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| m8adam |
 Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 11:45 am Post subject: HELP: Intro to adventure writing/design |
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Hey, since you're all semi-pro or pro adventure/campaign designers I was wondering if you know of any resources on very basic adventure writing and design.
I'm a relatively new player/DM, but I'm extremely inspired by all of the print and online information out there and would love to start writing up my adventure ideas. I'm not looking for publishable quality yet, but just some advice on how to outline, format and balance adventures. Basically, a book or class (or even just a mentor via email) similar to the KQ guide to game design, but at a very beginner level.
Thanks for the help.
Adam |
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| deinol |
| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 9:58 am Post subject: |
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I'd say a good start would be the Kobold's Guide to Game Design, available at the store here.
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-Jesse Butler
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| m8adam |
| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 12:56 pm Post subject: |
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| I got the impression that the KQ guide was geared more towards producing publishable product. I'm not looking for advice on how to pitch an idea or stay on schedule, just someone (or some book/article) to guide me through designing/writing/formating some homebrew stuff. |
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| deinol |
| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 1:39 pm Post subject: |
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That's what I get for posting first thing in the morning. You mention the KQ guide in the OP. I still think it has some excellent articles on design.
Are you a patron on any of the OD projects? Watching the way a project goes from brainstorm to outline to rough draft is certainly a good way to see how it is professionally done.
I think outlining is a key component. How you structure the outline depends on what you are working on. Are you talking about a campaign arc, or a single adventure? I usually make a campaign outline which is very simple. An old campaign I ran looked like this:
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I. Staff of Four Parts (Levels 1-5)
II. Across the Planes (Levels 6-10)
III. Working with the Enemy (Levels 11-15)
IV. War Against the Empire (Levels 16-20)
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Then I don't worry about the details of the later parts until I'm close to starting them. I might work on the details of part II when they hit 4th level. I've got a basic idea of where things are going, but I'm flexible if things change along the way. It's a living document.
So to start with, I outlined the first part (not that original I know):
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A. Assassin Foiled (Level 1)
1. Learn of assassination plot
2. Prevent King’s assassination
3. King asks group to collect the Staff of Four parts.
B. North Tower (Level 2)
1. Elven Traps
2. False Guardian
3. Find first part
C. South Tower (Level 3)
1. Bandit Lord
2. Infiltrate tower
3. Find second part
D. East Tower (Level 4)
1. Kobold ambush
2. Bugbear pests
3. Find third part
E. West Tower (Level 5)
1. Submerged Tower
2. Electric door
3. Find fourth part
F. Into the Rift (Level 6)
1. Wizard steals staff
2. Party finds wizard
3. Wizard escapes through planar rift
4. Party pursues Wizard through rift
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In this particular case I allowed the group to the different towers in any order. So I re-arranged things when they made decisions of where to go next. I tend to do a ‘just in time’ stat creation the week before a session. Part F is really the first part of section II, but I tend to blur things together as they go.
For formatting, the best thing to do is build a document of templates. Copy a stat block from your preferred system's monster manual. Cut out all the monster specific info. Make it formatted as nicely as you like. Then whenever you add a monster copy the template into your working document and fill out the info. Do the same for traps/hazards/magic items.
Mostly my best advice is to just to do it. The more you work on things, the better you'll be.
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-Jesse Butler
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| m8adam |
| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 10:25 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the advice. I've been working on figuring a lot of these things out on my own, but it's nice to hear I'm on the right track. What do you do in terms of making a balanced adventure? Most of the folks I play with are heavy on hack-n-slash, but I love having puzzles to solve or mysteries to unravel, as well as points where being skillful is an advantage. Do you consciously find a balance between clever and strong-arm styles of play? Or do you just apply the mechanics of the game to the story you've developed regardless of possible lopsidedness?
Also, where do folks find inspiration for puzzles/riddles/etc.? I know there are sourcebooks out there for these things, but they always seem a bit obvious. |
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| deinol |
| Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 1:05 pm Post subject: |
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What do you do in terms of making a balanced adventure?
Balance depends a lot on the group you are playing with and the sort of adventures you run. If you do a typical dungeon crawl, with lots of encounters back-to-back, you’ll want to keep the encounters at a standard difficulty (near the correct encounter level.) My current group is probably a little overpowered, I lengthened their xp progression to keep the levels lower for longer. As a result of that, plus the fact that I tend to make adventures with only one or two combat encounters in a day, I end up throwing encounters designed for a group 3-4 levels above them and they do fine.
I recommend starting with combat encounters at the level of the base game recommendations and adjusting based on how well your group does. Sometimes I have had to fudge things when I made a mistake or overestimated their capabilities. Usually they don’t notice, it can be as easy as making something flee or fall earlier than it should have. I think the key to running a good adventure is always GM flexibility. If an encounter was tougher than you expected, tweak the next one down as needed.
Most of the folks I play with are heavy on hack-n-slash, but I love having puzzles to solve or mysteries to unravel, as well as points where being skillful is an advantage. Do you consciously find a balance between clever and strong-arm styles of play?
This really depends on the group. The ratio of puzzles to combat really depends on you and your players. Not every clever solution has to be thought of by the GM either. If the party finds a clever way to bypass something, let them. Some of the most interesting games I’ve had are when the player’s come up with a totally different approach to a problem than I expected. Overt puzzles can be overused, but they certainly have their place. I usually reserve them for extra special secrets or just before a boss.
Or do you just apply the mechanics of the game to the story you've developed regardless of possible lopsidedness?
Sometimes it is ok to have a little lopsidedness. It’s ok to let the rogue or the diplomat make the whole parties lives easier. Sometimes to make the plot go in the right direction you need make certain tasks near impossible. It really just depends on what makes the game enjoyable for the players and the GM. I have no problem fudging the mechanics to help the story or the general enjoyment of the game.
Also, where do folks find inspiration for puzzles/riddles/etc.? I know there are sourcebooks out there for these things, but they always seem a bit obvious.
I don’t know of any particularly good sourcebooks for these. I have been enjoying Monte Cook’s dungeonaday.com because it has some neat traps and puzzles in it. I highly recommend a subscription there if you want to see what a living, evolving megadungeon should be like.
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