Subj : Re: Blood and Honor To : All From : yl112@cornell.edu Date : Mon Jul 10 2000 02:29 am From: yl112@cornell.edu Subject: Re: Blood and Honor On 10 Jul 2000, HAROLD GROOT wrote: > I don't want Andrew to think I'm picking on him, so I'll mention another > of the "red flag" items I've seen over the years. > > You mentioned that an adventure you ran was based on an idea from the > book BLOOD AND HONOR. That by itself is perfectly OK - we all try to > take ideas we have seen and see how characters react to them. But there > is a huge trap waiting - those who try to run the entire movie/book to > its ending. This can do a HUGE disservice to the players, trying to > force a preconceived ending. Nope--the scenario never ran to the end, and they did a lot of things differently from how the book handled things, which was inevitable and perfectly acceptable to me. I imagine that, had we finished the scenario, they might have taken some entirely different path, plus I had already modified a large part of the plot premise: in _Blood and Honor_, Prince Victor actually has a magical "dupe" made of himself because he's ill but needs to contend to the throne, and hires an actor, Jordan, to do the job. I made the duplication involuntary, and done by a different party. In the story (hope I'm not spoiling it for anyone), Jordan eventually learns that Victor is a serious creep and psychopath, kills him, and takes over the throne for himself because he feels it's the moral thing to do. The PC's, for all I know, might've just figured things out and cut loose. > Let me take an example from the published modules. When the shift was > made from 1st edition to 2nd edition AD&D, a novel was written about how > it happened. The novel was then turned into a trilogy of modules > (Shadowdale, Tantras and Waterdeep). All through out the modules there > was a certain timeline that had to be kept to keep the players on par > with the novel. There were repeated instructions to the DM along the > lines of: I remember when I saw the modules based on the Dragonlance Chronicles, I wondered how on earth you could get the players to conform to the storyline in the novels. What if someone wanted to do a different, kinder interpretation of Raistlin? Or a nastier interpretation of Tanis? I understand what you're talking about, and agree that it's something to watch out for; so far I've avoided falling into that pittrap. As a writer I tend to adapt rather than use wholesale. Reminds me of the two canon version of an anime series, Neon Genesis Evangelion. It aired as a 26-episode TV show, but is also (slowly) being released as a manga (comic book). What makes the manga fascinating, after I've already seen the series (which IMHO is very good) is that the manga writer/artist is telling a different interpretation, with different events and new slants on the characters. I think this is a good thing. :-) > So - if there is an intriguing idea, plot twist, gadget or whatever in a > book, great. Put it into a campaign and have fun with it. But DON'T > ever try to run a book through to a set-in-stone ending. I used the idea because I felt it'd work well for a scenario. :-p I'd *never* try to run a book to its own ending. But thanks for your words of wisdom. :-) YHL -- |Fidonet: yl112@cornell.edu |Internet: scott@conchbbs.com | | Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own. --- # Origin: (1:106/357.99) * Origin: ConchGate (1:106/357.0) .