(This article refers to several scenarios from Blades of Avernum's
predecessor, Blades of Exile. Hoever, even if you aren't familiar with the
scenarios mentioned, the basic ideas are quite useful.)

Choices and Linearity

When planning out your scenario, you will have to make some decisions regarding
the progression of the plot. There's the question of how much impact the
player's actions will have on the scenario, and what will always happen
regardless. You have to decide if the player is ever able to make choices that
will have far-reaching (or simpler) consequences, or whether the party is swept
along in the story.

The first point of discussion here is the amount of choice the player will have.
There are many scenarios where the party is able to choose a side to join - some
of it is done outright ("Which side will you join?"), and some is done more
subtly, even so discreetly that they might not even realize that they're picking
a side. Then again, most scenarios don't use choices of this scope at all.

An overt choice, such as in Tatterdemalion, can be used well, but it generally
separates a scenario into two (or three) smaller scenarios that much each be
played to get a full feel for the scenario. A Small Rebellion also uses a choice
like this to expand the scenario and give it another dimension - the ability to
play for a sympathetic group of rebels. Ideally, the choice will come somewhere
between the time it does in the above two scenarios. In Tatterdemalion, you
choose at the beginning, and it feels too early. In ASR, you choose seemingly
too far along to experience much of the rebel story.

A subtler choice, like in Of Good And Evil, will still have the party making a
choice between two forces - in the case of OGAE, it's morals and orders, and the
effects of the choices aren't known until the second play-through ends. This is
very successful in OGAE, and it can be replicated easily in Blades of Avernum.
Part of the challenge is presenting the sides so that it appears to be a dilemma
to the player, and so that it strikes the right chords in the player's head. You
don't want to ask them outright to switch sides or choose one, but their actions
should influence the direction the story takes, and they should be able to
realize it after a while.

The third possibility is to not let on to the party at all that their actions
have influenced the game, but keep on changing the game based on them, and not
let them find out until the end. OGAE and Falling Stars use a karmic system to
determine their endings, how NPCs react to the party, etc. It's an invisible
reputation counter, basically, and it has a lot of influence on how the game
unfolds. Again, when this is utilized properly, it makes scenarios much more
fun.

Still, you don't need to have choices like the three kinds described above to
make a good scenario. You can present choices and options to the player, or you
can force them to follow a linear plot and keep the story moving quickly. This
opens up another discussion and the second point of the article - linear
scenarios versus the open-ended scenarios.

Linear scenarios are usually plot-driven, and they have a quickly-paced story
that should grab the player's interest and not let go until the scenario ends.
An Apology does this, Redemption does this, Emulations does this, Revenge does
this, and even Quintessence does. Those aren't all of the linear scenarios, but
they are some of the most prominent, and some of the ones that use linearity
well and to augment their scenario.

A linear scenario may have outdoor sections, but there should not be too many of
them, or it will kill the urgent mood (if one exists) and become boring to the
player. A linear scenario can still have sidequests, but they should never
detract from the main plot, and it's even better if they add to it. The combat
in a linear scenario should be interesting, fun, and important. It should never
have the feeling of being repetitive (and this holds true for any scenario), and
it doesn't have to exist at all.

The driving force behind most linear scenarios (and all of the good ones) is a
gripping plot that involves the player and thrusts you into the action. It's
primarily a story-based scenario, and if the story falters, the scenario will
falter too. As a player, linear scenarios are my favorite by far.

There are two types of open-ended scenario - one with a set plot that can be
deviated from, and one that attempts to be a world that immerses the player,
usually without a definite ending point, except running out of missions to do.
Most scenarios fall under the first description, but only the smaller ones
succeed. Scenarios that try to emulate Avernum 3 or another giant game will
inevitably fail or fall short. There are some notable exceptions (At the
Gallows, Falling Stars), but generally, scenarios on a smaller scale will work
better. The second type of open-ended scenario has not really been fully
explored in Blades of Exile, but the Adventurers' Club scenarios and the Wreck
of the Slug attempt it.

Open-ended scenarios that follow the first model are more likely to be
well-received, based on the high favor that a plot curries in the community.
Still, don't go overboard on the sidequests, sidedungeons, and sidetowns. Never
forget that the main plot is the focus of the scenario, and everything else
serves to flesh out the world and offer a break from the general plotline.
Limiting the scenario's size also makes it more likely that you'll actually
finish designing it, especially when you get into a more open-ended scenario
that is slightly detached from the story. Linear scenarios can generally get
away with being a little bigger than they need to be because the designer
usually has a connection with the plot that keeps them going.

The second type of open-ended scenario is, in my opinion, not suited to the
Blades of Exile/Blades of Avernum medium. It's far too hard to create a whole
world in this system, and we generally like to focus our attention on small
parts of worlds, backwards frontier settlements, isolated valleys, et cetera.
It's a giant undertaking when you attempt a scenario of this sort, and it's
generally not as fun to play. A scenario does not need to be as big as a
commercial game because very few players want to spend that much time in a world
that you create with a driving story keeping you there.

TWOTS and the ACs all suffer from that tendency, and you're generally better off
focusing on one of the other types of scenarios. I personally favor a linear
scenario, and large scenarios need to be extremely good to keep my interest
throughout the entire scenario. Don't forget that a party is not obligated to
stay in the scenario the entire time - you can't just make it interesting at the
end, because nobody will see it. You have to start out strong and keep the pace
for the entire scenario.

All of this is just meant to keep you open to the different mindsets of scenario
designing, and some of the common pitfalls in each. You're certainly free to
design whatever you want to design.