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I have some advice for future participants in RPG Superstar regarding adventure submissions. They may be of value to anyone who wants to write professionally in the industry as well.
Understand Power Levels
I've written elsewhere about the fact that 3.x can be divided into 4 power levels (1-5, 6-10,11-15,16-20), so I won't rehash that here.
When writing a scenario, you must understand how the game changes at these breakpoints. Knowing what characters cannot (easily) do is as important as knowing what they can do.
One way to do this is to look at the spell lists for Wizards & Clerics. Look through them to see the kinds of things the characters can do ad hoc (that is, without much real planning or the need for special items or locations).
You should also have a rough idea about the scale of DCs. You should know the theoretical max DC a rogue can achieve for roguish abilities. You should know the theoretical DC for saves for weak & strong save types.
Below 11th level you can make some assumptions about hiding info from the PCs, and using terrain and structure to channel their movements. After that point, forget it - they're going to have no real problem getting all the info they need, and bypassing mere physical constraints (unless you thwart the players with GM ad hockery).
Below 6th level, you have to understand that PCs are fragile things that break easily. Especially Wizards & Sorcerers. Traps and area of effect damage are particularly dangerous to them. Characters at this level aren't good against persistent state changes either (petrification, negative levels, curses, etc.)
I felt that many of this year's Round 5 submissions were substantially out of scope for the 4th level target that was requested. Since, in a professional capacity, you're often being asked to write something for a specific need identified by the publisher, getting right with the power level is critical for success. The publisher is highly unlikely to take the time and effort to re-write (and pay someone to re-write) your over-powered scenario to meet the desired level cap. They're just going to chuck it, write off your fee, and not contact you again.
Know the Difference Between Plot & Story
A plot is "what will happen". A story is "what happened".
Tabletop RPGs are a literary art form where there is often very little plot. Creative people often fall into the trap of writing a story, then figuring out how to plot that story, then writing a scenario to implement that plot.
And players hate that. They tell us over and over again (and have for several gamer generations so this is not a fluke of circumstance) that they don't want to be "railroaded". They want to believe that their choices shape the direction of the adventure. They want to believe that there are many ways to solve puzzles or overcome challenges.
What they want is to be given the ingredients of a plot (characters, drama, locations, NPCs, special effects, etc.) and they want to be responsible for assembling them as desired.
As scenario designers, you are providing a basket of ingredients and a picture of the finished meal, not a recipe which is to be followed.
I have seen many scenario concepts over the years that would make serviceable novels but which were wholly unsuited to tabletop RPG play. Inevitably, these concepts include one or more of the following:
* A mystery which requires NPCs to lie and not get caught, or to remain mute about what they know.
* An NPC that must do a certain thing at a certain place at a certain time in order for the adventure to continue or conclude.
* An item with powers that must remain unknown to the characters that will be used at a critical point of the story.
* An opponent with a critical flaw which is unknown to the characters until the final confrontation.
* An NPC with a hidden agenda or secret allegiance which must remain hidden from the characters.
* Opponents which are expected to attack the PCs several times and escape afterwards with no chance of pursuit or trace that can be tracked.
Most of the time this flaw is one of information. This works fine in a novel - you can control what all the characters know and what they think about various subjects. But in a tabletop RPG you cannot do that. You cannot assume that the party can't coerce, charm, overhear, or otherwise divine "hidden information".
Sometimes this flaw is one of agency. The author wants the PCs to be the supporting cast for the author's characters. That's exact the reverse of what tabletop RPGs are about.
One thing you can do as a scenario author is to give your concept to a friend who enjoys "breaking" games and scenarios and having that person tell you all the ways he'll overcome the problems you've created for the players. You may find an unfixable flaw in your concept of how the scenario will play and then its time to go back and start again.
A Good Villain Is Key
I used to joke about making Tracy Hickman the "VP of Evil" for D&D, because of his serial success at creating incredibly compelling villains. This is a non-trivial task. I have seen otherwise mediocre scenarios transformed by the addition of a brilliant villain, and I have seen otherwise well crafted scenarios become dull & boring due to the lack of a good villain.
Great villains are threatening. They have to credibly have some power over the characters.
They have to be known to the PCs. They can't be mysterious dark forces in the background that act through proxies and are never glimpsed until the final encounter on the last page of the module.
They have to have comprehensible motivations. And those motivations need to be known to the PCs.
They have to be physically distinctive. Try to think of a great villain that was just a random dude in period appropriate gear. Now think about Darth Vader, Khan, Sauron, Lord Soth, etc. Humans are visual creatures. Give them visual images to remember and it will help them.
Nobody plays for Experience Points
Every great adventure should feature great rewards. Some of the most memorable D&D adventures are memorable because of their loot. (Blackrazor, anyone?) If you come up with the Eye & Hand of Vecna, you'll be a legend. If you hand out +x weapons and potions of meh, nobody will remember your work.
Every great adventure should feature one fantastic set-piece battle. That means coming up with a cool location, meaningful stakes, some surprises, and a tactical challenge that won't melt in the face of a full on frontal assault backed by fireballs & lightening bolts. You want Englishmen home abed to rue the day they missed the battle of Agincort.
You want a moment of heroism. You want to craft a place in the scenario where one of the players can get up off their ass and say or do something so astonishingly heroic that the rest of the players remember it for the rest of their lives. YOU...SHALL...NOT...PASS!!!
Summarize in One Paragraph
Our industry runs on blurbs. Blurbs are what retailers use to place orders. Publisher + Brand + Author + Blurb is, unfortunately, the driving equation of our business.
If you cant sum up what's going on in your scenario in one (short) paragraph you probably need to work on the scenario's design.
Some examples:
"Skimming across the Skysea, you race against time to save the desert people. One thousand years ago, the wizard Martek knew you would come for his Sphere of Power. Are you the heroes of his prophecy, or its victims?"
"At last -- an opportunity to avert the threat to the little town of Saltmarsh! The real enemies have been identified -- evil, cruel creatures, massed in force and viciously organized. Can the brave adventurers thwart this evil and ensure the safety of Saltmarsh?"
"Somewhere in the heart of the steaming jungle lies the answer to the whispered tales -- rumors of a magnificent city and foul, horrid rituals! Here a brave party might find riches and wonders -- or death! Is your party brave enough to face the terrors of the unknown and find -- the ForbidDen City!?"
"Years ago, brave heroes put the denizens of the Temple of Elemental Evil to the sword. Now, dark forces whisper again in the shadows of the once-deserted temple -- forces far more insidious and dangerous than any sane person would dream. Evil has risen again to threaten the village of Hommlet."
That's amazing advice, Ryan. I will take this to heart in...well, every aspect of my gaming. Writing, running, and playing. As well as in my writings.
Thank you.
I want to echo (and add to) a few things to what Ryan points out here, because I think he provides a lot of really good insight into what a game designer and author need to consider.
Understand Power Levels...When writing a scenario, you must understand how the game changes....Knowing what characters cannot (easily) do is as important as knowing what they can do.
This is vital. One of the hardest things to take when you're a designer is when someone critiques your work after playing it and claims it was either a "cake walk" or a "TPK" for their PCs. To stay away from those extremes, you have to work hard at understanding the break points Ryan mentions. And, when you're pitching an adventure concept in a proposal, you need to make sure you've assessed it from the angle of the PCs who might adventure through it and what abilities they might have (or lack) that could break the scenario.
This also gets back to playtesting your stuff. And, the importance of continuing to play the game and not just writing for it. With the experience of gaming (playing or running), you begin to gain a more intuitive understanding of what works at what levels and why. So, if you're serious about designing stuff professionally, get in the habit of playtesting and learning from how your designs work or fail in actual game play.
Know the Difference Between Plot & Story...Tabletop RPGs are a literary art form where there is often very little plot....As scenario designers, you are providing a basket of ingredients and a picture of the finished meal, not a recipe which is to be followed.
I'm a storyteller by nature. I've written fiction and it's a very different skillset from writing adventures for tabletop RPGs. That said, I always try to make sure my adventures have a pretty compelling storyline to them. However, you need to recognize when your adventure design is turning into an iron-clad railroad from which there are no other alternatives for the players and PCs to explore.
Railroading always runs the risk of eliminating choice...and players hate that, as Ryan mentions. There are ways a good writer can craft adventures, however, framing them more as loose outlines of interconnected pieces and encounters, whereby the PCs can wander through them via multiple storytelling routes. For the most part, adventures have a Point A and a Point Z. Eventually, the "story" needs to get them from one to the other. The secret is in crafting Points B through Y so they organically "grow" from one another. That way, it's not as much a railroad anymore as the players start making the most logical and obvious choice from one potential scene to the next.
That said, however, you don't want to write those scenes so they have to played in a specific order. And, you never want to introduce something that paints the adventure into a corner whereby the PCs have to acquire a certain McGuffin in order to move on or continue the story. Games can come to a dead stop as soon as someone fails to find your McGuffin or figure out the puzzle and GMs start having to wing an entirely different (and less satisfying) resolution to keep things moving.
I'm kind of reminded of the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. They always had the same jumping off point. And, usually, there was only one most satisfying conclusion. Getting there was a series of choices that could wind you back and forth through the pages, skipping ahead or moving back to deal with each new encounter or plot development. You want an RPG adventure to be a little like that, too. You paint all those potential scenes and then loosely connect them in their most likely order...but without making it so rigid and unyielding that you can't accomplish the same progression with a different sequence of events. Adventures crafted like that give the players the power of choice. It allows them to feel in control of their characters' actions. And that's what you want. It also frees the GM so he can roll better with the choices the players make for their characters. Thus, it's an artform you need to practice and develop.
A Good Villain Is Key...I have seen otherwise mediocre scenarios transformed by the addition of a brilliant villain, and I have seen otherwise well-crafted scenarios become dull & boring due to the lack of a good villain....Great villains are threatening. They have to credibly have some power over the characters....They have to have comprehensible motivations. And those motivations need to be known to the PCs.
I absolutely agree with Ryan here. I cited having a good villain as one of the top-five key ingredients to good adventures. But I'm not just talking about the character concept...or a villain's abilities...as what makes him interesting. It goes a lot deeper than that. You need a villain whose goals impact the story and the location where the adventure takes place in a way that makes the PCs want to get involved. The villain needs to be a legitimate threat. And the PCs need to know it, even if the rest of the people in the adventure don't. It's the vital ingredient you need to build conflict for the loosely structured "story" the playing of your adventure will embody.
You can't skimp on your villain and expect your adventure (or proposal) to be well-received. That's why RPG Superstar generally includes a design challenge around villains almost every year. Even if there's not a "Design a Villain" round, at the very least the "Design an Encounter" round assesses you for it. And, obviously, the final adventure proposal expects you to include one, too. When you don't, you fall flat...both with the judges and the voters.
Nobody plays for Experience Points...Every great adventure should feature great rewards.
Again, another of the top-five key ingredients I look for in an adventure includes a compelling reward. You want something memorable (other than just the experiences of the PCs) to come out of the adventure. Give the PCs something they can take with them. Something they'll cherish and use. Something that will become a part of their characters' lives and identity going forward. Maybe it's a powerful weapon? Maybe it's the secrets to some new well of arcane lore? Maybe it's a land and title for them to start building their own keep, kingdom, or tower? Whatever it is, it needs to be something that the players can incorporate and add to their characters. This is important because it gives them a sense of character growth and accomplishment that goes far and above the experience points that advance them to the next echelon of power for their character class.
...Every great adventure should feature one fantastic set-piece battle. That means coming up with a cool location, meaningful stakes, some surprises, and a tactical challenge that won't melt in the face of a full on frontal assault backed by fireballs & lightning bolts....You want a moment of heroism. You want to craft a place in the scenario where one of the players can get up off their ass and say or do something so astonishingly heroic that the rest of the players remember it for the rest of their lives.
To me, this is a combination of making sure your adventure includes a great location (another of the top-five key ingredients in good adventure design) and a compelling plot with some interesting minions or adversaries for their big showdown. When I'm writing adventures and trying to structure them like a good story, I'm looking for a build-up to the final climax of the adventure. That last big battle needs to factor in as many cool elements as you can (e.g., great villain, great minions, great location for the battle to take place). It needs to examine the terrain, the conditions, the opponents, the stakes, the extenuating circumstances, and everything else you can invoke. That's what gives you a moment of "oomph" to your adventure. It's the ultimate encounter that all players who experience your adventure will be talking about afterward.
I tend to think of this part of adventure-writing in terms of movie-making. You sort of put yourself in the role of the director who's handed a script (i.e., your adventure assignment or outline) and you start brainstorming how you're going to tell that story in terms of its most interesting scenes. What is it about each of those scenes that will make them have the most poignant impact on the viewer (or, in our case, the reader)? What elements can you introduce to give it a larger sense of drama and cinematic action? Once you know what those are, you craft each of those scenes as well as you can and then connect them together so they provide the framework for the GM to tell your story (or really his story) in as entertaining a fashion as you can.
Lastly, to me, it isn't enough to just go through this exercise for a single set-piece in your adventure. Do it for several major scenes or milestones throughout your adventure. They represent the turning points in your story where some interesting development will happen or a new piece of information will be conveyed. Ramp up all those elements that you can to make it "pop" off the page and inspire the GM to present it a way that it "pops" for the players, too. Obviously, you want that final encounter with your master villain to be the most important one, but you can really make an adventure sing if you give several shorter ones with slightly less "oomph" to them throughout your plotline. It's a storytelling technique that's tried and true throughout multiple kinds of media. Writing a tabletop RPG just happens to be the medium you'll be using to do it.
Summarize in One Paragraph...Our industry runs on blurbs....If you can't sum up what's going on in your scenario in one (short) paragraph you probably need to work on the scenario's design.
This is a very cool piece of advice from Ryan. And I think it's also a neat trick to help "center yourself" to put forward the best adventure (or adventure proposal) you can. When I was working on my pitch for Realm of the Fellnight Queen in 2009, I pulled a number of Pathfinder modules and Dungeon magazines off the shelf so I could look back over my favorite adventures. Primarily, I wanted to figure out what it was about each of them that made them my favorite. And, for the Pathfinder modules, I would turn to the back and read the blurb that defined it...i.e., that little bit of text you hope the customer at the bookstore will take the time to read so they can get an idea of what your adventure is about. Those little blurbs pack so much information in so small a space that it immediately serves as a powerful way to get someone excited about your stuff.
So, I knew I wanted to lead with that in my proposal. By giving the reader (and the judges) a succinct summary (in general terms) of what the adventure would entail, I could get them in the appropriate frame of mind to then move forward and absorb the rest of the information I'd be giving them. To a lesser degree, the title of your adventure does the same. It just does it in a single short phrase. It's the first bit of "aroma" that draws in the reader. Then, if you give them a short blurb that frames what your adventure will entail, it gives them their first "taste." After that, you start bringing out one course of the "meal" at a time with additional information as you move through one plot element after another.
The bottom line here is that forcing yourself to quickly and efficiently explain what your adventure is about in a short blurb helps get you focused as a writer. It forces you to lead with your best stuff. It makes you communicate as clearly and effectively as possible right from the get-go. And, it helps lay the groundwork for yourself (as well as the reader) on how you'll go on to present the rest of the information about your adventure.
Lastly, we're living in an age of the short attention span. I write these incredibly long posts all the time and I know there's some who probably wish they were a lot shorter. I can ramble with the best of them. But when I'm writing for pay (whether it's an adventure pitch or an actual manuscript), I set that propensity aside to focus in like a laser. If you don't, it causes you to go astray as you muddle your way through what you're trying to convey...and more often than not, it falls flat. So, take Ryan's advice. Summarize your adventure in a blurb, even if it's just for practice or to help you focus. You'll be surprised how effective it can be.
My two cents,
--Neil
This thread deserves a bump.
Thanks Ryan, this is great stuff!
Yeah, while any seasoned GM instinctively knows these things, it is so easy to forget this when sitting down to do some "real work".
So hearing the basics again and again is what keeps us from forgetting them.