Step 1
Come up with a location that's interesting on its own without any players getting involved with it.
and/or
Come up with a situation that's interesting on its own and can resolve on its own without any players getting involved in it.
Step 2
Introduce PCs to the location/situation.
Step 3
Step back and see what happens without having an investment in any particular outcome.
Come up with a location that's interesting on its own without any players getting involved with it.
and/or
Come up with a situation that's interesting on its own and can resolve on its own without any players getting involved in it.
Step 2
Introduce PCs to the location/situation.
Step 3
Step back and see what happens without having an investment in any particular outcome.
Yup. You just nailed all of my campaigns. Throw interesting NPCs in the mix as well.
ReplyDeleteHow does this square with the critique I seem to see a lot for your modules that they are not interesting enough for the players to go investigate without being railroaded?
ReplyDeleteI say this coming from complete ignorance of the content of your material, Jim, just telling you what I see out there being written about your stuff. Maybe that is biased, I'm just curious about the disconnect here.
I think the criticism has been more that the locations broadcast that they're dangerous so loudly that players try to avoid the places.
ReplyDeleteWhat the modules generally don't have are pre-built hooks - that's up to the individual Ref to supply.
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ReplyDeleteAgreed, especially about locations that are interesting all on their own.
ReplyDeleteAs for adventurers avoiding adventures: incomprehensible to me. One might as well play Monopoly and never take a turn for fear of landing on someone else's property.
I can certainly understand the locations screaming "Dangerous!!!" - some of those locations ache with peril for the characters.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to club my players with a stick to keep them and their characters away from the main site in Death Frost Doom once I mention it to them.
ReplyDeleteThis might be the best thing I've ever seen on your blog.
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it.
This is exactly how I write adventures, although I came at it through trial and error. So many plotted scenarios ended up getting messed up by the players, with so much work going unused, that I scaled my preparations back to the bare minimum to get the characters into the situation, safe in the knowledge that they would take it from there. The result is more or less exactly the method outlined above.
ReplyDeleteAs for adventurers avoiding adventures: incomprehensible to me. One might as well play Monopoly and never take a turn for fear of landing on someone else's property.
Exactly. I don't understand why someone would sit down and not play the game. What's the point? Why not stay at home if you're going to do that?
You're dead on! This is exactly how I'm running my megadungeon. It's fun for the DM, too, because I have no clue where things are going, either.
ReplyDeleteCome up with a situation that's interesting on its own and can resolve on its own without any players getting involved in it.
ReplyDeleteCare to elaborate with an example? And not just James, but anyone? By players, do you mean characters?
In this case player and character are the same thing - can't have one getting involved in the adventure, or not, without the other.
ReplyDeleteBut as an example...
The evil cultists need sacrifices in order to summon the god Apos'Trophe the Cliched. Each night they snatch one woman off the street to prepare for the grand sacrifice on the night of the half moon. One the night of the sacrifice the gate will open and the god will come forth, and then quite a few people are going to have a rotten, rotten day.
There's the situation. Something is going to happen if the PCs aren't there.
So then you introduce the PCs to the situation. Maybe one of the first women snatched wasn't a prostitute that no one would care about, but a woman of society that was in the seedy side of town for reasons of her own. Or maybe it WAS a prostitute, but wouldn't you know, she had actual friends who care that she's gone missing. Little threads for PCs to follow.
If they decide to get involved, they uncover a right mess and deal with it as they can. If they decide to ignore it, or fail in their investigation, well, something's going to happen regardless.
Got it. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteActually not sure about the part that reads...
ReplyDelete"Come up with a situation that's interesting on its own and can resolve on its own without any players getting involved in it."
If the situation can resolve on its own without any PCs getting involved, why should PCs become involved in the situation? I may be misunderstanding the meaning.
Barking Alien: By "resolved" James doesn't mean "solved in a nice way that's all sunshine and rainbows." He means reach a climax. As in his example, "resolved" may very well mean the gate is opened and other-planar, deitific nastiness is unleashed upon the world.
ReplyDelete>>If the situation can resolve on its own without any PCs getting involved, why should PCs become involved in the situation?
ReplyDeleteI assume the players want to be involved in the game somehow.
I've run into this problem recently, that is, players not wanting to get involved, or too clueless to do anything except just sit there and wait for the adventure to get handed to them on a platter. My case: The players were presented with a mystery, but instead of trying to solve it, they decide screw this, lets get the Hell out of Dodge.
ReplyDeleteI can only assume this is because of the fast food RPG culture fostered by DD4 and similar games, as well as movies/television, where the characters are thrown smack into the action. No thinking required.
Never Ass-u-me, yadda yadda. But I'm kidding. I get where your coming from.
ReplyDeleteMuch like Greg Christopher I had read that sometimes your adventures can be so deadly as to wonder what else is going on in the world.
A motivator specifically customized to the group is a key factor I would sometimes add to an adventure to get them interested. If they still decided to do something else so be it. I don't really 'write adventures' per se. I just have worlds/universe with interesting things going on and the players can choose what to pursue.
@navdi
ReplyDelete"I can only assume this is because of the fast food RPG culture fostered by DD4 and similar games, as well as movies/television, where the characters are thrown smack into the action. No thinking required."
Actually the technique of starting PCs in the middle of the action - in media res - goes back quite a ways. It was mentioned in detail in the original West End Games D6 Star Wars rulebook. Personally, I feel it requires the players to think more, or at least 'on their feet' as they have to overcome a situation without any preparation just to get the game started. It can be very effective for motivating PCs or just setting the tone for a campaign.
I have never run one of James adventures and own only one of them so I can't say how they stack up, but: if your players hear of a place filled with treasure, monsters to slay, deadly traps, and excitement, and they don't want to investigate: they suck as players. Thankfully the group of players I have now, would rather die exploring someplace cool, then raising chickens in the Forgotten Realms or whatever.
ReplyDelete