Adapting Linear Stories
Adapting Linear Stories
What would it mean to take a traditional, linear story and adapt it to your gaming table?
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Easy. Its not possible. Because there would be only 2 ways to keep a full storyline intact from start to finish, like if you wanted to redo lotr. Either your players pick exactly the right thing to go to the right next place, or you force them there.
Thats why I never plan more than 2 or 3 sessions in advance. The more I plan, the more I will either force upon my players or lose if they go batshit.
Even baldur's gate 3 with all of his possibilities and interactions can only go so far off the path. And its also why I prefer homebrew to campaigns, both as a player and a DM. I feel like modules are way closer to telltales games than a homebrew games with the choices available and their consequences.
And please dont say a dm can make a module be as opened as a homebrew. Because then the module becomes the starting point, but not the finish line as it will be the DM finishing the rails the players chose to ride to whatever destination they pick.
You didn't read the article, did you?
- It is possible, and he explained how in only 3 steps.
- He does not want the storyline intact. He recommends the opposite.
- He adapts to get a scenario, not a script. The finish line is the objective. The route doesn't matter.
- He referenced adapting Lord of the Rings in a previous article and linked to it, so you picked a bad example.
Everything else you said was just irrelevant.
Yup. Never noticed the article, only saw the single line he bothered to post on this website.
But please, if it's only 3 steps, tell me then. Should be easy. How do I take Lord of the rings and make a campaign out of it while following it to a certain extend ? Because I doubt it's possible without intense railroading OR insane luck.
It's an interesting article, you should read it. You're thinking of too direct a translation. The idea is that you strip out all of the events, and just adapt the scenario. For Lord of the Rings, the important part is that the One Ring exists, and it needs to be taken to Mt. Doom to be destroyed. Everything in between there is a complete sandbox.
You can then pull in lots of characters and places from the books, but they will almost certainly all show up out of order as your players won't take the same route that they did in the books.
The OP article talks more about the steps to adapt a scenario including a Star Wars example, but here's the LotR one: https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/47543/roleplaying-games/ask-the-alexandrian-7-classic-quests-are-railroads
@melmi @sammytheman666 Yeah, like Council of Elrond is probably Session 0 or Session 1, the alternative to "you meet in a tavern".
Then there's every chance that they run off to try and recruit Saruman as biggest baddest wizard right off the bat, and suddenly you're thinking about where his plans are that early.
So Im right then ? It can be a starting point, but you cannot follow a story closely without intense railroading or insane luck.
But I agree. You can adapt a UNIVERSE with characters and places and even events if possible.
But then thats not new. We DMs have been stealing ideas left and right for generations for our own stories. Sticking to one universe is another way to do it.
But it would feel... forced for me. Like if you met Aragorn. The players know what he should be doing, so does he forget this and stick to the uneased players not happy to stear that part of the story, or does he only do a cheap cameo ? Thats assuming they know the story, which might be a no too since the movie is like 20 years old now.
No one was saying that you should follow a story exactly. That wouldn't be very interesting imo, even if it was possible.
I feel like the most interesting way to do it would be to have it very explicitly in an alternate timeline. You could do this by killing a main character, or by otherwise having a major divergence. Then it feels less like just stealing ideas and more like a "What If?" story, and would help nip the urge to follow the story too closely.
I seem to recall a podcast or comic or something that was this but in a Star Wars universe, that opened with Luke Skywalker dying and the podcast/comic characters taking over for him. I tried to look it up but I can't find anything about it now. Wish I'd remembered the name.
Yeah, a starting point is doable
Still waiting.
For what? The article is right there and someone already summed it up for you. If you're not going to engage with the basic subject of conversation, then leave the conversation. Especially if everyone else already left.
Yeah thats what I thought.
Did you think, though? I get that you didn't read the article, but you at least had to have read the other guy's comment that explained it to you already. I don't know why you insist on me telling you this information for the third time.
This is getting boring