Scenarios & the “General Idea”

 “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.”

— Seneca

Everyone holds an opinion about roleplaying game adventure design, some quite vehemently, some quite inflexibly, some by ease of writing or preference for play outcomes at their own tables. Certain games encourage a particular format to which, understandably, writers try to adhere whether writing for the publisher or simply creating something familiar for fans. In the 50-year history of roleplaying games many adventure formats have emerged and evolved, sometimes tied to the ever-changing style of such games. Designing adventures can offer a somewhat displaced challenge; one essentially writes a kind of instruction manual for someone else to run themed action at the game table, a kind of toolkit to enabling a gamemaster to evoke a particular experience with players and their characters. Some prefer a step-by-step approach through encounters, others like a more free-form “sandbox” arrangement. Adventures require some degree of preparation from a gamemaster, even if it’s simply familiarizing themselves with a published game world...or jotting down notes of their own. I’ve done my share of designing and writing adventures, some for publication, others just for friends; lately I’ve been toying with different techniques, as I’ve mentioned before. Sometimes for games — as in other aspects of life — it helps to look at history, to see how others approached challenges, for insight on issues we face. I looked to roleplaying games’ pre-history, back in the days when wargaming slowly emerged from a Europe ravaged by Napoleon’s armies. And the idea of the scenario tied to a “General idea” seems core to designing an adventure serving as gamemaster resource for greater player agency.

Nouns & Scenario Design

 “It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

I’m enjoying a spate of adventure design and writing as I prepare a Pulp Egypt scenario for an upcoming convention game. I haven’t run a roleplaying game session in a while; it’s been a few years since I penned one (and that’s still not seen publication). But I’ve wanted to run a new Pulp Egypt adventure for a while and this idea had been percolating in the back of my head for a while. I’d thought of writing it as a D6 System solitaire adventure (much like Trapped in the Museum, but a bit longer), with the character pursuing a mystery around notable locations in Cairo, but I wasn’t ready for another fully involved programmed adventure. So when friends asked me to run something at this upcoming convention, I started putting ideas on the page. It all proved an opportunity to try something different with my scenario design and writing process.

Star Wars RPG Instant Adventures

I’m trying to jumpstart my work on a neglected system-neutral fantasy roleplaying setting and, in seeking inspiration to fuel some creative momentum, I’m looking at some of my favorite roleplaying game supplements for ideas and reviewing notes I’ve gleaned from others on relevant game design. My reading includes the Instant Adventures collection for West End Games’ D6 System Star Wars Roleplaying Game. Although filled with scenarios, its original design parameters offer some ideas on how I might approach developing and presenting my setting sourcebook – short, easily digestible sections with maps and sidebars to quickly orient readers – still useful 20 years later in our Internet Age of instant gratification and dwindling attention spans.

A Gaming Artifact from Trilemma

Artwork and production values in roleplaying game books vary greatly. They’re often constrained by the publisher’s limited budget, sometimes consuming even more financial resources than the actual content itself. Even then high production value and amazing artwork can’t make up for poor design and writing. Certainly Internet Age phenomena like Kickstarter and Patreon have enabled more creative people to release their gaming materials without the infrastructure of traditional print publishers...though quality on numerous fronts isn’t always consistent. But every once in a while a real gem emerges, something that satisfies on so many levels – substantive, graphic, qualitative – a treasure that stands out among the shelves of roleplaying game books. Michael Prescott’s Trilemma Adventures Companion Volume I is one of these amazing gaming artifacts.

Demonstrating Potential: Adventure Seeds & Outlines

I’m re-reading M.A.R. Barker’s novel Man of Gold and it’s drawing me back into the rich, complex, distinctly non-western roleplaying game world of Tekumel. I’ve discussed this setting before (“Tekumel: The Lands of Joyful Addiction”) and how, despite the vast depth of the game world, I can never quite dive into it at the gaming table, at least for very long. After some reflection I’ve identified several reasons for this, not necessarily limited to Tekumel but particularly to games with esoteric settings. They all feed my growing list of elements I feel necessary in a good roleplaying game core rules set beyond basic, intuitive, yet easily adaptable mechanics (no doubt fodder for future Hobby Games Recce posts). But I want to concentrate on one aspect often missing from the various incarnations of Tekumel-based roleplaying games that could help make them and other games more easily accessible: adventure seeds and outlines.

Multiple-Choice Dungeon Room Contents

I was almost out of junior high school when, while hanging out with some neighborhood kids, I watched them play Basic Dungeons & Dragons with module B2 The Keep on the Borderlands; it inspired me to create my own game along a similar vein (what eventually became Creatures & Caverns) before immersing myself into the officially published roleplaying game hobby. In the inaugural dungeon crawl for Creatures & Caverns I designed for the game I included several rooms with multiple possible contents. One sentence seemed to suffice for most entries. But a few descriptions looked something like this:

19) This room contains several cots, a table, and a bench.

a) The two Amazons here draw their swords and attack!

b) No sentries are present to guard a trunk sitting in the corner:

     1) The trunk is filled with 500 gold pieces.

     2) Six animated skeletons leap out and attack.*

* I have, of course, revised these somewhat so I don’t show off my extremely mediocre composition and spelling of the time.

The gamemaster could choose between given options, sometimes to reward or challenge players, or just to change the room contents from the last time they ventured into the dungeon.

Short & Sweet RPG Source Material

Every so often I’m possessed by the urge to ramble on about my growing preference for short yet substantive roleplaying game materials...so before proceeding down that perilous path yet again I’ll beg the pardon of those who’ve already suffered through previous musings here and here (and the most recent one about the One Page Dungeon Contest here). In my middle age, with family and house responsibilities consuming my time, focus, and energy, I prefer keeping things simple in my gaming, particularly roleplaying games. I’ve recently been exploring and enjoying a design movement – intentional in some cases, fortuitous in others – in which creators present useful game material in concise yet meaningful format.

I like to see concise yet intuitive mechanics, books that don’t range much past 32 pages, and settings that don’t require a thorough reading to understand the key points and tone. Sure, I’ve occasionally indulged and immersed myself in some particularly enticing games and worlds – most notably Wicked North Games’ Westward (to which I also contributed) and Monte Cook’s groundbreaking and award-winning Numenera – but I rarely have the time or focus to sit down and digest a 300-page rulebook or even a 96-page adventure. I want the enjoyment of reading (and possibly prepping and playing) an engaging scenario with brief encounter descriptions without all the blow-by-blow details with a rules engine that doesn’t require me to constantly consult the rulebook tome.

So I’ve happily indulged in a wealth of short yet substantive material available for fantasy roleplaying games, primarily those that might garner the label of “retro-clone” or “Old School Renaissance.” I’m not looking for terribly epic storylines or expansive location and character descriptions. I want a juicy tidbit that offers some original, entertaining game value and that, incidentally, I can drop into my own game setting or campaign. Some even inspire me in content and format. Here are a few worthwhile projects (some more current than others) I’ve found that really hit that sweet spot for my inner gamer who really prefers concise yet fulfilling material:

Dyson’s Dodecahedron: Dyson Logos’ website offers a wealth of resources for fantasy roleplaying games, primarily in the form of his wonderfully rendered maps, but also in short adventures, zines, and the Dyson’s Delves books. The maps, many adventures, and zines remain free downloads (or pay what you want on RPGNow.com); those willing to contribute to Dyson’s endeavors can pay for one of the extremely useful Dyson’s Delves books (in print or PDF) or contribute to his Patreon campaign to support his creation of new maps that eventually make their way to the Dodecahedron website. The adventures he offers on the site and in the Delves books demonstrate how – with one of his maps – one can easily craft an engaging dungeon-delving scenario with brief descriptions. I recently bought Dyson’s Delves II in PDF for the principle reason of having ready-to-print scenario materials; set up the print preferences properly and you can generate a one-page scenario with the map on one side and a lined space for handwritten notes on the other.

Micro Adventures: Tim Shorts, who blogs over at Gothridge Manor and produces The Manor zine, refined the concept of the “micro adventure” and as set out on a mission to produce several each month. In Tim’s own words:

A Micro Adventure is a small adventure made up of a few encounter areas and maybe one or two battles or problems. Micro Adventures set up other adventures. Or they can be used between or during larger quests. Micro Adventures are generic enough to fit into your campaign world with little to no adjustments.

Tim’s Micro Adventures fulfill my search for short and engaging game material to drop into a fantasy roleplaying setting. Need a side trip on the way to a larger adventure? Looking for an incident as a hook to something more substantial? Need a brief encounter to introduce new players to the concepts behind fantasy roleplaying games? Look no farther. Like many creators today Tim’s offering his Micro Adventures for free online through his Gothridge Manor blog and is seeking supporters to contribute financially to his efforts on Patreon.

OSR Zines: In my recent exploration of OSR zines I discovered a few brief adventures that appealed to my preferences for short game material. The printed zine format – limited to a finite number of pages for production purposes – forces scenario-writers to stick to a shorter format than, say, a rambling PDF with no restrictions on page count. Some zines expand on adventure elements in related articles, such as new character classes, locations, monsters, and treasures...all kept tight and tidy with the small page count.

One Page Dungeon Contest: I’ve already featured this growing, annual contest inspiring and highlighting perhaps the quintessential “short and sweet” roleplaying game scenario format. The contest gives newcomers and veterans the chance to offer a single-page adventure; while the quality of maps, writing, and content varies, the contest’s esteemed judges help showcase the best entries. A compendium of all entries from the current year provides a substantial collection of scenarios from which to choose...and the organizers are working to compile past years’ entries in similar volumes offered for free/pay what you want.

This commentary is in no way meant as a comprehensive survey of short game materials currently available; I’m highlighting short, substantive game resources I’ve encountered in my internet wanderings.

Like a good short story, writing short adventures presents some challenges to authors. They must impart a unique sense of setting and tone through concise textual notes. Each encounter should last only a few sentences yet must impart essential setting and gaming details as well as advance the action toward the climax. The short form eliminates some of the more verbose language readers frequently come to expect in published adventures and cuts to the chase: a brief introduction of hook, concise location descriptions, short monster stat listings, usually keyed to a small map. The format leaves little room for anything terribly epic in the writing, yet offers gamemasters and players ready-to-play scenarios requiring little preparation.

I surprised myself recently on the “short and sweet” game material front when drafting my recent“Gaming Artifacts: Islands in the Sea of Dread” blog post. The revision of a bland island setting I’d created in high school gave me a fulfilling sense of satisfaction. I had fun designing a map, briefly describing a few locations, and pulling together a “chance encounter” table. It came in at about 1,400 words – not quite as “short and sweet” as I’d like as a reader – but would probably run three or four pages if I took the time to lay it out, drop in some illustrations and the map, and turn it into a PDF. I suppose part of the pleasant surprise came from the feeling of writing something useful and thematic; yet, in the context of my preference for “short and sweet” material, I realize I not only like consuming this kind of game information but also enjoy creating it.

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Gaming Artifacts: Simple Magic Item Cards

Whenever I consult my old Moldvay-edition Basic D&D rulebook I fumble with a few small index cards tucked just within the front cover. Each one contains a simple “magic” item I’d devised long ago to help measly first-level characters increase their chances of surviving to second level and perhaps grow into interesting heroes instead of gooey splotches on the dungeon floor.

When I first began playing D&D in high school everyone accepted the high mortality rate for starting characters. The neighborhood kids and I spent many an afternoon simply sitting around rolling up a variety of characters we might like to play so we had a ready stash to feed into deadly adventures. After a while, though, when we played less frequently, we wanted to make our time count; so we put more effort into character concepts and thus felt more attached to them (even lovably stupid “Stonehead the Fighter,” whose Intelligence and Wisdom were minimized in favor of his Strength and Constitution). But the rules and published adventures remained biased toward tearing apart first-level characters until a few lucky ones made it through the low-level meat grinder.

In reading the Basic D&D rules again one day I recalled the “Inheritance” paragraph on page B13 and drew some inspiration from it. Our previous, low-level characters rarely had anything to bequeath to their adventurous heirs. But I thought perhaps new characters might have received some small, helpful gift before leaving home and setting out on the dangerous path of wandering glory seekers. So I devised some basic ideas short enough to fit on one side of a notecard and handed them to players once they’d rolled up starting characters. They were trinkets, really, with low-level powers (if any), but enough to offer an additional means of overcoming obstacles and, in some cases, helping to define the character with a tad more depth. I used them on several occasions – one-shot beginner adventures – and probably paired them with appropriate character classes. The descriptions remained brief; no doubt seasoned players could find wide and exploitable rules loopholes in them, but that wasn’t my intent (and we weren’t quite those kinds of players yet). I present them here with some editorial tidying to hide my juvenile writing style and mistakes:

Key & Whistle: A unique and large key has a whistle built into the staff. Although the key fits no lock, if blown loudly it opens any lock within a 30 foot radius (and possibly attracts some other attention...).

Dragon’s Head Walking Stick: A rather tall walking stick with a dragon’s head carved into the top knob has no magical power; however, if wielded by a magic user as if it were a powerful magic staff, monsters with 4+ or less hit dice have a 2 in 6 chance of running in fear, making later morale checks with a –2 penalty.

Lucky Fox Paw: If worn, rubbed, or otherwise trusted as a lucky talisman, the paw bestows a bonus of +1 to any die roll their character makes (limit once per day). For example, rubbing the paw and whispering “Come on, Foxpaw, this arrow really has to hit,” might give the player a +1 “to hit” bonus.

Ball of Light: A three-inch diameter glass ball emits bright white light in a 30 foot radius when removed from its thick leather bag. The glass ball is very fragile and breaks if dropped or otherwise mishandled.

Rusty Dagger: This rust-encrusted dagger is not magical, yet every living creature hit by it must save against poison or contract tetanus. The victim loses 1 point of Strength and Constitution per day until healed properly by a cleric or other means.

Talking Money Bag: An ordinary looking money sack occasionally talks, saying such things as “Thank you” if a coin is put in, “Don’t spend too much” if money is removed, and “Help! Somebody’s stealing me!” if stolen. It only speaks when something happens to it. (This was clearly inspired by my reading of Tolkien’s The Hobbit and the brief appearance of the troll’s talking purse.)

Some of these items – most notably the Dragon’s Head Walking Stick – seemed ideal for rampant abuse. But even at this early stage in my game-design development I’d realized small boons like these required some drawbacks, as demonstrated in such items as the Key & Whistle, Ball of Light, and Talking Money Bag (which opened the door for lots of gamemaster mischief...). In reviewing these little treasures so many years later I also realize they’re weighted heavily to benefit non-fighter classes by their mostly non-combat functions.

I’m not engaging in on the debate about whether high character mortality is “right” for any particular kind of gaming style. Do the Old School Renaissance (OSR) and retro-clones foster a lethal style of gameplay or is there room for more character growth in the meat-grinder stage? Should characters (and to some degree new players) get used to low-level character death as part of the game’s learning experience? Should gamemasters religiously adhere to rules, even if they’d result in the death of a beloved character, or is some degree of “fudging” the rules acceptable to ensure survival of some near-death drama? Certainly the debate ranges beyond these artificially defined bounds. The choice remains subjective; some folks like roleplaying games where “survival of the fittest” remains paramount and revel in the hideous demise of their characters, while others prefer to build carefully crafted heroes toward deeper development.

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B2 & X1: The Original Sandbox Adventures

The roleplaying game community has long waged a contentious debate over linear “railroad” and more free-form “sandbox” style adventures. For those looking for inspiration or guidance writing a setting-driven scenario – or who aspire to veer their adventure-writing styles toward such fare – the classic Basic Dungeons & Dragons modules B2 The Keep on the Borderlands and X1 The Isle of Dread serve as ideal examples from the earliest days of the adventure gaming hobby.

I’m guilty of writing what many might label “railroading” adventures, though I consider them more based on linear plots with episodic encounters that still allow for variable approaches from characters and some alternate outcomes (a point I’m sure loyal readers would love to argue); many games for which I’ve written use cinematic settings which focus more on plots rather than sandbox-style settings. As a writer I come from a more narrative, story-oriented background, a style I fall back on when visualizing and creating scenarios. In my occasional urge to broaden my horizons and try new things I found myself looking at the B2 and X1 D&D modules, satisfying early gaming experiences as filtered through the foggy lens of nostalgic memory – to see what elements made a good sandbox adventure.

One might more accurately describe this scenario dichotomy as those based on plotted encounters (necessarily linear in the style of a story) and others focusing on vast settings offering more freedom of action, with players and their heroes determining any “plot” based on their interaction with locations and non-player characters. Where the “railroading” adventure relies on plotted outline with encounters based on places and characters, the “sandbox” scenario creates a vast, interactive environment based on the premise that heroes might wander anywhere to encounter anything and anyone fitting the environment’s general theme. This requires a bit more development than fleshing out a story-based outline containing mostly the relevant locations and adversaries necessary to move action from one plot-point to the next. It’s not to say such adventures contain no plot at all; they present thematic environments for heroes to explore, working through encounters and exposing small plots along the way in more generally thematic rather than story-driven play.

B2 The Keep on the Borderlands offers a rich adventuring locale with three distinct elements: the keep, which provides a base of operations for characters and a “civilized” place for intrigues; the Caves of Chaos, a warren of demi-human lairs and a temple of evil for heroes to explore and clear out; and a few secondary locations for further adventures (the hermit, bandit camp, lizardman mound, spiders, and even something for gamemasters to populate themselves, the Caves of the Unknown). The environment offered players lots of options within the premise of seeking adventure on the wild borderlands: dungeon crawls through creature lairs, occasional forays into the wilderness (possibly to foil plots to destroy the keep), and interaction/conspiracy with the keep’s residents. I have vague recollections of character plots to break into the loan bank or private apartments to steal valuable items from the keep’s denizens, few of which ended successfully.

X1 The Isle of Dread flips the paradigm in in the Basic/Expert D&D format from dungeon crawl with surrounding wilderness to an entire wilderness environment with a few dungeon crawls. Combining elements from King Kong and The Lost World with typical D&D fare, it offers an entire tropical island to explore in what some might come to call the “hex crawl” style: the party of adventurers exploring one hex after another, clearing out wandering monsters, finding clues to fuel their interest, and resolving set location encounters. Along the way they find several mapped areas, including the climactic dungeon crawl at the center of the island. As in B2, X1 provides a native village as a convenient base of operations, though nothing as stable and secure as the good old keep on the borderlands. My gaming group of neighborhood kids didn’t spend too much time exploring the Isle of Dread; but we did put the two-page spread map of the Known World (later known as Mystara) to good use. Characters hired a ship and crew and spent after-school afternoons sailing the Sea of Dread, fighting off wandering sea creatures and exploring the disparate islands scattered between the Thanegioth Archipelago and the civilized kingdoms in the north.

Both modules provide complete adventuring environments: a region to explore, specific locations (both broad encounters and detailed dungeons), and a base for resupply and recuperation (and perhaps some additional intrigue). Gamemasters have plenty of territory in which to create their own encounters. The modules make some assumptions about the heroes’ reasons to adventure in these areas – usually general exploration, conquest, and plunder – though some might consider these basic premises for involving characters in local quests “railroading.”

Still, once one gets past the premise for heroes entering a location, the encounters and dungeon crawls (and even wandering monsters) provide a structured environment for free exploration with a greater illusion of free will.

B2 and X1 provide solid guidelines for creating open “sandbox” adventuring environments:

1) Start with an interesting region filled with potential scenario-hook locations and a general reason to explore it.

2) Establish a base from which the heroes can venture, someplace that provides a safe haven for resupply and recuperation, a home for interesting allies and covert adversaries, and a strategic asset to defend from enemies.

3) Populate the area with general encounters that don’t require a map (or can use a generic one); they should include one or two paragraphs of notes and necessary stats or references, but aren’t full-fledged dungeon crawls.

4) Create a few fully developed dungeon crawls. These might prove pivotal to a greater “meta-plot” of the region or might simply fit the area’s general theme.

As I’ve discussed before, the designers of the Pathfinder Beginner Box offered a briefly outlined environment focused on Sandpoint – the heroes’ base town – and its surroundings where the set’s initial adventures took place (both the programmed player and gamemaster scenarios); descriptions of a few other locations and a handful of plot hooks offered some inspiration for further adventures. In my own game-design endeavors, I’ve outlined (regrettably in text only, no map...yet) a region for my own future fantasy roleplaying game adventures; it includes a base and several broadly described locations, with the two as-yet unreleased dungeon crawls set there.

I’m sure many products since adventure gaming’s earliest efforts have followed their examples and offered exemplary adventuring environments. Most fall under the category of source material rather than adventure module. Setting resources like the Thieves’ World boxed set, the Cyberpunk 2020 Night City sourcebook, and the D6 Star Wars supplement Galaxy Guide 7: Mos Eisley come to mind, though they serve more to create rich adventuring environments rather than general and more detailed scenarios (though they’re rife with plot hooks). Perhaps such fare remains more appropriate to core or introductory products where designers seek to offer a sample adventuring environment representative of the kind of action the game strives to create. For those seeking more open-ended, “sandbox” play instead of plot-driven “railroading” scenarios, such formats can provide themed environments further defined by the characters’ explorations and the gamemaster’s creativity.

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The One Page Dungeon Contest: Short & Sweet

I’m an advocate for brevity (though my writing rarely demonstrates that). I prefer game rules (both in mechanics and presentation) on the short and simplistic end of the spectrum given my lack of time and focus in a hectic life – a subject I’ve previously discussed here – though I have in my more than 30-year history of gaming indulged in “tome” games for both reading pleasure and actual play. So I’ve watched the past few years’ One Page Dungeon Contests with great delight because they not only showcase some outstanding, system-neutral short adventures but generate a host of free material for the gaming community every year.

I love short scenario material, whether a full-fledged dungeon crawl or some in-universe source prop with adventure hooks. Way back during the 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons days TSR released several Deck of Encounters sets, boxes filled with oversized cards containing brief adventure elements keyed by location and difficulty level; I actually used one during solo play when the gaming scene in my life seemed slow. Some TSR boxed sets also contained one-page scenarios or adventure hooks with related player handout props. R. Talsorian’s Cyberpunk 2020 contained a section of adventure hooks with a “screamsheet” on one side – a one-sheet fax newspaper reporting on key events in the Night City setting, typical of what characters might find – with related scenario ideas on the other. The company used another concise strategy with its Castle Falkenstein game, offering one-page adventure outlines providing the extreme basics of set-up and plot along with brief stats for key allies and adversaries.

I’ve admired the One Page Dungeon Contest from afar for years, though I’ve never entered. I’ve tried to craft an interesting dungeon experience on one page; it’s quite a formidable challenge. The best I’ve managed – combining an adequate adventure with the constraints of one page – ended up being a whopping two pages: Labyrinth of Set, a Pulp Egypt scenario available for free/pay-what-you-want at DriveThruRPG. Creating an adventure with an engaging concept, enticing introduction, and challenging encounters in one page (including a map) seems a daunting exercise in clear, concise writing and tight game design. The contest entries, of course, range across a wide spectrum of quality, theme, presentation style, artistic finesse, and layout. It takes a lot of courage to submit one’s work, whatever it’s comparative quality, to such a very public forum. The contest offers a good opportunity for aspiring game writers to “get published” and gain some recognition for their work.

An esteemed panel of judges determines the most outstanding of all the entries, but all submissions receive recognition and online publication thanks to a creative commons license. This year’s judges include such game-industry notables as Ernie Gygax, Martin Thomas, Steve Winter, and Sean K. Reynolds as well as several others from online communities and the blogosphere. Winners in a variety of categories can receive prizes from a host of supporting sponsors. All entries eventually find a home on the One Page Dungeon Contest website so readers can view or download the PDFs and decide for themselves which ones they like best. Previous years’ entries remain archived on the One Page Dungeon Contest website to peruse and download. They offer a broad spectrum of adventures enterprising gamemasters can customize for game system, genre, play style, and character level.

I admire anyone who enters the contest: they accept the daunting challenge of fitting an engaging adventure (map and all) on one page; they have the courage to share their work in public; and they contribute to a greater body of work available to everyone seeking inspiration for a short adventure.

Don’t miss the April 30 deadline for submissions to the 2014 One Page Dungeon Contest. Develop an interesting premise, sketch out a map, and write some encounters...it can’t take forever because it’s only one page!

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