Comments on: Chatty's Mailbox: Writing an Adventure

By: Weekly Digest for May 6th : BorkWeb

Weekly Digest for May 6th : BorkWeb — Thu, 07 May 2009 00:01:43 +0000

[...] » Chatty’s Mailbox: Writing an Adventure — 11:57am via [...]

By: Wyatt The Campaign Cartographer « The Spirits of Eden

Wyatt The Campaign Cartographer « The Spirits of Eden — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 01:12:40 +0000

[...] of anyway. Over the past few months, specifically after asking Chatty a question and it getting a good mailbag post, and trying to overcome some of my stage-fright when it comes to writing and putting things on [...]

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:21:02 +0000

Great article. I’ve been writing a module for a blog that will be launching in February. I’ve found working on it challenging at times for many of the reasons you’ve listed.

For one I do tend to improv and in the past only wrote down the important bits in point form. I would then flesh things out while running the adventure. Like you there are all those tidbits that you don’t write out when you are working with your home group, but for a module they need to be there.

Best of luck with the draft submission.

By: Ming

Ming — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:35:57 +0000

Thanks for sharing your process =)

By: Ripper X

Ripper X — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:11:33 +0000

You know how long the thing is going to take to play? WOW! I have never even attempted to consider doing this? I just prep until my eyes bleed and then pray that it is enough. I tend to slow things down during actual play, the slower the better, but I don't think that I've ever been able to hit on a specific set of hours that it would take to go through. Ripper Xs last blog post..Mix & Match Abilitys Like A Pro

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:32:19 +0000

@Jack: Thanks! Your natural style as a DM really dicates how you write adventures. Some people prep abundantly and more rigidly than I. As long as it works. However, it seems to me that if you want to publish an adventure that will appeal to the largest possible group of DMs, going the structured way is likely the way to go.

@Wyatt: Glad I could help! You can still leave lots of free space between scenes. The current published D&D 4e adventure have such ‘interludes’ that you can fill in yourself with whatever crosses your mind.

@Eric: We have different strategies for sure. I’m really into the 5 room dungeon model (and D&D 4e really works well for that) and that permeates my thinking behind how I go at it. Let us know how that goes, you chose a challenging adventure to prep a prequel too.

@Rafe: When I write an adventure for my own group, I use One-note. Thus I can copy and paste pretty much everything from everywhere as I build my scenes. For the Goodman Games gig, I worked in plain old MS Word.

Thanks for the feedback!

By: Rafe

Rafe — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:54:15 +0000

What program do you use for writing the adventures, Chatty? Word, InDesign, other? Rafes last blog post..The Three "R"s of Session Planning

By: Eric Maziade

Eric Maziade — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 04:33:46 +0000

When its not total improv, I usually use a top-down approach.

I start to where I want to end up and figure out what elements I need to get there.

Then I take these elements, figure out a scene where this elements is acquired.

Then I take the scene and figure out how the payers get there.

That’s basically how I’m currently working while preparing a prequel that will get my players to the tower of Spellgard

Eric Maziades last blog post..Prequelling Scepter Tower of Spellgard

By: Wyatt

Wyatt — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:41:57 +0000

Thanks a lot for the help Chatty, that really does clear up a lot of things. Seeing that, I think my biggest problem was not laying down an outline. I tended to vacillate between what was happening first and what was happening later, and filling in blanks as I thought of stuff, and it just became a patchwork mess that needed constant propping up. I think now I have a bit firmer ground so that I can establish, piece by piece, an adventure that's worthwhile. Once again, thanks! Wyatts last blog post..The Review You’ve All Been Waiting For

By: Jack Crow

Jack Crow — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:33:51 +0000

I love reading about how people create adventures. I am horrible at scripting an adventure and improvise a lot, but I've been playing long enough to make that work. I am trying to create more scripted adventures for my next campaign and will take some of your ideas and try to use them. I look forward to hearing about your finished adventure. Jack Crows last blog post..Blogs I like and you should too