
So why do I keep buying more?
Serpent in the Fold gets bonus points for including an
There are a lot of answers to that. But a major one lies in
explicit discussion telling the GM to avoid “the use of
the fact that I usually manage to find a lot of value even
deus ex machina” because it “limits the PCs”…
in the modules that I don’t use.
immediately before presenting a railroaded adventure in
Take, for example, Serpent Amphora 1: Serpent in the which the gods literally appear half a dozen times to
Fold. While being far from the worst module I’ve ever interfere with the PCs and create pre-determined
read (having been forced to wade through some true outcomes.
dreck during my days as a freelance reviewer), Serpent
The module then raises the stakes by encouraging the
in the Fold is a completely dysfunctional product. It’s
DM to engage in punitive railroading: Ergo, when the
virtually unsalvageable, since any legitimate attempt to

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PCs are instructed by the GM’s sock puppet to key. Despite this, the encounters all feature very specific
immediately go to location A it encourages the GM to topographical detail that the authors are then forced to
have the PCs make a Diplomacy check to convince a spend multiple paragraphs describing in minute detail.
ship captain to attempt dangerous night sailing in order (Maps, like pictures, really are worth a thousand words.)
to get to their destination 12 days faster than if the
captain plays it safe. The outcome of the die roll, As if to balance out this odd negligence, the authors
however, is irrelevant because the PCs will arrive only proceed to round out the final “chapter” of the adventure
mere moments after the villains do whether they traveled by providing an exhaustive key to a mansion/castle with
quickly or not. On the other hand, if the PCs ignore the 50+ rooms… which the GM is than advised to ignore.
GM’s sock puppet and instead go to location B first for (And I mean this quite literally: “In order to [“get right to
“even a few days” then “they will have failed” the entire the action”] have them notice the bloodstains in the entry
module. foyer, and thus, likely, find the bodies. Make the trail that
leads to the infirmary a bit more obvious […] it should be
So, on the macro-level, the module is structurally easy to keep the PCs moving up the stairs and to the
unsound. But its failures extend to the specific utility of final confrontation with Amra.”) In this case, the advice is
individual sequences, as well: The authors are quite right: The pace of the adventure is better served if
apparently intent on padding their word count, so the PCs don’t go slogging through a bunch of
virtually all of the material is bloated and unfocused in a inconsequential rooms. But why is a third of the module
way that would make the module incredibly painful to dedicated to providing a detailed key that will never be
use during actual play. used?

The authors are also apparently incapable of reading the Round out the package with a handful of key continuity
rulebooks. For example, they have one of the villains errors and elaborate back-stories and side-dramas
use scrying to open a two-way conversation with one of featuring NPCs that the PCs will never get to learn about
their minions. (The spell doesn’t work like that.) More (another pet peeve of mine) to complete the picture of
troublesome is when the PCs get the MacGuffin of the abject failure.
adventure (a tome of lore) and the module confidently
announced that it has been sealed with an arcane lock THE STRIP MINE
spell cast by a 20th level caster and, therefore, the PCs I tracked down the Serpent Amphora trilogy of modules
won’t be able to open it. The only problem is that arcane in the hope that I would be able to plug them into a
lock isn’t improved by caster level and the spell can be potential gap in my Ptolus campaign. Unfortunately, it
trivially countered by a simple casting of knock. turned out that the material was conceptually unsuited
for my needs and functionally unusable in its execution.
The all-too-easy-to-open “Unopenable” Tome is also an So that was a complete waste of my money, right?
example of the authors engaging in another pet peeve of
mine: Writing the module as if it were a mystery story to Not quite.
be enjoyed by the GM. Even the GM isn’t allowed to
To invent a nomenclature, I generally think of adventure
know what the tome contains, so when the PCs do
modules in terms of their utility:
manage to open it despite the inept “precautions” of the
authors he’ll be totally screwed. And the tome isn’t the Tier One modules are scenarios that I can use
only example of this: The text is filled with “cliffhangers” completely “out of the box”. There aren’t many of these,
that only serve to make the GM’s job more difficult. The but a few examples would include: Caverns of Thracia,
authors actually seem to revel in serial-style “tune in next Three Days to Kill, In the Belly of the Beast, Death in
week to find out the shocking truth!” nonsense. Freeport, Rappan Athuk, and The Masks of
Nyarlathotep. Tier One modules might receive some
Maps that don’t match the text are another bit of
minor customization to fit them into my personal
garden-variety incompetence to be found in Serpent in
campaign world or plugged into a larger structure, but
the Fold, but the authors raise it to the next level by
their actual content is essentially untouched.
choosing to include a dungeon crawl in which only half
the dungeon is mapped. The other half consists of Tier Two modules are scenarios that I use 80-90% of.
semi-random encounters strewn around an unmapped The core content and over-arcing structure of these
area of wreckage which are too “haphazard” to map and

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scenarios remains completely recognizable, but they revisiting the material again). Starting from the beginning
also require significant revision in order to make them of the module, I find:
workable according to my standards. High quality
examples include The Night of Dissolution, Inside Cover: A usable map of a simple cave system.
Banewarrrens, Tomb of Horrors, The Paxton Gambit,
Page 10: Three adventuring companies are detailed.
Beyond the Mountains of Madness, and Darkness
(These are particularly useful to me because Ptolus
Revealed. (For a more extreme version of a Tier Two
feature a Delvers’ Guild full of wandering heroes
module, see my remix notes for Keep on the
responding to the dungeon-esque gold rush of the city.
Shadowfell.)
Ergo, there’s plenty of opportunities for the PCs to bump
Serpent in the Fold is a Tier Three module: These are into competitors or hear about their exploits. Such
the modules which are either too boring or too flawed for groups are useful for stocking the common room of an
me to use, but in which specific elements can be inn or pub in any campaign.)
stripped out and reused.
Page 25: An interesting mini-system for climbing a
(Tier Four modules are the ones with interesting mountain. It features a base climbing time and a system
concepts rendered inoperable through poor execution. for randomly generating the terrain to be climbed
Virtually nothing of worth is to be found here, since (prompting potential Climb checks which can add or
you’re largely doing the equivalent of taking the back subtract from the base climbing time). I’d probably look
cover text from a book and writing a new novel around to modify the system to allow additional Survival or
the same concept. Tier Five modules are those rare and Knowledge (nature) checks to plot the course of ascent
complete failures in which absolutely nothing of value (to modify or contribute to the largely random system
can be found; the less said of them, the better.) presented here).

For example, consider that mansion with high quality Page 27: A very nice illustration that I can quickly
maps and a detailed key for 50+ rooms. Photoshop and re-purpose as a handout depicting a
subterranean ruin.

Serpent in the Fold - Subterranean Ruin B

Serpent in the Fold - Manor House (As a tangential note: I wish more modules would
purpose their illustrations so that they could be used as
That mansion is practically plug-‘n-play. Less than 5% of visual aids at the gaming table. You can make your
it is adventure specific. That’s an incredibly invaluable product visually appealing and useful at the same time,
resource to have for an urban campaign (like the one I’m and you’re already spending the money to commission
currently running). the illustration in any case.)
But the usefulness of Serpent in the Fold doesn’t end Page 33: Another useful illustration that can be quickly
there. I’ll be quite systematic in ripping out the useful bits turned into a handout.
of a Tier Three module (since I have little interest in

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Serpent in the Fold - Giant Serpent B

Page 54-55: A new monster and the new spell required

to create them.

The module also features countless stat blocks, random

encounter tables, and similar generic resources that can
be quickly ripped out and rapidly re-purposed.

So even in a module that I found largely useless and

poorly constructed, I’ve still found resources that will
save me hours of independent work.

When you’re dealing with a module like Serpent in the

Fold that you have no intention of ever using, these
strip-mining techniques can be used to suck out every
last drop of useful information without any particular care
for the husk of detritus you leave behind. But similar
measures can also be employed to harvest useful
material from any module, even those you’ve used
before or plan to use in the future.

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/5774/roleplaying-ga
mes/strip-mining-adventure-modules

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allied with the Bandit King. (And you can salt these
Running a Sandbox scenario hooks into the campaign in any number of
ways: Rumor tables. Lore recovered from other
Juggling Scenario Hooks in a locations. Allies of the PCs who are now in need. Et
cetera.)
Sandbox
July 16th, 2015 So one day the PCs grab one of these hooks and they
go off and they kill the Bandit King and they take the
There’s a particularly prevalent — but completely magical artifact he was carrying.
incorrect — belief wandering around that sandboxes
don’t have scenario hooks. Over and done with, right? Only not really, because the
guy who originally owned the magical artifact still wants
To the contrary: A good sandbox has scenario hooks it, so now the PCs are getting attacked by bounty
hanging all over the place. The successful sandbox will hunters attempting to recover the artifact. Meanwhile,
not only be festooned with scenario hooks, it will also they didn’t wipe out all the bandits and the remaining
feature some form of default action that can be used to goblins are renewing their raids under the leadership of
deliver more hooks if the players find themselves bereft the One-Eyed Ogre.
of interesting options.
So the PCs go back to the Neo-Norskan temple and this
For example, a typical hexcrawl sandbox features a time they wipe out all the bandits, permanently ending
rumor table (which serves up some arbitrary number of their threat to the region. Except now the Necromancer
scenario hooks to the PCs) and a default action if none sees a big, open dungeon complex filled with the
of those rumors sound appealing (wandering around the discarded corpses the PCs have left in their wake, and
map until you find something interesting). so he moves in and animates the corpses as a skeletal
army.
A megadungeon sandbox similarly features a rumor
table and a default action (go explore some unknown Which all sounds like a lot of work, but because you
part of the dungeon). prepped the whole thing as a situation to begin with you
haven’t needed to spend more than about 5 minutes
Prepping this plethora of scenario hooks can be
“refreshing” this content between sessions: You’re
daunting for a GM who believes that every scenario
reusing the same maps and stat blocks over and over
hook needs to be linked to a distinct, unique plot. The
again. You spent a little time putting together new stat
trick to a sandbox is that you don’t prep plots: You prep
blocks for the bounty hunters when they showed up. And
situations. And for the sandbox you’ll be able to hang
there was probably some light re-keying necessary for
countless hooks off of every situation. You’ll also
the changes the Necromancer made when he took over
discover how sandbox situations “stay alive” even after
the complex.
the PCs have interacted with them (instead of being
completely chewed up and discarded). You didn’t have to buy a whole new set of tools every
single time. You just occasionally added a new tool when
For example, let’s say you’ve got a dungeon a fair
necessary. (And occasionally removed a hammer that
distance outside of town that’s the remains of a
the PCs had broken.)
Neo-Norskan temple complex. It’s currently being
occupied by a Bandit King who has forged together an This can be easier to visualize with a location (which is
alliance of humans, goblins, and ogres. He’s also renting why I use it as an example), but the same basic process
skeletons off a nearby necromancer. holds true for, say, factions in an urban campaign.
Create a gang that’s, for example, manufacturing and
In terms of scenario hooks, there’s all kinds of stuff you
marketing a drug derived from blood that’s been
can hang on this situation: Bandit raids are terrorizing
harvested from vampires and you should be able to use
local villages. A powerful magical artifact was stolen
that toolkit to generate dozens of sessions of play.
from a local caravan. There are old legends about the
Neo-Norskan temple and what it contains. Because of The other thing that happens in a sandbox campaign is
the skeletons, there are false rumors that the synergy between the different elements of the sandbox:
necromancer lives there. Or that the necromancer has

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By holding onto the artifact that was stolen from them, things that I consider indispensable:
the PCs make enemies of House Nobuzo. This
unexpectedly earns them a patron in the form of House ● A big list of NPCs, each with a plot hook/motive
Erskine, unleashing a flurry of scenario hooks from the attached.
“feuding noble houses” toolkit you designed. As the PCs ● A table for randomly generating missions/tasks/jobs,
get drawn into that world, they’re approached by a minor linked to the NPC list.
house named Tannar: They’re currently allied to House ● A list of "groups/institutions/gangs/organisations",
Nobuzo, but their daughter has been murdered by the similar to the NPC list.
Necromancer who has now stolen her body in order to
Then, with the help of the players, I created the icing on
transform her into his Corpse Bride. If the PCs can
the cake:
rescue their daughter from a fate literally worse than
death, they’ll break their alliance with House Nobuzo and ● The relationship hexmap.
pledge for House Erskine.
Let's take a look at these in turn.
After that scenario has resolved itself, you might find that
the players are now actively looking for minor houses The Big List of NPCs
that they can endear to their political causes by doing The Big List of NPCs exists in the form of an Excel
favors for them. (Which would organically create a new spreadsheet. At the beginning it contained approximately
default action for delivering scenario hooks.) 30 NPCs, each with a Name, a Profession, a
Description, and a Motive. Every time the PCs encounter
In any case, once your sandbox toolkits start interacting somebody in the game and have an interaction lasting
with each other like this, you’ll quickly find that the longer than a few sentences, that NPC goes into the list.
sandbox is basically running itself. It's now 63 entries long.
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37530/roleplaying-g I think of this as being akin to the hexmap that you might
ames/thought-of-the-day-juggling-scenario-hooks-in-a-sa draw when starting off a typical D&D-style sandbox
ndbox campaign. Rather than having a number of hexes filled
with adventuring locations, you have a web of NPCs who
The Urban Sandbox will, if you like, provide the stuff of adventure.

The Random Mission Generator

How I Run Sandboxes in the City This is a more complicated, bespoke version of the Mr
Jones Mission Generator. It is 20 entries long. I can roll
Part I: The Setup on it at any time, and instantly come up with a link
Thursday, 9 February 2012 between two NPCs (if, for instance, I come up with "A
pimp" "needs to" "kill" "a local businessman" I can within
Non-linear game play is not the preserve of fantasy 10 seconds find that pimp and businessman on the Big
gaming, and a sandbox does not require a hexmap. This List of NPCs and create a link between them. It's then a
sort of game can take place in any setting, in any genre. matter of a few more minutes' thought to come up with a
I'm running such a game at the moment: it's a totally backstory for the pair and why the former wants to kill
non-linear, sandbox campaign of Cyberpunk 2020 set in the latter, drawing on their different motives and
Liverpool, or "Cyberpool" as it has come to be known. descriptions). Sometimes, if the mood takes me, I create
a new NPC for one of the results and add him/her to the
It occurred to me recently to write a series of posts on
Big List of NPCs.
how I've gone about running this, and here is the first:
The Setup. This is what you draw on when the PCs go out looking
for work. If they know some of these NPCs, then work
If you are a player in my game and would not like to see
might come looking for them.
"behind the veil" and thus realise that I am in fact no
Wizard of Oz but a mere conjuror, stop reading now. The List of Organisations
This is similar to the Big List of NPCs. It's a collection of
In setting up Cyberpool, I sat down and created three
organisations present in the city, each with a Name,

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Type, and Description. Sometimes the Random Mission Part II: In Play
Generator generates results that necessitate referring to Friday, 10 February 2012
this list - other times I use the list when I need to
elaborate on the backstory for NPCs. So I have the Big List of NPCs, the Random Mission
Generator, the List of Organisations, and the
The Relationship Hexmap Relationship Hexmap. This is the raw material from
This is the final piece of the puzzle. In our first "chargen" which the game emerges. It's important to keep this
session, I sat down with the players and we created a vision of "game as emergent" in mind when running any
web of relationships for the PCs and the people they sandbox game, as I'm sure you'll agree.
know. Cyberpunk 2020 has a character generation
system which by necessity gives each starting PC a Anyway, how does it work in play? Like anything, it
certain number of acquaintances (teachers, friends, needs a bit of work from the GM and a bit of work from
enemies, family members, ex-lovers, etc.). We put the the players.
names of the PCs in the middle of a sheet of hexes, one
The GM
name to a hex. We then started adding acquaintances in
The GM's job is to use the raw material to improvise.
neighbouring hexes, again at one name to a hex. If two
This is more than just rolling on the Random Mission
names came to neighbour each other, it meant the two
Generator. It needs him to constantly think about what's
people concerned know each other for some reason,
going on throughout the city, what the various actors are
which we noted down.
doing, and what the consequences of the players'
We also write down the names of other NPCs who actions are. This could be as simple as "the players have
emerge during play on this hexmap who are in some robbed a bank so the police will be investigating" or as
way "allied to" or at least in cahoots with this core group complicated as "the players have introduced £2,000,000
of PCs and their acquaintances. These, of course, also worth of heroin onto the street - how does that affect the
go in the Big List of NPCs. The Relationship Hexmap state of play between the different drug gangs in the
now looks like this: city?" The Big List of NPCs and the List of Organisations
help with this, because they provide motives for the
different actors which suggest how they will react.

The GM also needs to be good at improvising. The

nature of a non-linear game is that it's surprising, and a
city sandbox has fewer anchors than a traditional fantasy
one: there is no hexmap and there are no random
encounters (at least, not how I run it), two things which
are natural fulcrums for a GM to riff on. And the players
are not constrained by geography, if it's a modern or
futuristic setting: they can travel freely and quickly,
wherever they want. This means the GM needs to be on
his toes all the time - the players could do decide to do
anything at any moment, and he needs to be able to
make stuff up on the fly in response.

The Big List of NPCs naturally helps, here. Perhaps the

Which might be a bit confusing to you, but does the job.
players decide they want to get their hands on some
These are the basic tools from which the game emerges. horse anaesthetic? Check the list of NPCs, find a vet.
The next post will look at how I use them in play. Turns out somebody who they know knows him. Bingo.
But it also helps to let the players know that you're
http://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-i- making stuff up. I'm never afraid to be obvious about the
run-sandboxes-in-city-part-i.html fact that I'm making something up on the spot. An
example from tonight's game: my players went to a bar
to try to meet a politician rumoured to drink there. I had
no idea they were going to do this. I needed to make up

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prices for champagne, the names for the politician's prep-per-minute to hours-of-enjoyment ratio is hard to
friends and floozies, the name of the barman, and beat.
several other things. I was perfectly open about plucking
names from thin air, and rolling a dice to see how many For the final post in the series, I'll list some of the things I
drinking companions the politician had. They know it's a use for inspiration when I'm making things up on - either
game: you're not fooling anybody by pretending you in the planning/setup stage or on the fly during play.
have it all planned out.
http://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-i-
The Players run-sandboxes-in-city-part-ii-in.html
Correspondingly, the players have a big role. They have
to be active. I'm blessed with really good players in this Part III: Appendix N
regard. They have ideas. They brainstorm. They want to Saturday, 11 February 2012
interact with the setting - to meet new people and make
Here is a list of fictional and non-fictional resources I
contacts, to move things forward, to act. They are an
look to for inspiration in designing a city-based game
engine.
setting, and when fleshing it out.
But their actions are also food for me as the GM. By
● Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. Before David
going to that bar that I wasn't expecting to go to, I now
Simon wrote The Wire, he wrote this masterpiece of
have four new NPCs for the Big List of NPCs. And each
nonfiction. Ostensibly the account of a year spent with
of them has a motive, a reason for existing. More flesh is
the Baltimore Police Department's homicide squad, it
added to the setting, and who knows when one of these
is so much more than a 'true crime' book: it is almost a
NPCs will become relevant again?
social novel, encompassing every area of Baltimore
Players also have a tendency to take a "bull in a china life, with a cast of hundreds and dozens of plots and
shop" approach (I'm sure this holds true across every subplots, very few of which get resolved. It's also
game group that ever existed). To put it simply, they fuck stunningly well written, once you get used to its
things up, in good and bad ways. And their actions also detached, objective tone. The perfect description of a
feed into the setting: they attract the attention of the modern, developed-world city seen from the belly up.
police, they make enemies, they kill people, they ● Ian McDonald's The Dervish House. Set over the
fundamentally change the economy and the physical course of a few days in Istanbul in 2027 AD, the city is
make-up of the city. as much a character as the people themselves in this
novel: there are few books you'll read which more
All of this is gold for the GM, and it becomes a accurately capture the complex, random fabric of city
self-perpetuating process: the more the players do, the life than this.
more they flesh out the Big List of NPCs and the List of ● Uncaged: Faces of Sigil. 40 NPCs to use in a
Organisations; and the more this happens, the more stuff campaign set in Sigil. If the unimaginative folks at TSR
there is for them to do. Over time, the setting becomes could come up with Big List of 40 NPCs to start off a
far more than the sum of its parts. game with, then you can do it too.
● Time Out city guides give a great sense of what a city
What this means is that, the longer you play, the less is like - charting their history, geography and social
time it takes for the GM to prep. Things begin to take on characteristics, as well as providing lists and lists and
a life of their own. The players act, and their actions lists of restaurants, clubs, bars, galleries, shops, etc. If
have consequences, and those consequences force the you can take in the information through osmosis, you
players to act, and that results in more consequences... can then pull it out when you need something like it to
and so on and so on and so on like a snowball. While appear in your game.
the time investment before play began was big (say 5 or ● Detective/police procedural fiction often relies heavily
6 hours total), the GM now spends about 30 minutes a on a strong sense of the city as a living, breathing
week preparing for the next session - just statting up place. They also have large casts of interesting
anything that needs statting up, ruminating over what the characters, with tangled webs of interaction. Reading a
different NPC actors might be doing behind the scenes, lot of detective fiction gives you a genuine sense for
and book-keeping. If you're a busy person with work, how complex settings work, and how narrative (or, in
family and a social life, it's a no-brainer: the our context, the game) emerges from the interactions

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between different elements within them. I highly

recommend Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow
(Copenhagen), the Inspector Rebus novels
(Edinburgh) and Gorky Park (Moscow) in this respect.
● Many people have read his feudal-Japan-set book,
Shogun, but Noble House is James Clavell's real
masterwork. Set in a week in Hong Kong, you get to
see every facet of life in that great metropolis, from the
bottom (maids and prostitutes) to the top (stock market
traders, corporate executives). It's also impossible to
put down, despite being 1200 pages long.
● I should also include William Gibson's Bridge trilogy,
which is in a way an imagined city par excellence
(even if it's sort-of based in Oakland), and many of my
notions of cyberpunk cityscapes in particular stem
from it.
● And finally, of course, there is Perdido Street Station,
which as a novel I don't particularly like, but as a
setting I think is wonderful. Again, it's an imagined city
par excellence, complete with subway map and
sprawling suburbs: if you're going to come up with a
fantasy city, this really ought to be one of your starting
points when it comes to inspiration.

http://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-i-
run-sandboxes-in-city-part-iii.html

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Dungeon Design
Part 1: Jaquaying the Dungeon
Part 2: The Jaquays Techniques
Part 3: The Philosophy of
Jaquaying
Part 4: Jaquaying the Keep on
the Shadowfell
The entrance is where the dungeon starts. The boss is
Part 5: Jaquaying for Fun and where it ends.
Profit
Red diamonds are small keys. Red squares are locked
doors.
Addendum: Dungeon Level
Connections Orange diamonds are for the key item. Orange squares
are the obstacles that the item lets you overcome.
Addendum: Jaquaying on the (Example: bombs, and walls that crumble when you blow
them up)
Small Scale
Blue diamonds are for the boss key. Blue squares are for
How ‘BossKeys’ Dungeon the boss door.

Graphs Work A green diamond with the letter A is some kind of switch,
Aug 11, 2017 at 9:37am a green square is whatever barrier is removed when you
hit that switch. (Example: hit a switch to make sand pour
I’ve had some messages from viewers asking me to in and reveal a pathway).
share more information about the graph system I created
for analysing Zelda dungeons in my YouTube series, If you have multiple switches, use another colour and the
Boss Keys (introduced in the Minish Cap episode). next letter (purple Bs, yellow Cs, pink Ds, etc).

People want to better understand how the graphs work, Making the graph
and also use the system to analyse other games or even Okay, so let’s make a graph for a very simple dungeon:
make entirely new games. “Gnarled Root Dungeon” from Oracle of Seasons. But
first, we need to make a map of the dungeon, showing
So... here’s how it all works! This post will be public. all of the key items described above.

The symbols

The graphs use the following symbols:

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It looks like this (I’ve omitted some unnecessary rooms).

The dungeon’s key item is the ember seeds, which can
light up torches to unlock doors.

First, we want to look at what Link can get to at the start

of the dungeon. We only care about things he can
physically reach, like doors he can touch but can’t
unlock. We can represent this on the graph like so. A horizontal
line comes out of the entrance node, and lines drop
down to show you the things Link can do at this point.
On the right is the key. Next to it is the locked door. The
lock is always lower than the key.

We also have the obstacle, but we don’t know how far

down to put it yet so we'll come back to it later.

Right now, we can see that if Link takes the key and
uses it on the door, he can access more of the dungeon.
This stuff, to be exact:

So at the start of Gnarled Root he can’t get through the

locked door on the left because he doesn’t have a key,
and he can’t get through the door in the north east
because he can’t light the torch. But he can pick up the
key in the room on the right.

It’s actually the same as before. A locked door. An

obstacle. And a key.

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We need to put a circular node underneath the first We can put this on the graph, and also move the
locked door, another horizontal line across, and then obstacle squares down so they are lower than the the
symbols underneath to show what Link can do. Again, key item diamond. This shows that while Link can get to
he can use the key to unlock the door and get to…. the two obstacles earlier in the dungeon, he can't
actually get past them until later.

The key item!

You can imagine the rest. The key item lets Link get the
boss key, and get to the boss door. Which he unlock and
get to the boss to finish the dungeon.

This was a very easy dungeon to graph out. It can get a

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bit tricky with lots of branching paths and multiple floors.

But keep at it!

Reading the graph

So the best way to read these graphs is often to go
backwards.

Like, we can’t get to the boss because the boss door is

locked. And we can’t get the boss key because it’s
behind some torches. And we can’t light them because
we don’t have the ember seeds. And the seeds are
behind a locked door so we need a key. But those things
are behind a locked door so we need a key. Compares to a more complicated dungeon like Wind
Temple (also Wind Waker), which branches out like
But beyond reading the graph like a set of GPS crazy and is full of choice and backtracking.
directions, we can also see other information.
Other important information
Because the first line has three lines branching off, the In Zelda, a small key can open any locked door (and the
dungeon must have branching paths, with some dead key is erased from existence after it is used). In certain
ends. And because the two orange squares are lined up Zelda games, this means that the player can choose
horizontally, that means we can do them at the same where to use the key.
time, showing that we have a choice (a very small one,
but hey).

Plus, because the line to the boss door stretches back to

the very start of the dungeon, it means we have to
backtrack to the start of the area after we get the key
item.

This is obviously a very simple dungeon, but you get the

idea.

My graphs don’t really have a great way of representing

this (see the graph for Tail Cave from Link’s Awakening,
above), unless you do the heavy lifting of going through
the steps one by one. I'm open to any ideas for better
showing this.

And you can see how a super duper simple dungeon like
Dragon Roost Cavern (Wind Waker), which has no
backtracking, no choice, and no major branching paths.

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You don’t need to show any obstacles (orange squares) Part 10: Stocking the Hexes
that are beyond the first instance of the obstacle Part 11: More Hex Stocking
because it’s irrelevant for showing the dungeon’s Part 12: At the Table
structure. The graph above, for example, is wrong. Part 13: Hexcrawl Cheat Sheets
June 1st, 2012

Dungeons that are more about manipulating

architecture, time, water, etc can get very complicated.
You can make up new symbols to help but sometimes
everything just breaks and it’s better to just give up and
cry. See: Sandship (Skyward Sword).

Downloads and usage info

You can download PNGs of all the symbols, plus a

sample dungeon PSD file from Dropbox.

You may use this stuff however you like, for whatever
purpose. Make new symbols or edit existing ones. Make
money from it, I don’t care. Just gimme a shoutout
somewhere, or at least don’t pretend that you made it.

I will be releasing graphs of every Zelda dungeon at

some point. But, for now, I'm just focusing on finishing
Boss Keys.

The Megadungeon
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/5/roleplaying-game
s/re-running-the-megadungeon

The Hexcrawl
Part 1: The Hexcrawl
Part 2: Wilderness Travel
Part 3: Navigating the Wilderness
Part 4: Encounter Tables
Part 5: Spot Distances
Part 6: Watch Checklist
Part 7: DM’s Worksheet
Part 8: Sample Hex Key
Part 9: Four Documents of the Hexcrawl

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5th Edition Tips

https://therpgacademy.com/gm-advice-modified-skill-chal
Loot Distribution
lenges/
http://blogofholding.com/?p=7287
https://therpgacademy.com/encounter-design-by-thatone
Encounter Buildings gm/

http://slyflourish.com/5e_encounter_building.html

http://slyflourish.com/new_dms_guide_to_encounters.ht
ml

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/2050/roleplaying-ga
mes/revisiting-encounter-design

http://slyflourish.com/making_the_most_of_mordenkaine
ns.html

5e Spellbook

http://blogofholding.com/spellbook.php

Monster Index by Cr

http://blogofholding.com/cr/bohmonstersbycr2.pdf

Rare Spells

http://blogofholding.com/?p=7146

Space Rules

http://blogofholding.com/?p=6928

Mass Combat

http://blogofholding.com/?p=6881

Running a Business

http://blogofholding.com/?p=6738

Divinations

http://blogofholding.com/?p=6850

Urban Chases

http://blogofholding.com/?p=6684

Domain Play

http://blogofholding.com/?p=6667

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Pathfinder 1e / 3.x Tips

Revisiting Encounter Design
August 30th, 2008

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/2050/roleplaying-ga
mes/revisiting-encounter-design

Random GM Tip: How to Use

Published 3rd Edition Modules
February 26th, 2011

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/2747/roleplaying-ga
mes/random-gm-tip-how-to-use-published-3rd-edition-m
odules

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ames/5-node-mystery
Consider For Later:
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/35216/roleplaying-g
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37995/roleplaying-g
ames/check-this-out-three-point-plotting
ames/game-structure-party-planning
Making Cheat Sheets

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/10651/roleplaying-g
ames/prepping-system-cheat-sheets

http://slyflourish.com/hard_choices.html
Gamemastery 101
http://slyflourish.com/sly_flourishs_running_epic_tier_dd
_games.html

http://blogofholding.com/?p=7450
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/35216/roleplaying-g
ames/check-this-out-three-point-plotting http://slyflourish.com/meaningful_random_encounters.ht
ml

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/39227/roleplaying-g
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37457/roleplaying-g ames/random-gm-tips-evocative-descriptions
ames/thought-of-the-day-players-who-dont-bite
Random Tables
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/29284/roleplaying-g
ames/thought-of-the-day-foreshadowing-in-rpgs http://blogofholding.com/?p=6866

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/8406/roleplaying-ga http://blogofholding.com/?p=6808
mes/thought-of-the-day-are-you-sure-you-want-to-do-tha
http://slyflourish.com/randomness_creativity_and_dnd.ht
t
https://therpgacademy.com/intro-to-player-narrative-cont
rol/ml

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/580/roleplaying-ga
mes/tales-from-the-table-in-the-depths-of-khunbaral

http://slyflourish.com/scaling_the_story.html
GAME STRUCTURES
http://slyflourish.com/tools_for_new_dms.html
Part 1: Game Structures

https://www.rpgnow.com/product/257500/The-Lazy-DMs Part 2: Game Structure Basics

-Workbook?affiliate_id=70406
Part 3: Dungeoncrawl
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/39927/roleplaying-g
ames/random-gm-tip-adaptation-reincorporation Part 4: Combat

http://slyflourish.com/nastier_specials.html?fbclid=IwAR0 Part 5: Mysteries

XbCkTOPFhjAteyt5a2_aCBipuPmtvcpDTAAYyN6ou1bG
Part 6: Hexcrawls
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Part 7: Playing With Hexcrawls

Part 8: The Importance of Clean Procedures

https://critical-hits.com/blog/2009/06/02/the-5x5-method/
Part 9: Archaic Game Structures
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37903/roleplaying-g

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Part 10: Incomplete Game Structures

Part 11: Complete Game Structures

Part 12: Using Scenario Structures

Part 13: Custom Structures

Part 14: Scenario Structures for Between the Stars

Part 15: Generic Scenario Structures

Part 16: Player Known and Unknown Scenario

Structures

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