Nodes tend to be locations, characters, organizations, or events. I think of them as things that the PCs can go to and interact with.
(There are also proactive nodes which tend to do the opposite: They come to the PCs and interact with them.)
(There are also proactive nodes which tend to do the opposite: They come to the PCs and interact with them.)
A revelation is any conclusion the PCs can make or need to make (supported by the Three Clue Rule).
A revelation CAN be a node (i.e., we need to go check out that location/character/organization/event), but it can also be stuff that isn't a node (i.e., the runes are Achaean).
A revelation CAN be a node (i.e., we need to go check out that location/character/organization/event), but it can also be stuff that isn't a node (i.e., the runes are Achaean).
In my more recent work I've started talking about clues & leads, where leads point you to places where you can continue investigating (i.e., new nodes) and clues point to other types of revelations (often the solution to the mystery, e.g. Bob's the killer).
These often overlap: "Bob's the killer" points at Bob. But for a satisfying mystery you'd probably want to establish Bob before revealing he's a killer, so there's a "Bob exists/is here/is involved" that's a revelation pointing at Bob as a node and then "Bob did it" as solution.
In any case, your node list often doubles one-for-one as a revelation list. But some nodes may not appear on the revelation list (initial nodes, proactive nodes; although these CAN in many scenarios also have leads pointing to them).
But you'll usually have a list of revelations that aren't nodes, too. (Although not always. Pure procedurals and breadcrumb-style design often has a 100% overlap between revelations and nodes. Also very true for non-mystery scenarios.)
You can also think of a scene as being a node. (Revelation points to the scene, the PCs go to the scene, the scene plays out.)
But nodes can also be made up of many scenes.
But nodes can also be made up of many scenes.
Honestly, I generally don't prep scenes any more. I find it more efficient & effective to prep the elements that make up scenes and then use those elements to frame scenes in response to the PCs' choices.
I talk about this in the Art of Pacing. thealexandrian.net/wordpress/3150…
I talk about this in the Art of Pacing. thealexandrian.net/wordpress/3150…
Node-based design lends itself well to this approach because it tends to inherently break stuff up into discrete chunks that are then connected (and can be combined) in different ways.
So I don't prep "the scene with Diego." I prep Diego and Diego's mansion, the office where Diego works, etc.
And "the scene with Diego" is a meeting or a tail or an assassination or a heist or an intimidation tactic where they ram his car or a hostage negotiation or all of that.
And "the scene with Diego" is a meeting or a tail or an assassination or a heist or an intimidation tactic where they ram his car or a hostage negotiation or all of that.
John's familiar with the primary sources, obviously. But for those who aren't, here's the Three Clue Rule:
thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118…
thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118…
Node-Based Scenario Design: thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7949…
And Using Revelation Lists is a more recent article that looks at that specific thing in depth: thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4097…
If you want to see what my home prep notes look like for this sort of thing, check out the Remix of Eternal Lies: thealexandrian.net/wordpress/3707…
Most of the macro-nodes in the Remix feature stuff like proactive nodes, node-based revelation lists, non-node-based revelation lists, and also other elements (like local research topics, hotels, etc.) that are separate from the node-based structure.
You could also check out OVER THE EDGE: WELCOME TO THE ISLAND, where I and my whole team used a variety of node-based techniques to explore radically different scenarios.
atlas-games.com/product_tables…
atlas-games.com/product_tables…
