How I Write Adventures for My Campaigns
Posted by: Ruel Knudson in Developer Blog, E-RPG General Development, Writing Adventures, tags: Adventures, characters, Sidetracks, tips, Writing, Writing AdventuresI decided to write about this as I am working on two related projects. One is some sidetracks I will be releasing after they are edited, and the other is a return to a weekly campaign I am running. The weekly campaign adventure is a bit different than writing adventures for published projects. The general approach is the same for me. However, writing for weekly adventures is much more easily handled as it can be done in weekly episodic installments rather than as a collective whole. This being said, the adventures I play, as run by a wide range of GMs, have had some glaring issues within them that are easily corrected with a rather simplified approach, while being aware that there are pitfalls within any adventure plan that should be avoided with extreme prejudice.
First I think one should be advised of the pitfalls of adventure planning. There are some things that I will always avoid as a writer of published adventures that I think every GM should be mindful of.
Spotlighting GMNPCs
A GMNPC is a character, created by the GM and run by the GM and treated with the care one would give a player character. They are recurring characters, sometimes allies or villains, created with a large level of detail. While many admonish the existence of such characters in campaigns, I do not feel they are the bane of good GMing. I, instead, see that they may be necessary for the further enjoyment of GMs and in such light they may be used. However, they should never be used as a central player in any adventure. The rule of thumb I keep to in the philosophy of using GMNPCs is that they should be mortal and you, as their creator and the GM, should be prepared for their death in a manner by which you did not plan. Be prepared for the disappointment, and if the players are the willing architects of the character’s death do not besmirch their efforts with a contrived resurrection. In short, if you must use a GMNPC use them with the knowledge that the player characters are infinitely more important to your campaign and they will destroy any plans you have for the character.
Dependant Threads
An adventure writer is not a story teller. In fact, there is a glaring difference between the author of a good yarn versus the GM writing an adventure. In the case of the former the work is centered around the heroe(s) of the tale. The author of a story generally writes how the story is affected by the protagonists and we, as the audience, are taken upon a trip to suffer their hardships and celebrate their victories. The latter, however, should have the work centered around the antagonists. An adventure writer should not write in specific required events for the heroes to perform. You can’t script, with any measure of success, the actions of the heroes. In fact, you should write the story initially as the heroes did not exist at all. Having threads dedicated to specific actions by the players will usually lead to disappointment, especially if future threads in your story are wound tightly within those actions.
For instance, if the only way into a place is by means of a key on a character than you have made two mistakes. One, you have created an instance of one path to success. This means that the characters have to discover it which may mean that at some point you will have to railroad them into discovering the option. Number two is an NPC and the encounter with the players is central to getting the key. What if the something happened in that encounter which prevented future access to the key? You will have to revise your story to fit the new situation.
The Simpler Method
Rather than writing an adventure like you would a story, write your adventure from the point of view of the antagonists. For instance, you know that the villain wants destroy the kingdom. You write that he chooses to use goblins to harrie the outside villages. You also know that he is using captives for a blood sacrifice to summon a demon to do the great work for him. You decide how these events play out, the endgame for the villains, the steps he must take to reach his goal, etc. Your job after that is simply to write in how this will play out.
Once the details of the villain’s efforts are written out you can then return to the idea of the heroes. You fill in some blanks, such as how the heroes get word of the actions. Of course, the most likely will be the burnt villages. They may find it to be goblins and then they go to the goblin lair to find them. That is a natural progression and seems obvious enough. Now, as we wrote the villains plot already we know there are captives, likely being held in the goblin caves. Therefore we have an option to leave clues, such as the captives in the cave, that could lead to the villain’s plot. Also, it could be likely that a human agent of the villain is there with the goblins, and there may be written instructions for the agent or the goblins, perhaps even a map of where to take the captives. All of these elements make sense, do not rely on a single specific player action (aside from finding the goblin lair) and leave the entire tale of what the characters do within the hands of their player’s rather than you threads.
The Joy of Unfolding Stories
Some GMs like to tell stories. I prefer the unfolding of a story through player actions. To me, each gaming session is like the next episode of a TV show I love to watch. I may have an idea of what is coming in that episode, but I do not know how it will play out, what the end game will be, what will happen to my favorite characters, etc. That is part of the excitement of running adventures, that element of the unknown, watching the story you collectively create with your players unfolding and seeing how the villain will be vanquished, how will the world be saved, who will survive, who will do that extraordinary thing.
I guarantee you that these elements will be willingly contributed by your players without any need for the guiding hand of your elite story telling. I also believe that whatever they come up with will exceed your own ideas of what could have happened if your guiding hand was any more tangible.
Your players will always credit the success of a campaign to your adventure. In truth, any element they devise and add to your tale is because of the foundation for the adventure you created. Your players play off of the situations you create, so long as they are not tethered by boundaries, rails, or NPCs that have a greater impact on their play and the adventure than they do. You villain(s), the plots, the landscapes that are the stage for the drama, all of these come from you, are told by you. They are the foundation and the better drawn they are the more the players will play off of them in fantastic ways. Having characters with depth, but are regulated to supporting roles of the story, landscapes that breath and do not confine, and opportunities for the players to explore the plot in their own way will propel their own imaginations.
That is the greatest compliment I have ever received to running my own adventures. I love to to hear the ongoing telling of their actions, re-iterating the grand exploits or the nail biting situation. I love to hear the story of their characters and their playing because I know that the foundation was laid for the players to take it to new and unforeseen levels. I was a witness to a story I did not tell, but did help create. I enjoyed it unfolding in ways I could not have anticipated and seeing the results of those actions bare out in great, and sometimes horrible ways (some of my players have some disturbed minds I’m afraid). However it happens it is always a joy for me to be a part of it. It took me a long time to learn that more freedom is better, but too much is another problem entirely. I learned to build a foundation to work from, and let the players loose in it.
I can’t wait for the next episode.
Happy Gaming.
