New GM seeking guidance on creating non-linear adventures

[RumpinRufus]

My absolute favorite games have always been the extraordinarily open-ended ones like Morrowind, Deus Ex, and Alpha Centauri. Right now, my only experience GMing was a single PFS scenario, but soon I'm planning to run my own three-session adventure.

I want to give my players a taste of that truly non-linear experience, where they can freely choose which paths to follow, each encounter has a number of different resolutions depending on how they act, and the consequences of those actions reverberate throughout the entire rest of the adventure. (The general story will take place in the world of Where the Wild Things Are: after the hero of that book left the island, an evil king took control of the island and put an end to the Wild Rumpus, throwing the island into an age of despair.)

However, I have absolutely 0 experience creating scenarios and writing encounters. Can anyone recommend some tips or pieces of advice that they have found useful in crafting an open-ended adventure? Alternatively, do any players remember a particular encounter where the PCs resolved it without taking the "obvious" way out, that ended up being far more interesting than they initially expected?

Any type of advice would be awesome, whether it has to do with creating individual encounters, setting up an entire story arc, or just encouraging players to get creative and take the unorthodox way out. Thanks!

[kmal2t]

Where the Wild Things Are?

Don't forget your Max footy pajamas +4

[bookrat]

I had a game like that once. The GM had a tavern with jobs posted (about 15 of them) and we could choose which jobs we wanted to do. There was no overarching storyline, and none of the adventures had anything to do with the others, except they were in the same country.

[Noncanonical]

I've thought a lot about this over the years, because I have a very similar point of view regarding player agency, but I don't think I'd be able to do much better than this post on The Alexandrian. In particular, it links to several series that are extremely well written synopses of non-linear and reactive adventure design.

[RumpinRufus]

Noncanonical wrote:

I've thought a lot about this over the years, because I have a very similar point of view regarding player agency, but I don't think I'd be able to do much better than this post on The Alexandrian. In particular, it links to several series that are extremely well written synopses of non-linear and reactive adventure design.

There are some great links there, thanks! That is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for.

kmal2t wrote:

Where the Wild Things Are?

Don't forget your Max footy pajamas +4

You guessed one of the quest items! The Wolf Suit Pyjamas will give the wearer a +5 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy and Intimidate checks vs. the wild things. There will also be the Sceptre of the King of All Wild Things (+2 heavy mace that acts as a staff containing Rage, Entangle, Tiny Hut, Charm Monster, and Summon Monster IV), and the Crown of the Most Wild Thing (right now I have it as a Circlet of Persuasion but I'd love to hear other suggestions.)

[Byrdology]

Create plot points. At the end of one adventure are two options. Write up a skeleton plot that branches out at each decision. You could even have them tie back in. Say the PCs decide to plunder the wizards tomb instead of clear out that nest of goblins... Well several adventures later when they go to sell loot in town, they find it under siege from the horde that built up str while they were ignoring the goblin nest. It helps flesh out your world and shows that the world occurs outside of the pcs actions.

[Kyras Ausks]

opened ended DMing is a reaction rather then proactive you give the players the world and a over all story of the world. they tone there PC to it.
its a long the same thought of the civil war in Skyrim you PC is shown that it is happening but nothing else if you want to gone the war you can if you don't want to the story dose not hunt you down.

this stile of play you will find is very different then using made or self made adventures. you will also find that this still go well with world building its easier to DM this style if you are all knowing of the setting.

I find it to be very rewarding good luck

[Douglas Muir 406]

As Kyras noted, this style of play requires the players to be a lot more proactive. If you're not familiar with your players, I'd say limit the choices a bit -- otherwise, you can end up with option paralysis.

Doug M.

[Kyras Ausks]

there every well could be a art out of keeping the game from going stale.

[Baron_Bismarck]

A method I use for getting the players a "sense of being there" is to write short stories about the different factions and place settings in the world(ala the books in the Elder Scrolls games.)I then post these in a shared facebook group. I never include things that wouldn't be common knowledge. Then the players show up the next week saying "that abandoned tower the tavern bard sung about last night sounds interesting, lets go check that out..." It reallys makes them react differently to things that would be non events otherwise. Example "Whoa, there's a merchant train comming up the road, I thought it was plagued with bandits down south, how did that happen?" Doing this adds so many 'hooks' that can be intertwined later in a very convincing narrative.

This also helps as a DM, because you get to build an open world that your PC's have knowledge of, but still allows you to focus on running the game when players are there.