So I recently delivered a bespoke adventure which for want of a better way of putting it was a commission piece. Now I'm moving back from that piece into finishing off the Carnival of Dreams adventure.
What I have found is that transitioning my thinking from someone elses world, back into worlds of my own making is in its own right a process.
My process works as follows.
Step 1
Read the source material. If this is the authors RPG world, or anything else they reference in their material. I read through everything in its entirety and then I leave myself a few days. This lets it start sinking into my head. During this time I won't work on other projects, I'll doodle and make notes but on the whole I stay away from other items.
Step 2
Read the source material... Now you are probably thinking hasn't he already done this! Yes. But with every reading the world they are building strengthens itself in my head. Political intrigue, monster habits, the time of day the local occult hold their ceremonies. It all seeps into the brain. After completing my second reading I ease off again giving it chance to settle in the back of my head.
Step 3
Read the source material .. Ok I realise I sound like a broken record now, but this one is different! Now I start making notes. Predominantly key facts figures and events that I think could be used to create adventures, or be wound into them to support the atmosphere.
Step 4
Using the ideas from step 3 I create what I call pitches. They are shortish phrases or paragraphs that give a feel for what I'm thinking the adventure could be. These then are presented so that the client can select what they are most interested in.
Step 5
If they didn't like any of the ideas, it is back to Step 4 to work up some more pitches. If there were multiple that they liked the idea of I then add a bit more depth to those and re-pitch. I keep following this process until I have what they want.
Obviously Steps 4 and 5 are redundant if the client already has an idea and just needs someone to write it up.
Step 6
Write, investigate, write and re-write. So start putting in the key sections, the key ideas of what happens in each section. Stopping to investigate elements that may be required. So for example checking the speed of horses, or the methods spies use to identify an unknown contact. Each element is written and re-written until I am happy with it.
Step 7
Submit the piece. If they are happy great. If they aren't back to step 6 and a re-write of anything they aren't happy for. The client/customer is king. This is their world and has to represent what they want.
What I'm finding is that after this process my head is still "in" that other world. I'm a strong believer in getting yourself in the right frame of mind. I spent time reading and re-reading source material to help in scene setting. After being really immersed in that I'm now struggling to let that world go, to get back into this piece.
Now there are a lot of differences, different rules system, different backgrounds, history atmosphere etc. I also have loads of other sub ideas, potential adventures and items that are floating around for that world, ones that I hope will be given chance to see the light of day! Only time will tell on that though.
In the meantime I need to settle my mind and re-immerse into my world. Oddly enough I have never had this problem before, possibly because I have always worked on purely worlds of my own creation, and shifting my mind from one of my own worlds to another of my own worlds is a seamless transition.
All told the process was really enjoyable, and if I'm lucky I'll get to build on those.
For now I wait with baited breath to see how the adventure is received (I believe the person it was written for is happy with it). I shall continue to chip away at putting my brain back into gear to get the Carnival of Dreams moving!
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