Thursday, February 11, 2016

Preparing a Heist (part 4)


The next phase of designing this mission involved planning what would happen if the players weren't involved. Basically, how will everyone (the NPC's) act and conduct themselves without outside player influence? Each time I've run a mission, players do something different than the last group--it's nearly impossible to predict. A large part of the fun is dynamically adjusting to the players while still keeping the story flowing. If I've designed the scenario well enough and defined the roles and behaviors of each NPC, then it's much easier for the GM to create believable reactions and events in response to the players' decisions. It's like planning a movie out completely so it's ready to film, but then a group of new actors shows up on the set and jumps in to improv. Or, imagine a video game environment with NPC's operating with realistic AI, performing across a variety of dynamic situations prompted by the player.

No comments:

Post a Comment