Module-writing: the proper ingredients

[Celebrim]

Writing a module in many ways is like writing a story.

You need to...

1) A good hook. Bonus points if it is a flexible hook.
2) Start with a bang.
3) Have memorable characters.
4) Have a twist. There has to be a moment in the story where everything that the characters thought was happening turns out to be wrong, and the story goes off in a completely new direction. There are dozens of good twists you can use, from misidentifying the villain to finding that you are on an entirely different sort of adventure than you first thought.
5) Finish with a bang.

Ok so that's the big picture. The small picture is important too.

a) Well designed encounters. This means they are fun, well balanced, and that they feel appropriate to the story rather than forced into the story to provide the players XP or meet some arbitrary design goal. Puzzles for example should feel like they are there for a reason. Traps should be located in believable places.
b) Good mixture of encounters. Ideally, you want role-play, puzzle, and combat encounters in the same adventure.
c) Oppurtunity for everyone to shine. If the module has alot of undead, you almost have to have traps, not because its a trope, but because undead are immune to sneak attack. Expanding on 'b', there should be oppurtunities for diverse skills to matter and obstacles that can be overcome by several different approachs. There should also be obstacles that deprecate one particular approach in favor of one of several others (ex. you can't easily fight it, but you can run away, sneak past it, or talk to it).
d) There should be good plotting, including what to do when the plot goes astray, and sufficient spare clues that if some are missed the plot trail won't go completely cold.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I agree that maps are a big deal. I love nice maps.

But I'd like to see adventure publishers actually give us maps that we can use to run the encounters on. Either poster maps, or just the option to download high-resolution 1" square scaled versions of all of the maps in the adventure from their website.

I love pretty maps in an adventure, but I hate the fact that I don't generally have any way to provide that gorgeous map for my players to actually run around on. I hate drawing out maps myself, and having them look ugly compared to what's in the book.

This is one of the greatest strengths to using a digital projector on the tabletop for RPG play. You actually project the map in the module dirctly on to the projection surface at the correct scale. No ink cost, either. You play right on top of the projected image.

When Paizo was publising Dungeon Magazine, they included copies of the maps in the module as part of the web enhancement download for the issue - including a version of the map without any map key on it. So that way, you could project a map down without numbers or letters obscuring the map.

Problem was, the web enhancements took time to do and were frequently delayed. People bitched about the delays. Etc.. It was a lot of work for Paizo to do -- and when Dungeon ended there were some concerned moments at Paizo whether they would even continue in business. Time and staff for freebies like free web enhancements for products they weren't even dure would sell was a luxury the could not affort at the time.

Things have improved greatly in the past three years - but funny enough, they seem to be awfully busy beavers there still.

I wish they would add the maps which appear in the module as an appendix to the PDF version of the module. Not new maps mind you - just the same maps as are shown in the product, without the map key layer.

Even still, projecting maps from within .pdf versions of the product (or scan them if you must) works great. I highly recommend it -- as I have been recommending for many years now on ENWorld.

 

[firesnakearies]

This is one of the greatest strengths to using a digital projector on the tabletop for RPG play. You actually project the map in the module dirctly on to the projection surface at the correct scale. No ink cost, either. You play right on top of the projected image.

This idea greatly intrigues me. How difficult and expensive is it to get this set up?

 

[Beginning of the End]

I love pretty maps in an adventure, but I hate the fact that I don't generally have any way to provide that gorgeous map for my players to actually run around on. I hate drawing out maps myself, and having them look ugly compared to what's in the book.

Ditto.

I don't mind completely utilitarian maps. But if you're going to spend the money to develop a graphically attractive map, then in the modern I age I think it's actually insane to NOT offer at least digital versions in a resolution to support battlemap printing or projection.

 

[Steel_Wind]

This idea greatly intrigues me. How difficult and expensive is it to get this set up?

The cost has dropped a lot over the years. The original thread is below -- though the original pics I posted are gone from the server. Many others have posted in that thread later so tht will give you a feel for it.

Cost has dropped a lot. You can get a used projector off of e-bay for about $300-$400 easy. Sometimes less than that/ New models can now be had for $600 or less. There is a Samsung L220 for $499 (NEW) with warranty currently which would serve admirably. Contrast is a little low - so blacks aren't as black as you might prefer if you were watching a movie with it. But you're gaming with it. It will be fine

Short strokes: you want an XGA Projector with 1024x768 resolution at least, with a brighness of at least 1800 and preferably 2200 ANSI.

Throw length and other technical issues are discussed within the thread. It's a LONG thread - but do yourself a favor and read through it.

Coolest. Gaming Set-up. Evar.

 

[GlassJaw]

MAPS!!!!!!!!

Agreed, it's all about the maps.

By the way, what's Christopher West up to? I'll admit, I haven't been keeping up on the latest and greatest Pathfinder modules but next to Ed Bourelle, he's been my favorite cartographer, all the way back to Shackled City.

I'd love to see more stuff from him.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Agreed, it's all about the maps.

By the way, what's Christopher West up to? I'll admit, I haven't been keeping up on the latest and greatest Pathfinder modules but next to Ed Bourelle, he's been my favorite cartographer, all the way back to Shackled City.

I'd love to see more stuff from him.

Chris West is still making maps -- though the loss of the DDM and SW Minis line has hurt his bottom line a little.

He's operating his own map sales site at Maps of Mastery.

Chris will be attending at Gencon this year according to the current artist attendees list.

Chris posted two pics of a new Star Wars themed double side poster map he is creating for use with the Star Wars: Saga Edition RPG just this past week actually. I mean...for a generic sci-fi RPG game you might choose to play with miniatures during the combat portions of the game. *ahem* You can see samples of the forthcoming poster map here and here

Chris was a guest on the Order 66 Podcast a few months ago in February. He talks at great length about his maps and methods and what he's got coming up in the future. Link to the podcast is here.

 

[grufflehead]

One thing I value in modules is when they include multiple solutions to a single problem, and providing possible/likely ways to deal with the challenges, or side bars with information like "What if my PCs do X instead of Y?" Always helpful, gives the feeling of more forethought, and shows how to easily fit the module for your needs, and for the always-unpexpected twists your party will throw at you.

This article on writing mystery scenarios is quite a nice idea. Called the '3 clue rule', as the name implies if there is a key point in the game where you need the PCs to do something, don't only give them one way to figure it out; give them 3 to increase the chances they will resolve it successfully ie they get to where *you* want them to be, without having them wander about off piste and then have to work hard to herd them back onto the path. Expanding it to include any type of adventure where the characters need to complete a series of tasks or challenges, allowing alternate solutions (and clever play) should be encouraged.

 

[James Jacobs]

I often hear about games that extract the maps from our adventures (from the PDFs) and use them with a projector setup; it sounds like a great way to handle the problem of "missing battle maps."

We also produce a lot of map packs and fold-out flip maps, and sometimes incorporate them into adventures.

But actual printed battlemaps for EVERY encounter in an adventure? It's simply not economically possible.

As a thought experiment a while back, I took one of our Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes and figured out how many maps it would take to create a minis-scale map for every encounter area. Pathfinder AP #11 seemed a good example, since it provides a HUGE castle with lots of encounter areas. I did the math... and providing minis scale maps for every location in that adventure would have required the equivalent of 200 or so pages of full-color printing. Since we pay our cartographers by the size of the map, a map that large would have been PROHIBITIVELY expensive to pay for. Even if we pulled some sort of fast-talk swindle and payed the cartographer some super-low fee, the sheer size of the product would not only make it expensive to ship and store, but expensive for customers to buy.

And we do an Adventure Path installment every month.

The costs for such a project are, unfortunately, simply Too High.

That said, with technology going the way it is, we're rapidly approaching a time where it might become feasible to do something like offer high-res maps for use in projectors or iPads or giant electronic gaming tables. We're not really at a point in time where that kind of gaming resource is ubiquitous enough to justify a product line yet, and it doesn't solve the problem of the fact that such huge maps still have to be created (and paid for), though.

 

[James Jacobs]

Also, on maps: beautiful maps are nice, but in the end, I'm just as happy with DCC's blue-and-white maps as I enjoy the rendered maps from Paizo and the like. After all, most of the time only the DM gets to see those maps anyways.

Maps do more than just inform the GM about the battlefield and give him a blueprint for something to create in play for the players to move their minis around on though.

They serve as art, and help to break up text flow on a page so that it's easier to read (page after page of solid text with no breaks is much more exhausting to read).

They make the product look better to someone who's glancing through the book and thus make it more likely that a casual browser will purchase the product.

And even if the reader/GM is the only one who ever gets to see the map... I'm okay with that since GMs deserve perks now and then! After all... they're the window by which players get to see what we're doing with our adventures, and if a GM thinks what we've produced is ugly or slipshod or that we just don't care enough about our products to make them as pretty as possible, we run the risk of that coloring the GM's presentation of the adventure to his players.

I'd MUCH rather be in the position of a GM saying to his players, "Wow, this map looks SO COOL; it's really too bad I can't show it to you during the game!" rather than having him say, "Ugh... this map is hideous. I can't even figure it out. Screw it, I'll just make something up instead. Why did I buy this lame adventure?"