Thoughts on creating RPG adventures
Sean, Matthew, and I are busy working on various books and reviewing various manuscripts from freelance writers. In addition, several of the most recent chats on Legion of Myth and Palladium’s YouTube interviews (you won’t see them for months) have dealt with creating and running RPG adventures. All of which has prompted me to write this little discussion about creating game material for your personal RPG campaign or for publication.
Being creative and weaving coherent and compelling stories can be tricky business. It doesn’t make much difference whether you are writing a professional RPG book or an adventure for yourself and your friends, because the same basic principles apply to both. Sean and I often say things like: Think big, unleash your imagination, think outside the box, have fun with it, write for your audience, and trust your gut, but what does any of that actually mean?
Think big: This doesn’t necessarily mean something massive in scale and scope that’s a zillion pages or super-powerful. It means don’t limit your thinking on any subject. Consider your many options and then explore them in depth. Try to consider all the possibilities, and then ask yourself, what if I took it to the next level? And then, what’s the level after that? Heck, shoot for the sky. No, the moon. No, Mars! No, the next galaxy! Get the idea?
Unleash your imagination: This may sound like it’s the same as Think Big, and they do go hand in hand, but they are different. It means don’t inflict yourself with self-imposed boundaries and limitations. Look at everything as a fun challenge. Explore all the possibilities from every angle and various degrees, and then consider the impossible! Erick and I – and now Sean and I – cut loose and go wild when spitballing ideas. We let the ideas fly unchecked. Nothing is too crazy or too outlandish at this stage. Everything is an exploration of ideas. What if … is a constant refrain along with or how about …? Nothing is off the table, because we can rein it all in, edit, and throw away ideas that don’t work, later. Now is the time to explore ideas in a big way and consider their infinite possibilities. Sometimes the ideas fly so fast and furious, and the adrenaline is so high, that we feel exhausted when we’re done. We keep the best idea(s), file away other cool ideas for possible future use, and get about developing and finetuning the ideas we keep. It’s nice to have a person with whom you can bounce off ideas and get strong feedback, but this process works on your own too.
Think outside the box: Once you have your grand idea, this is where you challenge yourself to make it more interesting or to feel new, exciting, different, unexpected, and fun. That last word, fun, is where write for your audience comes into play, because you need to be asking yourself what will be fun and exciting for your audience. By the way, challenge yourself to make even the small ideas and little things interesting and fun.
Have fun with it! Challenge yourself as a writer to create dynamic settings, lore, villains, character classes, and, well, everything! Even the most basic and mundane characters and concepts need some flourish and context to make them feel unique and important. Personally, I love taking the familiar and giving it a twist that will surprise and please the audience. For example, I once had someone say to me, “Kevin, zombies are just animated dead, how much can you write about them?” If you take a look at the Dead Reign RPG, you’ll see there is quite a bit you can write about them.
That was one of the fun challenges of Dead Reign, how to capture the most interesting and popular tropes for such creatures and make the zombies feel unique, fun, and terrifying. The terrifying is not just the description and art for each different type of zombie, but is also built into many of the game mechanics like the zombie moan and the convergence, amongst others. I don’t look at any of this as a problem or a chore, but as a fun creative opportunity.
Two other challenges with Dead Reign were the tone and presentation of the material in the book. I chose to present it from the viewpoint of Brad Ashley, a legendary zombie fighter who has written, printed, and distributed (as best he can) a survival guide for others trying to survive in this dangerous world.. This paints the RPG as a Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide, which makes it more fun, compelling, and hopeful. Hopeful, because Brad is a survivor offering tips to people (the players) on how they can also survive and fight zombies.
An Insider fun tactic. I sometimes drop little fun things or inside jokes into some of my books. In the case of Dead Reign, Brad Ashley’s name is a composite of the two main artists, Nick Bradshaw and Amy L. Ashbaugh. The Timrek giant frog monster in Monsters & Animals is Kermit spelled backwards. I also like to name secondary and background characters, locations, taverns, and shops after friends, family, and Palladium fans. There’s a ton of the latter in the two Rifts Northern Gun books, and island of Wuj, in Palladium Fantasy, is a nod to Erick Wujcik. Rifts Heroes of the Megaverse has 7-8 NPC cosmic heroes inspired by real life loved ones including Erick, Julius, Kathy, Alex, etc., and a couple of fans. I write games and game sourcebooks, and games are supposed to be fun, joyful experiences for the end user, but they should also be fun for the creator.
Write for your audience: Which means not only do you need to know and understand your audience, but what they want. And then give it to them. You need to know what gets role-players excited and gives them the thrill ride they’re looking for. I find that it helps if YOU are a member of your audience. Meaning if you’re writing an RPG or sourcebook that you are a gamer and fan of the genre/setting/characters you’re writing. As a fan, you know what you love about it and that’s probably reflective of your audience. However, we all have our biases, so you need to think about your audience and not just your own likes and dislikes. I’m always thinking about what gamers would get excited about.
Of course, when you write role-playing games and sourcebooks, you are actually writing for two audiences, the Game Master and the players. G.M.s want meat: cool villains and monsters, exciting plot hooks and lore, and a strong setting from which they build adventures for the players. Players want weapons, gadgets, magic, powers, and challenges that make their characters better – faster, powerful, and more experienced – all wrapped in a fun and memorable experience.
Trust your gut. It’s easy to overthink and analyze your creation. At some point you need to trust yourself that you’re doing a good job at delivering all of the above. Yes, you want to be self-critical, learn and improve, but you also need to know, or feel, when it is fun and works. I’m constantly role-playing inside my head as I’m creating. I imagine what my game group and notable past players would like or dislike; what they would love to encounter, fight, and defeat. I know what they consider exciting and fun. Likewise, when I’m creating a new power, spell, weapon, etc., I imagine how my power-gaming and rules lawyer pals would abuse or try to break it, and I rewrite it to prevent such unintended outcomes.
Oh, and … research, research, research! 90% of everything is research. Research is easier than ever with Google and A.I. assistance these days. Research everything! It will give you ideas about all kinds of things: animal biology and behavior to inspire monsters and alien creatures, history that inspires adventures, myths and legends to inspire spells, powers, characters, skills, and more monsters, and on, and on. Let everything light up your imagination.
There are other details and considerations in making and running a good game, but I hope the above helps you to get started and move forward. To me, role-playing games are the ultimate experience in cooperative gaming and storytelling. There’s nothing else like it. So, unleash your imaginations, have fun, and game on.
– Kevin Siembieda, Publisher, Game Designer, Writer and Friend
