Adventure Writing help

[Valiant]

Hello all,

I am about to start writing a Starfinder adventure (maybe even a Module or Adventure Path!).

First I want to try my writing out at a home group, but with the Starfinder setting.

If the quality is deemed positive, I'd like to start writing adventures for Starfinder Society.

As such I'm looking for some information on 'how to write adventures'.
Specificly if there is some method or template to write adventures for Starfinder.

Any advice?

[Mike Elite]

I don't have any specific star finder adventure paths but I have been writing adventures for about 35 years and am almost always the dungeon master in my group. I have over time come up with a few things that are important:

1. DONT RAILROAD THE STORY - don't force the players down one route - they need to feel like they are solving problems and in charge of their destiny - not riding a train down your adventure. You have to provide adequate clues and motivation for them to continue. I played a game of 1930s last week where everything was in place but the players had no motivation to go down the story path - no reward, no attachment to the story personally....make sure you have something there.

2. DETAILS DETAILS DETAILS - I always want my player to feel like they are really in the world instead of playing a game and the way I do that is I make sure I have enough details in my head about little things that they feel like they are on vacation in a foreign country -lots of things are new. In the same game I mentioned before, our DM then had some of the adventure at a horse track in the 1930s and he had a thorough understanding of horse racing, bookies and bettering - and other aspects of 1930s life -it made the story awesome!! Obviously in Starfinder its not historical but .....details make the game

3. AT ALL COSTS - Stay away from Cliche

4. FOCUS ON HOW PLAYER FEEL - I like to make my players feel things, so use a lot of foreshadowing, create anxiety, create motivation to get their hands on things, feelings of revenge...they should be driven by strong emotions

5. NPCs are critical - I always have an NPC in the party that can provide some subtle direction and knowledge to players, and can act as the voice of the narrator -aside from that all the NPCs should be well developed people, not cardboard cut outs - I almost always base mine on someone I known my players don't.

Now as for how to WRITE IT - if its not a dungeon, I usually outline a kind of flow chart or script for what happens, and I make sure that when I am running it I have the material I need - names are hard to make up on the spot (people, and places) - as is any details players might like - I make the notes so that I can run it smoothly - crude maps if needed,

[Valiant]

Golden advice, right there. Thanks!!

Now only to wait untill the game comes out, so I can get some material to write about :)

[ENHenry]

Also, there's a sourceof great advice direct from the Golem's mouth, as it were:

know direction podcast on 3rd party pub

PFS open call
Those are guidelines for PFS, But i imagine the guidelines for SFS would not be very different.
Plus, I swear there was once a know direction podcast specifically on writing for PFS once, but trolling through their backlogs right now I can't find it. Good luck in any case!

[Garrett Guillotte]

It might be worth digging through some of the old RPG Superstar archives, where you can see module pitches along with Paizo staff feedback.

For more general advice, I enjoyed the Kobold Guide to Plots & Campaigns.

[John Compton]

Garrett Guillotte wrote:

It might be worth digging through some of the old RPG Superstar archives, where you can see module pitches along with Paizo staff feedback.

For more general advice, I enjoyed the Kobold Guide to Plots & Campaigns.

Seconded. The RPG Superstar design-an-encounter rounds have really good advise and very good examples.

[Fardragon]

Key rule: No plan survives contact with the enemy (read: players).

I tend to write only a couple of chapters at a time, with only a sketchy idea of the overall story. That enables you to be responsive to what players actually do in a given situation, without having to create too much content that no one will ever see. There is nothing more disheartening than creating a wonderful dungeon that the players don't find or skip past.

If I was intending to publish, I would want to play the same adventure several times with different groups before I felt happy to put it out into the public domain.

I think Mike Elite's rule 3 is pretty much impossible to follow. The rules are riddled with cliché from the start, there is no way to avoid it, but you can subvert it. Beware of doing that too much though - players don't like to have their expectations undermined too often.

Also, if you intend other people to run your adventure, remember that spelling, punctuation and grammar are important for making your meaning clear.

[Claxon]

Steal shamelessly from already written stories.

Stark Trek's "Trouble With Tribbles" is a classic episode. I'm not suggesting you rehash the particular one, but there is a wealth of sci-fi adventures out there that you can take elements from.

[thecursor]

Support your Homebrew with lore that's already in the books but don't feel like you have to be a slave to it.

Learn to adapt, don't try to kill the players or make it impossible, consider it a story telling experience.

[Ixal]

One thing to keep in mind though is that many advice you will find is about fantasy adventures.
Now Starfinder is practically fantasy in space, you still have to keep in mind though that the PCs will have access to things fantasy characters don't have. For example having instant, global communication through datapads would be normal for Starfinder characters.

Another thing which is rather Starfinder specific is the Environmental Protection from armor. Everyone will have it and it blocks a whole list of effects.
There have been instances in official adventures where the PCs are still affected by something that should be blocked "because its special in some way". Some groups are ok with it but others find it rather lame when the adventure bypasses an defense with an unexplained "it special". Also because this means the players can never know if some of their abilities work or if the adventure says they don't by fiat (related to railroading).

[Jason Tondro]

Many other people have given a lot of advice here. I'm coming in late, but I'd like to help if I can.

Outlines: I have always gotten a lot of mileage out of a good outline for a project. Every outline is different, and you outline for yourself, so there's no one way to do it. But the point of the outline is to break the project up into small, digestible sections you can tackle one at a time, and maybe not in chronological order, as you get inspired by good ideas. Consider making an outline. Make it work for you.

Maps: I get a lot of inspiration for my adventure by drawing and changing the map. The physical layout of the adventure is what makes it unique at the table. I mean, everyone's done the base invasion or the sewer crawl. But every base invasion is different because of the specific layout of the base and the unique way creatures move around inside it from one room to another. So I encourage you to do your maps early, and keep revising them, and look to them for inspiration.

Table vs Public: This seems obvious, but bears repeating. Writing an adventure for your personal table is a very different project than writing for the public, when you don't know what the makeup of the group will be or what the table dynamic is. You want to give groups meaningful choices, but you also don't have unlimited time and effort to write up every possible choice or outcome. Ultimately, you're going to have to present the adventure as you see it going, and then give the GM tools they can use to adjudicate the adventure when things go off the rails. Your GM will modify the adventure and players will not stick to the script; this is not a failing. This is a feature, not a bug. Embrace it, and don't be afraid to say something is "beyond the scope of this adventure" when you just don't have time to explain what happens if the PCs don't do what the adventure assumes they do.

Start Small: Build scaffolding for yourself. For your first adventure, consider something players could do in one night. Like, 4-5 encounters, a skill challenge, some RP and exploration. That's a bigger writing challenge than you think; indeed, this pretty much describes an OP scenario, which is your stated goal. I advice against outlining, mapping, and trying to write a big multi-session adventure for your first published work. You would be setting yourself up to fail, and we don't want you to fail. We want you to succeed!

Good luck and keep in touch. If you have questions, hit me up on twitter @doctorcomics

[Hilary Moon Murphy]

Thanks, Jake. That's awesome advice.

Hmm

[Peg'giz]

Î totally agree with everything said here except of:

"3. AT ALL COSTS - Stay away from Cliche"

Cliches are Cliches because they work, use this to your advantage.
Either by using them directly (the old pirate captain) or by twisting them into their opposite to supprise the players.
Both can be very helpful to guide your players into the right direction, advance the story or simply give the right mindset/setting without explaining 50 pages of background/dialog.

And before people lynch me for this: take a look at well known books or famous APs they use them, too (e.g. Shalelu in RotRL, JR...), Jhod in Kingmaker or every character in LotR^^ and even in GoT).

But keep one thing in mind: DON'T OVERUSE THEM!