Campaign Creation: Scenario Options

==Scenario Options==
See also GURPS Adaptations
===Are you going to have the PCs involved with the events of the book or film?===
You have four options:
*Use the same scenario. Players must not be familiar with the source material, otherwise they’ll know too much for their characters. This means that popular stuff is ruled out – the players won’t go to Cloud City because they know that Lando Calrissian will betray them to the Empire. Or they will go there, because they know that’s where they need to be for the next part of the adventure, but they will feel as if they’re being ‘railroaded’ into a rigid storyline and the element of surprise is lost. It also loses the problem-solving attraction – if players already know the answers from the source, they feel less of a sense of achievement when their characters follow a line of very familiar clues.
*Use the same scenario, but tweak it so that the answers are different to those in the source. The player-characters go to Cloud City, Lando helps them out and they have the R&R they need. Surprise! Then on the next planet a bounty-hunter recognises them and the whitehats move in. In most sources there are two or three people who might be the villain, or might help the heroes. The GM can swap their roles around so that the killer isn’t the one in the film; or clues they know from the book aren’t there; or they lead to a different line of investigation.
*Involve the players in adventures which are peripheral to the known events. One advert for the Star Wars'™ RPG said “Someone had to steal the shuttle Tydirium before Chewie could fly it.” Some groups will enjoy knowing that they ‘made a contribution’ to stuff they already enjoy from the source material – others won’t like being ‘supporting cast’ and would prefer to be the stars of the show.
*Have no interaction with the events of the source, just use the setting and possibly the personalities. You’ll need to decide whether the PCs going to meet or interact with characters from the source. The ‘night shift’ on Babylon 5 Security is a good example. You’ll play Garibaldi giving the characters briefings, and other senior station staff and the Ambassadors will sometimes be involved with their investigations. But most scenarios will be dealing with the low-lifes because the players’ shift is when all the ‘big boys’ are safely tucked up in bed.
Category:GM Advice