Desecration Development Testing: Whoops!
Posted by: Ruel Knudson in Descration, Developer Blog, Writing AdventuresSo, last night I ran the first development test for Desecration. For the most part it went fairly well. However, there were some major hiccups. Let’s just say that this was not my moment of glory. Still, that’s what development testing is for. We pick up at the end, clean up the issues, and wind up with a better product in the end. Hopefully.
So, here are some notes, edited for content to reduce possible spoilers.
One of the first major problems was actually read aloud text. This module is semi-dependant on mood and tone. Therefore, I included a lot of read aloud text boxes. This has worked well in some adventures I have run before. However, the initial boxes as written had two fundamental problems.
- Too long. Read aloud boxes must be kept short. I need to truncate them.
- No real ability to paraphrase. When players were getting bored listening to me basically tell them a story I moved on to paraphrasing. However, I had to read each section to myself just to get an idea of what to paraphrase. I need to find a way to highlight key points for paraphrasing GMs who want the gist of the boxes but don’t want to read the entire thing.
Another problem was getting them going. Shakespeare had some rules for starting a play that always got the audience hooked. Shakespearean plays start with one of, or a combination of, the following:
- Violence
- Teen Sex (not really a Fantasy RPG option but it is included here for accuracy)
- The Supernatural
As it stands, the adventure begins with the characters coming to a village in the rain, overhearing a conversation they may or may not be interested in, then getting a room at the inn. Boring!
Now, I know, as a writer, that I shouldn’t have started with that as the adventure lead. I started the writing of the adventure there because that is where it actually starts. However, what I should have thought of was to go back and have something happen at the beginning that brought them into the adventure. Maybe something that gets them into the town, or the inn.
After the initial problems were identified I moved past them and avoided what I could. The group was great, and patient, which helps. Some reoccurring gags popped up throughout that were aimed at the earlier part of the sessions read alouds. One was made on my part where I did read part of one section where the text literally says “his overdrawn speech is violently cut short as the door bursts open upon him”. The obvious reference to verbose read aloud text elicited some laughs. Sometimes you just have to laugh at your own failures to move past them, grow from them, and continue on.
Other parts of the adventure were hit and miss. A part where the characters try to move along a muddy road in a fierce hurricane type storm has some tests to overcome the elements and get to safety quickly. This drew some interests from some players while others were frustrated by failures causing the scene to drag on from the point. So this was obviously a love it or hate it element. But what isn’t in RPGs. Some players love that kind of stuff, while others would rather move on to the next scene and get the story moving.
Overall, the adventure will continue and it looks like it might develop into a success. I have a lot of work to do with organization and truncating the read aloud boxes. By next session things should move forward much easier and the adventure itself will start to either prove itself, or need some more overhaul.
Until then,
Happy Gaming!
