Nonlinear Solstice Rain: A Bird's Eye View

Before I delve too deeply into the next section of the remix, I want to provide a bird’s eye view of how I plan to transform Solstice Rain into a nonlinear, player-driven scenario. As I stated in the introduction to this series, I feel that such a scenario will facilitate player agency, and let them be the driving force of the story. To accomplish this goal, I will be detailing the following topics:

Casting Solstice Rain’s major points of interest as revelations to discover, then seeding each location with clues to those revelations. I will partially derive these from my RATS analysis of the VSAF. These clues will help the players make informed decisions on where to apply their efforts.
Creating a point crawl map and procedure for Nov Elysia to provide a rudimentary sandbox the players can explore. In addition, I can use this map to portray the scale and impact of the Vestan Invasion.
Recontextualizing the existing scenes of Solstice Rain to incorporate the clues, map, and point crawl procedure. On top of this, I plan to narratively empower the PCs by framing them as the best Union pilots on Cressidium. Their commanding officers grant them free reign to determine the best way to complete their mission.

While I will publish these posts sequentially, in truth there is a lot of back-and-forth between these topics. As I develop the point crawl map, I can get ideas on new clues to incorporate. When recontextualizing the scenes, I may decide that the point crawl map may need adjusting, or think of new clues that may emerge from my revision. Scenario design is naturally organic like this! After all, nothing is ever truly set in stone until the players interact with it. This post will hopefully keep me oriented as I get into the weeds of the remix.