@page narrativearcdesign Narrative Arc Design

Use the idea of conspiracy to create mystery eventually leading to a big series of confrontations and narrative payoff
The primary challenge with this is coming up with ways to redirect the eventual conspiracy
IE, you don't want to introduce the ultimate bad guy at the start, there need to be middle men that you work towards defeating prior to capturing the big bad

Another challenge to consider is creating teasers for the narrative peaks.
IE, if your big bad is supposed to be a dark paladin, how do you tease him in the story without making it a final encounter.
 - "Visions", "Proxies", etc that aren't the real version
 - For certain types of creatures (ie dragons), you can have them fly by in a way that wouldn't be easily interacted with
 
Yet another challenge to consider is adding blocks where side quests can become relevant
IE, you hit a quest where you ask someone for a favor (lets say they need to repair something), you now have a timer where side quests can be introduced in the interim
Another idea is having the quest pend on a building being constructed
Another idea is waiting for an npc to move to a given location, ie if a character went off on another task sometime earlier in the quest and you are now waiting to regroup with them

