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Bren
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 Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 4:45 pm Post subject: What do you call the parts of your adventures? |
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Something Whill said recently inspired this question. | Whill wrote: | | So as a base, I give 1 point per chapter (episode) of the adventure. For bonus CPs, I give from 0 up to but not exceeding the base points. |
So what do you call the parts of your adventures/scenarios?
Do you think what you call the adventure divisions matters?
Personally I do think that what you call it and how you divide up the parts of a scenario/adventure matters. For a long time I have used Scenarios (for the overall adventure), Episodes for a major section in an adventure, and Scenes for a subdivision of an adventure. But recently I have determined that I need to change my nomenclature. This has been prompted by two things.
I - One thing that prompts this is my tendency to make very, very long Episodes. Only very rarely are Episodes finished in one 3-10 hour play session. Some run Episodes run 30+ hours of play time. I find that the players find this fatiguing since they would like to "finish" an Episode and use that as a marker of progress. It also allows a sense of completion and provides an ability to mark a stopping point, temporary or otherwise. And a break of some kind is often a signal and an opportune time to award CPs. And with very long Episodes, the characters (especially beginning characters) sometimes run low or totally out of CPs.
II - In attempting to create a division smaller than an episode I have used the nomenclature "Scene." However, this isn't really a scene, but instead is probably more of a chapter which may take place in more than one location. This seems counter intuitive and does not really accord with dramatic (play, film, TV) nomenclature.
So I am now contempating organizing into the following divisions (from largest to smallest).
(1) Campaign Arcs - I haven't talked much about these. Some groups of characters have a campaign arc, others do not. I think of this as the difference between TV shows like Babylon 5 that had a multi year plan or like Buffy where a season at a time is plotted out and shows like Star Trek OS or NextGen where essentially each episode mainly stands on its own.
(2) Scenarios or Adventures (I see them as similar terms). These are for me conceptual terms based on what the play idea is and may significantly vary in length. A Scenario or Adventure should usually reach a very clear end, conclusion, climax, and stopping point. CP awards would always occur at the end of a Scenario or Adventure.
(3) Episodes each of which may take one or more play sessions to complete and which are similar to somwhere between a feature length movie or a TV episode in length. Barring unexpected player actions, Episodes typcially occur in a linear order. Since the end of an Episode should form a fairly distinct break, one may not want to end with a cliff hanger. CP awards should probably occur after the end of an Episode.
(4) Chapters each of which ideally takes about one session (more likely one to two sessions for me  ) to play out. Chapters are usually written in a linear order and depending on player actions may be (but don't necessarily have to be) played in a linear order or a decision branch controlled order. If you like cliff hangers, the end of a Chapter is a good place for a cliff hanger. This may be the most appropriate unit after which to award CPs.
(5) Scenes each of which ideally is a single location or activity inside a Chapter. Usually a 4 hour play session should be able to complete more than a single scene (except perhaps for intense combat scenes). Typcially scenes need not occur in any particular order. Depending on player actions, some scenes may not occur at all or may be heavily revised in play.
(6) Cutaways are really a special kind of scene, which is scripted in advance and since a cutaway for me typically happens off screen from the player characters it always finishes pretty quickly since it is only the me talking to myself. Cutaways often are tied to or triggered by the start or end of an Episode or a Scene.
What has been your experience as GMs and as players? |
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garhkal
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 5:16 pm Post subject: |
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This is how i have it in some of my modules..
Chapter 1, scene 1. Scenes of chaos…
Chapter 1, scene 2. Briefing.
Chapter 1, scene 3. Preps...
Chapter 2, scene 1. Welcome to hell.
Chapter 2, scene 2. Gathering the information..
Chapter 2, scene 3. Fight or Flight!??
Chapter 2, scene 4. ”Look at the time… gotta go!
Most of the modules we use in sparks are set up the same.
We add in a Script (some make 1 copy for each pc, some just have the 1 wrote out script they make copies of), a Cutaway (something the PLAYERS get not the characters. MAY or may not have anything to do with the module itself, but usually has a link to a module and a force Sidebar (character info for those force users/sensitives.. Sometimes requires a roll to get (sense, diff most often moderate). If the cutaway does NOT have anything to do with the module, THIS will. IF the cutaway has something to do with the module, this won't.
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Guardian_A
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 5:24 pm Post subject: |
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| I dont think it really matters what you call the sections of your game. I know the group I game with calls a night of gaming a "Gaming Session." |
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Bren
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 5:38 pm Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | This is how i have it in some of my modules... |
So in Sparks is a module an adventure or scenario - a more or less stand alone gaming experience? The module is then broken down into Chapters and Scenes, correct?
| Guardian_A wrote: | | I dont think it really matters what you call the sections of your game. I know the group I game with calls a night of gaming a "Gaming Session." |
I may not have been clear. I am not asking what do you call a night of gaming, but how does the GM divide up the sections or divisions inside his write up of the subject or topic for the night of gaming.
Though we too refer to a night of gaming as a session.  |
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Ankhanu
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 5:54 pm Post subject: |
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We tend to play pretty free-form games; there's a main story, but how things go to get through it is pretty much unscripted. As such, there are no discrete story goals or real organization... it's somewhat situational.
With that in mind, chapters, scenes and the like are kinda meaningless in context until after the fact. We just keep track of sessions, really.
I used to document each session in a short story sort of form so we could keep a good sense of events. After the fact divisions make sense, but don't in the moment.
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Guardian_A
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Bren wrote: | | garhkal wrote: | | This is how i have it in some of my modules... |
So in Sparks is a module an adventure or scenario - a more or less stand alone gaming experience? The module is then broken down into Chapters and Scenes, correct?
| Guardian_A wrote: | | I dont think it really matters what you call the sections of your game. I know the group I game with calls a night of gaming a "Gaming Session." |
I may not have been clear. I am not asking what do you call a night of gaming, but how does the GM divide up the sections or divisions inside his write up of the subject or topic for the night of gaming.
Though we too refer to a night of gaming as a session. |
Ah, my bad.
I cant speak for the other GMs with my gaming group, but I can cover my own end of things.
My gaming sessions are broken down into "Encounters." With that said, calling them "Encounters" might be a little deceptive. An encounter can be a meeting, a battle, or any of a hundred other things. Most of my sessions are between 3 and 8 Encounters long. Encounters are usually about an hour long.
For example:
This weekend, we played a game called Exodus. (Its a game loosly based on the Fallout video games.) This was the first time these particular players have ever gamed together. It played out like this:
Encounter 1: Characters meet & interact in character.
Encounter 2: Announcement over Vault intercom, Vault breached, characters investigate.
Encounter 3: Characters are attacked by strangers in the vault (Raiders)
Encounter 4: Characters look for safe way out of doomed Vault
Encounter 5: Fight lead Raider and escape. |
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Whill
Dark Lord of the Jedi (Owner/Admin)
Joined: 14 Apr 2008
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Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA, Earth, The Solar System, The Milky Way Galaxy
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 11:11 pm Post subject: |
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Campaigns. Episodic campaigns have no real overarching stories and the Adventures are mostly unrelated to each other beyond the common PCs, starships and maybe a base. Epic series campaigns have one big story arc, but there are also smaller story arcs within that may be composed of sequential or non-sequential Adventures. Several subplots may not be resolved until the final climactic Adventure when everything comes together with a bang. Regardless of an Adventure's place in a story arc or campaign, each Adventure always has some sort of self-contained story which is completed by the end. My Adventures almost never end on cliffhangers.
Adventures are usually divided up into 3-8 Chapters, which each have a varying number of Scenes/Encounters of greatly varying length. I do make use of scripts and cutaway scenes in most Adventures. Adventures take 1-3 game sessions to complete (but game sessions don't mean anything to my story organization or game terms - they merely define a time we are playing part or all of an adventure). I award the base CPs at the end of each Adventure regardless of length. As you can see, I've always been pretty much as suggested by the core books (and how the published adventures are organized), except that I renamed "Episodes" into "Chapters"....
I can see how what you call each story component may not matter that much to many gamers, but it is actually very important to me. I think the game itself calls the adventure's main dramatic sub-components "episodes" based on the 1930s and 40s adventure serials that Star Wars and Indiana Jones were inspired by. But Star Wars is foremost a six-film saga where each part has an "Episode" numeral, so it just didn't seem right for me use the same term for something completely different. I also see each RPG Adventure as more like TV show episode or movie, but for further differentiation between the films and my RPG adventures, I also didn't want to call my Adventures "episodes" either. Although either use of the term would not be inaccurate, I decided anyway that the term "episodes" would not used in my game at all (my Star Wars Universe only has 6 Episodes 8) ). To more uniquely identify the RPG media of our stories, I kept the name "Adventures". I renamed the subcomponents as "Chapters", like how DVDs for movies and TV episodes are divided up.
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Last edited by Whill on Sun Apr 19, 2015 1:12 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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garhkal
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| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 6:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Bren wrote: | | garhkal wrote: | | This is how i have it in some of my modules... |
So in Sparks is a module an adventure or scenario - a more or less stand alone gaming experience? The module is then broken down into Chapters and Scenes, correct?
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Yes. Each "Module" is a stand alone (mostly) game that can be (should be) able to get completed in a standard convention 4 hr slot.. We do have some 2 parters, 3 parts and advancement level modules (eg 6 tables of Slot A, 2 from each table advance to B. 2 tables of B. 3 from each advance to C. And 1 table of C)..
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JT Swift
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Whill
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Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA, Earth, The Solar System, The Milky Way Galaxy
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| Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 2:40 pm Post subject: |
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That's freakin' awesome!!! I must have somehow missed this cool StarWars.com feature. Thanks for sharing! And your adventure sounds fun from the crawl.
Here's one I made for the start of my next big campaign. I had to edit the text to fit within the max number of lines allowed when using the Star Wars font, but I also tweaked the wording a bit to get rid of some of the unsightly big spaces in between words caused by the justified text alignment:
The Whills Nebula Campaign - Adventure 0 - Impetus
When I actually use it I'll have to play my own Star Wars music track to go along with it better since they inexplicable cut the main theme short then fade back in further along. Check it out (and read fast).
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Bren
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| Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 4:20 pm Post subject: |
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I'm not sure the forum found this topic as interesting as I did (and do). This comment particularly resonated with me.
| Whill wrote: | | I can see how what you call each story component may not matter that much to many gamers, but it is actually very important to me. |
Obviously it is important to me as well since I started the topic. And for those of you that are still interested (including myself) I thought I would recap what I think I read.  GMs vary in the degree of organization and nomenclature they use in their scenario/adventure/module design. Note that this is my recap of others' thoughts. Any errors in summarizing their thoughts are mine, not the original posters'.
Me: Scenario, Episode, Chapter, Scene
Garhkal/Sparks: Module, Chapter, Scene
Whill: Adventure, Chapter
JT Swift: Module, Episode
Guardian_A: Gaming Session, Encounter (a session is typically 3-8 encounters)
Ankhanu: Gaming Session, free form with no specific divisions
In addition, Whill mentioned that a series of adventures with the same characters, ships, etc. comprises a Campaign and that campaigns may be episodic without an overarcing story arc or epic, comprising one or more story arcs. This is a distinction that I, too find useful enough not to insist that characters in epic campaigns speak in rhyme or meter.
JT Swift mentioned liking the StarWars.com crawl creator (HumanFlie had also recently mentioned using the crawl in a separate thread). I have a mental note to use the text crawl for the next Star Wars scenario I run. Using it as a recap and a reminder of the date, time, and location of play is a great idea - thanks HumanFlie! 
Now my analysis and reaction to the various terms.
Gaming Session - we use this in referring to when we play and when keeping notes as to the date that we played. As a designer, I don't find this a useful division when writing a scenario/module/adventure. I think I will keep this as a means of organizing the players getting together to play. I did find it interesting that a couple of people like using this with a more free form style of play. I like plotting, so something this free form only works for me for the occassional adventure.
Module and Scenario - for some reason, module sounds TSR D&D to me. We never used modules for D&D since we played before they exisited, so this doesn't have a positive connotation for me. Scenarios - I think I picked up form Call of Cthulhu. It's the term we most commonly use in our group. Although I think there is a fairly common understanding of the terms module, scenario, and adventure for reasons I will mention later, I think I will try to phase out my use of scenario for Star Wars.
Adventure - for Star Wars, I like the sound of Adventure. It has a very space opera tone and reminds me of the black and white 1930s pulp serials that inspired Star Wars (and Indiana Jones). I think I will use Adventure as the term for a more or less stand alone scenario or module.
Episode - like Whill, I find the WEG's use of Episode doesn't quite fit for me as a designer. I think Whill did a nice job of articulating why he restricts Episode to the films. In the old serials the 20 minute or so length epidsodes were called either Chapters or Episodes, though I confess to some desire to use Episode as a thematic grouping of chapters, in part as a way of breaking up larger scenarios/modules/adventures into logical or thematic sections, somewhat like Tolkien did with his six book division of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. book sounds too literary, while Episode sounds more serial and television. So I may retain Episodes, especially for longer scenarios, I'm just not sure yet what will make the most sense for my design. But if I do keep it, Episode will be a collection of Chapters. In addition, my MS-Word Adventure Template has set levels of heading that allows me to generate a Tables of Contents (TOC) automatically. This may lead me to leave out Episodes and just force myself to write multipart Adventures instead since that will work better with the exisiting template.
Chapter - chapters were mentiond by both Whill and Garhkal as a division. I like chapter as a section of an Adventure. It is a bit literary, but it's use in pulp literature as well as some movie serials allows it to work for me conceptionally. In addition, it is easier for me to remember to write shorter chapters than to write short episodes.
Scene - I also like the idea of scenes as it reminds me (and the players) that we are playing a game that is more like a TV show than it is the real world. In addition, since part of the fun of Star Wars is new, exciting, and unique worlds scene helps remind me to make things visually exciting. I also like having something shorter than a chapter as a possible division of the chapters. For me a scene should take place with one group of characters (we sometimes have mulitple groups in the same adventure) in a single location. Scene also includes Cutaway Scenes, which I use fairly frequently to add drama, foreshadow later encouters, or just give the players a glimpse of what is happening beyond their individual characters.
Encounter - to me an encounter conceptually reminds me of wandering encounters from D&D or Runequest. And while I don't generally write Star Wars with wandering encounters, I like the idea of encounter for those scenarios where I know the PCs are going to run into someone or something, but I may not know what Scene (or even what Chapter) the encounter will occur in. This is also a useful name to use for those Adventures that are designed to be more free form or reactive to PC action rather than more structured or plot driven. Thus I think I will keep Encounter as a sort of alternative to a Scene. It will also occur in the TOC at the same level as a Scene.
OK - so if you are still reading, the breakdown that I am planning on using looks like this: Campaign, Adventure, Chapter, Scene or Encounter
Campaign - this is a series of Adventures sharing the same characters or setting that is either episodic or connected by one or more story arcs. A small arc may be distinguished by a mulitpart series of Adventures, e.g. Liberation of Derilyn Part IV: Battle for Derilyn.
Adventure is a stand alone story, typically designed by a GM. Frequently an Adventure will take more than one session of play to complete. A linked series of Adventures or a very long adventure may be divided into Parts. This is the equivalent of a TV episode that is "continued next week." The parts of a multipart or continued adventure are labeled with roman numberals (i.e. I, II, III, etc.). An Adventure is divided into two main subdivisions: Chapters and Scenes.
Chapters are the main sections of the Adventure and should usually finish in a single play session. Chapters are typically numbered sequentially with arabic numerals.
Scenes are subdivisions of Chapters. Most Chapters are divided into one or more Scenes including Cutaway Scenes. Though listed sequentially in an Adventure writeup, Scenes do not necessarily play in a linear order though they may. Scenes are typically named, but not numbered. Scenes occur in a single location and generally feature a single group of player characters. Cutaway Scenes are placed in a separate text box.
Encounters are an alternate division to Scenes. Unlike Scenes, Encounters are generally not tied to a specific location and may not occur in a linear order. Encounters can be listed either all at the end of the Adventure or placed inside or between the Chapters where the Encounter is most likely to occur. Encounters have names, but are not numbered.
If you are still reading, thanks for your attention and any comments or thoughts are welcome. |
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Grimace
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| Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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I can't say I've ever tried to put names to the breaks/divisions I mentally quantify.
If I had to put names to them, I'd probably go with the following:
Challenges - individual sections where something provides challenges to the PCs. This would, I believe, be roughly the equivalent to a Scene
Chapters - this is a collection of challenges that are similarly related to accomplish something (usually one step in the whole adventure). A Chapter might have 2 or 3 Challenges in it.
Adventure - this is a collection of Chapters that accomplish the immediate goal. An adventure can range from 1 Chapter to 3 or 4 Chapters in length. If the immediate goal is something simple, or if I want the adventure to literally be a "one shot", it only has 1 chapter. If I want it to take a couple 2 or 3 game sessions, I can add more Chapters.
Campaign - this is a collection of adventures, usually with an overreaching story arc. Each adventure of a campaign might accomplish parts or the entire story arc. An adventure would be the crowning finale to a campaign.
Saga - this is a series of campaigns either within the same location or with the same character(s) as previous campaigns.
Now I don't use cut scenes, and when I run a campaign I run it completely free so the players never know when one adventure ends and another one begins. As such, I give out limited CPs each game session, since usually that covers at least a chapter or two and sometimes will complete an "Adventure" within the overall campaign. I only allow character advancement, however, in definitive "lulls" between adventures within the campaign. |
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Whill
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Hellcat
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| Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 2:03 am Post subject: |
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I go with episodes myself. Each episode can be a single adventure or multiple adventures in length.
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Bren
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| Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 10:51 am Post subject: |
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I too like the addition of Saga for a collection of related campaigns. And challenge or encounter seem related. I can see prefering challenge for describing an obstacle that must be overcome or a puzzle that must be solved, especially when it is not necessarily an encounter. On the other hand, I like the fact that encounter is a fairly neutral term signifying something or someone the PCs come across whereas challenge has a certain confrontational connotation of man vs. man or man vs. nature. I may use both as alternatives to Scenes.
Nice Grimace!
So Scene is related to a specific location; Challenge is an obstacle or problem to solve, understand, confront, or overcome; and Encounter is someone or something that is encountered without necessarily including an element of confrontation. |
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