Jumps and Causal Transitions
One way to tell a dramatic narrative from a procedural is to look at how its scenes are strung together.
In a procedural story, in which characters primarily pursue a tangible, external goal, connections between scenes are mostly causal. A plot event in Scene A leads the characters on to Scene B. A development in B takes them to C, and so on.
A: The characters meet a guy in a bar who gives them a job
B: They go to the job only to be jumped by thugs
C: They chase the thugs into a factory
D: They enter the factory and fight the thugs
Dramatic stories, in which characters pursue inner, emotional goals, sometimes present one scene as the obvious outgrowth of the previous one:
A: Aaron learns from Biff that Carla has been unfaithful
B: Aaron confronts Carla over her infidelity
C: Carla confronts Biff over his big mouth
They are however less tied to this model than the procedural. Scenes can stand as independent units, connected by the personalities of the characters and the theme of the story.
A: Aaron learns from Biff that Carla has been unfaithful
B: Aaron suffers a humiliation at the hands of his boss, Darla
C: Carla tries to break it off with her lover, Ernest
We might think of this latter type of transitions as a jump, as B does not flow directly out of A, or C from B. They could be rearranged and still make sense.
This is not to say that cause and effect does not enter into dramatic narrative at all. Just that its scene ordering is not necessarily determined by it. Eventually a scene will flow out of Biff's revelation about Carla. It just might not happen right away. It might be scene D, E, or F. In an extended serial TV drama, it might not happen till the next episode. Each installment will likely mix jumps with causal transitions.
Roleplaying games, with their emphasis on procedural plot lines and linear narrative, tend naturally toward the causal transition. A railroaded scenario might allow only one set of predetermined causal links between scenes. A more open-ended game finds the causal links as it goes along.
I'm currently working on a design that will encourage players (and the GM) to instigate jumps as well as causal transitions.
