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Aloha Everyone!
Hope ye denizens of the boards have been well in my absence - now with my semester winding to a close and thoughts of Paizocon dancing like sugarplums in my rotting, pus-filled head, I'm turning my dark musings towards my next evil endeavor...
A three week online course in Adventure Design and Development for the Pathfinder RPG.
All participants will receive an exclusive PDF adventure designed my myself...and you, as part of the process of the course.
Scope all this out at the link below:
Pathfinder Adventure Design Course
Hope to see many of you at the con this summer as well!
What a great idea! I'm kind of surprised this is the first time I've seen something like this personally. Nice work Nick!
Thanks! I'm excited about it. I don't often get to mix educator-Nick with gamer-Nick...though at WCC, they encourage it! :-)
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Interesting! Do you know what the schedule of the "various meetings" might be? And do you know about how many hours a week we're looking at?
The course will take place over three weeks with assignments, online chats and forum posts each week. No required online meetings, though I'll make myself available daily in chat sessions to field questions and offer feedback on assigned work.
:-)
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Interesting! Do you know what the schedule of the "various meetings" might be? And do you know about how many hours a week we're looking at?The course will take place over three weeks with assignments, online chats and forum posts each week. No required online meetings, though I'll make myself available daily in chat sessions to field questions and offer feedback on assigned work.
:-)
Thanks! I'm trying to figure out if I have enough time available to take it on. Sounds like a tentative yes...
Intriguing. Is there any limit to the number of participants? And do we get college credit? :)
Intriguing. Is there any limit to the number of participants? And do we get college credit? :)
Aloha Jacob!
It is non-credit course, sadly - though I do offer a credit course in Games and Gaming (IS 271), but its face-to-face, not online...for now. ;-)
I don't believe there is a limit to participants for the class, no.
I signed up immediately. Can't wait!
I'm also signed up. Looking forward to it.
Dotted. Too damned cool.
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Cannot attend. Hope this will happen again later on :-)
No worries, The Raven Black - If people enjoy it, I'm sure we'll bring it back again!
Welcome aboard, Paizonians! :-)
Welcome Tom. This seems like a great place to get to know each other before class even starts.
Is there a registration deadline (obviously prior to the start date mentioned)? I can't pull the trigger right now, but in a couple weeks I may be able to sign up multiple people.
Enrolled. Looking forward to this.
Dot. Waiting only because I don't know my own schedule... but desperately interested...
Please, compare the online course to your experience of writing Blood of the Gorgon with the input of your patrons.
How do you expect this venture to differ?
How similar do you expect these two?
Is the course material ready?
Will you use video, audio, text, a discussion forum?
Oooooooo! Love the idea of getting to know each other here before things officially get underway. That will help me as well, as (in partial answer to Thundertusk's queries) I'm still refining the details of the curriculum and experience.
I've come up with a slew of course material concerning theme, plot, flow of information/action/narrative, encounter design, and use of literary and screenwriting techniques, but the aspect of the course I'm trying to find the perfect balance for is this: designing perfect adventures for your players vs. designing strong published adventure material (very different beasts).
I plan to address both heavily, but would be curious to hear what the majority of you signing up for are interested in most.
@Thundertusk, specifically: This will be more like the first few weeks of Blood of the Gorgon, in so much to say that there will be posts about adventure-writing technique and sharing and developing our collective responses, but many of these posts and topics will have a related short-assignment that will relate specifically to one short adventure (much shorter than Blood - more of a one-shot or two-nighter) that you will all pitch-in with me to design - and you will be the only people to receive the PDF it ends up as.
I will use mostly text, but will also host at least one hangout a week to facilitate a symposium-style discussion of some of the topics and threads.
I'm meeting with our tech staff on Tuesday to firm up which online resources we will make the most of to deliver the best experience possible, so I'll chime back in after that meeting. :-)
Please do introduce yourselves and let me know what you are looking for most out of this course, so I can factor that in to the curriculum and experience for you all.
Very excited about leaping in with all of you!
Is there a registration deadline (obviously prior to the start date mentioned)? I can't pull the trigger right now, but in a couple weeks I may be able to sign up multiple people.
You should be able to sign up within days of the course's launch. I'll verify that with our Office of Continuing and Career Education staff in my Tues meeting and get you guys the details. :-)
Intriguing. Is there any limit to the number of participants? And do we get college credit? :)
First, congrats to Nick for doing this! My university is just now looking into Continuing Ed, so this is an idea I might steal.
Second, I am just about to complete running a course for college credit at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. It is called WRIT311X: Writing Narrative for Tabletop Role-Playing Games. My students built a 64-page gaming supplement over the course of the class. I'm going to see about publishing it.
It may be something I move to an online platform at some point. Winthrop is accredited through SACS.
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^^ I hope you do Christina. That sounds like a great class.
Nicolas; Im looking at learning about how to write strong work for publishing. I find it easier to ad lib and less detail required if the material is for my home campaigns. Those are different and I can get away with notes and preparation. The only gm that needs to understand what is going on is me.
I was joking about college credit -- I have no desire to go back to school! :) -- but where were you both/these classes when I *was* in college?
About me: I'm a longtime gamer who entered Superstar with no expectation of getting into the contest in 2012. I got in somehow and kick started a game-design hobby (I'd often thought about submitting to Dungeon/Dragon back in the day, but had no clue how). Since then, I've become a working hobbyist designer, by which I mean I generally have a project or two I'm working on, but I consider it primarily fun: I'm doing it because I enjoy it and funding only my hobby, not expecting it to pay my mortgage or even my cable bill.
I have written one module (Ironwall Gap Must Hold) for AdventureaWeek.com and a couple encounters for Raging Swan, but most of my work has been magic items/archetypes/monsters for a variety of publishers or setting material for Raging Swan.
---
For this class, I'm definitely looking more for designing for publication. Most of the adventure design I've done has been for my RL group, where it's strongly tailored toward the players and characters, and often can ad lib, as Brian says -- I know the motivations of everyone involved and have various notes but can easily roll with whatever my players decide to do.
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I'll second or third the desire for a focus on designing for publication.
I'm taking this out of idle curiosity and my love of storytelling and gaming. I started with the blue box in 1977 or so, played AD&D 1st edition and then sort of dropped out until eight years ago when I picked up some 3.5 and then Pathfinder.
My day job is in technology at a little shoe company here in Oregon. In my spare time I do some film-related stuff—I'm on the board of a documentary filmmaking non-profit, teach some editing classes, and run the Portland Motorcycle Film Festival. I've become enamored with the Pathfinder Adventure Paths because of the great story arcs and am really looking forward to getting some insight from Nick.
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I'll second or third the desire for a focus on designing for publication.
I'm taking this out of idle curiosity and my love of storytelling and gaming. I started with the blue box in 1977 or so, played AD&D 1st edition and then sort of dropped out until eight years ago when I picked up some 3.5 and then Pathfinder.
My day job is in technology at a little shoe company here in Oregon. In my spare time I do some film-related stuff—I'm on the board of a documentary filmmaking non-profit, teach some editing classes, and run the Portland Motorcycle Film Festival. I've become enamored with the Pathfinder Adventure Paths because of the great story arcs and am really looking forward to getting some insight from Nick.
Good to know! Thanks for sharing everyone and nice to get to know you all a little better! I'll go ahead and start leaning the curricula more toward publishable adventures then. :-)
OOOooOh! Signing up!
Very interested in this, but as someone living on the other side of the Pond (specifically Denmark), would I be able to join this course?
Very interested in this, but as someone living on the other side of the Pond (specifically Denmark), would I be able to join this course?
Shouldn't be a problem, Heine! As long as you have internet access and can somehow pay the reg fee in dollars or the like. I believe other international folk are on board. :-)
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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I'm a freelancer for Paizo, a former RPG Superstar contestant, and the founder of Freelance Forge, an RPG freelancing community. I'd like to focus on writing for publication, but I don't mind seeing content for home games as well.
Hey Nick! I just signed up (after seeing a note about it in the Kobold Press newsletter yesterday, and am very excited. I love DMing for the gaming group I've been playing with for the last 30 years, and run a mix of published and homebrew adventures.
I'd love to improve running games for my own group, and have no intention of ever publishing anything... please don't neglect my demographic! :-)
Ha! Good to meet ya Jason! Never fear! Something for everyone is my favorite way to do up a class.
I've been tinkering with some bits and its actually proving pretty easy to cover both bases with most of the material. We win! :-)
Shouldn't be a problem, Heine! As long as you have internet access and can somehow pay the reg fee in dollars or the like. I believe other international folk are on board. :-)
Excellent. I'll sign up ASAP, then.
Also, since we're getting to know each other, here's the lowdown:
Name's Heine, and I'm from Denmark. I've been an tabletop RPG gamer since the early 90s, starting with the Red Box and then branching out from there. I was heavily involved in the Dragonlance fan community for a few years, and that landed me my only cover credit so far - Dragon of Spring, which is the last in a trilogy of D&D 3.5 adaptations of the original Dragonlance modules.
Nowadays it's mostly about the Pathfinder RPG and Golarion, with a sprinkling of other systems and their associated settings.
I'm a web developer by trade and I currently handle online marketing for a company here in Denmark (website, social media, newsletters, etc.).
It's been nearly a decade since my only game design gig so far, and I've long wanted to return to game design, primarily adventures. My desire to work with adventures again makes this course a nobrainer for me.
Hello Heine.
We have some extremely talented students enrolled in this course. Published modules, Paizo Superstar placers... I am really looking forward to this class. I will learn quite a bit from the students themselves. This is going to be an impressive course.
Hi, I am Jeffrey. Longtime gamer, but have only been writing for a few years. I've freelanced for Paizo, Frog God Games, Fat Goblin Games, Purple Duck Games, and Flaming Crab Games, also a former RPG Superstar contestant, and a member of Freelance Forge. I'd also like to focus on writing for publication, but will attempt to absorb any and all advice!
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I've also signed up at the urging of my husband. I love to write, and have done lots of various types of fantasy stories for many years (none published as of yet). I'm relatively "new" to tabletop rpg, starting briefly with 4e and some 3.5 about 7 years ago. We discovered pathfinder shortly after and have been playing that since.
I signed up to learn more about writing in this particular style with the hopes maybe one day getting something published. So add me to the list of interested in the publishing side. But I wouldn't mind a few tips in the other either.
Just registered, it sounds intriguing!
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I saw your post about this in the PFS Facebook group yesterday and was going to ask some questions...but this thread has answered most of them. I'm 90% likely to sign up.
Just starting to stretch out into some freelancing, so that's the part I'm interested in of course. It would also be interesting to get a quick comparison of how game writing compares to other kinds of writing -- both in how you do it and in how the professional communities work. I've been involved with parts of the sf&f writing community for quite a while, so I'm curious how that translates.
Anyway, Nick, this looks cool. Thanks for putting this together!
I'll be signing up as well. I've been attempting to write a module for a while now, and this should give me the tools I need to finish the crunchy bits.
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So, since I'm registered, here goes. I'm Alex. I've been interested in game design for a lot of years, but most of my background is in video game design. I started messing around with board game design a few years ago. I've been playing and running various incarnations of tabletop games for a bit under 20 years, often writing my own campaigns. I've had a couple of trivial things "published" in the past but nothing all that exciting. I've never really written up a formal scenario, adventure, module, or whatever for someone else to run, and I'm excited to learn more about it from everyone!
I'm interested in learning more about how to write for actual publication, so I am a-ok with focusing on that.
Hello Heine.
We have some extremely talented students enrolled in this course. Published modules, Paizo Superstar placers... I am really looking forward to this class. I will learn quite a bit from the students themselves. This is going to be an impressive course.
Indeed, Brian! This is shaping up to be a fine roster! I'm looking forward to learning from you all as well!
Welcome aboard to all the recent sign-ups and posters here - it's lovely getting to know you all and I'm taking heed of your interest in the course curriculum.
Love that there are lots of creative writers leaping aboard too, we should enjoy dreaming up some interesting scenarios, plots, villains and encounters together!
Intriguing. Is there any limit to the number of participants? And do we get college credit? :)
First, congrats to Nick for doing this! My university is just now looking into Continuing Ed, so this is an idea I might steal.
Second, I am just about to complete running a course for college credit at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. It is called WRIT311X: Writing Narrative for Tabletop Role-Playing Games. My students built a 64-page gaming supplement over the course of the class. I'm going to see about publishing it.
It may be something I move to an online platform at some point. Winthrop is accredited through SACS.
That sounds like an awesome course, Christina! I'd love to have a credit class at WCC that focuses just on table-top RPG writing! For our Intro to Games and Gaming, many students choose to write RPG supplements for their final game design project, but I'd love to be able to focus solely on it in a class. :-)
Nicolas - what writing software do you like to use for making adventures?
I have Scrivener (which I'm still learning) and MS Word. I use EverNote for ideas and dropbox for saving my work.
What programs do you use for your work?
Nicolas - what writing software do you like to use for making adventures?
I have Scrivener (which I'm still learning) and MS Word. I use EverNote for ideas and dropbox for saving my work.
What programs do you use for your work?
Oooooo! I've not used Scrivener yet, but I hear good things from all my writer-monkey friends.
I use MS word for the actual writing, but I love love love Hero Lab for statting up all my NPCs and baddies and what not.
I also use Campaign Cartographer (or have recently started to - my map turnovers were legendarily bad before...just ask James Jacobs...he'll regale you with terrifying tales of terrible maps). ;-)