Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
Hmm, sounds interesting. I just may have to get my hands on the Book of Broken Dreams. I don't have much difficulty constructing adventures, but every resource helps the construction a little easier. Thanks!
PDF products I'd like to see
- Thread starter Nellisir
- Start date
Nellisir
Hero
I think there are better and worse methods of designing or constructing an adventure, though no perfect method, and a well-written and COMPLETE guide would be a good thing. Adventure design is really two things (like all RPG design) mechanics & story, and an adventure should take both into equal consideration.
For example, I designed alot of dungeons/adventures rather haphazardly. I had the story figured out, how the characters got into it (the stick) and what they got out of it (the carrot), and I'd just fill in the middle with whatever seemed appropriate. The players never noticed, but it played havok on my ability to predict how much XP they'd get out the whole affair (useful as I was usually planning one or two adventures ahead) and the proper allotment of treasure.
Towards the end of the campaign, I started looking at the mechanics as a goal-oriented process. I'd assign each adventure a "level", reflecting how many levels (or partial levels) the characters should gain by the time they were through. This gave me a much firmer target number of encounters and treasure throughout the course of the adventure, and I could make up a fixed number of encounters to match. It also freed me up from static dungeon maps -- I knew I wanted the PCs to encounter the orcs and the gnolls, but the terrain in between was something I could make up on the fly (with a few guidelines).
It's not a process that'd work for everyone, but it simplified my life and actually enhanced the campaign storyline.
Cheers
Nell.
For example, I designed alot of dungeons/adventures rather haphazardly. I had the story figured out, how the characters got into it (the stick) and what they got out of it (the carrot), and I'd just fill in the middle with whatever seemed appropriate. The players never noticed, but it played havok on my ability to predict how much XP they'd get out the whole affair (useful as I was usually planning one or two adventures ahead) and the proper allotment of treasure.
Towards the end of the campaign, I started looking at the mechanics as a goal-oriented process. I'd assign each adventure a "level", reflecting how many levels (or partial levels) the characters should gain by the time they were through. This gave me a much firmer target number of encounters and treasure throughout the course of the adventure, and I could make up a fixed number of encounters to match. It also freed me up from static dungeon maps -- I knew I wanted the PCs to encounter the orcs and the gnolls, but the terrain in between was something I could make up on the fly (with a few guidelines).
It's not a process that'd work for everyone, but it simplified my life and actually enhanced the campaign storyline.
Cheers
Nell.
DaveStebbins said:
I thought about putting a disclaimer in the first post (ie. It's just an analogy. I know that fiction and adventures are NOT the same) but I figured, "Nah, you worry too much, save yourself from carple tunnel."
DaveStebbins
First Post
I figured you knew what you were doing, but there are so many people who read the boards at EN World, and I've been through so many railroad adventures from DMs who love fantasy novels, I thought it was worth adding a clarification. I hope I didn't offend you.MatthewJHanson said:
-Dave
DaveStebbins said:
No offense taken. I've had similar DMs.
How about a book of treasure hordes? Say 2-5, one dragon, one orc or goblin, one human bandit camp, one troll, one delver and/or one demon. The individual items don't have to include new ones (there is a ton of OGC items out there). It would be nice to look over a horde that is mostly non-coins.
aco175
Legend
I always thought that supplements that made the DM's life easier would be best. They might not sell the most copies though, as they are limited to basically just the DM's. How about something that takes all of the books and supplements that are out there and lists them by topic. Maybe some of the site where you can buy books do this, but many of the ideas people have listed here are ones that I have not seen in places like rpgshop or drivethru. I know nobody would want to buy a list of pdf's, and maybe companies wouldn't want to provide their own competition, but something like that would be helpful.
As far as what I would like to see; I guess things that help the DM and could be helpful to players. Supplements that could be divided into two parts. I liked what one of the monster books did with providing skill checks for 'secret' information about new monsters.
How about a program for comming up with characters/ npc's that is easy to use and simple enough. I know there are several out right now that are useful, but nothing is quite what I'm looking for. Heck, I do not know if it is even possible to have what I'm looking for.
Have one side of the moniter screen be a blank monster or character sheet and the other side be a list of atributes and monsters and templates. Allow for draging and droping the monsters and templates onto the sheets. You could have a pop-up for magic items and spells that would update the sheets when you drop new thing on. Like I said, I'm not sure if this is even possible and how much work it would take, but I would buy it, especially if I could change the layout of the sheets.
As far as what I would like to see; I guess things that help the DM and could be helpful to players. Supplements that could be divided into two parts. I liked what one of the monster books did with providing skill checks for 'secret' information about new monsters.
How about a program for comming up with characters/ npc's that is easy to use and simple enough. I know there are several out right now that are useful, but nothing is quite what I'm looking for. Heck, I do not know if it is even possible to have what I'm looking for.
Have one side of the moniter screen be a blank monster or character sheet and the other side be a list of atributes and monsters and templates. Allow for draging and droping the monsters and templates onto the sheets. You could have a pop-up for magic items and spells that would update the sheets when you drop new thing on. Like I said, I'm not sure if this is even possible and how much work it would take, but I would buy it, especially if I could change the layout of the sheets.
