A New Respect for Adventure Writters

[thedungeondelver]

It warms my heart to see a thread like this.

It gets me irritated when someone starts a thread along the lines of 'such and such pubished writer is so stupid, inept, incompotent, etc.' because he did X, especially when X is not such a bad thing, the writer is widely admired by many people, and the module in question one of the most famous and beloved ever published.

If you don't like the module, fine, don't like it. But I don't want to hear how you think the writer is stupid, because writing modules is alot of work and if you haven't tried to produce a module of professional publishable quality you don't really have a clue just how hard it is. Not only do you have to produce a good adventure, but you have to produce a good adventure which someone else can easily understand and run and fit it into an incredible harsh limit on the number of words you can use.

To fit the adventure in a limited number of pages, and make it understandable to a wide audience which may or may not have alot of experience and which in fact probably on the whole doesn't (since alot of the point of a module is to help a new DM understand how to design an adventure and run through sessions), forces you to write things which you wouldn't write if you had more space. You have to write what looks like railroading, because you can't explain what happens in all the cases where you leave the path. You have to write what looks linear, because you can only really pay alot of attention to what happens if the simpliest path is followed. And so forth.

I have a great deal of respect for anyone that has done it, and alot of respect for anyone who has done it well.

*NOTE: DOES NOT APPLY TO DRAGONLANCE MODULE AUTHORS.



(I'm kidding!)

 

[Glyfair]

I've a lot of respect for adventure writers, and a lot of tolerance for errors in adventures. I can fix them - I can't come up with decent plots or NPCs.

Just being part of Wolfgang Bauer's Custom Adventure Project I've gained more respected as he gives up details of the process (and lots of other tidbits). Of course, it's probably worse for him in this case since he's acting as both author and editor.

 

[Cam Banks]

*NOTE: DOES NOT APPLY TO DRAGONLANCE MODULE AUTHORS.



(I'm kidding!)

It must be Friday.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[airwalkrr]

Hear! Hear! to the OP.

I have authored nearly a dozen adventures for the RPGA and I have edited dozens more. In the two years I have been doing this, I am certain I have put literal weeks if not months of time into it. I am just now working on my first professional writing gig and it is no walk in the park either. It's quite a bit tougher and the adventure is longer so it is a monumental task compared to what I have done before.

Adventure writing truly is a labor of love. We writers don't do it for the money.

 

[Nightfall]

I've always had a deep respect for guys that can write a great adventure, or even just a good one. I know my limits and writing an adventure takes way more talent than I have at the moment...

So if no one is busy...anyone want to write me a few Scarred Land modules?

 

[Aeric]

Extend that to artists as well. With one exception, all of my contracts were for a percentage of sales. And it was a small percentage at that. When a book/PDF tanked, I didn't see a red cent. And they tanked a LOT. Some of the companies I did large volumes of work for and they disappeared before the book was ever published. Being an artist in the game industry is definitely not a day job.

 

[Nightfall]

Aeric,

Agreed. A good artist and a good cartographer can make all the difference.

 

[Kunimatyu]

Heh, this is one thing I envy you: I'm working on a trio of modules right now for Expeditious Retreat Press and each one will clock in at about seventeen thousand words. However, I'm using "line item" stats like those used in G123 AGAINST THE GIANTS, so in other words you'll see a descriptive text that goes

"There are three bugbears (HP 11, 17, 19) waiting here to attack the party. They have no treasure."

If that was your standard 3.5 statblock I could get a couple hundred words out of it !

Just a nitpick, but I'm pretty sure that with standard monsters like that, even a 3.5 writer would go "bugbears(hp11,17,19, MMpg#)"

 

[Cam Banks]

Just a nitpick, but I'm pretty sure that with standard monsters like that, even a 3.5 writer would go "bugbears(hp11,17,19, MMpg#)"

I'm not actually sure we're allowed to reference a page number.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[thedungeondelver]

Just a nitpick, but I'm pretty sure that with standard monsters like that, even a 3.5 writer would go "bugbears(hp11,17,19, MMpg#)"

Oh sure; you could do that for D&D, AD&D, AD&D 2nd EDITION or the current version. I just think that the current expectation is for there to be more. And don't get me wrong - I've written some pretty lengthy statblocks for "special" monsters for AD&D projects where it's warranted, too.