We're going to break the line. Derail the train. Open the world. On the ever-awesome kids-rpg@yahoogroups.com list, Tony D. asked for 'non-violent adventure hooks'. This got me thinking about how adventures-- bloody or not-- need to move away from 'do this, then do that' pattern.

Mission-based open exploration has become more common in computer games (ref: later GTAs), but lags within RPGdom. RPGs still remain very plot-heavy and linear in orientation. There's a dragon. To slay it, you need to get the magic sword. Then kill all its minions.

Or, there's Cthulhu Cultists. To prevent the summoning, you need to find the Scroll. Kill lots of cultists to use it.

Sure, sourcebooks are full of hooks and seeds, but they each lead to linear adventures. You have to do each step-- or subvert or work around each step-- to get to the end.

I propose a Hub and Spoke model. The Hub is what we consider the 'problem' or hook. It's what the characters want to accomplish. The Spokes are all the possible paths, of which the player need do only a few. Each spoke is its own adventure.

Most important, a character can fail on any given spoke, yet still succeed in the overall Hub goal. To give an example, I've crafted a scenario skeleton for a work I co-authored, Firefly Games' excellent "Faery's Tale".

The adventure takes place on an island, near the docks, where a ship is heavily damaged. The task at hand is 'repair the ship'. The dock is the Hub, from which the characters will go forth. To repair the ship, they must collect a dozen magical nuts.

Why nuts? It's a faery tale setting. Change it to Shadowrun, and it's a dozen AI replicators. Make it Epic D&D, and it's a dozen Ioun stones. This is a framework, customize it as you wish. We'll call the necessary dozen items Rewards.

The diagram really says it all. Or, it should-- but since you can't read my handwriting on a scan, I was forced to put little letters "A", "B", etc for each challenge. But here's a tip-- write the adventure kernels right on each item. Don't force yourself to resort to a table, like I do here.

Key: red dots are Rewards. Green blogs are Sheep, which can be turned into the shepherd at L for rewards. Here, neatly typed, are what the challenges are at each letter. The characters start at the Docks in the center of the diagram.

1. (cliff) Must get to top of cliff somehow. Tree at top. [2 Rewards]
2. (clifftop) How did a sheep get up here? [1 Sheep]
3. (clifftop) View of rival ship coming to port.
4. (clifftop) A little (heavy) troll wants to get home to its bridge.
5. (forest) Ogre guarding a tree. Trick? Fight? [2 Rewards]
6. (forest) Dwarf dualist needs a Second for his duel. (Honor or tricks?) [1 Reward]
7. (past forest) Local knows of a cache in dwarf's cave while dwarf is busy with duel wrapup. (Test of honor, not steal = reward, steal = cursed). [1 Reward]
8. (river, ferry). 2 Sheep are stuck on an island with a wolf on the shore, boat only carries 2 occupants, if sheep alone with wolf it will be eaten. (Logic, or fight wolf). [2 Sheep]
9. (river, bridge) Troll toll: either from FT book, or make your own challenge. Best= return its missing child from D and it leads you to K.
10. (past river) tree (and a nearby sheep). [1 Sheep] There's a sad fairy, needs a good joke. [1 Reward]
11. (past river) Troll kid leads you to a tree. [1 Reward]
12. (farms) Shepherd has lost sheep! Each sheep you return nets you 1 Reward.
13. (farms) Farmer will trade for crop picking. [1 Reward]

To analyze why it holds together, we look at the parts. We have 7 spokes, providing initial lines of inquiry. They are set around 4 geographic features (Cliff, Forest, River Farms) that provide color and reference. Two spokes (by the River) are interlinked; you can get to the 'goal' by either path. One spoke (Cliffs) splits into three additional spokes. One spoke (Forest) has two chained adventures possible on it.

There is an additional challenge to get to the 12 Rewards; a subquest involving finding Lost Sheep. Sheep convert to Rewards on a 1-1 basis. This allows more variety in terms of the puzzles and challenges that can be created.

From a fragility/stability point of view, there are 14 possible Rewards (nuts, Ioun, whatever), and the characters only need 12. The only required choke point is the Cliff, which provides 2 Rewards and leads to 1 optional additional one. There is only one required quest, the "Lost Sheep" quest, necessary to get a full count of 12 Rewards.

Each point on a spoke will involve some sort of challenge. It can be a Puzzle, simple Work, a Social interaction, a Fight, a check against a Skill, or whatever the game writer wants to put in. Since the characters will not need to accomplish all the challenges, the writer is free to put in varying levels of difficulty. And they don't have to fret about whether the adventure is properly calibrated for the characters-- the characters can figure out which parts work for them.

To wrap up, Hub and Spoke construction is a quick framework that lets you create non-linear adventures that maximize player freedom and choice while still providing clear goals. It increases the variety for the players while making the design work easier for the writer. And it still provides an awesome storyline.

Until next month,
Sand