Practice for Adventure Creation

#1

Hey there all!

I started making my home adventures in a publisher program to get familiar with the process, turns out I really like doing it that way!

I prepped an adventure for this coming weekend, a humble house game, but tried to treat it like a legit project. For those of you have have published adventures, I’d really appreciate some feedback. It’s for a Mörk Borg game, so the style is supposed to be a little erratic and edgy. I know it also lacks a certain amount of GM facing info since it’s built for me, and I’ll be the one running the game, haha. All right, known issues out of the way: rip it up!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13yOBpaRNs7OnLT-_bmGrSLQHdBgOkCfP/view?usp=sharing

I’m thinking of making some ICRPG adventures in the wake of a lively discussion on the subject here in the forums. If I can get a little more practice (and courage) under my belt I may just have to tackle some short arcs for various ICRPG settings. Maybe even make a simple setting myself. :slight_smile:

Thanks a bunch for the read!

#2

Your work looks really good. But I am not a fan of Mörk Borg so I’m not sure if I am qualified to give feedback. I would love to, but the purpose of adventure modules is to give all the information the GM needs to run the adventure. And since you are aware that you might lack some context because this adventure is for you and Mörk Borg has a erratic design… there’s nothing for me to critique! At least it comes off as professional. It looks good. :smile:

Some designers take into consideration that the GM might want to use the module at the game table, so they put additional effort in layout and readability. So, my advice to you is to:

  • Go read The Fall of Silverpine Watch by the Angry GM. It is an introductory adventure of outstanding quality, I cannot recommend it enough. The way that the information is presented is for the newest of DMs and might be inspiring if you want to do the same for ICRPG. (Less lengty though, please! :pray:)
  • Don’t tell the DM to go look in another book for a statblock. Add the statblock to the page where you mention it.
  • If the heroes are going in a dungeon you must make the critical path easy to follow. Deviations are fun for exploration, but they must always loop back on the main track.
  • Give the adventurers multiple motivations to follow the adventure (gold, glory, knowledge, etc.) to make it easier for them to follow the story of their own accord.
  • Tutorialize each mechanic, enemy, and element by themselves then escalate the complexity of the situations. Go from most used to less likely or important.

And by Papa Smurf dude, don’t just listen to what I have to say: you’re going to have a vision and a thousand reviews but only those that want to help you are valid! We all want to see a little bit of ourselves in someone else’s work but this is undeniably YOURS. Think of the lesson that you want to share to the DM and players who are going to play your adventure. What do you want THEM to remember most about TRPGs. What do you want them to remember your adventure for?

With that said, God speid bud! I can’t wait to read your introductory adventure for ICRPG ! :fire::game_die:

#3

I think you nailed the mörk borg vibe, and I like that you have a strong and consistent theme, and a back story that is easy to grasp, believable in the fairy-tale context, and still reasonably fresh.

That said, I would have liked

  • a map or diagram to visualize the adventure,
  • a side-plot, detour or branching structure that introduced some choice points, and
  • some sort of mystery or problem to engage the players’ curiosity and creativity

Finally, a layout note: black background is cool and everything, but it’s a pain if people want to print and generally not needed to create a dark atmosphere (consider Black Sun Death Crawl). It’s also unaccommodating to gm notes. So I would advise to either make the layout print friendly from the beginning, or otherwise make sure that the background can be discarded without affecting legibility.

#4

I think it looks great - need to read it through after work. I second the black background comment - if you want to use that color I’d also make sure to release a plain PDF with simple fonts and headings for printing. That’s one complaint about MB from quite a lot of folks - it’s more art than substance. It’s a cool/simple little Old-School hack with great aesthetics (but poor usability at the table).

I also have a curiosity question. What publishing software or design software are people using to replicate vibes from Zines/books like Mork Borg and Mothership etc? I guess some are easier than others to replicate and some software is much easier to use than others - just curious as I would also like to make tight/professional-looking extras for my games or potentially put them out there for general consumption and I don’t have any publishing experience.

#5

I’m using Affinity Publisher and Photo. It’s $50 for each and they have seamless integration, so it’s a fantastic deal. Also, it’s very easy to learn. I do little more than treat mine like a sketch book though, so I don’t have any professional experience with it.
.
I liked my adventure when I first made it: it’s abstracted a lot for me so I didn’t need a ton of time to prep or run it, but as I look at it now there’s so much I’d need to put in for a usable piece of GM prep. It’s just a little player driven side quest too, so there’s really not much to it. It makes me wonder how much should be built on Usability versus just getting something to the table.
At the very least, it was fun to put together. :slight_smile:

#6

Hi all,
I recently came across The fall of Silverpine watch in this tread. While I love the preparation for new DMs I struggle to use a 100 pages document for an adventure, so I started practicing and made an adaptation. Can you give me feedback and ideas?
Hopes it doesn’t matter to be inspired by the anbdry DMs original material.

The fall of the Broncepine watch
“I can’t upload images or links (don’t know why) so add http to next line”
://im.ge/i/OZLcBp

Each floor is10 feet tall (so more or less 10 feet from mechanism 1 to the roof of the corridor and 30 from mechanism 2).

ROOMS

  • In every room (or when they make noise) 1d6 zombies appear.
  • At one point they should be overcome by zombies (best when they are trying to get treasure, maybe in the armory). The pinch Room.
  • In the forge is a revenant with a magical hammer. It doesn’t die unless exorcised (only with the help of holy water o holy symbol from the chapel)
  • Chapel is a secure place (revenant and zombies cannot enter, Captain can).
  • Every room has treasure if they search. (insert shabby or common loot in normal rooms)
  • Mechanism opens the doors (one at each side). Behind the 2 door there are a bunch of zombies that attack the merchant.

Monsters

Zombies 1 heart. +2 STR +2 CON; basic effort damage; when dead they revive in 5,6 in 1d6 unless killed with Ultimate effort o gore description of mutilation are used.

Revenant. 2 hearts. Revives when 0 HP. Follows the party like Jason (always walk but it moves as fast as the group). +3 STR +2 Weapon Effort (magic hammer with properties of your choice). Breath from beyond the grave. Def save or blinded for 1d4 turns in close.

Captain. 3 hearts. +2 STR +2CON +2 CHA. Magic effort +1 (dagger). Captain’s lament: Cha save or actions are hard for 1d4 rounds. Traitors dagger: magical cursed dagger. Captains attack the last person who have spoken (he thinks is plotting against him). Attacks with magic effort.

Swarm of Bats (or worst). Target 20 to hit. Detract half damage from target until reach 10 (the swarm goes away). Allow interactions for EASY actions (fire, team work,…).

For the DM

  • A merchant hires the party to guard the caravan in its next travel.
  • Captains warns with his lament the party and warn them to not enter the watch at the start.
  • Captain has killed all the watch influenced by the dagger.
  • Merchant knows the captain (and maybe the dagger- he can be evil and trade cursed items)
  • The spirit of the chaplain guards the chapel against the evil but cannot resist against the dagger.
  • If the party open the second gate the captain attacks them thinking they going to tell everyone about what happened in the watch. (This is the worst scenario because simultaneously the merchant is attacked by zombies).