Research for Adventure writing..

[Scribble]

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.

Nice I'm from Atco. Ever heard of it? Thanks for the tips, and yes if you wouldn't mind and you have a chance I'd love to take a look at what you have!

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.

Gotta love Batman! Themed villains are great. This campaign though I'm going for something a little different...

I'm trying to take real life events and kind of twist them, or pose a "what if" scenario. Like what if the Illuminati really DID play a part in the founding of the US... Then take real events and people and find ways in game to link them in some weird paranoid plot. So that way if my players decide to look up an event they'll see it actually happened... Just probably not for the reasons I'm inventing.

Also, another thing I'm going for is a sort of X-Files, was that really supernatural or just weird... Thing. I want my characters to meet up with villains and events that if you want to you could say was supernatural, but also could be explained logically if you were so inclined.

Hoping it won't be too hard...

 

[philreed]

Research is fun! I'm currently reading two books for an idea I had.

In the Wake of the Plague (Norman F. Cantor)
From the Brink of the Apocalypse (John Aberth)

It's gonna get nasty once I've connected my ideas with the research.

 

[Piratecat]

I did quite a bit of research on copper mines when I wrote Of Sound Mind; it was a fun way to start.

 

[The_Universe]

I tend to do less research for fantasy campaigns than I do for modern or future campaigns. However, I still like to make sure that my constructions for fantasy worlds are plausible, if not always realistic.

With modern, you rarely have that luxury. Everyone already knows so many more details about how the real world works that making something seem "plausible" is a much more difficult task.

But there are still ways to make it work, especially in a Dark Matter-esque game. The internet is a wonderful resource for ridiculous stuff - try www.coasttocoastam.com for starters. The "news" links are a precious source of weirdness from around the world.

You might also want to try to the Black Vault at www.bvalphaserver.com .

Loren Coleman (a cryptozoologist) also has a website out there somewhere - it's pretty good for stuff like this. I don't have the address, but google should turn it up.

Other than that, never be afraid to use your friend google. Search terms like "hollow earth" "atlantis" and "HAARP" all yield such glorious silliness that you'll never lack fro ideas.

 

[grodog]

Nice I'm from Atco. Ever heard of it? Thanks for the tips, and yes if you wouldn't mind and you have a chance I'd love to take a look at what you have!

OK, shoot me an email reminder, please, so that I'll dig up that stuff when I get back to CA. I haven't been to Atco, but IIRC it's about halfway to the shore, right?

 

[The Amazing Dingo]

Hey Scribble,

I was actually living in Philly not long ago and now live a little outside of the city, but had plans to run a d20 Modern game in Philly. Unfortunately the PCs decided to go a different direction with the game. So now I have it sitting off to the side and constantly add things to it whenever I come across them cause I know, sooner or later, I will be using it.

The best way I've done research is by traveling around the city. Philly has a rich history and the city does a half-way decent job of trying to publicize it. And by that, I mean more then just the Old Town. Everything from Rittenhouse (along Lincoln Drive) to the docks has areas with plaques and other types of historical write-ups concerning places of interest.

The next best thing I do is watch the news. There are many local news programs here that go into the community (I'm actually watching one right now on NBC) and provide you with all kinds of information concerning the community. It isn't quite as historical, but provides plenty of good plot ideas that are grounded in reality.

The next place is of course the newspaper and local magazines. The Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer has good amounts of information just ripe for RPing. The Philadelphia Magazine is also decent, but I do find I don't get as much out of there as I'd orignally believed I would.

The other thing I do is make it a point to go to the Barnes & Nobles and other bookstores and find a seat nearby their Local Section. Some of the best things I've found is information on Hauntings in the area. Everything from jails to old military posts that are full of history. I've also come across one or two local from the 19th century who headed up small local cults for a variety of reasons. All this was originally located the bookstore, though I did get some follow-up info in the Philadephia Public Library Main Branch and the Internet.

I think research is key for me since I love to ground my adventures in realism, especially in Modern d20. I've even clipped newspaper articles out of papers for later use and Philadelphia is *full* of weird things (from people stealing the heads out of graveyards twice within a year to several other strange phenomena).

Good Luck with everything! I know that, if I was a PC, I'd find the added realism to add great depth to the game and would find even more enjoyment in it. If you'd like anything more on anything I mentioned above (names, etc.) just throw me a line.

Again, good luck.

 

[Scribble]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! All in all thought I'm not really having trouble doing research... The question was more, is it strange that I'm going in depth...

What I mean is, say I have an adventure where an area is possibly haunted by spirits that died in a warehouse fire 150 years ago.

I could simply say, ok at such and such place 150 years ago there was a wearhouse fire.

But what I want to do is research where a REAL warehouse fire took place, and use that event.

On a larger scale though, because there will be conspiracies and possible supernatural activity.

Sort of like when an author writes a historical fiction, and you finish reading it and think.. man... maybe that actually DID happen...

That's how I want my players to feel.

But it seems like I'm not the only one into doing things this way.

 

[The Amazing Dingo]

I don't think its weird that you're going in depth with the research.

Concerning your example, I might look around for about 10-15 minutes for a warehouse fire that actually occured that long ago. If I didn't find anything, then so be it. If I did, then great. However, one thing I would make certain to do is to make sure that there is/was a warehouse on whatever address I am placing the current warehouse (assuming it might still be standing; if not, then I'd probably not worry about it quite so much but might dig around for 20-30 minutes for an old warehouse fire and then find whats standing there today).

 

[Warden]

This isn't entirely research, more like "inspiration."

Some historical research for a fantasy campaign can give you an idea that you can then accelerate and enhance to fit a magical style for your world. For example, I'm working on a town infested with undead for my own campaign and I did a bit of research on massive natural disasters that killed thousands of people. Learning about the local environmental effects such as pollution of drinking water and diseases such as dysentary and cholera were added to the game to add just a touch of realism and danger -- something that I wouldn't have thought of before.

Otherwise, research is just a search for ideas. In Campaign Options: Mazes, I skimmed through some books on mazes and jotted down a few notes, but never really went into grand detail and such. Might do that for Mazes II though...

 

[Psion]

I more research campaigns or story arcs into previously undeveloped section of the campaign than adventures. Though occassionally, I might pull out details for smaller parts of campaigns that feature prominently in a game (in my Second World game, I researched a little about PA and NY, places where the action was to occur but I have little first hand familiarity with.)