Preferred Adventure Writing Medium?

[Bawylie]

I keep spiral notebooks with the name of whatever goes in them written in sharpie.

House rules, ideas, campaign settings, adventures. All of these are draft form. Done in pen on lined paper.

Anything for the players gets typed up, formatted, art-added in, and bound into 3-ring binders for them.

After play, I often re-evaluate my houserules, my systems, monsters, whatever. When I’m 100% that the idea works as written and intended, I type it up and save it. Whatever I’ve saved becomes the Law. The Law may replace, modify, or expand whatever is in the core books.

Sometimes, the Law is so old it persists across editions. Even across games. Sometimes something new comes along that demands a change in the Law. That’s rarer but it happens.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Pen and paper for the most part, 3-rig binder (small) notebook that has graph and note paper in it then put over to OneNotes or type up in Pages on my iPad

 

[Orius]

I like doing things in pencil and paper myself. Electronic organizes things better and there's the editing capabilities, but I've had too many computers and devices die on me. Google apps mitigate some of the problems with cloud storage and accessibility, and it's better to give the players electronic or printed documents anyway.

Maps I prefer doing by hand.

 

[Scott Christian]

I have found that I've been writing in digital form since my father bought our first computer back in the early/mid 80's (iirc, it was a 30mHz with 2mb RAM and a 40mb hard drive, with a 5.25" floppy drive). However, a couple years ago, when 5e came out, I found myself sitting on my porch with my new MM, DMG and PHB, a piece of graph paper and some simple ruled paper. I was enjoying the sun and smell and sounds of the pine trees and the stream running through my back yard, watching the squirrels running all over the place collecting pine cones....you know, typical summer day in the Yukon Territory living in a social housing apartment*.

At any rate...I REALLLY enjoyed the process. I'm sure the setting helped, but even in winter, with it dark out side for 18 hours of the day and temperatures hovering around -25C (-13F), writing at the table with paper and pencil is just...oddly relaxing. It takes a lot longer, sure, but I never feel "rushed". When typing in digital, sometimes I feel like I'm taking too long. Like I'm being lazy or taking short-cuts to get it "done with and over".

First, that is awesome! I visited the Yukon twice. Both times left an impression on me. What an explorers paradise.

As for writing, generally find a restaurant or pub. Sit outside. Pen and paper. And write for a few hours. These notes are ideas, outlines, good quotes, you name it. Sometimes during that process I will text out an idea to friends to see if they add to it.

Then the actual work begins. Sit down. Organize the notes. Begin writing on the computer. I have a template for each type of module.

• Adventures are short and no longer than ten pages. They are one shots. I call them map, mystery, monster. Basically, a hook, a unique battle map, and a new creature. These are designed to be placed anywhere. My last one was a bottle of wine with a label. The label had a map and one of the PC's happened to recognize the place. It's an adventure they can choose to go down or not.
• Quests are four to eight sessions. Generally run between 100-150 pages. They are supposed to create a complete story arc. There are pieces in there for character arcs as well. These are obviously labor intensive. They have unique magic items, monsters, an appendix, flow chart, multiple maps, etc. They all do stay in the same area though. My last one was the desert city of Ash Shazar and its surrounding area.
• Explorations are sandboxes. They detail the city proper using two to five paragraphs for each important shop, area, etc. It details the history, economics and geography of the city. Then the larger part details the wilds, the lands outside or under the city. They detail the mysterious, the uncharted - the deadly. I try to tie several of the wild areas to places within the city. For example, a frequent customer that doesn't talk at a pub that "lost their tongue" at the Roils, an area off the road near the rough river rapids. These run around fifty pages.

The last part is making the maps (I use Inkarnate) and adding graphics to the books. (I buy them at DriveThru. I also don't spend a ton of money. Mostly collections of black and white sketches.) I don't publish any of these, but do attempt to print several copies and mail them to gaming friends that I have moved away from throughout the years. Many of them have playtested, for lack of a better word, these adventures. They inevitably made them much better than they would have been had I been left to my own designs.

 

[Emirikol]

When I write, I write to publish in Fanzines. That means I do the entire official process from "How to use this adventure and for how much x.p." to the appe dices with monsters, dungeondraft maps, etc.

Im currently the editor in chief of the RATTER WFRP Fanzine and I get a kick out of how various authors do their layouts, etc.
The one thing that authors struggle with is NPC monologue.
The assume there will be a specific dialogue, when in reality it should be like a dungeon room description:never write as if the pcs are taking an action (including the phrase "you see..").

My own struggle for my home games (as Im busy and only use pre-written), is whether to use one or two Post-it notes for how to apply to the pcs.