My RPG games follow a format which avoids railroading, without any need for elaborate settings or difficult NPC relations. I call it ‘story weaving’, because it lets me stretch the metaphor.

Railroads are Inevitable

For all the complaints about railroading, computer games suffer from railroads far more than RPG modules. We learn linear plot from films, books, and radio, and our thinking itself has become railroaded into A, B, C.

In our brains, stories do this:

┌──────────────────┐     ┌───────────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐     ┌───────────────────────┐     ┌────────────────────────────────────┐
│ find empty house │ ──> │ get woke by 7 dwarves │ ──> │ cook for dwarves │ ──> │ old lady sells apples │ ──> │ prince dislodges apple from throat │
└──────────────────┘     └───────────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘     └───────────────────────┘     └────────────────────────────────────┘

But add some players to this mix, and you have problems: players may not stick around to cook for dwarves. They may not let the old lady who sells apples into their base, or maybe they’ll just stab her, and bury the body.

What happens now, Hans Christian Anderson? My chaos-monkeys stabbed your plot with a bread knife! What do I do!?

Railway vs the Metro

Pre-written modules provide a few if-then options to avoid laying down the plot, turning the railroad into a metro-map doesn’t solve the fundamental problems. The metro map wants to plan everywhere the players might want to explore, and tries to predict everything they might do.

The empty space on the map remains, and every time the module adds a new point with ‘if the players go here, then…’ it adds pointless paragraphs for the GM to read. This metro-map sits on a spectrum between the railroad, and homework.

                                                                                ┌────────────────────────────────────┐
                                                                                │ prince dislodges apple from throat │
                                                                                └────────────────────────────────────┘
                                                                                  ∧
                                                                                  │ eat apple
                                                                                  │
┌──────────────────┐     ┌───────────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐     ┌────────────────────────────────────┐  stab old lady   ┌─────────────────────────┐  return home   ┌────────────────────────┐  shelter in desolate castle   ┌────────────────────────┐
│ find empty house │ ──> │ get woke by 7 dwarves │ ──> │ cook for dwarves │ ──> │       old lady sells apples        │ ───────────────> │   this was the Queen!   │ ─────────────> │    wolf stalks you     │ ────────────────────────────> │ the castle is alive... │
└──────────────────┘     └───────────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘     └────────────────────────────────────┘                  └─────────────────────────┘                └────────────────────────┘                               └────────────────────────┘
                           │                                                      ∧                                                       │                                          │
                           │                                                      │                                                       │ become dwarf-queen                       │ fight with breadknife
                           ∨                                                      │                                                       ∨                                          ∨
                         ┌───────────────────────┐                                │                                                     ┌─────────────────────────┐                ┌────────────────────────┐
                         │ learn how to mine ore │ ───────────────────────────────┘                                                     │ descend to retake moria │                │   arrive in hometown   │
                         └───────────────────────┘                                                                                      └─────────────────────────┘                └────────────────────────┘

How to Weave

Story weaving means we write each segment to follow these rules:

• The segment must make sense at any time (even weeks after the previous segment).
• The segment must make sense anywhere within a broad region, such as ‘anywhere in the forest’, or ‘anywhere in town’.
• The segment makes no stipulations about how it ends, or assumptions about how a previous segment ended.

This structure does a lot more work than anyone might imagine without seeing it, so time for some examples.

Weaving Little Pigs

Let’s put some chaos-monkeys into the Three Little Pigs. The basic plot looks like this:

┌────────────────────────────────┐  little pig   ┌─────────────────────────────────┐  little pig   ┌────────────────────────┐  let me in   ┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ wolf blows down house of straw │ ────────────> │ wolf blows down house of sticks │ ────────────> │ house of bricks stands │ ───────────> │ rambo arrives to kill the wolf │
└────────────────────────────────┘               └─────────────────────────────────┘               └────────────────────────┘              └────────────────────────────────┘

Segment I

We can rework the first scene by placing the events in the past; this stops the PCs being able to kill the wolf and save the pig. Next, we change the location to just ‘anywhere in the forest’. Wherever the PCs wander, they find the scene.

A big, bad, wolf has blown a pig’s straw house down, and eaten him. The straw has scattered for miles down the road.

So the GM can just tell them this:

Little sticks of straw litter the path you’ve followed. Trees above have reeds of straw stuck in their branches. In the distance, flies buzz.

If the pc investigate the fly-covered bones of the little pig, they can get a roll to see how much they understand of what just happened here, but the wolf is long-gone, so tracking him is hopeless.

Segment II

The next scene will take place anywhere along the main roads, at any time.

A little pig invites the troupe to dinner, just before the big, bad, wolf arrives.

We don’t need a particular resolution here - if the PCs decide to leave then the wind dies down as they leave the area, and the wolf eats the little pig.

A cold wind blows. A little path at the side of the road leads along to a serene cottage, with a root-vegetable field growing all around it. A pig stops his digging, and waves happily to you, then shouts ‘greetings!’, and asks if you’d like to come inside for dinner, although you can barely hear him over the sound of the growing wind.

If the PCs stay for dinner, the wind grows stronger, until the house collapses, and the wolf attacks, grabbing the little pig and pulling him squealing in to the dark forest.

If the PCs damage the wolf, he flees into the forest. Once in the forest, you can begin the next available segment from another story. This is how we weave the parts together; this overlap means the intersection of two stories. Perhaps the PCs will meet Baba Yaga as she begins another story. But let’s look at the whole tapestry later, and for now return to the house of bricks.

Segment III

If the pc kill the big, bad, wolf then the story stops here. Sometimes stories finish early, and that’s okay.

But if the wolf remains, then the next time the PCs wander on the main road, they spot a house of bricks while a cold wind picks up. The wolf cannot get in, but the little pig must leave sometime, so the wolf just waits for him, while the little pig squeals for the PCs to help.

Structures

Initially, this might look like the old rail-road structure:

• (Forest) Dead pig and house of straw, strewn about by localized storm.
• (Roads) A pig invites the characters to dine in his wooden house, then the wolf attacks.
• (Roads) A pig calls for aid as a wolf has his brick house under siege.

But by making the scenes more segmented, the story stops saying ’then the PCs go here’, and starts saying ‘when the PCs go here’. Once the PCs complete a segment, the next can be marked ready with an ‘X’.

Using the same structure for Sleeping Beauty, we get this:

• (Forest) A ranger is returning to town, but won’t speak about the horrible job he was hired to do.
• (Town) Everyone’s talking about the missing princess.
• (Roads) A caravan on the road hosts an old apple seller, who refuses to actually sell her apples.
• (Town) Drunken dwarves sing sad songs in the tavern, and refuse to leave.
• (Roads) A distant prince tours the area.
• (Town) The distant prince rescued the princess, and the queen will dance at their wedding in iron shoes.

Notice that Sleeping Beauty isn’t to be found in the structure. That’s because the various pieces hint towards her, and the PCs can decide to follow these hints or ignore them.

The actual game will not have the PCs following any of these plots in order. Perhaps during the story of the little pigs, they will pursue the wolf into the forest, which begins Sleeping Beauty with the huntsman segment. And perhaps the huntsman kills the wolf (ending that story early), or perhaps the wolf manages to escape.

The Little Mermaid

• (Sea) A ship crashes, and a fish-lady pulls one survivor to shore.
• (Roads) A voiceless woman wanders alone to the castle.
• (Town) The talks about the new woman, from a foreign land, that the prince has fallen for.
• …and so on.

Each story is a thread, which overlaps with others.

The Tapestry

Story Weaving relies on many stories being available. The PCs might go from A to B to C; some stories will clearly tell the PCs where they should go, and what might happen next, and the PCs can ‘follow the plot’.

Some stories will hide the fact that they’ve begun, and introduce nothing but foreshadowing elements for the first few segments. This can lead to nights where the PCs are involved in five or even six stories simultaneously! But the players don’t have to worry about that; they will focus on their own goals. They will often pick a particular thread to follow, and consider it the ‘main plot’, while everything else can be seen as a ‘random encounter’ or a ‘side quest’. And the players are always correct: if they think something is the ‘main plot’ then it is!

Pacing

I never stipulate when a new segment has to begin. They usually start ‘as soon as possible’, and immediately once the PCs enter a new region. And if they remain in a region, keep throwing out new segments, sometimes two at once!

To make a fast-paced story, simply put every segment in the same location. If everything takes place in the ‘Town Region’, the PCs will just experience one event after another in rapid succession, unless they decide to leave.

For a slow-burn story, with foreshadowing and growing tension, put each segment in a new location. If the first segment takes place in the ‘Town’ region and the second in the ‘Forest’ region, then the story’s arc will take a break between those two, waiting patiently for the PCs to arrive.

By switching between these two structures, you can ensure a story has gentle foreshadowing by putting one segment in the forest, place the next as as simple rumour in town, and then kick the hornet’s nest with four segments on the roads, one after another.

Segments by Region

Turning the tapestry around, we can look at each region alone, and which segments will occur there. This is the high-level view when running games with this structure; the PCs begin in some region, and you check which segment is ready.

Forest Segments

• (Forest) Dead pig and house of straw, strewn about by localized storm.
• (Forest) A ranger is returning to town, but won’t speak about the horrible job he was hired to do.

Road Segments

• (Roads) A pig invites the characters to dine in his wooden house, then the wolf attacks.
• (Roads) A pig calls for aid as a wolf has his brick house under siege.
• (Roads) A caravan on the road hosts an old apple seller, who refuses to actually sell her apples.
• (Roads) A distant prince tours the area.
• (Roads) A voiceless woman wanders alone to the castle.

Town Segments

• (Town) Everyone’s talking about the missing princess.
• (Town) Drunken dwarves sing sad songs in the tavern, and refuse to leave.
• (Town) The distant prince rescued the princess, and the queen will dance at their wedding in iron shoes.
• (Town) The talks about the new woman, from a foreign land, that the prince has fallen for.

Regions Define the Campaign

The previous example stories used these four regions:

• Sea
• Forest
• Roads
• Town

By selecting other regions, you can shift the focus of the campaign dramatically. A campaign centred around a group of thieves in a massive city might have these regions:

• Slums
• Guild Halls
• Market
• Sewers

Having each of these as active locations, where thematically appropriate things happen makes the city feel massive. Players will begin to think of each region as its own place.

Or a campaign about a fae wilderness could use:

• Shining Lakes
• Enchanted Mountains
• Cursed Swamp
• Human Hamlets

As long as everywhere on the map for this wilderness-based campaign fits into one of these four broad categories, the story will always have something new to offer the PCs.

Padding the Bottom

If the PCs hang around the forest too long, eventually it will run out of available segments. That’s okay sometimes - when the environment stops giving any feedback, players may take the hint that they’re in the wrong place.

However, to avoid leaving any region desolate for too long, place a bunch of random filler-segments in each area, as the very last story in a collection. If you have a ‘story’ which is nothing but a bunch of random encounters in your ‘Forest’ region, then the PCs won’t be left in some kind of plot-vacuum, just because all the other segments in the forest aren’t active until they complete part II of one story in the town, and part IV of another on the roads.

Stories with Factions

The story of the Three Little Pigs had a weakness: the wolf. Once it dies, game over. And that’s not a problem when you have half a dozen stories, but it’s a shame if your story has 8 segments, and the main character dies on the second.

Having a story based around factions rather than individuals can help a lot - if the prince dies, perhaps Sleeping Beauty marries his sister instead. They’re both distant nobles, so the rest of the story can still make sense.

Summary

Story weaving looks very similar to standard plot structure, but it makes three demands from each segment:

• Any time,
• any place,
• no endings.

For a concrete example, flip through the first couple of pages in each chapter of Missions in Maitavale book.