Reflections on Adventure Writing

Image courtesy of Pixabay

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to write my first published adventure. It was a rewarding experience and one that I learned a great deal from. Here are some reflections and thoughts that this process prompted.

Deadlines

When I pitched my idea, I did not expect to be picked for the theme of apocalyptic fantasy. I felt my concept was relatively undeveloped, and when the editor mentioned that for that particular adventure slot and another issue that nineteen pitches had been submitted, I was even more sure that mine would not be picked.

How wrong was I...

I was flattered to have mine picked, but slightly alarmed that I had one month to write and submit the text. I had other adventure pitches that went unselected that felt more developed to me and which I thought I could write faster. But this particular theme?

Setting some goals, along with a convenient trip that gave me some more personal time to write managed to make up for that, and I somehow completed the work on time.

Feedback and Collaboration

Immediately upon being selected, I reached out to the editor to look for feedback or thoughts regarding the pitch concept. As I suspected, major portions would need to be altered, and the desire was tight integration with the other authors of the articles appearing within. 

As this collaboration developed, active brainstorming and discussion within the designer Discord provided me the revised antagonists for my adventure, along with major details of the plot. And the suggestion that it would be great if a complimentary article of monsters was integrated into the adventure too! 

Pulling all these disparate bits together was a challenge. Initially it felt like I'd lost a degree of creative control, but I did my best to embrace the challenge, and enjoy the constraints. That is how we grow, yes? Through the experience I realized how much constraints can actually enhance your creativity, as you are forced to ask "how can I realistically get all these pieces to pastiche into something unique that works?" It also requires an author to set aside their personal thoughts and accept other perspectives and ideas, even if they are not exactly what you had initially envisioned. This seems to be a crucial still for collaborative development projects.

Growth

Some authors might find these constraints limiting or frustrating. I empathize with that, particularly as they piled up and I had to organize myself to make sure I hit all of the boxes. But exactly that experience was extremely valuable. Because the process of collaboration with editorial feedback and interacting with other creators helped me grow. Although this was a short project, I felt like it was training me to be able to navigate requirements in future larger collaborative projects. I had to let go of some of my own desires for independence and work to make something better than I would have on my own.

So next time you examine a sourcebook with highly integrated lore, or cross references to other material, consider the massive effort than a group of writers and editor(s) had to put in to ensure that their ideas were complimentary and met the requirements for that product. Communication is hard in most industries. Communicating creative vision is even harder, because our opinions are strong and do matter. I truly appreciated the collaborative environment, and openness to discussion that our editor fostered with that group on that project. 

This was an amazing experience overall—and even better, if you would like to check out the adventure I wrote, go subscribe to the En5ider Patreon campaign. To be upfront, I don’t get anything for promoting their page, but I true appreciate their efforts and willingness to allow untested and untrained RPG designers and writers who are just starting out to write for them. Any support you can give them will enable that to continue!

Adapting to New Settings & Systems: Adventures as Inspiration

Perhaps I'm unique, but I always find trying out a new setting or even RPG system intimidating. I've noticed that a major aid for me in approaching these is to use an adventure for that setting or system.

For example, I had a hard time feeling comfortable in my Ptolus campaign until I finished the Doctrine of Ghul as a mini arc. While I have my critiques of the adventure, it provided strong inspiration and examples to emulate for future games in the city setting that matched the flavor and scope that I'm trying to capture.

Perhaps that strikes at the heart of the issue. I try new settings and systems because I want to feel the things that the creator intended. I don't want my Midgard campaign to feel like the Forgotten Realms. But the nuance can be hard to create in our own adventures until we have seen something to influence their design. Empire of the Ghouls helped give me a good starting point and things to draw upon when my campaign went off it's rails in the Blood Kingdom with the regional fight against Lady Illmalad.

These thoughts were spurred by reading through the lovely Broken Weave sourcebook recently. It represents some major departures from the fundamental assumptions of 5e play. Ones that create tonal and narrative differences I want to lean into. The short adventure, the Titan's March, enabled me to get in the right headspace to do this, providing a framework to get started and things that I can copy and completely mix up in future games in the setting. I think in the case of single sourcebooks like this, such an example is even more critical as the entire burden of learning, teaching, and then creating an original adventure otherwise falls squarely on the GM.

This is one reason I think open licenses are so important for RPG systems. It enhances the ability of GMs to obtain adventures to learn and emulate, and means that publishers creating a system don't need to invest as many resources into creating a large adventure product or many smaller products if they choose not too. A dynamic TTRPG community enables us to experiment and combine elements from different products and systems to enhance our own games.

Review: Fraternity of Ash

Mild spoilers for the adventure...

By M.T. Black, the Fraternity of Ash is a mystery adventure set in a small village primarily focused on investigation and social interaction, culminating in a climactic set piece battle. 

This is the first work by M.T. Black other than his Anatomy of Adventure which I've read, but it is impressive. I found it's forty five pages to be outstandingly organized and the prose to be tight. Sometimes unclear text or continuity errors can make both reading and then running mysteries difficult. No such issues in this case. The node map of the adventure helps provide a great organizing framework to facilitate a nonlinear adventure emphasizing player choice. 

I also thought Black's design note at the end of the adventure was a nice touch, acknowledging the influence of Justin Alexander's work on mystery structures and recommending other works. It’s just classy, and demonstrates how much Black does the homework.

This is an extremely well put together product, and I would highly recommend picking it up if you’re at all interested or familiar with MT Black’s work.

EN5ider Magazine Issue 9 Release!

EN5ider Magazine #9, image belongs to EN Publishing 

Another awesome experience with the writing team on EN5ider Magazine #9, for the December issue on Spaceship Crash! My contribution is a Villain Spotlight on Krurcain the Conqueror, a psionic warlord, marooned on your campaign world after a ferocious space battle. He is mean, nasty, and coming for magic items to rebuild his ship! Please consider checking out EN5ider Magazine, where you also gain access to the entire backlog of ten years of EN5ider materials by subscribing to their Patreon.

Like many fantasy TTRPG fans, I initially had some mental barriers on having sci-fi in my fantasy setting, but I think the articles in this issue can sit faithfully alongside classic 5e monsters and themes. 

Advanced FASERIP Reactions

As I gradual work through my massive “to-be-read” pile of RPG materials. Advanced FASERIP caught my eye.

Advanced FASERIP is the second edition of a retroclone based upon the mechanics of the original 1980s Marvel Superheroes Roleplaying Game from TSR. This game is produced by Gurbintroll Games, which appears to be a single creator adapting legacy materials as retro clones under the OGL. The best thing about this is that the creator has released the book along with the first edition of the game as free products on DriveThruRPG. So there’s no reason not to grab your own copy after this article.

It’s noted in the intro that, like many retro clones, this version differs in several ways, such as allowing for more player choice in character creation, and other things to make it easier to play. I’ll note I have no previous experience with the original licensed game that FASERIP draws inspiration from.

While it took a couple read throughs of the basic rules for me to really grasp it, I was struck by how simple the core gameplay really is. Every attribute or ability is rated on a relative scale. How good a character is determines where they consult the x-axis on a universal resolution chart at the end of the book—this can be modified by various powers or circumstances. The y-axis result depends on your percentile die role. Then different categories of success drive interpretation by the GM. While tables aren’t most modern players preferred action resolution system, this isn’t a bad way to go, particularly considering the complexity of other options available when the original game was created. Though not from TSR, my thought often turn to Classic Traveller’s lack of such a common resolution mechanism in its skills application. As what many might consider an OSR game, Advanced FASERIP seems easier to both teach and implement as a GM for modern players to me.

The available powers provide a diverse set of options to create most popular superhero archetypes. As the book notes, it doesn’t seem difficult to design new powers or reskin existing ones either if you find a particular niche lacking. The rank system ensures that they should maintain parity if you model custom ones on those in the book.

NPCs are built on the same mechanics as player characters, which coming from modern asymmetric monster and NPC design, seemed odd to me. However, since all actions are based on the same core resolution mechanic, once NPC villains are made, it seems relatively easy to use them—certainly easier than some 5e stat blocks! The book provides some helpful stats for regular persons or bystanders that might appear in adventures, along with simple goons for those more bespoke supervillains. There are also options for random character creation that I imagine could be used to quickly create a group of villains.

The GM advice section is also worthy of some praise. It provides some useful general advice on creating adventures using the system while threading the needle on avoiding language or examples treading too close to its copyrighted inspiration.

Overall, I found this to be a retroclone I could actually use and teach players—which is perhaps the best praise I can give. The reference tables at the back make this even easier, however not all the info for action resolution and interpretation of the various color categories of success and failure are contained on those sheets, so those might need modifications for some GMs until they become familiar with them. My major criticism is that some of the explanations of rules are inconsistent in using their own mechanical definitions, making some sections more difficult to parse. There are also some tables within the rules that probably should have also been included in the consolidated reference sheets at the end for easy consultation.

These aside, Advanced FASERIP offers rules-lite superhero game for perhaps the best price point possible. With such a low barrier to entry, I recommend at least giving it a look.

Review: The Big Hoodoo

I finally played Trail of Cthulhu!

Looking around for an initial adventure, the premise of the self-described “film noir” adventure, The Big Hoodoo, by Bill White, seemed like it would be a good start. I was sadly disappointed.

The adventure fails largely in facilitating a quick and easy understanding of its structure and critical clues connecting the scenes together. I’d have expected better particularly as this is highlighted as a good adventure for convention play. I’d feel so sorry for the GM who had to do a low prep, or no prep session for convention players. The writing and inconsistent formatting throughout is really what makes it extremely difficult to get through. In some places, NPC names are bolded, while other names within the same sentence are not, and the reasons why are difficult to discern. Other difficulties stem from lack of clear distinction of read aloud text. Some body text is clearly written to be read aloud as descriptive text for players, but often the format does not differ significantly from clues. Clues are inconsistent as well, with some featuring the skill and point spends denoted in bold and at the beginning of paragraphs, which others are buried in body text. 

Neither connections between scenes nor a flowchart of this information is provided in a standard manner, such as putting a scene that leads from a clue in parentheses or signaling some other way to the GM. In my case, it was difficult to figure out that an invitation to a named address corresponded to another scene, since there was no information in the next scene referring back to the context of the clue. The address was the only link, and that information was buried deeper in the scene description. The lack of robust and multiple connections threatened to cause exactly the roadblocks that Trail of Cthulhu attempts to avoid, particularly with new players unused to matching their clue abilities to a given situation.

While I do enjoy the themes of alternative history, and the tie into classic science fiction, I was also let than impressed at some of the execution. Some clues seemed more red herrings or distractions than anything. The impression was more of a pastiche of various occult or ancient religious bits, then loosely, but not explicitly, tied to the Cthulhu Mythos. The puzzles that did exist were such that my characters would not have been able to solve them.

After more than a couple read throughs, I did have the opportunity to run the adventure. Despite the issues, I managed to muddle through most of it (the linkage to the climax is totally lacking, and the climax is its own mess). At the least I accomplished my initial goal of exposing some of my players to a very different system than they normally try. I would not recommend The Big Hoodoo as an adventure to much people though.

Player’s Secrets of Roesone Review

Glancing over the map of Cerilia, I chose to read the Player’s Secrets of Roesone first out of the many other Player’s Secrets products. Each of these supplements is designed for players to be able to read, gaining information so their character can act as a regent, controlling the domain detailed within. Because this product was intended for players, there are no spoilers. It is credited as designed by Rich Baker.

So to be up front, I really like this supplement overall. I get tired of the in-character NPC narrator voice—in this case the Lord Seneschal of Roesone. However, the details in these 40 pages are a wealth of material to spur both GM and player creativity. 

Built into this domain you have so much game potential—for real political intrigue. The lands of Roesone were claimed by Daen Roesone, a bit of a sell sword and brigand also called the “Black Baron.” There’s some muddied succession and intrafamilial violence that casts a shadow over the current baron’s reign and legitimacy. If you have a player who is interested in creating a character to play the current Baron of Roesone and integrating this rich backstory, there are tons of hooks and interesting story bits to integrate. There’s a bastard cousin who is the only child of the current Baron’s uncle (the original heir to the title) who could try to make some play or at least complicate things for the regent. Another cousin is the only wizard named in the domain, abet a minor one. This Count Bellamie feels historical and personal affinity for Roesone’s neighbors, along with a desire to gain power—does he commit treason against the barony? Other characters can have interesting things built out too—whose side did their family take in previous succession struggles? 

Along with all this intrigue for roleplaying drama, there’s plenty of interesting things to play around with on the regent and domain side of play. There’s tensions on all sides, from the threat of Ghoere, a massive domain to the north with aspirations to reunite Anuire by claiming the Iron Throne. Gavin Tael, the regent of Ghoere, does not align in his vision with most other rulers of Anuire, and rules his realm ruthlessly—and he has a huge army. Serenade and Diemed, though not ruled by harsh regents like Tael, might find themselves drawn into conflict with Roesone over old territorial disputes, or disagreements between their faiths. Meier and Ilien are neighbors and friends to Roesone, but also must see to their own divergent interests. Rogr Aglondier, regent of Ilien also controls half of Roesone’s magical sources, while the other half are held by a wizard of Aerenwe—a great source of tension with friendly neighbors if a party magic wielder seeks to create their own network of magical sources. Finally, there are the old forests of the untamed Erebannien in the south, which could harbor unknown threats, and the long dormant awnsheghlien ruler of the Spiderfell, the mysterious and powerful Spider. 

So we have all the ingredients for political intrigue, within and without the realm. Inter religious conflict, and competition for magical influence. Then there’s the plenty of ancient crumbling ruins within the domain, beckoning exploration. If none of those appeal, the potentially catastrophic threat of the Spider and his armies of goblins and gnolls remain under the shadowy boughs of the Spiderfell.

It may be a bit too much to hope that the average player will read any or even most of this book, but I don’t think the Birthright setting is built for the average player. In any event, the Player’s Secrets of Roesone is a great resource for GMs and players looking to create a collaborative campaign or use Roesone in a domain game set in Anuire.