There are different ways to structure an RPG, some of which are better than the others. But which one is the best? Let's find out!
1. The first structure would be the completely linear one. I'm not even going to illustrate it because of how simple it is. You start at point A, go to point B -> C -> D until you reach the end. There are no options for the player, all he can do is follow along with the story. There are also no or few sidequests. The only RPG subgenre this is even acceptable for is the pure dungeon crawler, because pure dungeon crawlers don't need much in the way of story and quests. Exploring a cool dungeon is enough.
2. One step above is the fake choice structure. Some modern games love to do this: give the player the illusion of choice without actually making the choice matter in any way.
You get a choice, but the quests you follow are still the same, there's literally no gameplay difference. The only thing that's different is that instead of a willing hero, you're a reluctant hero.
3. Now we get to proper branches. A branching structure gives the player actual choices, and depending on what he chooses, the story will change, and different quests will become available while others become unavailable.
It's a pretty solid structure. Depending on the amount of branches this can get pretty complex, and if you have a lot of branches in your game it's going to be hard work as a dev to keep all the different outcomes in mind. A game with a lot of branches, especially if you can hop between them, can be a lot of work to produce, but will offer a lot of replay value to the player. A good example is Age of Decadence.
4. Now we come to my personal favorite structure. The goal-based structure.
The player is given a goal early on, something he wants/has to do. In our hypothetical game example, the player crashlands on an alien fantasy planet with wizards and shit, and his goal is to find a new spaceship to get off the planet. How he gets it doesn't matter, and the steps he takes to reach that goal don't matter either. In the two example paths on the image, the player can either find out about a local wizard who owns a spaceship and is researching its tech. The player can either work for the wizard in order to receive the ship as a reward, offer the wizard a deal, or kill him and take the ship. Or the player can explore the world, find another ancient ship in an abandoned facility. He can either recruit someone who has enough technical expertise to repair the damaged old vessel, or find a technical manual in a different ruin which tells him how to repair it himself. Or maybe the player can find a way to repair his original crashed vessel.
In a goal-based game like this the sequence doesn't matter. If the player has played the game before and knows the wizard owns a working spaceship, he can just barge into the guy's tower, grab his keys, and steal the spaceship. Of course, he's unlikely to succeed as a low level character, but he can try. The player can also decide to go for any of the possible other solutions at any time. If he starts working for the wizard in the hopes of being given the spaceship as a reward but then decides that the wizard is actually an asshole and doesn't want to work for him anymore, the alternatives can be attempted.
Fallout is somewhat of an example for this. The player has to get the waterchip and kill the master. What he does in-between these major plot points doesn't matter. A new player will spend a lot of time exploring and hunting down clues, while a player who is replaying Fallout for the 7th time can just hightail it to Necropolis and nab the water chip.
So, which of these is your favorite RPG structure?
1. The first structure would be the completely linear one. I'm not even going to illustrate it because of how simple it is. You start at point A, go to point B -> C -> D until you reach the end. There are no options for the player, all he can do is follow along with the story. There are also no or few sidequests. The only RPG subgenre this is even acceptable for is the pure dungeon crawler, because pure dungeon crawlers don't need much in the way of story and quests. Exploring a cool dungeon is enough.
2. One step above is the fake choice structure. Some modern games love to do this: give the player the illusion of choice without actually making the choice matter in any way.
You get a choice, but the quests you follow are still the same, there's literally no gameplay difference. The only thing that's different is that instead of a willing hero, you're a reluctant hero.
3. Now we get to proper branches. A branching structure gives the player actual choices, and depending on what he chooses, the story will change, and different quests will become available while others become unavailable.
It's a pretty solid structure. Depending on the amount of branches this can get pretty complex, and if you have a lot of branches in your game it's going to be hard work as a dev to keep all the different outcomes in mind. A game with a lot of branches, especially if you can hop between them, can be a lot of work to produce, but will offer a lot of replay value to the player. A good example is Age of Decadence.
4. Now we come to my personal favorite structure. The goal-based structure.
The player is given a goal early on, something he wants/has to do. In our hypothetical game example, the player crashlands on an alien fantasy planet with wizards and shit, and his goal is to find a new spaceship to get off the planet. How he gets it doesn't matter, and the steps he takes to reach that goal don't matter either. In the two example paths on the image, the player can either find out about a local wizard who owns a spaceship and is researching its tech. The player can either work for the wizard in order to receive the ship as a reward, offer the wizard a deal, or kill him and take the ship. Or the player can explore the world, find another ancient ship in an abandoned facility. He can either recruit someone who has enough technical expertise to repair the damaged old vessel, or find a technical manual in a different ruin which tells him how to repair it himself. Or maybe the player can find a way to repair his original crashed vessel.
In a goal-based game like this the sequence doesn't matter. If the player has played the game before and knows the wizard owns a working spaceship, he can just barge into the guy's tower, grab his keys, and steal the spaceship. Of course, he's unlikely to succeed as a low level character, but he can try. The player can also decide to go for any of the possible other solutions at any time. If he starts working for the wizard in the hopes of being given the spaceship as a reward but then decides that the wizard is actually an asshole and doesn't want to work for him anymore, the alternatives can be attempted.
Fallout is somewhat of an example for this. The player has to get the waterchip and kill the master. What he does in-between these major plot points doesn't matter. A new player will spend a lot of time exploring and hunting down clues, while a player who is replaying Fallout for the 7th time can just hightail it to Necropolis and nab the water chip.
So, which of these is your favorite RPG structure?
