Scenes

SCENES

A Scene is simply a situation that the party can play through. It can contain multiple beats, but generally speaking the beats support each other by having similar temperatures, and leading to an escalation (heating) or enervation (cooling) of tempo.

Scenes consist of at least three Beats, Scenes provide both linear and nonlinear mechanisms for characters to navigate from the beginning of a given scene to its endpoint - and beyond.

The best way to imagine a simple linear scene is to slot in the beats of each scenario via a treelike structure - something like the below, arranged into the three-act model (and stolen liberally from the well-known ‘Save the Cat’ formula):

Taken from the TWINE visual story building interface: Act 1 (Setup to Catalyst) leads to Act 2 (Obstacle to False Climax to Crisis) and then to Act 3 (Revelation to True Climax to Resolution)

This is fine for a story, but for a tabletop role-playing game it’s a railroad. There’s no way for the party to progress beyond moving through each beat in an Act sequentially, and then moving on to the next Act. Nothing they do actually changes the scenario - their actions allow them to progress, but only in the ways that you, as referee, have pre-determined. This is not an optimal configuration for an interactive story, and many players will reject this kind of story delivery. Players expect their characters to have agency, and by providing no other exits, you’re taking away that agency.

This is not always bad, but it’s not usually what players in an RPG are looking for. Now, that said, you don’t necessarily have to provide them with every possible option, but you should know your players well enough to leave them two or three breadcrumbs, and have at least two reasonable exits for every beat in a scenario. To support this, you’ll design a simple nonlinear structure which branches based on critical player choices, as shown below

Note how each Beat has at least two different exits - this means players can influence the story as it’s being told, giving them agency while still providing you with a simple map forward. This is when the idea of using a nodemap, or using a tool like Twine or a Pointcrawl Generator, can come in handy.

A single Scenario can often work well for a one-shot adventure, so if that’s what you’re after, you’re done!