{"id":487,"date":"2015-12-09T22:02:36","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T22:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/writing-rpg-adventures-for-publication\/"},"modified":"2024-01-16T15:39:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T21:39:00","slug":"writing-rpg-adventures-for-publication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/writing-rpg-adventures-for-publication\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing RPG Adventures For Publication"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the years, Hex Games has published somewhere in the vicinity of fifty game books, and I\u2019ve been involved in the editing process of most of them at some stage. As a result, I\u2019ve noticed that there are certain mistakes that show up over and over again, especially from first-time writers. Some of these problems are general ones that are covered in most writing classes: passive voice, dangling modifiers, first drafts submitted with the belief that they\u2019ll be taken seriously, that sort of thing. Others, especially when it comes to RPG adventures, are specific to the format and form.<\/p>\n

Recently, I\u2019ve been reading up on common mistakes that fiction writers make (so I can make sure my bad fantasy novel has them all). This research has led me to a realization that many of the mistakes I see in first drafts of RPG adventures might happen because writers are trying to follow the rules of good fiction writing. The problem, of course, is that RPG adventures aren\u2019t fiction. When you write an adventure for a role-playing game, you\u2019re not telling a story; you\u2019re writing an instruction manual for someone else to use to tell a story. Realizing this from the start will save you a lot of revision later. Below are three rules to keep in mind when you\u2019re writing an adventure.<\/p>\n

Understand the Audience<\/h2>\n

\u201cKnow your audience\u201d is a pretty common writing tip, but it\u2019s especially important here because an RPG adventure has two tiers of audience: the GM and the players. A lot of people write adventures for the players. Since most people write their first adventures to run for their own gaming group, this is completely understandable. In a published adventure, however, the players aren\u2019t the primary audience. The story (the game the GM runs based on your adventure) needs to appeal to the players, but \u00a0the audience for the text of the adventure (the thing you\u2019re actually writing) is the Game Master. You\u2019re not writing the novelization of the movie, you\u2019re writing the shooting script.<\/p>\n

The most common audience-related mistake by far in adventure writing is withholding information. If someone is writing a murder mystery adventure (for example), they\u2019ll try to keep the murderer\u2019s identity a secret until the part of the adventure where the PCs are supposed to solve the case. Basically, they\u2019re trying to structure things so the GM experiences the revelation at the same point in the story as the audience should experience it. The problem is that the GM isn\u2019t the audience (of the story), she\u2019s the director. She needs to know all the secrets from the moment they become relevant so she can understand the structure and flow of the adventure and present it properly to her players. For most adventures, this means telling the GM exactly who the antagonist is, what they\u2019re trying to do, and (in at least general terms) how they\u2019re doing it right from the start.<\/p>\n

Tell, Don\u2019t Show<\/h2>\n

The first rule of fiction writing is \u201cShow, Don\u2019t Tell,\u201d but you\u2019re not writing fiction. An RPG adventure is essentially technical writing. The story that the GM uses the adventure to tell may be great fiction, but the adventure itself is not. When you show, you\u2019re dictating a specific action, usually in detail and often from a specific character\u2019s point of view, which isn\u2019t appropriate for an RPG adventure. This doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t be descriptive–good character and setting descriptions can be useful–it just means you should keep your description factual and limited to the static elements of the story. Describing the action is the GM\u2019s job.<\/p>\n

For example, If you say, \u201cWhen the PCs enter the room, the minotaur swings his axe in a mighty arc and separates Skippy the NPC\u2019s head from his body, showering the PCs with blood,\u201d you\u2019re making a lot of assumptions about what\u2019s going on and robbing the players of some of their agency. Saying \u201cWhen the PCs enter the room, the minotaur will attack Skippy the NPC if he\u2019s with them\u201d doesn\u2019t sound like a huge change, but it allows a much wider range of possibilities. Most importantly, it frames the scene as combat rather than something that happens independent of the PCs, which gives the players the illusion that they at least have a chance of saving Skippy (even if he\u2019s getting decapitated no matter how the dice fall). It also implies an \u201cotherwise\u201d that the adventure writer needs to include if the players enter the room unaccompanied by Skippy. Finally, it keeps the encounter description general enough that the GM isn\u2019t required to do any \u201cre-writing\u201d if the thief snuck in and stole the minotaur\u2019s axe earlier or the PCs gave Skippy a Ring of Protection from Decapitation or whatever.<\/p>\n

Sure, any decent GM should be able to adapt to changes as minor as the ones in my limited example, but when you add it to a dozen other instances of showing rather than telling, you end up with a railroad track, not an adventure. Showing is the GM\u2019s job. Your job is to tell her what she needs to (try to) show.<\/p>\n

The \u201cTell, Don\u2019t Show\u201d rule is especially important when it comes to dialog. I prefer to avoid NPC dialog altogether. In addition to the usual problems that come with including boxed text that the GM reads to the players, writing NPC dialog creates unnecessary work for the GM. To keep the character from seeming inconsistent, she has to make sure the NPC sounds the same (uses similar speech patterns, style, and vocabulary) during other scenes as he or she does during the scene with written dialog. If you must include dialog, restrict it to monologs. Including dialog for a conversation either puts words in the PCs\u2019 mouths (if the conversation is between an NPC and PCs) or excludes them from participating altogether (if the conversation is between NPCs). In either case, you\u2019re basically forcing them to watch a cut scene, which is even more frustrating in tabletop games where they\u2019re completely unnecessary than in video games where they can\u2019t be avoided.<\/p>\n

Keep It Simple<\/h2>\n

I think that every program that could possibly be used by a writer should come with a copy of George Orwell\u2019s \u201cPolitics and the English Language<\/a>\u201d that the user has to read and take a short quiz about in order to unlock the software, so I\u2019ll admit that there\u2019s some personal bias here. Still, even I acknowledge that challenging text can make good fiction even better in a lot of cases. But, once again, an RPG adventure isn\u2019t fiction.<\/p>\n

You might notice that the instruction manual for your phone doesn\u2019t include any subtext or clever wordplay or five-dollar words. That\u2019s because the manual for your phone has one job: to teach you how to use your phone. Likewise, your adventure has one job: to give a GM the information she needs to run the adventure. Keep the text simple and stick to standard vocabulary wherever possible. Occasionally, the setting or atmosphere may require you to use uncommon words or refer to people, places, things, or concepts that most people have never heard of. When this happens, make sure to define or explain the word or idea somewhere in the text, preferably where it\u2019s first introduced. If you only know something because of the research you did for the adventure or an upper-level course you took in college, it\u2019s a safe bet you need to explain it to the reader. Also remember that the average American reads at a 7th or 8th grade level. If the reader constantly has to stop reading to Google things because you graduated from the Gary Gygax School For Thesaurus Abuse, they might just give up. Even if they suffer through to the end because you\u2019ve already got their money, they\u2019re probably not going to give you more money in the future.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking of giving authors money, why not support me on Patreon?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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