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ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CRG" data-source="post: 264420" data-attributes="member: 5867">When building stories - inside-out or outside-in - it helps if you can answer the question of "why?".  For instance.Had an idea for a story a while back for a D&D module.  It was called the "Entropy Machine".  The basic idea was that a mad wizard had created a machine in which the trapped essence of demons (very lawful) was used to power basically a huge wand of wonder (very chaotic).  That was a gimick.  From there, you build out in layers.  This is similar to the thread about the pig-farming-pirate going on over <a href="http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17894" target="_blank">here</a>.  Why in heavens would the adventures be there?Well, it helps if the mad wizard or whoever operates the machine now is some sort of threat, either by direct or indirect means.  Throw in a little town being terrorized with the population being carried off as fodder for experiments.  I like plot twists, so layer-in the fact that a group of adventurers has already tried to stop the menace some weeks back and never returned (and now are the undead animated slaves of the machine).  Throw in that the chief "fuel" at the moment is a powerful fiend and when he's freed, he's not hostile to the party - he's in their debt.  Another twist.  Now feel free to build the life of this mad wizard up a bit - maybe he's dead (or undead) now as well.  Maybe he's been turned into a pizza.  Either way, build all of this information.  For each of these twists and layers, make it possible for the party to figure these things out (at least after the fact).  Now you've got a basic story.  At this point you can "game it up".  You can go draw maps or install challenges as you see fit from here on.I took the same approach to the two submissions I sent into the setting search.  Start with a few things I'd call "gimicks" if standing on their own.  Layer out.  Make it more realisitic.  Throw in some twists.  Frankly, with each of my settings I had something indicating that basically in each of them some combination of the standard, fantasy stuff was around.  There are dragons and knights and kingdoms of elves and humans and dwarves, etc.   I think the fact they they are there is somewhat important (espescially if you want to play D&D) but really, as far as the story goes, I didn't "game anything up" in my setting proposals.</blockquote>

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