Research for Adventure writing..

[Scribble]

So... The other day I came up with an idea for a new campaign I might start in a bit. Well, it's set in modern day, with an X-Files sort of theme going on... I'm going to base it in Philadelphia, because well, I live nearbye so that's where I tend to be a lot of my time, and consequently I know it pretty well.

Well... While designing the intro adventure I started doing research looking more on the history of philly, so that I can tie in real names and events and historical locations.

Does anyone else do this when working on adventures? If so how much research do you do?

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Does anyone else do this when working on adventures? If so how much research do you do?

For a game set in a real world setting like Philly, I'd probably do anywhere from 10-20 hours of initial research for a campaign. Then I'd do more on an ongoing basis as it became necessary.

For a oneshot, not more than 2-4. Mainly getting maps, bits of useful history, and locations down pat.

 

[Crothian]

for modern settings I'll do this, for fantasy setting I do research but it is more into gaming books and other fantasy oriented books.

 

[diaglo]

for each hour of gameplay per session i do about 4 hours of research/preparation.

both as a player and as a referee.

 

[barsoomcore]

Sure! Research is fun. For my Skull & Bones campaign I did TONS of research -- reading up on pirate activity, ships, the Caribbean islands and all that.

For my Stewardesses game the research was already done -- years and years of watching classic wuxia was all the research I needed.

Barsoom has been going on for five years now, so I spend nearly as much time going through my notes as I do generating new material.

For one-shots I don't usually do more than a couple of hours of research. Though for a WWII game I haven't yet run I did a lot more than that. But it was fun research.

Research is one of the things I enjoy about DMing.

 

[TheLostSoul]

It varies greatly and depends on wether I run a historial/modern campaign or a fantasy one. I seldomly research fantasy campiagns although I draw heavily on previous researched material. For an upcomming campaign (mythological/historical) I am doing a lot of research, though (some of it is also on my curriculum for this semester).

For modern/historical campaigns I tend do some research. I might read a few books on the subject and look at the available internet sources. I believe it amounts to anywhere from 2 to 10+ hours of research.

When writing one-shot scenarios it tends to vary greatly and I often use previously researched topics. I generally use either homemade locations for these or places that I believe non of my players have been to, to avoid them catching most errors

 

[Silver Moon]

I do major research for my western campaign. Set in Arizona in 1882, it uses combined D&D/Boot Hill rules. So far I've tossed in lots of historical characters and places that I've researched on the internet. Makes for a more exciting and also realistic story.


http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=99053

 

[fusangite]

When I create a campaign I spend dozens, probably over 100 hours researching. But then that's it. I do tiny minute amounts of research once the game is underway because I have all the photocopied and downloaded data and I can focus on making the world real. So, maybe if people go to an unexpected place or the players interpret something in an unexpected way, I might do 1-2 hours of online research or grab one book from the library.

I don't do different amounts of research depending on genre; I do about the same amount of research for a fantasy setting as for a modern-day on. In fact, I probably do more for those settings.

 

[grodog]

So... The other day I came up with an idea for a new campaign I might start in a bit. Well, it's set in modern day, with an X-Files sort of theme going on... I'm going to base it in Philadelphia, because well, I live nearbye so that's where I tend to be a lot of my time, and consequently I know it pretty well.

Well... While designing the intro adventure I started doing research looking more on the history of philly, so that I can tie in real names and events and historical locations.

Does anyone else do this when working on adventures? If so how much research do you do?

Scribble, I'm originally from Merchantville (near Cherry Hill), and Philly figured largely in one of the Vampire campaigns I ran several years ago. I've got a bunch of pointers I could send you that would be useful; if you're interested, let me know and I'll see what I can dig up when I return from my holiday vacation.

Depending on the focus of your campaign, you may also want to read some more specific books. For example, Pagan Publishing printed an excellent CoC modern book set in the Delta Green universe that details the true history of the Philadelphia Experiment; the OOP book is entitled Delta Green Eyes Only Volume Three: Project Rainbow, and is going to be reprinted again when the stars are right. You may also want to read a good biography of Ben Franklin, or check out Weird NJ/Weird PA (see http://www.weirdnj.com/ and http://www.weirdpa.com/MainPage.html), for other ideas.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Doing research for modern settings is great. Too bad not lots of research can be done for a fantasy setting as rules of history don't really apply.

I run a Mutants & Masterminds game and I find when designing bad guys, I like looking at psychology, diseases and a wide variety of things that makes the person tick. For adventures I research the criminal element and pop culture issues to see if anything like that generates ideas.

I am fond of the Batman style of 'Theme Villains' and researching a bunch of themes can be a lot of fun to see what can be created for the situation.