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Adapting Linear Stories
(thealexandrian.net)
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this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2023
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Yup. Never noticed the article, only saw the single line he bothered to post on this website.
But please, if it's only 3 steps, tell me then. Should be easy. How do I take Lord of the rings and make a campaign out of it while following it to a certain extend ? Because I doubt it's possible without intense railroading OR insane luck.
It's an interesting article, you should read it. You're thinking of too direct a translation. The idea is that you strip out all of the events, and just adapt the scenario. For Lord of the Rings, the important part is that the One Ring exists, and it needs to be taken to Mt. Doom to be destroyed. Everything in between there is a complete sandbox.
You can then pull in lots of characters and places from the books, but they will almost certainly all show up out of order as your players won't take the same route that they did in the books.
The OP article talks more about the steps to adapt a scenario including a Star Wars example, but here's the LotR one: https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/47543/roleplaying-games/ask-the-alexandrian-7-classic-quests-are-railroads
So Im right then ? It can be a starting point, but you cannot follow a story closely without intense railroading or insane luck.
But I agree. You can adapt a UNIVERSE with characters and places and even events if possible.
But then thats not new. We DMs have been stealing ideas left and right for generations for our own stories. Sticking to one universe is another way to do it.
But it would feel... forced for me. Like if you met Aragorn. The players know what he should be doing, so does he forget this and stick to the uneased players not happy to stear that part of the story, or does he only do a cheap cameo ? Thats assuming they know the story, which might be a no too since the movie is like 20 years old now.
No one was saying that you should follow a story exactly. That wouldn't be very interesting imo, even if it was possible.
I feel like the most interesting way to do it would be to have it very explicitly in an alternate timeline. You could do this by killing a main character, or by otherwise having a major divergence. Then it feels less like just stealing ideas and more like a "What If?" story, and would help nip the urge to follow the story too closely.
I seem to recall a podcast or comic or something that was this but in a Star Wars universe, that opened with Luke Skywalker dying and the podcast/comic characters taking over for him. I tried to look it up but I can't find anything about it now. Wish I'd remembered the name.
Yeah, a starting point is doable