REVIEW – PART #4
This is the fourth and last article about The Complete Book of Villains.
There is much more content to explore inside this book, but I touched the most interesting chapters. If you want to know more about them read the previous articles
Previous Article…Old School Review – AD&D DMGR6 The Complete Book of Villains #3
There are just few paragraph in chapter 4 that I consider worth to be read. It sounds to me like the topic deserved much more space, but was given really few.
The chapter spends some words about adventure building by introducing the concepts of linear and matrix adventure.
What is a linear adventure?
Well, before the coming of rpg games every story, no matter the genre, was linear.
You read chapter by chapter and nothing else. The same is for movies of course.
Most of us, have surely designed and played linear adventure. Actually most of the adventure we found out there are linear.
We play and design linear adventures because they are easier to prepare, easier to play and easier for the players to be played.
A linear adventure establishes the key events that the characters will have to face and nothing else. It eventually adds something called sidequests or some unpredictable events, but the sauce is always the same.
Sidequests and unpredictable events do not change the nature of a linear adventure. They mask the linear adventure so that it looks like a complex story, but it’s not.
So, I may have a serie of events named A, B, C, D…etc. and I can add sidequests that I name a1, a2, b1…etc.
The book presents us what a linear adventure is, and we all know what we are talking about.
What if we want to make a step forward and explore a more complex system of adventure design? Well, we go matrix.
What is a matrix adventure?
If you are thinking that a matrix adventure is a sandbox, let me tell you that you are wrong. A sandbox style is more like a matrix without adventure. A sandbox has basically no plot or structure. It’s pure improvisation, with pro and cons.
Imagine a matrix adventure as a story composed by layers.
The first layer contains the initial set up of locations, people and occurring events. The first layer is somewhat static, until something happens.
Now, if we have a first layer, we have a second layer also, and a third, a fourth, etcetera.
What makes possible that the second layer substitutes or merges with the first layer?
We need a triggerer that activates the second layer, so we need something like a variable that we must control in order activate a new layer.
Let’s make a banal example.
In our adventure we have three locations.
1) The Dragon’s lair.
2) The Wizard tower.
3) The King’s palace.
We make a quick layout of each location, some mapping, some stats for those inside the locations and so on. This is how stuff starts.
The adventurer can pick any location and go for a visit, to see what happens.
Now I define the triggers, or the variables, that change the scenario.
The most common trigger is time.
After 1 week the dragon is not in his lair.
After 10 days the wizard is not in his tower because he went to the dragon’s lair to steal the treasure.
After 12 days the dragon arrive at the castle and slay the king and all his court.
So, once 7, 10 and 12 days have passed, some locations will face dramatic changes. The dragon’s lair will be empty, the wizard will be in the lair but not in his tower, the palace will probably be destroyed.
I can add as many triggers as I wish, and they don’t need to be time triggers of course. I can plan events that triggers and activate a new layer.
Let’s say the characters are aware that the dragon is planning to come to the palace for a visit, they could convince the king to prepare some defense and avoid destruction, or they could plan to loot the dragon’s lair while he’s distracted.
About the book
Now, as I told, the book spends some words about this topic, but very few. Indeed it doesn’t even fill the whole chapter. It’s a pity because this topic actually deserve more than a chapter, if not a book.
It sounds to like the authors didn’t have enough time or budget to properly conclude the book and had to cut some interesting parts.
Beside this, the book is really rich of content and is one that is worth to have in your shelf.
You can find The Complete Book of Villains in pdf format on DrivethruRpg, or the physical copy on ebay and amazon for a good price
Read the next article, it’s about Adventure Design. We’ll make the reverse engineering of a non linear adventure!
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