Adventure Flow Mapping, or “Avoiding Supernatural Railroading”

 

Today, the initial draft of the Adventure Flow Map of the upcoming adventure, Tears in the Snow, was reviewed. Like most adventures written as a story, it looked like a long hallway with a lot of arches and two doors. The choices appeared to be whether to start the adventure or not, and whether or not to die. This is completely normal, and after about eight grueling hours of what-iffing and why-notting, an appropriately convoluted chain of events that allowed for free will grew.

 

If this had not been done, the party involved would have been subject to what is known as “supernatural railroading,” or forcing the party down a path with little in the way of free will. In a few cases, I use this “railroading” as a game mechanism (Old Man of the Woods being the greatest act of railroading I have ever committed to paper), as it also feels like they are prisoners to the events, but it is a very rich dessert that must be eaten sparingly, or the players will be sick of it.

 

Adventure flow mapping turns linear stories into more of a sandbox environment for gameplay, as it maps events and outcomes that may be possible when they become possible rather than when the story calls for them. It allows for time-impacted events (events that either do or don’t happen based on party choices earlier), and most importantly, it ensures that players have agency within the story, moving it along rather than reacting to it.

 

It should be noted that Adventure Flow Mapping is useful but not required for pure fantasy adventure development (classic dungeon looting, murder hobo scenario), so long as it is exploration-based and sandbox in nature. In these cases, the story is completely written in terms of the player’s choices, which can be fun but often lacks depth. Horror-themed adventures, other than XXX (fill in creature here) apocalypse games, will require a richer story, background, and a lot of time-impacted events to make them interesting. This is why all adventures written by Crimson River Games have an Adventure Flow Map, even those with railroading.

 

Early concept art for Tears in the Snow.