Donald Wrote:
"However because it's the hero's story they need to have an influence on what happens and have the opportunity for some successes."
Agreed, but how about failure? The scenario should take that possibility into account as well. This is touched on in my essay here: http://www.glorantha.com/support/na_defeat.html
The point being that I personally find traditional scene-based scenario design to be very problematic. It's giving you a structure that you will almost automatically have to discard, potentially right off in play in the first scene. So I feel that it behooves us to have scenarios written up more like Prof. Edwards' offering in question, "Last Days at Skullpoint." Or, as another good HQ example that anyone can take a gander at, the Well of Souls scenario by Peter Nordstrand and Chris Chinn: http://www.geocities.com/doctorpeace/well.html
The basics of these scenarios is that, in fact, they are scenarios. As opposed to the more script-ish scene-based adventure. That is, they set up a situation to be played through, but do not require or expect any specific action or outcome. Just like a wargame scenario, where you do not know what stages the conflict will take, with this sort of set-up, you don't know what the PCs will do, or how the scenario will play out.
A nice part of this is that, as Narrator for the game, you get to be as surprised by the outcome as the other players. Also it's usually far less work to make up such a scenario.
This is not "winging it" that I'm suggesting. As both Skullpoint and WoS show, there's substantial background material to work from. For the most part, the Narrator's job becomes playing the NPCs involved per their motives. The scenarios are designed that in doing so, and doing so with an eye to be entertaining, one can make the NPC actions provide content to which the players will have their characters respond. It is not a passive method, but rather an active one. Just not one that drives to some expected ending.
It's not so much that we need to leave room for PC success or failure... those will happen regardless with HQ. It's that we need to make room for the players' choices to matter in terms of where the plot goes. At least for certain styles of play.
Mike
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