What's the difference between the Master Events List and Pattern of Life?

The Master Events List (MEL) is for sequential content

Pattern of Life (PoL) is for world-building content.

1. The Master Events List (MEL) defines the key narrative beats of a scenario that move the exercise forward in the form of injects

2. Pattern of Life (PoL) allows you to add additional "world-building" content that you can start either on-demand as a consequence of player actions¹ or via the MEL to add texture to your exercise so it communicates a living, breathing world.

When should I use Pattern of Life?

You might think of a PoL stack as a subroutine or specialist function that you can call upon when needed without impacting the timing or organisation of the MEL.

Because the PoL stack is independent of the MEL, you can change the pace of publication independently and this is often used to ramp up or cool down the exercise activity depending on how the audience are performing. For example, stax (and multiple MELs) can be started to add additional layers of narrative and hence make the exercise more challenging.

What's a typical use of Pattern of Life?

A typical use would be for a PoL stack to represent an target audience or group of stakeholders (e.g. "Brighton Mums" or "Silver Surfers") who can be activated on demand to communicate a reaction to the players after they've made an important decision.

Don't Do This

PoL and MEL are not interchangable. You should not create content in the PoL that needs to be played in a particular sequence.

Notes

1. You can actually trigger PoL stacks from the MEL with an Action inject - and in this case PoL works as a convenient way to easily generate and publish a bunch of content organised around a central topic without cluttering the MEL.