Brainstorming an Adventure
I have more to say about the Renaissance, but I’ve noticed a number of posts on RPG blogs lately about holiday hiatuses or burnout. Since I had this waiting in the wings anyway, and it’s tangentially related, I figured I might as well put it out there now.
One of the biggest burnout-style problems I face as a gamemaster is writer’s block. Very rarely do I just get tired of running games, partly because my group switches between systems and campaigns on a reasonably frequent basis. More often, I’ll find myself planning for the next session and draw a blank. Then what?
I have a four-element system I use to help me generate new plots when that happens. It hasn’t failed me yet. I’m not going to claim all the plots are masterpieces, but they fulfill their purpose: they capture the players’ attention, progress the game, and let us all have fun.
There’s no particular order to these. If I get stuck on one of them — I’m not coming up with anything I want to keep — then I skip to another. If I’m working on one and inspiration strikes, I might forget about the others and follow through. It’s not the method that’s important; it’s the results.
The Theme
Source: Sorta-Motivational Posters (http://sortamotivational.blogspot.com/)
Some adventures lend themselves really well to themes. The Theme might just be a sub-genre I flavor the adventure with, such as Romance, Horror, or Swashbuckling Adventure. Or the Theme might be an actual theme or even a moral of sorts, such as Revenge or “Be Careful What You Wish For.” Especially in my superhero games, I find themes such as “Man vs. Superman” and “Mind vs. Heart” very appropriate.
Sometimes all it takes to spark an adventure idea is to ask what sort of adventure you haven’t run recently, or what kind of conflict you’d like to spotlight for a while. If you decide the theme will be Intrigue, then you know that you’ll need a fairly broad cast of NPCs to scheme with and against, that combat will be minimized and roleplaying and social skills emphasized, and probably that the grand vizier is not to be trusted. You’ll still need to work out the details — what’s everyone scheming over, who’s in the best positions, what’s in it for the party — but you’ll have a solid starting point.
The Legacy
One thing I always try to do is to tie the characters’ current adventures into their pasts in some way. The Legacy is the element that does this. It’s something from the party’s, or an individual character’s, past that surfaces during the adventure. It could be a repercussion of previous sessions, or it could be drawn from a character history.
Usually the Legacy will be something the characters are familiar with, but this isn’t always the case. For instance, if one of their adventures weakened the rule of a tyrant while strengthening the rebels, and then the party went adventuring on another plane for a few months, they might return to what they think is the same realm, only to encounter a patrol of knights loyal to the new king. This encounter makes use of the Legacy — the change in rulership the characters caused.
A Legacy can be an event, a person (an old lover, a personal nemesis, a brother long thought dead), a thing (grandfather’s sword, the favor given by the Faerie Queen), or even a place (the village where a character grew up). It can be uplifting, tragic, or even annoying. It’s there to remind the characters where they came from and to show them how far they’ve progressed — or perhaps how far they still have to go.
The New Character
This is fairly straightforward — I try to come up with a new character for the party to meet. This could be an ally, an enemy, or just someone doing his job. It could be an animal, a god, or a monster. It could even be a magic item.
What’s most important is that it stands out in some way. I give the New Character at least three prominent traits, which might touch upon its appearance, behavior, psychology (if it’s intelligent), history, or anything else I might come up with. I also give it a name — either its own or what people call it. Sometimes both. I give it a basic motivation and decide how it’s likely to initially react to the characters, assuming they do nothing to alter that. Then I decide on a vague location where it might be found.
Sometimes the party doesn’t actually encounter the New Character during a session, but that’s okay. You can always save the notes and use the character another time.
The Location
I try to make sure each adventure includes at least one interesting Location. This might be a setting for a fight. It might be a place the characters need to go. It might be a place the NPCs come from, or are going to. It might just be something they encounter along the way, during their travels in the wilderness.
Normally, I come up with one trait for the Location, and then expand on that trait. For instance, if my Location is an ancient shrine hidden in the wood, half in ruins, I might decide that it always rains in the vicinity. Then I jot down some possible reasons for that oddity: it might be a shrine to a forgotten god of storms. It might be located near a nexus to the Elemental Plane of Water. It might be the tomb of a great hero of old, still mourned by the goddess of the sky. And so forth.
Then if it’s the tomb of a hero, I might determine that there may be a treasure hidden there, but that whoever should open the tomb would suffer the goddess’ wrath. Which leads to deciding what the treasure is, what its history might be, and in what form the sky goddess might seek retribution.
Sometimes I pick the idea I like best out of the list. Sometimes I just keep the list handy until the session and see what my players come up with.
Set It Aside
What if all else fails? “Set it aside” is pretty common advice for writer’s block, and it applies here too. Read a book, or watch a movie, or play a game. Maybe you’ll happen upon something you can steal for your game. If not, a couple of hours of focusing your conscious mind elsewhere might leave your subconscious some room to work. Sleep on it, if you can.
Related posts:
- Adventure Design 101: The Setting
- Adventure Design 101: The Plot – Story
- Adventure Design 101
- Adventure Design 101: The Plot – Problems
- Adventure Design 101: The Villain
Categories: Advice | Comments (3)
I know that this is solid, simple, useful advice because it’s piqued my desire to run a game. Thanks very much.
Once my NPCs are established I can usually tackle a block by asking what they will do next. Depending on the NPCs, this often informs an adventure or two.
RPG Ike´s last blog post: MOTHS!
Great article!
Thank you.
@RPG Ike: I often find that tackling just one of the four areas will unblock me. I’ve never yet had a case that wasn’t resolved by a combination of all four, though, and which one I tackle first tends to vary. The Legacy often works wonders. And once things are moving, they generally stay in motion for a while.