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I swear the alliteration was mostly accidental :P
So, I have several ideas for adventures and campaigns, but I don't have a ton of experience with the game yet. I've just starting GM'ing recently (Rise of the Runelords AE), and I've played in a handful of games.
My question is this: is it too soon to consider creating adventures/campaigns? I've done a decent amount of reading, and I feel like I have a fair grasp on the rules. However, it seems like the structure of RPGs is best learned initially through actually playing in them and running published stuff. That way, you see what kind of situations can arise and anticipate those in the adventures you create.
Anyways, I thought I'd turn to the community (you guys) to get some opinions on this. As a habitual lurker in forums, I've read a lot but haven't engaged in discussion much. The community at Paizo here seems pretty cool though, so I feel comfortable asking this here.
Oh, and also, if I do decide to create stuff, is there a way to get feedback on it? Is there a good place I can publish PDFs so that people can read through them and give me advice on my work? Or should I just post descriptions here?
I don't see anything that's stopping you from creating a narrative without knowing the rules exactly. Just think of situations that are likely to pop up, and put them into your outline wher ethey would fit naturally.
Hell, I'm writing the plotline for a game currently and we haven't even finalized all the rules yet.
True. I guess I'm just concerned that without a really good grasp on the rules, I'll design encounters that aren't fun or balanced. I'm probably just being too hard on myself after looking through Rise of the Runelords; that's an unrealistic standard to hold myself to for my first adventures though.
Just out of curiosity, do you know anything about my second question? A good place to get feedback on adventures?
Thanks for the encouragement, and good luck with your gaming!
Well if you can host your pdfs somewhere, you could easily posta link here on these forums and ask people to have a look. You are bound to get takers. Paizo fans are always adventure hungry.
In terms of advice, start small. Write low level adventures at first. The rules for players and monsters are still relatively simple. And keep in mind when writing adventures that the kind of story changes depending on what level the players are. At levels 1-6 the players are still within the realm of 'reality', and stories can challenges are fairly down to earth. Investigaing a murder for instance would require the use of skills and roleplay. At Mid levels, investigating a murder involves casting a single divination spell.
So basically untill you have a good deal of experience with the game stick to lower level adventures. They sell better anyway.
I like to pick up encounters from different games movies and modules and work them in. I had a whole dungeon encounter planned, but the pc's never left the town because they were gathering info and what not... So I brought the dungeon to the town and ended up rolling the story out around what the group was doing.
My advice, stay fluid and pick up on cues from your players. To this day they thought I planned the whole thing out, and got that much more satisfaction from it.
I think the best approach to adventure design is to write it, run it, rewrite it, rinse and repeat. No apologies for alliteration. If you have a group of friends you game with, run them through it and make them give you feedback.
Don't worry about comparing yourself to Rise of the Runelords or anything else. You'll learn a lot by running it, but there's no reason you can't be working on your own stuff at the same time.
(paraphrased: write, run, rinse, repeat)
This, with "rinse" defined as an explicit debrief with your players after running the adventure. You should be keeping sn eye on them during the session to see what they latch on to, where their body language is, etc., but you also want to outright ask afterwards what worked, what didn't, what they wanted more of, what they just didn't get.
...And if your friends aren't up for helping you out with your adventure-writing apprenticeship, then you need new friends. ;)
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Buy the recently released book on world building by Open Design. It was just featured in a store blog so it should be easy to find.
I started world building before I played D&D, and I have about six worlds under my belt. Some are very simple while a couple are very complex. There really is only two ways to do it.
Inside-out:
You start with a single location and build out from there. Maybe a town or a dungeon is your starting point. As you need to, you add on to your world and expand it. Maybe you start with a town, for example, and you slowly create the land around it, a couple of nearby dungeons, eventually some roads or rivers, and in time a large city. If you play with it long enough you will be creating countries and continents, but you may not need to get that far.
Inside-out is great when you don't need super detail right away. The plots you first use in this world might be simpler and fluid, so that you can easily build upon them as the adventure evolves. Your players might need to be given some creative license if they are big into background writing, but this is really best suited to parties where the world-wide details are not too big of a concern.
Garth Nix and C.S. Lewis are really good at this type of world building.
Outside-in:
You start with a world map and work down into details. Maybe you draw out some continents and then countries. You detail river systems and mountain ranges. You create a whole religious system, write up the different race's culture, and design a sweeping history. Then you use parts of all that to create an adventure.
This method is good for people who want to have all the details ready for a story. Much of what is created might not be used at all, but that is okay. This is a great method for big background parties, where each PC is heavily involved in RP and the world details.
J. R. R. Tolkien and David Eddings are masters of this style.
Lots of good advice. The Paizo community is awesome.
@Kolokotroni: I think I'll do that. Sounds like a good way to start :) I probably won't be selling these for a while though lol. Thanks!
@Byrdology: Picking up bits and pieces from other modules and stuff is a great idea. It also gives me more exposure to good design principles. Thanks!
@Nylissa: Haha, in the future I will make no apology or explanation for my alliteration. I have a group, but they're all super beginners. I've taught them so far, but I'm sure they could still give me good feedback. Thanks!
@Murph: A good suggestion. Oh, I'm sure they would be; they're loving the game so far. Thanks!
@CalebTGordan: Thanks for the book recommendation. I'll check it out. Inside-out fits my style better I think...Thanks!
@The Outlaw Josie Whales: That's a really good idea. I'm just not sure if I have the time. Thanks!
@Kazejin: I love Golarion. I was borrowing my friend's Inner Sea World Guide, and I finally got one of my own for Christmas. That said, I am thinking of eventually publishing stuff and I don't think third party publishers can use Golarion as a setting in their work. So maybe I'll just make a setting neutral region to write stuff in...we'll see! Thanks!
More random thoughts while waiting for the man.
Novice gamers give AWESOME feedback. They're not comparing it to 20 years worth of tabletop gaming, they're experiencing something new and (we hope) exciting.
If you're just trying to publish adventures, or APs, try to make the settings adaptable. If the GM can just drop your product into their world, whatever that may be, they're more likely to use it.
If you really want to get into full blown world building, be organized. I have volumes worth of material for my world, but usually I have to fake it because I can never remember where I wrote that one thing down....
Have fun with it! Be awed by it, because if you don't think it's fun, they sure won't.
@Kazejin: No worries! If Paizo does allow for Golarion to be used in 3PP stuff, then I'll definitely consider it.
@Nylissa: Great advice especially for random thoughts! Yeah, I'm gonna start by building just a single region for right now which should help. Also, thanks for reminding me to have fun with it. I can see how some people might lose their passion if they don't keep a good perspective.