I had some questions about how the pros design adventures intended for publication, and it seemed apropos to ask them here, particularly since third-party publishers tend to work with smaller teams of designers than Paizo.
1) When writing locations and encounters for a mapped area, do you typically design the map first and then write the material to fit what's drawn?
I ask this because it seems to me that you'd need to have the map first, since it seems like it'd be hard to keep salient details (like describing the layout, mentioning the adjoining rooms, etc.) straight when writing the text for areas on the map.
However, given that cartography is often done by someone else (and will usually need to be customized to the adventure, unless you're writing with stock maps and have permission to reuse them), it seems like a major chunk of the writing would thus be held up until you've got, at the very least, draft copies.
In other words, how does it work with writing material for areas that appear on a map?
No, I do an outline of the whole adventure first, then design the encounters including things like what kind of terrain, weather, lighting etc. I want to have in the encounter/location. Then I draw the map sketch for the cartographer, and then send it off to the cartographer. I just make sure then when I draw the map I have covered all the details that are in my design.
That being said I have taken stock art maps and designed encounters around that map.
2) Do you budget the amount of XP the PCs will receive over the course of the adventure?
Typically, most adventures are for PCs of a set level, and outline at the beginning how many levels the PCs will gain over the course of the adventure (and can even note where they'll level, given a relatively linear flow of events). Even presuming that there are four PCs using the medium XP track, do you calculate how much XP is available?
Yes, but I do it via encounter level and CR not really counting XP, some folks are good at eyeballing it, and many GMs fly by the seat of thier pants and this is good, but if your doing a series or trilogy of adventure for the Rules As Written you should not have to few or too many encounters that push PCs out of range of the Encounter levels that are going to be in the next adventure in that series.
Wolfgang wrote a really good article on it for WotC about it being a big mistake first time adventure writers make, having too many encounters that is.
I ask because doing that seems like it can be somewhat restrictive, as well as difficult to keep track of. It means you need to design encounters - monsters/NPCs, traps, and story awards - against a certain amount of XP that the adventure offers. Does this not affect how you design the challenges the PCs face?
Thanks in advance to anyone who answers!
No its not restrictive if you stick to your outline knowing what your Encounter Level limits are going to be, if you go high in one place you go low in another. Nothing wrong with giving PCs an easy victory once in a while especially if it sets them up to earn their happy ending for the hard fight later.
I will always remember Troy Denning and the best piece of writing he ever did. Pages of Pain where the editor told him to write a story from the POV of the Lady of Pain and readers needed to know less about her at the end of the book than they did at the beginning.
This taught me that these are challenges that make you a better designer not restrictions.
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I ask this because it seems to me that you'd need to have the map first, since it seems like it'd be hard to keep salient details (like describing the layout, mentioning the adjoining rooms, etc.) straight when writing the text for areas on the map.
However, given that cartography is often done by someone else (and will usually need to be customized to the adventure, unless you're writing with stock maps and have permission to reuse them), it seems like a major chunk of the writing would thus be held up until you've got, at the very least, draft copies.
For every company that I've freelanced for, I've been expected to produce a rough copy of the maps. Then a talented artist turns these into final map that contains all the same information, but looks much prettier than anything I could manage. So the author should not have to wait for cartography.
When I work I rarely do one or the other completely, but the two evolve together. I'll write a few key encounters that I know I need, see how they fit together, where gaps are, add some more encounters, add some more maps, and repeat.