Planning a Linear without Plot
This may sound a little strange, but think again. Most parts of a linear are very dependent on what plot you're running, what the bad guys are etc. Often a linear has defined enemies, characterref etc before you even sit down to write it. But what happens if you start from the other direction, thinking of a fun structure and then fitting a linear to it.
When writing a player-linear this is often the easiest way to go - especially if you are messing around with plot that the refs might have to change on you due to PCs' actions.
Examples
Straight Up
The simplest kind of linear, and probably the first kind someone should try running, this consists of a character ref who is on the party's side and a string of 12-18 encounters. The encounters will have about on third straight fights, one third 'encounters' that the party may or may not fight (but probably will) and a third 'roleplaying' encounters (which often include at least one possible source of healing). There is then a 'boss' fight at the end, and then everyone goes home.
This is a very flexible structure for a linear, very easy to run, and lends itself well to the terrain. It is also easy to insert bits that will make the linear unique (remember the singing rockrose anyone?). There are a few common pitfalls that it's easy to fall into - but they're not terribly serious and apply to some extent to all linears:
- Where have all my monsters gone? - if you use a lot of monsters for one encounter remember to put a couple of smaller encounters *both* before and after.
- Dammit my monsters have all gone! - oh, and under no circumstances allow a roleplaying encounter leeway to join the party if you might possibly need the monster later. Having to send in an encounter with specific instructions to kill the friendly monsters indicates a couple of weaknesses in your briefings...
- Just try to look zombie-ish - you will have bags of kit, remembering what is where and ensuring that the right kit ended up with the correct monsters has been the undoing of more than one encounter. On a related note try not to leave too much stuff lying around for mundanes to nick.
- Er.. hello sir. We're larpers... - on pleasant days the top paths tend to be full of mundanes, do try not to do anything that will make them call the police.
Twisting It
As I said a few paragraphs ago, there are any number of ways to alter the above structure to make it unique to a particular linear. Here's a few that I can remember doing.
The Betrayal
Old as the hills, the character ref isn't all they appear to be, or is more than they appear to be. Double, triple, i-1 crosses... You can even do the "is pretending to be dodgy but is in fact good and upstanding" if you like.
And Back Again
This is where you don't stop with the Boss fight, but carry on back again for a bit - good for 'sneak in, kill the boss, fight your way out' type linears. I've yet to see this one done, but putting the Boss fight as the second encounter could be fun - the only difficulty is in having some kind of 'climax' at the end.
- There've been some with Stuff after the boss fight- cf naked-inna-field after the Tormentor was killed... but yes, none with the boss fight at the *start*. Might be good for the fixing the annoying tendency for the final encounter to be upstatted if the party have done better than expected through the rest of it. --Pufferfish
Load 'em Up
Give the party something heavy, fragile or unweildy to carry with them (or all three). Brief at least one set of monsters to try to steal it. Phyrepping this is a pain, but is generally fun - just make certain the party have a good reason to continue bringing the object with them and that you know what you'll do if it gets lost/stolen/abandoned/destroyed etc.
There are of course a lot of other ways to make a straight linear 'special' - cool monsters, great plot, treasure... but that stuff isn't part of the structure, so I won't go into it.
Non-Linear Wind-Up-And-Go Adventure
This usually takes place in Royston (which is a pain to get to), but is also the style of many 3YGB or PBB adventures. The trick's in the name, a lot of preparation is needed but (hopefully) once the adventure gets started it can progress with a minimun of ref intervention. Usual elements include:
- The characters (who may or may not start off in a party)
- Friendly NPC base(s) containing several well fleshed out NPCs
- Enemy NPC base(s) where foes can plot, regroup and possibly respawn
- OOC base for rebriefing monsters, keeping kit and an on-call Ref
Wandering Monsters, of either the talky or fighty kind are often used to keep characters on their toes (and to keep things moving). Ideally the NPCs are set up in such a way that the PCs can get a handle on them.
Common pitfalls with this set-up include:
- Characters solving everything too soon
- Characters TPKing/running away too soon
- NPCs taking over (ie the NPCs end up having a great time playing out their pre-gens, whilst the party hang around wondering what to do)
- Information dearth. As above, but specifically when the PCs are struggling through lack of information, often things that the NPCs know but have no reason to tell them.
- Organisational issues associated with transport
Most of these can be avoided with a bit of forethought, for instance knowing what happens if a character chooses to leave the area (or writing such that this is not possible). Writing NPCs who are interesting for the PCs to interact with and who continue to have something to do throughout the entire adventure is a challenge. Some tactics that work are:
- Not having any (or very few) 'critical' NPCs without whom the plot cannot be completed (especially since it sucks if the only guy who knows how to open the portal home is jobbed by goblins ten minutes in)
- Allowing NPCs to swap out for another role (although this can cause problems if the PCs decide to go looking for their previous NPC)
- Writing NPCs such that they need the party in order to accomplish their goals and giving them reasons to impart information to the PCs
This sort of adventure is also the most likely to show the often-observed phenomenon of NPCs being significantly brighter than PCs, coming up with outrageous plans that make the most of their resources. This is often the result of the monsters having much more clearly defined goals (kill all the goblins) than the PCs (who will often have conflicting and complex goals and have to worry more about long-term effects of their actions).