Johnn Four of roleplaying tips fame asked me to do a guest post for him a couple weeks ago on the topic of writing adventures. It's repeated here for those who aren't part of his mailing list.
1. Write in
stages! If you have the time, a relaxed
deadline, etc. leave blocks of time between creative spurts. Those non-writing periods allow the
subconscious mind to influence the creation in unexpected ways. I call this period shadow creation because it
happens in a sneaky, crafty way under cover of darkness. Using shadow creation, things are being put
together and designed without our direct awareness. One just needs to space out those active
periods of writing in order to activate the subconscious. The bigger the project, the more frequent and
longer the blocks of time should be.
2. Start each session
with the three sentences of power! Most
players don't actually want to hear a GM read a couple pages of flavor text or
"interesting" historical facts... they want to get straight to the
action. All that writing is unnecessary
for the GM and just bogs down the game at the most crucial point - the
beginning.
Ok, so what are the three sentences of power? Your elevator pitch, that's what! Think of it as a fast-paced movie
trailer. Sentence one: "In a world..." This describes the overall place or setting. Sentence two: "During the time
of..." This describes the when,
giving a general idea of what's going on.
Sentence three: "One rag-tag
group stands in the way..." This is
the basis of your adventure. It makes
things personal.
Alright, let's put it all together. "On the desert planet Xixt, surrounded
by three black suns, everyone is a slave to the necromancer king. An uprising has just been squashed, millions
dead... hope being the last casualty.
Lord Nocren has decreed that every male child is to be killed and every
female child brought to him when the largest of the black suns rises above the
others - in seven days time."
Now, you have an adventure.
It gives just enough detail, the right kind of detail, to get players
interested and eager to involve themselves.
Move outward from the three sentences of power.
3. Borrow from the
best! Take an idea or concept from your
favorite movie, tv show, or novel and adapt it to suit your needs. Several months ago, I planned on running The
Lost City D&D module. Just for fun,
I wanted to add something new. I
borrowed the test of manhood scene from 80's movie Flash Gordon. Instead of a mound of dirt or whatever it
was, this was a metallic column or pillar with holes. Certain holes would chop the hand off a
character instead of yielding a poisonous bite like in the film. Unfortunately for the PC, he happened to put
his hand in a chopping hole. For the
rest of the adventure, that player's wife teased him by calling him
"lefty". Incidentally, she
also spotted the borrowing. "That
reminds me of Flash Gordon." She
said. "Yep, that's where I got the
idea from." Came my reply.
It's important to note that having our influences or
borrowed elements recognized doesn't detract from the encounter. In fact, the passing familiarity can be an
advantage! Feel free to borrow, just
remember to at least make one small change so it's not a total rip-off of the
source material.
4. Come up with at
least one really cool and unexpected feature in your adventure! Unexpected is the operative word as this
adventure aspect must be as creative as it is unfamiliar - the stranger the
better. We've all fought orcs and
kobolds. We've all found a sword
+1. We've all experienced the flaming end of a fireball spell. Predictable. If the whole adventure is filled with that
kind of stuff, then it goes one step past predictable - boring. Ouch! No one wants to play a boring
adventure, right? Who wants to be known as "the boring GM"?
Before running the session, create at least one monster,
magic item, spell, NPC, or location that will blow the socks off your
players. Just one should be enough. Sure, it might take an extra 20 minutes of
brainstorming to come up with a worthy piece of singular strangeness, but the
work will be worth the effort.
5. Put a little of
yourself into each adventure! What are
some of your problems? Strengths and
weaknesses, favorite things? What are
you afraid of? What are your
aspirations? Favorite character traits,
hobbies? What comic book were you reading last week?
While this tip isn't as crucial as the others, I still think
it's kind of a good idea. Why not
include a wizard and a cleric playing chess if that's something you're
into? Put your arachnophobia to good use
by including half elf / half giant spider hybrids! Did you ever write a short story about a
citadel made out of ice when you were in junior high? Now's your chance to re-use it. Deposit a little of your own subjective taste
or experiences into every session. It'll
be just that tiny bit more personal and satisfying.
VS
p.s. Why, yes, The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence kickstarter is still going on. About 5 days left to help make this weird, sci-fantasy module a reality! ;)
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