Polti's 36 Dramatic Situations

A book called The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations by a frenchman, Georges Polti, posits that there are only 36 possible plotlines for any story, and that all stories are a retelling of one or more of them. Despite the veracity (or lack thereof) of his theory, his "situations" are nonetheless useful for creating interesting plotlines for games.

We're planning on using them to some degree in story/quest generation, though to what degree and exactly how they'll be used is still to be decided.

Here are some related links:

— GedTheGreysHain - 30 Oct 2003