Treasure Tables is on hiatus as of December 13th, 2007 -- after two years of daily posts, I needed a break. If you're looking for GMing material, I have two recommendations: the hundreds of posts in TT's archives, and my new project, the multi-author GMing blog Gnome Stew. Happy GMing! -- Martin

Crimes as Plots or Premises

Fri. June 15, 2007 

Ben Robbins, author of ars ludi, has an excellent post up about the two ways you can use crimes in your adventures.

Specifically, it’s about the difference between crimes as plots, where the whole scenario revolves around the crime, and crimes as premises — an excuse to do something cool, but not the basis for the whole adventure.

That’s a great difference to highlight, and it’s not one I’ve ever thought about before. Ben also provides some good advice about telling the difference between the two variations, and on making both of them work for you. Good stuff, as always.

More posts about: Encounters, Scenarios

Comments

3 Responses to “Crimes as Plots or Premises”

  1. VV_GM on June 15th, 2007 8:47 am

    I never saw it like that! Brilliant! Concise and easy to use, but a great thing to keep in mind while designing an adventure. Very cool!

  2. thebrownshow on June 15th, 2007 10:27 am

    You know, now that I’ve read that, it’s so obvious, and yet I’ve never even though of it that way. Nice find.

  3. Martin on June 17th, 2007 9:48 am

    That’s definitely one of the characterstics of Ben’s advice that I like most: once I’ve read it, it seems so simple. That’s tricky to do as an author, and Ben nails it pretty much every time.