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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emirikol" data-source="post: 6467321" data-attributes="member: 10638">This topic is near and dear to my heart (as are many of the wonderful topics you fellows bring up).  I was an editor for the LIVING GREYHAWK regionals, LFR, and WARHAMMER FANTASY ROLEPLAY 2E and 3E fan scenario writing contests and was an avid reader of DUNGEON magazine while it was still in print form.Dungeons don't present much of a problem in my mind.  It is simply hard to screw up.  You line up some monsters and intend for player characters to kill them in a bunker.  This isn't hard to present.  As long as you are in a bunker and you know you're there just to kill stuff, you don't have to worry about any actual /real/ plot.  Yes, there may need to be a /repercussions/ paragraph, but otherwise this has evolved in the game industry AWAY from too much text, and more towards trusting a GM to embellish on the least possible number of details necessary to present encounters.  We are repeatedly told that adventures are the hardest for game designers to write, require the most "thought", require the most editing, and cost the most to produce with the least amount of return on investment for a company so it is no wonder that Paizo has attempted to make the AP's formulaic in this regards and why D&D's owners have decided on NOT publishing adventures like they used to.This leaves US, the fans, to produce most of what we need.Anyways, here's the basic dungeon crawl format that evolved out of Dungeon Magazine by Paizo.  Some modification occurred when 4e D&D came out, but I consider it to be the standard in the industry for Gm friendliness:MapBrief read aloud textGM's text paragraphCreatures: either Stat Block or page reference to the monster manual.Loot/reward/CluesRepercussions paragraphHeaven forbid we actually address any other SKILLS that a character might use..but the GMs text, should address a few of those things.Where I learned about complex scenarios is when I started playing more of the non-dungeon-crawl scenarios for various systems (including D&D).  It was interesting to see how a Call of Cthulhu scenario can be written such that it can be played at a convention (for example), or that a game like WFRP can present things in Chapters/Acts/Encounters/Locations/Time-lines all in the same scenario all with the expectation that absolutely no combat may occur.The question becomes: Is the formatting the same for an investigation scenario mixed with timed-events scenario as it is for a murder-loot dungeon crawl?Here's a fully-automated, random WFRP3 adventure generator I did.  It uses the very basics of several encounters and slaps them together for a complete adventure:<a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/167876/WFRP%20STUFF/Random%20WFRP3%20Adventure%20Generator/Random%20WFRP3%20Adventure%20Output%201.6.xlsx" target="_blank">https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/167876/WFRP%20STUFF/Random%20WFRP3%20Adventure%20Generator/Random%20WFRP3%20Adventure%20Output%201.6.xlsx</a>Anyway, my personal belief is this:* Too much text makes it a living hell for a GM* All scenarios should be written with the intention that they can be played in any order (non-railroad), HOWEVER the brief adventure summary at the beginning of the scenario writing should give a "MOST LIKELY PATH THROUGH" summary (i.e. Railroad) so the GM isn't sitting there scratching his head on where to even get started.  I call this "being nice to your GM-reader."* However you organize it, stick with it.* Use standard monsters when possible rather than having entirely new stat blocks just to make a common creature annoyingly more complex.* Don't waste time on backstory that the GM is never expected to present to players unless you are going to put it in "optional reading" in an appendix at the end.* Numbers and TITLES of encounters are very important for the GM to reference.* Finally, to reiterate:  It ain't a fricking novel.  You're not a novelist.  All that extra text only annoys a GM and makes his job suck. Trust the GM to be able to adapt to odd player choices.[edit: I'm currently prepping three scenarios to run at a game convention here in February.  I chose them deliberately from game systems that I was completely unfamiliar with.  They are:Colonial Gothic: A Surprise for General Gage (From the Gazetteer) by Graeme DavisColonial Gothic: The Landlord's DaughterWitch Hunter 2e: Revelations Living Campaign:  The CrossingThe three couldn't be more different and the difficulties in prepping them lie primarily thus:General gage:  Short scenario.  Players are supposed to sneak across the harbor, break into the fort, and blow up the powder (or something like that) so that the British ships aren't well protected and can be harassed.  GM PREP THOUGHTS:  There aren't stats.  Ugh.  There aren't ever references to stats in the bestiary.  It is also a  "wing it" scenario.  Graeme is an excellent writer though and is able to keep the necessary details concise and to the point.  I'll probably need to embellish some supernatural elements (I'm probably going to castle wolfenstein the fort encounters).[unrelated rant] Know what I hate about wing it scenarios and "adventure hooks disguised as actual scenarios?"  WHY BOTHER TO WRITE THEM?  It means the author had a good idea, but was to lazy or limited in space to finish it.  Any GM can make crap up and "wing it."  What we need is assistance in doing our job.   That said, this is simply an intro scenario in the back of the Gazetteer, so I give it some slack...Landlord's daughter:  Similar to Gage.  No standardized format.  No clear adventure summary path.  The "all important" NPCs are presented first, which means rather than being able to run an adventure I have to do a fricking psychological study into the minds of meaningless crap detailed about the NPCs before I even have ANY idea of what is going on in the scenario.  The plot is amazing other than that..I just hate the format.The Crossing:  This baby is part of a long-running convention-intended campaign by veteran adventure writers using the standardized adventure formats (typical of D&D and Paizo).  The format is awesome.  The adventure otherwise has a lot of text that really just seems to fill the pages (filler) so I actually worry about there being enough actual encounters to fill a complete slot at the convention.  The PCs are on a ship going to England.  There's a murder.  They investigate.  The plot unfolds and there is combat. Then they discover something really horrible and need to flee or get really lucky. These are my favorite to run.jh</blockquote>

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