D&D General Where do you design your adventures?

[atanakar]

I design my adventures in three locations. My gaming room, but it is in the basement. When the days are short in Winter, I like to set up at the kitchen table in the sunlight. I also do story elaboration in my head before falling aspleep or in the morning when I wake up.

 

[prabe]

I spend most of the week-and change between gaming thinking about things, turning things over in my head, sometimes working on some part of the setting where the characters aren't.

Then, a day or so before the session, I sit at the table in the game room and write stuff down in a desperate rush to be at least somewhat ready when I sit down to game.

 

[iserith]

I prepare my adventures in my home office. I'm usually working on three projects at a time and I take a little bite off each one every day - write one blurb or encounter, design one monster, flesh out some chamber or whatever. When one adventure is complete, I add a new one to the pipeline. I find this works better than trying to rush through one adventure at a time and losing steam halfway through.

 

[Fenris-77]

My place isn't big enough to have a gaming room, or a living room separate from the kitchen, or a basement of any kind like all the houses where I live. It can be a little cramped at times. I mostly work on the couch for research, reading and doodling, and at the kitchen table for writing stuff down. I'm pretty old school too in that I like to do the initial design work with pencil and paper.

 

[Oofta]

Not sure I really design "adventures" in a traditional sense, but it can really be just about anywhere. Have a conversation with an npc in my head to get a sense of who they are or if I want to have specific mannerisms or speech patter while I'm trying to get to sleep at night for example.

So the overall picture or encounter/place/npc concept comes together just about anywhere. If I have some brilliant thoughts (pretty rare) I may jot down something in my evernote app. But for the most part I just wait until I get home in front of a computer and type up notes.

Once I'm sitting in front of a computer I type up my notes in a semi-coherent fashion along with determining details such as specific monsters and numbers for encounters. I also go back after the session and jot down some after-session notes. So most of the real work is in our home office, the overall story is just about anywhere.

 

[DND_Reborn]

The popular "In front of the computer at home" is redundant for me, personally, since whether I am in the basement (aka Game Room), living room, or bedroom, all three are with my computer in front of me.

 

[ccs]

I checked everything but the hot tub. And if I had a hot tub I'd have checked that also.

Most of the work is done in my head - so I can do it almost anywhere anytime.
Very often though lying in bed before I fall asleep though.

When I write stuff down?
*Often curled up in my favorite chair on Wed evening.
*Sometimes over breakfast/lunch at my local Denny's (a diner chain here in the U.S.)

 

[atanakar]

My place isn't big enough to have a gaming room, or a living room separate from the kitchen, or a basement of any kind like all the houses where I live. It can be a little cramped at times. I mostly work on the couch for research, reading and doodling, and at the kitchen table for writing stuff down. I'm pretty old school too in that I like to do the initial design work with pencil and paper.

I do everthing by hand by choice, to get away from the screens. I only use the computer to communicate with the players via Messenger and our FB group private page. I find that if I write or draw on the computer I elaborate too much instead of remaining somewhat vague. I helps my improvise more during the sessions.

 

[Oofta]

I do everthing by hand by choice, to get away from the screens. I only use the computer to communicate with the players via Messenger and our FB group private page. I find that if I write or draw on the computer I elaborate too much instead of remaining somewhat vague. I helps my improvise more during the sessions.

So what you're saying is that you can read your own handwriting? Not all of us are so gifted!

 

[atanakar]

So what you're saying is that you can read your own handwriting? Not all of us are so gifted!

Benefits of an eduction at the design school.

 

[Fenris-77]

So what you're saying is that you can read your own handwriting? Not all of us are so gifted!

Umm, sorta. My design flow just works better with a pencil. I do a lot of interconnected lists and mind maps with little blurbs throw in. I don't think those notes would mean anything to anyone but me though.

Hmm, quoted the wrong post. Mea Culpa. @atanakar - your thoughts and mine are as one.

 

[prabe]

I find gaming works best when it's pen or pencil on paper. I write my pre-session notes in pen; I do transitory work and character sheets (when I play) in pencil. I write setting stuff on my computer, because it's the only way anyone else could read it.

 

[David Howery]

the last time I was an active DM... I used to design them at the kitchen table. Because I was living in a pretty small and cramped trailer, and it was the only space big enough to spread out my books and papers...

 

[Oofta]

One of the reasons I write my notes down electronically is so that I can find them later. I keep a copy of everything and just name it so I can figure out when it happened in the story. So Advent_6.2 is the second adventure while the party was 6th level. If I get ambitious I also go back and copy/paste into a who's-who and what's-what document so that I can amaze my players when I can "remember" that NPC from 6 months ago.

I used to be able to keep all that stuff in my head but now that I'm getting old I can't ... wait what was I talking about?

 

[prabe]

One of the reasons I write my notes down electronically is so that I can find them later. I keep a copy of everything and just name it so I can figure out when it happened in the story. So Advent_6.2 is the second adventure while the party was 6th level. If I get ambitious I also go back and copy/paste into a who's-who and what's-what document so that I can amaze my players when I can "remember" that NPC from 6 months ago.

I used to be able to keep all that stuff in my head but now that I'm getting old I can't ... wait what was I talking about?

I've mentioned it elsewhere, but my wife games in both the campaigns I run, and she takes excellent notes, and she shares those notes online. I don't have to take notes when I'm running, which frees up a lot of brainspace.

 

[Oofta]

I've mentioned it elsewhere, but my wife games in both the campaigns I run, and she takes excellent notes, and she shares those notes online. I don't have to take notes when I'm running, which frees up a lot of brainspace.

Whereas my wife takes great written notes. So yes, sometimes I read through her notes, if nothing else to see if I was being clear on what I was describing.

At least I can read her hand writing.

 

[prabe]

Whereas my wife takes great written notes. So yes, sometimes I read through her notes, if nothing else to see if I was being clear on what I was describing.

At least I can read her hand writing.

My wife takes notes in pen and then types them up. Which is good, because I can't read her handwriting.

 

[Oofta]

My wife takes notes in pen and then types them up. Which is good, because I can't read her handwriting.

If my mom ever wrote anything for my wife, I'd have to be the interpreter. She'd look at me funny trying to understand how I could read what was basically a flat line with a few gaps, a bit of a bump and some loops here and there. I inherited my handwriting from my mom.

 

[DemonSlayer]

Lots of work on Google Docs, either at home or work.

 

[pogre]

Lots of work on Google Docs, either at home or work.

Me too. Lately, I have done a lot of work at my son's wrestling tournaments on my phone. Map work and props are all done in my gaming room though.