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.
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!
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.
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.