Preferred Adventure Writing Medium?

[pming]

Hiya!

I have a question to the DM's out there that write their own adventures/modules.

What is your generally preferred "medium" for writing them? All digital on a laptop/desktop? On a tablet sitting in the coffee shop? On dead-tree skin with poisonous metal? Psychic memory impressions on un-marred geode's? In your own blood on the backs of your slain enemies?

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".

I don't know. There's a lot to be said for ye ole quill and parchment method!

Anyone else do this? Write adventures/modules "by hand" nowadays?

*...yes, I know I'm spoiled in this regards; 'social housing' in Canada, Yukon in particular, is really good...TOO good if you ask me. Add in a ridiculously gorgeous wilderness everywhere you look and...well...yeah. Can't complain!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[ccs]

About 90% in my head.
About 10% written down (usually pen & paper, now & then typed up on a desk top - generally for any maps.)

Aside from maps, my written notes generally consist of collections of bullet points that wouldnt be very useful to anyone but me.

 

[uzirath]

I typically type up notes in a combination of outline and stream of consciousness in a Google Doc so I can get to it from any device. I also have an unlined notebook that I enjoy using when I want to get away from the screens. (At some point after college I realized that I dislike lined notebooks; blank pages just seem so much cleaner and more open to whatever I want to do with them.) Due to the many constraints on my time, though, my notes are rarely very thorough and are often nonexistent.

 

[Dave Goff]

It seems like every time has been different. Most recently I used an Excel workbook for jotting down thoughts. One tab was an outline for backstory points, one for encounter ideas, one for bigger homebrew setting concepts. These will go to a Word doc, probably, and then during game sessions I'll have a notebook of scribbled concepts that come up during a game free-style.
In the past, I would get ideas at work and jot them down in a little notebook and now I have a couple of crates of half-filled notebooks that I kind of regret every time I move.
Once I used Scribe an author software more used for novel-writing. It was handy but a bit more than I needed for the brainstorming phase.

 

[Richards]

I always type out the actual adventures on computer, but I do have an "idea notebook" where I do a lot of the planning for each adventure and which I reference when writing up the adventure. I have a separate graph paper notebook for maps, although I'll often doodle around on scratch paper before coming up with the finalized map layout (which then gets transcribed into the map notebook). Sometimes I come up with the adventure and then design the map as needed, and other times I come up with a map I like and then design the adventure around it.

Johnathan

 

[pemerton]

Today I rolled up some characters for Classic Traveller, writing them up with pen on paper.

 

[Retreater]

I make notes on Google Docs so I can update them whenever inspiration hits. I do my maps on old school graph paper.

 

[Jd Smith1]

MS word for the actual scenarios, which I transfer to an Ipad for the games. My 'GM screen' is One Note on my laptop.

Although we are a face to face game, we run combat on a virtual tabletop using MapTool; all the players bring laptops. My combat notes are on a boogie board, the NPC stat sheets are jpgs on my Ipad.

Other than a crib sheet for tracking honor (xp), everything is electronic format. I don't buy any game material that isn't in electronic format; it's been years since I bought a paper product.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'm a pencil and paper guy. I make a lot of mind maps. Rough drafting is a skill IMO. So I pour out ideas and play connect the dots. Then I winnow it down to the core ideas that really work. Then I add whatever detail is apporiate for the system, genre, and whatnot.

 

[aco175]

Lately I use the Word format from given out from DMsGuild for writing the encounters and story. I make maps with graph paper and insert them to the module. After I run the adventure through my home group as a playtest, I tend to format them a bit and post them on DMsGuild for everyone.