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Structured Free Association Story Plot Method Pay What You Want
Average Rating:4.1 / 5
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Structured Free Association Story Plot Method
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Structured Free Association Story Plot Method
Publisher: ThinkDifferent
by FRED N. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/08/2021 02:49:31
IT'S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS.

Don't get me wrong. This is poorly written because the writer isn't a native English speaker. And in many instances, the thoughts are elliptical. He makes leaps and bounds in explaining things, and leaving out key details. I had to read it twice, carefully, while making notes on the margins of the printout to connect his thoughts, in order to understand it.

But it's the thought that counts. And the thought process contained in this clumsy document is truly remarkable If you're all about process over product, then this will give you what is HANDS DOWN THE BEST BRAINSTORMING PROCESS I have come across in all my years.

I docked one star because of the logical leaps and the gaps in the explanations. You can figure them out for yourself once you realize the value of what he outlines here and you commit the time and the effort to complete the incomplete picture he paints.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Structured Free Association Story Plot Method
Publisher: ThinkDifferent
by Petteri T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/12/2018 13:42:21

The method presented here seem really robust and powerful, but it is not really presented clearly in this book.

The guide lack overall example that would show how to pick Theme, then derive Keywords from it, use those to inspire Character creation, add those characters to Plot snippets and Preparing a session. Now the guide has separate examples for each step accompanied by quite arrogant "Now- I just wrote those too in 60 seconds by looking at my keywords" description. The text explicitly asks not to look at the keywords at the appendix, since those have nothing to do with the rest of guide.

Almost all examples have this same problem: they demonstrate the end results of the method and not the steps required to reproduce them. It is nice that author can create a five part plotline in 10 minutes, but I certainly can't, and the end result of the method as example does not help me to achieve that.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
There were shortcomings on this title for sure in terms of depth of clarity and explanation. The method is relatively subjective and requires some practice that is hard to put in writing in full. I would recommend checking out a few of my other titles namely Adventure Design in Practice and Preparing Scenes - they are extensions to this publication - and should be more concrete for one part. Build your keyword library whenever you come across cool hooks and aspects that you don't have immediate use for. This way you can remind yourself of that single idea in a different context. The mind constructs logical narrative, far better than pure random generation.
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Structured Free Association Story Plot Method
Publisher: ThinkDifferent
by Nicolas L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/14/2018 09:42:45

I really wanted to write a review about this product.

WHAT I LIKED
  • The article is always "to the point".
  • The method's chapters unfolds in a logical chronological practical order.
  • It is versatile : you can apply it to many different genres and mechanics where there is room for characterization : adventuring, investigations, narrative, simulationism ...
  • It can help you to quickly unstuck your campaign between two sessions.
  • It is a convienent way to bring twits and deepening narrative to your player.
  • It gives you some hints about pitfalls to avoid (like how to go from GM-story-centricity to player-driven-narrative).
  • It does what it says : it uses associations techniques to build plots for roleplaying games.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
  • Reading this article is good, but when you want to apply the method, you are forced to reread everything to take notes of what to do before being able to put it into practice. This is not very user friendly. @ThinkDifferent : Can you add a step by step checklist sheet at the end ?
  • I am not a native english reader, and there was two chapters (alas, I do not remember which one and can't reread the document right now) that were very hard to follow. Because of language and convoluted writting. @ThinkDifferent : Can you try to untangle some things in the chapter so that a 5 year old human who is not experimented with idioms can understand ?

Many thanks !



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thank you so much for your feedback! Indeed my writing and editing is not on par on expressing some of my ideas and concepts and methods in general and that is something I really hope to improve over time.
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Structured Free Association Story Plot Method
Publisher: ThinkDifferent
by Hans D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/06/2017 16:05:27

There's plenty of good guidance on writing adventure plots but the title is slightly overlapping with other publications by the same author. Nevertheless, it's a short and valuable read.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Structured Free Association Story Plot Method
Publisher: ThinkDifferent
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/04/2017 17:23:12

First, I would simply recommend getting Mr. Arto Saari's "All Think Different BUNDLE". I'd value the bundle at about $5.

I assume Mr Saari isn't a native English speaker. His products contain many odd sentences, grammar mistakes, spelling errors, etc.

The page count of the documents aren't a good benchmark; many pages appear to be presentation slides with text.

That all said, much of what he writes about is interesting from a game master/referee perspective. His illustrations are mostly good and reinforce his ideas well.

If I could suggest anything to the author, it would be to reorganize and consolidate all his work in a single document. Target that document to GM's for about $5.

I think the author has a strong interest in Modiphius' Conan RPG using a 2d20 system. Perhaps he could expand his existing content to include a more generous description of his play-style and techniques using that system as well.

There is potential here, but it requires better organization and editing.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Please provide a more focused review feedback on the title.
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Structured Free Association Story Plot Method
Publisher: ThinkDifferent
by Jason H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/29/2017 22:07:09

There's some great advice here for recognizing that the story may diverge based on what players may do, and that the players should be the stars of their own story. But where this book falls down is the "free association" part of the title. A short list of keywords is presented at the end, and there's talk of using them randomly, and that's about it. The advice on "don't over-prepare" is particularly good. Free association needs to be building on what the players are already doing, and there's not a lot of advice on how to deal with players going off on tangents. For all the talk about procedural generation, there's very little here. (And even less, if you're not interested in fantasy.) "Elegant Encounter Design", by the same author, has better advice for how to structure stories around branching paths.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thanks Jason. This being my first title, there has been evolution with further titles. That said, the general principle presented with using your existing writing as the baseline for keyword association is still very valid I think.
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Structured Free Association Story Plot Method
Publisher: ThinkDifferent
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/18/2017 14:19:28

An excellent freshman effort! This little dandy sprung forth from discussions on the Conan RPG G+ group, and while I personally don't agree with everything said here, it's still a gem of a book. Well worth your time at ten times the price, it's a worthy addition to any GM's library.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thank you, this is excellent feedback. Like the positive comments originally on the forum made me wrote these 12 pages, similarly this makes me motivated to work on version 2.0 with better editing and more content and viewpoints included.
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