Adventure Creation Things you Never See: Horses

So, I'm currently on a mini break from writing Carnival of Dreams to produce another adventure. One of the things that continues to amaze me is the level of detail people will go into on RPG and adventure creation. Sometimes those little bits of realism are what makes the difference between the adventure world being believed or people struggling to accept it.

So in looking into this I wanted to find out about horses and carts, and travel times, distances and speeds. I came across this resource: http://www.lrgaf.org/guide/writers-guide.htm

What I noticed most was that this seems to be from a fairly reputable source, but also that the speeds the horses travel seem to vary from a lot of the RPG sources I could find. I found the paragraph on endurance interesting as people probably overlook weather conditions etc. as really effecting a horse. There are other items that reference the distance a horse can travel in a day, but often they omit their definition of day. Is it 9 - 5, is it sun up to sun down, all these things matter.

So there you have it, I spent some of today researching horses and some researching international spy techniques for identification of contacts, and all this for potentially a single line in an RPG to add some believably

So next time you play an RPG spare a thought for the poor soul who wrote it. They probably did a lot more research, thinking, and general writing and re-writing, than the finished product will ever let on.

Writing an RPG - That Choke moment

Well here I am again, at the keyboard. I actually got some work done tonight on the RPG! However I have noticed that in the last week or so I have struggled to maintain focus.

I am calling this current phase in the development "Choke Moment". It is that time when I have the bulk of everything written. I'm re-writing bits, tidying up and generally dotting i's and crossing t's.

I have spoken to an excellent cartographer about some work so that I don't have sucky Maps. I have also started talking to an artist who has a style I really dig, and I'm hoping I'll be able to work with over the years on multiple projects.

So there is plenty going on so what do I mean by the "Choke Moment". Well it is that moment when I am dangerously close to having to release my baby into the wild for play testing. That time when I find out all the bits I missed, the holes, the pit falls. I realise this is all a learning experience. This is adventure 1 of many (according to my 5 year plan) and I need to make the most of any and all feedback as I try and grow my online presence. I need to hone my skills, and use any feedback I get to get better. But that doesn't stop the butterflies, it doesn't stop the self doubt and the worrying.

I am quietly confident in my ideas. I think they offer the potential for people to play and explore interesting worlds and themes and adventures. What concerns me is my ability to express that in a way that ensures that others get as much enjoyment out of the adventure as I have when I originally run it .... I never mentioned that did I ... before I commit to turning one of my one night RPGs into a real live online pay something possibly for it book, I play it with people. If it doesn't work, or just sucks, then it will get canned. It will only progress if the players have fun.

So there you have it. I'm guessing that anyone writing an RPG with the intention of releasing it to the world will at some point reach this choke point, where everything else seems far more interesting as they work on ways to procrastinate rather than finish that final 5% of the writing.

However I have a deadline. I need this written to my initial satisfaction for 2 weeks time (that's the plan). Then I will alternate between layout, and writing another RPG for a good friend.

So there you have it. I am going to force through this choke point. I am out tomorrow, but the weekend beckons and some 4 day work weeks. So time enough to get this complete!

RPG Anxiety

Well I guess the title is pretty broad, so I better narrow it down a little. Anyone who has ever been a GM will know that feeling. They have slaved over their adventure, they have put loads of their heart and soul into it, even if they haven't written it all down they have it in their head, ideas and concepts that they can roll in as needed. ... but what if the players don't like it!

I think at some point in their GMing careers everyone has been there, and if you haven't I wouldn't mind knowing the secret of your success!

What I am finding though is that as the first RPG I want to publish edges ever nearer to completion that the level of anxiety over how it will be received is massively greater than anything I have had when building something for my gaming group.

Now in reality, with this being step 1 in my online presence, the chances are that no-one will see it, or they will see it and hate it. Now that might be writing style, play ability, or a million and one things. I plan on trying to minimise those bits by lining up play tests once I have the first draft all worked through. I have 2 different gaming groups lined up, but will start actively looking for some more play tests once I have everything else completed. With a little luck and a fair wind I will get everything ironed out and released in the next 3 months.

In reality I need to take any and all criticism on board and use it to improve the next RPG that I write, but at the same time I want people to enjoy it.

Well as my mum always says, only time will tell!

Easter RPGing

Well so far Easter has been quite good when it comes to RPGs! Earlier today I got to take part in a longer running Cthulhu Hack RPG, and I only lost a single Sanity dice!

I also got the nod to start on a second short adventure project, so that's really exciting too!

I have also started reviewing my first RPG to publish. As it stands there are 10 chapters and an appendix with pre-generated characters.

I'm happy (well as happy as I can be) with the first 8 chapters. I think I'm 90% on Chapter 10. That leaves the bulk of the work I have outstanding on chapter 9. It is forming up to be quite an awkward one to lay out. The scene/area consists of lots of bits that are similar, but potentially slightly different. I don't want to just duplicate lots of text, but at the same time need to make it usable/simple for the GM to navigate.

With some luck and a fair wind I'm hoping to get it cracked before I see the back of Easter! I've also started speaking to some potential artists to look at commissioning some pieces to go into the book. That in its own right is a bit of a mine field, maybe I'll cover that in a post in its own right.

I have to go into this eyes wide open. With this being my first (of hopefully many) projects there is a high likelihood that it will be a hard sell to get anyone to want to try it out.

I'm thinking this first shot is likely to be a steep learning curve, and very possibly will cost me cold hard cash, but I think what I can learn from the experience will be more than worth it. I can then use all that on my next project.

I think when I finally upload this to the real world, I'm going to write a "lessons learned", and then move onto my next project.

As always if anyone is interested, or bored I will be looking for people to play test the adventure for me. It is based off the Fate Core rules and is meant to be able to be run in a single session. So if anyone fancies giving it a shot let me know and all I'll ask is for feedback so I can look to improve.

Creative Dilemma

While working on my first RPG adventure to publish, making notes for my second one, and starting the ideas for a third undisclosed project I'm not at liberty to discuss, I am also thinking about creating an RPG adventure for my kids to play (get them into RPGs young!).

This is where is starts to get a little more complicated. I love the Fate Core rules. The basic rule set which you can use as is, and tweak and tailor to how you want. Now I want to do a fantasy themed RPG for the kids with all the normal things. I have a few ideas already formed, magic, magic items and specialised weapons etc..

However to get this at a working point to play test and run is going to take quite a lot of time. I could alternatively work with the kids to roll up some characters say for Swords and Wizardry and run them adventures through there. I find myself caught not just between systems but between wanting the creative freedom to build what is in my head.

Ultimately I want to write adventures against both systems, and others if people like the adventures that I'm writing! I have several long term goals. Over the next 5 years I want to build a portfolio of adventures across two or three systems. I want to improve my style, my technique and hopefully bring some enjoyment to everyone who takes the time to play anything I write.

I wonder how important the creative control of underlying mechanics is to people, against the speed of development when working against a system where a lot of those are well defined. Ultimately my aim will be for people to enjoy what I write, and I don't want to blind myself to the opportunities that are presented by different pre-built systems.

So there we have it. I'm no closer to resolving my internal dilemma, however I have plenty of pieces to work on already and as this will be predominantly a family friendly piece rather than a to publish piece then maybe I shall just follow my heart.

Back to writing!

The importance of proofreading

Well, after a slight hiatus from blogging I stumbled across something I thought was worth blogging.

When working on the basic information for a RPG I use a plain text editor just to get all the core information in place. I don't know whether this is the best way, but I do know that if there is a fancy widget to format tweak or do something else then I will end up procrastinating and playing with those rather than concentrating on the content.

So this evening I decided to give my document a quick initial read through. When I got to one section I found the quite interesting word "seethe" hiding amongst my text. It didn't take long for me to realise what I really wanted there was "see the" but I had somehow skipped the space, and the spell check had quite rightly allowed it through. Now on the face of it this is not a big thing, but it is the small things that make a big difference to 3rd parties reading your adventure.

Sometimes I can be reading something, and actually the content, the meaning, the ideas can be absolutely fantastic, but this can all get lost if someone leaves small errors in there. It massively detracts from the overall feel of a piece of work, which is a real shame. After spending days, weeks months or years crafting your masterpiece to allow it to fall over on something as simple as proofreading is a real shame, it can have a massive impact on how others perceive what you write.

OK by now you probably get the impression that I think that proofreading a document is a big thing, I certainly think it is a simple thing that can help your chances of people taking what you write seriously. But then there are also multiple steps (in my opinion at least).

Step 1 Read your document, read it slowly, read it thoroughly. Correct everything you spot.
Step 2 Do Step 1 again .. probably a few times.
Step 3 Now your pretty bored you are probably skipping bits you are 100% sure you have right so it is time to break the boredom. Break your work into different chunks and read them in a different order. Trust me it will help break up that boredom a bit!
Step 4 Get someone else to read it ... actually get a few people to read it. Or if you can afford it pay someone who does this professionally to read it.

Now you will have something that will be as bullet proof as you can hope to make it. Will there be mistakes in there still ... quite possibly, no-one is perfect, but it will be infinitely better for going through the process. I also find I often re-write bits while I'm proofreading as well so it is a win win all the way through.

Well there you go, all that just from seethe!

RPG Writing Focus

Well as anyone who has read my other blog posts will know I am on my journey to dip my toe in indie publishing. If you have never tried it then I really do recommend it, even if you never get to publish your work, the process itself is really enlightening and has certainly been an eye opener for me so far!

I have decided to scale back the Blog posts I have been writing, mainly to try and refocus on the actual writing.

One of the big things that I struggle with, and I'm guessing others may as well, is maintaining focus on writing what needs to be done. I find it especially hard when I am working on descriptions, if something just is not coming easily to me. I find myself frustrated, and before I know it I have written a blog post, read articles on Google+ and Facebook and generally wasted away my evening rather than confronting my issue head on.

One way I have decided to address this is to try and catch my brain off guard!

I started this today by taking a pad and pen to work and jotting down different elements that could be combined to create job roles/backgrounds for characters, or in Fate terms High Concepts (all during my lunch break don't worry!).

The idea being if I get enough then I can do a random roll to select the first element, followed by a second to get the ending. The first list had words like Magic, Drunkard, Enthusiastic, Picky, Agoraphobic etc. and the second professions, careers or just "what people do". This was everything from doctor, nurse, lawyer to bully and vagrant.

Then I started combining them to see what combinations I could get, one of my favourites was an Agoraphobic Bully. By just throwing together not really related terms it starts the brain working. Where I finish with something it may be miles away from the starting point, but what it does is unblock some of the mental barriers.

I think I will try again tomorrow and see what I can add to it. For now I need to re-focus back on the RPG!

The writing process

I wish I was one of those lucky few who could put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and write things once. Then sit back and admire my masterpiece.

I'm not one of them.

I have ideas and concepts. But that's where it all starts for me.

So for anyone who may find it interesting here is my process.

First I make use of a great app called mindly. It's a mind map tool that is simple and effective. It does cost but to capture ideas and thought trains on the go it is brilliant.

My other invaluable tool is pens pencils and pads. Making notes all over the place is my other main method for making notes.

Once I have my notes ready to start putting in some sort of order I transfer them to a text file.

Next is the brain dump. I rip through all the sections locations etc. and just drop out anything that comes to mind. Anything from single words to whole sentences that help capture rough ideas and concepts I'm going for or what I'm trying to describe.

Then I have a break. Probably a cup of tea, and maybe even a biscuit ... it all depends how long I want to procrastinate for :)

Then starts the real hard work. The iterations. I go back and re write bits. Jumping to wherever my mood takes me, and sometimes forcing myself to move back to brain dump mode to get more information out.

After multiple iterations I finally have something I can let other people look at. Even at this stage I'm expecting all sorts of feedback. That's OK, people have different likes dislikes and styles. 

I can then look to incorporate feedback and use it to improve my style and make my next project even better!

OK so at the moment I'm on Project No.1 and I am at the iteration stage so I am still waiting to hit the feedback stage .... I'm hoping it isn't as painful a shock as I fear it may be. But everyone has to start somewhere. I'm happy/confident that the players who have participated in my RPGs have enjoyed themselves, I just need to convey everything in as clear, concise but atmospheric way as possible.

Well there you have it. My rather short write up on how I set about coming up with my final items. Oh and I nearly forgot before I sign off, sometimes I totally scratch an idea, write it off completely and move onto the next one. Never be worried about parking an idea if it feels like it isn't working, maybe at some point in the future it will click, if not move on guilt free :)

Basic RPG Map

I fancied a break so thought I would have a go at a little map. Not sure how well it has turned out but then I haven't really done a map in over 20 years.

Here it is in all its glory. The idea is a throne room ontop of a hill. Run down and derelict. A secret door leads back through a cave to a wizards tower which is hurried underground rather than towering up. A small alter to the right side and some stairs going down...No idea where.

If anyone wants to use it please do. If not we'll it is here for me to look back in years to come.

Single Session RPG Adventures

It is no secret that at the moment I am quite a fan of single session RPGs. There are lots of reasons for this, but first let me clear the air. I love long running campaigns. I love being in them and I really look forward to writing a much longer campaign with a lot more scope to expand the characters and the world that they are living within.

However lets be honest, as a GM there are times when a one off is needed. You know the ones; you have sat there for many nights till the wee hours slaving over the details, making sure the next sessions notes are perfect. You get to the big night, you lay out your maps, your GM shield, and you brought spare pencils and rubbers and dice... then your phone pings .. one of the players has cancelled at the last minute. Everyone is psyched ready for a session, you want to run one, but maybe you need all the players there, for consistency, or maybe specific skills. What to do? This is one of the many places a one off adventure that you can just pull out and run is great.

That all said there are lots of other reasons. I know plenty of players who love being involved in tabletop RPGs but just can't commit to a campaign. Maybe in another post I'll mull over ways to run campaigns with drop in drop out characters, but for now I'll focus on single sessions. Life has a habit of catching up with people, they find they just can't do that one night every month. Or maybe the players just like to vary it up, or you may need a break to write the next section to your epic campaign!

All these are reasons why I think the single session RPGs are absolutely great, and where I'm focusing my time on trying to get into the indie publishing scene specifically from the point of view of one offs. I may re-use styles, settings etc. however each one will be written with a view to being able to be completed within a session and without a reliance on the other adventures.

Don't get me wrong. If I got the opportunity to write a large scale adventure I'd jump at that as well! However for now I'll set my sights on what I can see!

Enough procrastination, back to writing!