Creating Adventures

[Jujitsudave]

Why stop there? Throw another twist out of left field. He initially came into their lives investigating the presence of a vampire and turns out it's the girl. Unfortunately he fell for her and they have run away together. Did he try to get her away from the father to destroy her? To protect her? Maybe he doesn't even know himself at this point and the party is the catalyst to create the outcome. Regardless, whatever happens is should have future repercussions throughout the campaign.

 

[DamonJynx]

But you can trust your PCs to screw over anything you planned anyway, unless you railroad recklessly.

Ain't that the truth. That's why I prefer to improvise a lot and plan a little. IMO you need to have some idea of what's going on and big picture stuff, so you can work in side treks and such to your main story arc without wasting hours of prep. Keeping a handful of 'generic' NPC minions on file, along with one or two 'unique' NPC's is a must IMO. This lets you be flexible and adjust stats and the like on the fly as need arises without a lot of looking up stuff in the rulebooks.

As an example; the PC's are facing off against a group of mercenaries, who all have the same stats and basic skills, but different Combat Styles. I'll ask the rules lawyer in the group, what the damage is for a Great Axe or a Dagger if I need to change something on the fly from what I've prepared or used earlier. Later I use the same stats for the town militia or whatever. The little stat block I use has general HP and HP by location and armour, so it gives me options all the time. It's easy enough to add a few percentage points here and there to 'liven' up an encounter with one or two more difficult opponents.

 

[Grimolde]

Ok, that's how you create a story, but what structure do you use?

Do you use

Background

Opening Scene

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Closing Scene etc?

What form does your written adventure take on the page?

 

[Dan True]

I usually describe my adventures as an Overview, describing major NPCs and the overall story. I then have some areas or scenes described - my areas tend to be rather large and sandboxes, with numbers and keys describing individual houses and conversations.

- Dan

 

[DamonJynx]

Ok, that's how you create a story,

That's what an adventure is, isn't it? Just open ended with the PC's actions/decisions directing the flow?

What form does your written adventure take on the page?

Not trying to be rude, Grimolde, but what does it matter? The 'format' should be whatever works for you. It's your group, your adventure. Do whatever feels right for you and what your players enjoy. How it's written on paper isn't what's important, it's how well you as GM relate that info to the players that counts, in the words of Randy Ingermanson; You want to give the players a strong emotional experience.

That being said, most fiction, and indeed, IMO good adventures or campaigns, should work on a 3 act structure:

Act 1: Introduces the PC's to the overall goal of the scenario or campaign; defeat the evil megalomaniac necromancer from taking over the Kingdom; win a decisive battle that restores equilibrium to the Cosmic Balance and averts the world being plunged into chaotic darkness for all eternity, that type of thing. There should be, towards the end an event that commits the PC's into completing the adventure.

Act 2: Piles on complications, some of which can and should be unrelated to the main story, yet through character growth, impact on the resolution. There should be an event, so mind blowing that it sets up an all or nothing, point-of-no-return situation for the PC's to complete the adventure. Up till now the PC's could refuse their part in the story, but after this event they are more committed than ever to the scenarios resolution.

Act 3: Provides further complications until the final showdown. After the climax, which the PC's might win after great cost, the players should either be on emotional high (success with minor losses) or low (abject failure, or success with great losses) dependent on the outcome. It should also tidy up any loose ends.

I highly recommend, Writing Fiction for Dummies for advice on plot and scene construction. The book, as the title suggests, deals with fiction writing but the principles and advice work just as well for adventure design.

 

[Grimolde]

Ok, that's how you create a story,

That's what an adventure is, isn't it? Just open ended with the PC's actions/decisions directing the flow?

I guess so. I don't really know, that's why I posed the question. I've done very little GMing for the past few years, and I'm rusty. The point of this thread is to take advantage of other roleplayer's methods on telling a good adventure.

What form does your written adventure take on the page?

Not trying to be rude, Grimolde, but what does it matter? The 'format' should be whatever works for you. It's your group, your adventure. Do whatever feels right for you and what your players enjoy. How it's written on paper isn't what's important, it's how well you as GM relate that info to the players that counts, in the words of Randy Ingermanson; You want to give the players a strong emotional experience.

That being said, most fiction, and indeed, IMO good adventures or campaigns, should work on a 3 act structure:

Act 1: Introduces the PC's to the overall goal of the scenario or campaign;

Act 2: Piles on complications, some of which can and should be unrelated to the main story, yet through character growth, impact on the resolution.

Act 3: Provides further complications until the final showdown.

I highly recommend, Writing Fiction for Dummies for advice on plot and scene construction. The book, as the title suggests, deals with fiction writing but the principles and advice work just as well for adventure design.

Thanks for sharing

 

[DamonJynx]

Thanks for sharing

You're welcome. Hope it helps.

Of course, if you're writing scenarios that you would like to submit for publication in S&P for example, then of course the format is important as there are fairly strict guidelines as to what's expected: not just in the textual formatting but also the scenario structure in general.

 

[Grimolde]

Thanks for sharing

You're welcome. Hope it helps.

Of course, if you're writing scenarios that you would like to submit for publication in S&P for example, then of course the format is important as there are fairly strict guidelines as to what's expected: not just in the textual formatting but also the scenario structure in general.

Now that would be interesting to look at.

 

[Mixster]

If I write down anything I write kind of vague guidelines, sort of like:

The duke of X invites the PCs to his banquet. See his character sheet over there with a short description of him. A group of mercenaries, led by Mr. Y (see character sheets for Mr Y. And his Mercenaries), decides to ruin the banquet out of revenge of Mr Y (see character background). Getting thrown out of the Duke of Xs court. One of the mercenaries is a distant relative of a PC.
If the players were at the banquet, they would immediately get involved. If not they might hear about it the day after when the relative gets thrown in jail. Or the Duke puts a reward on the Mercenaries. From here, the PCs could do all manner of silly things. A jailbreak, a bounty hunt, an attempt at assassinating the duke. Whatever they do I need to be as ready as possible, and therefore I have prepared some stats for the average guard who they'll encounter (where I'll probably let their skills differ a bit from fight to fight), possibly for Mr. Y and the Duke, and also for a series of guards. The Dukes courtyard is loosely flinched out, with the inside of his mansion being sort of a basic setup. I'll probably have written down what the mercenaries are going to do the next couple of days. But if the PCs interfere with them, I'll have to get creative.