I spent years filling Word pages to prepare my TTRPG sessions. We all know the drill: the good old linear document, clean and polished, describing every corridor and every line of dialogue. And it works! My players loved those tightly-woven stories. But as soon as you want to offer FREEDOM, the nightmare begins.
The Word document becomes a bloated mess, a labyrinth of cross-references and footnotes. That's where the POINT CRAWL enters the scene. Forget the ultra-precise geographical map for a second. See the point crawl as your new favorite WRITING TOOL.
Breaking out of the linear straitjacket without losing your mind
When writing in "flat text" mode, you're often stuck in a vertical reading structure. But narration—real narration, the kind that breathes—is HORIZONTAL. It branches. It hesitates.
The point crawl is the art of transforming your adventure into a series of POINTS OF INTEREST connected by lines. It's visual; it's immediate. A point isn't necessarily a dungeon or a forest. It can be a town, a forgotten bridge, or even a simple crossroads.
But wait, here's where it gets brilliant: when you use this technique to structure NARRATIVE SCENES.
The point crawl as a scene engine
Picture the situation: your players arrive at an inn. A gangster is threatening the tavern keeper right before their eyes. This is your starting point.
In a classic doc, you'd have to write pages of "If... Then...". With the point crawl, you draw two arrows branching out from this point:
- The Tail: The players decide to follow the gangster discreetly after the scene. We move to the point "Shadowing in the back alleys."
- The Interrogation: The players wait for the gangster to leave to grill the tavern keeper. We move to the point "Secrets at the Inn."
And here’s the stroke of genius: these two branching points can REJOIN at a third unique point, for example, "The Underworld Hideout."
That's why I love this tool. We offer a REAL choice to the players (how they approach the problem), but we keep control over the global structure of the plot. We avoid the branching explosion that would force us to prepare ten different scenarios. We channel creative energy without stifling the players. It's the Holy Grail, right? 👉👍
Clarifying the invisible
Why is this better than a 20-page Word doc? Because your brain hates searching for information in the middle of a block of text during a fight or a negotiation.
Visualizing the adventure as points allows you to immediately see the STAKES of every transition.
- Point A (The Inn) contains the basic info.
- The lines (the paths) represent the effort, time, or skills required to move to the next part.
- Point B is the logical consequence of previous choices.
It’s clean, it’s CLEAR. And above all, it’s modular. If your players do something totally unexpected, you can add a point to your diagram in two seconds. Try doing that cleanly on a text document... Good luck! 😉
Organizing your branches without panicking
The mistake when trying to give freedom is believing you have to prepare EVERY possible path until the end of the campaign.
❌ ERROR: Creating an infinite choice tree that never intersects. You’ll end up burnt out before session 3. ✅ SOLUTION: Use the point crawl to create loops and points of convergence.
Also, don't forget that each point can be a temporal event. "The Countess’s Wedding" can be a point connected to "Assassination in the Kitchen." No matter how the players get there, the point crawl clarifies the MOMENT and the PLACE of the action.
So, shall we get started?
Switching from linear writing to point crawling is like opening the curtains in a dark room. Suddenly, you see the connections, you see the holes in your plot, and above all, you see how your players are going to be able to have fun.
That’s why I swear by this for my narrative-heavy adventures. You keep control of the story while leaving room for improvisation. It’s the perfect balance.
So, the next time you open your text editor, ask yourself: wouldn't this be simpler with a few circles and a few arrows? I bet it would!
Happy prepping, and don’t forget: the journey is just as important as the destination! 😉✅