Worldwide Adventure Writing Month '08

New archive up!

2009-02-03T17:01:00.000-08:00

It's half a year late, but the official Worldwide Adventure Writing Month downloadable archive is up and running. Click here to check it out! Big thanks to James Hutchings of Age of Fable for agreeing to host the WoAdWriMo adventures! My apologies to all the contributors and other interested parties for the horrible delay.

new site is live!

2008-06-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow Worldwide Adventure Writing Month '08 begins and we've got the new website up and running just in the nick of time. Please go check it out and maybe start a thread in the forum section!

What System Should I Pick?

2008-06-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

WoAdWriMo '08 is less than a week away. Maybe you've already decided to take the WoAdWriMo Challenge and write your own RPG adventure to share with the world. But what system should your game be written for? Of course you are absolutely free to pick whatever game system you want to write for. The soon-to-be-relaunched WoAdWriMo website exists to host games for darn near any system.

But if you're having trouble picking a system, here are some different directions you could go in making your choice.

Write Your Passion

This is the easy one. If there's one system that really speaks to you as the end-all and be-all of RPGs, then you should write for that. You'll be doing yourself a favor.

Flavor-of-the-Month

There's nothing wrong with turning the enthusiasm of a fad into the energy to write an adventure module. Mutant Future is on my own personal shortlist mainly because it's new and shiny. Well, that and the spidergoats.

Last Year's Model

Maybe you took the challenge last year but didn't quite finish your module. Dust that baby off and finish it off this July! Of course, if a new edition of the RPG you wrote for has hit the stand you might want to make some changes.

Go with What You Know

If there's one system you know like the back of your hand, don't hesitate to leverage that knowledge to make your WoAdWriMo project easier to complete.

Get Back to Your Roots

When was the last time you wrote an adventure using one of your favorite systems from the good ol' days? Maybe after you're done you can contact some gamer buddies from bygone days and play it through.

Push Yourself

Maybe there's a game system that's been your own personal white whale. You have trouble understanding it or making it work. Here's an opportunity to sit down and really tackle that beast one more time.

Systemless is an Option

If you've got a cool adventure idea but can't figure out a system to fit it, please work on it anyway! Some people get weirded out by systemless adventures, but there IS an audience for such work.

Mark your calendars!

2008-06-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

If you're reading this, thanks for keeping WoAdWriMo in your feed! This year we're going to do Worldwide Adventure Writing Month in July instead of June. That should give you some time to digest that new set of rules you just bought and get your ideas together.

One major change to the program this year: no page count goal. Let me repeat: no page count goal. Last year's goal seemed to discourage people even though it was an admittedly arbirtrary bar. This year make the best adventure you can and don't worry about how big or small it is. Page count is kind of a dumb way to measure the size of an adventure anyway.

Stay tuned in the month of June for more WoAdWriMo info!

The month that was.

2007-07-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Worldwide Adventure Writing Month '07 is officially over. Let's hand out some thank-yous to everyone who made this project a success!

BIG, HEARTFELT THANKS TO

Martin Ralya, for volunteering Treasure Tables as a home for our Adventure Archive and Forum and offering lotsa general support.

WeaveWarden of Myth-Weavers, for great advice (both here and in private) and offering to make all our adventures more accessible for online play.

Peter Seckler for being the first to complete the challenge, thereby showing the rest of us that it can be done.

Jay A. Hafner, Phill Winters, Gabor Lux and Bobby Derie for completing their WoAdWriMo projects in the time alotted, proving that Peter isn't some sort of superhuman freak.

Industry professionals Mike Mearls and S. John Ross, for their great advice and words of encouragement.

All the WoAdWriMo forum participants and everyone who commented here on the WoAdWriMo blog.

The people on my blog who encouraged the project, especially Dave and Stuart.

Most especially I want to thank everyone who took the challenge, whether you turned in a completed adventure or not. You all rock!

So where do we go from here? As I explained yesterday, it's never too late to turn in your own WoAdWriMo project. Or join us next year as we all get together to tackle WoAdWriMo '08!

In the meantime, please make use of all the great free adventures we can offer the public. Spread the word about the existence of our Adventure Archive. Writing these adventures was only half of the WoAdWriMo equation. The project won't be complete until people are using these adventures. If you or anyone you know runs any of the adventures in our archive, please stop by the WoAdWriMo Forum and tell us all about it! And if you can think of any way we might improve on WoAdWriMo, any service we can offer or technique we can adopt to make next June a bigger success, please let us know! Drop by our forum or email me directly at jrients AT gmail DOT com.

See you next year!

Howzabout some Shadowrun?

2007-06-30T17:14:00.000-07:00

We've got another adventure added to the WoAdWriMo Adventure Archive. Bobby Derie presents Zero Sum Gain, "intended for use with Shadowrun, Fourth Edition and no other supplements or sourcebooks are required for play (though the players and gamemasters may find Runner Havens and Street Magic useful for reference)." Congratulations to Bobby! We're pleased to be able to add another adventure to our archive, especially one for a system we didn't already have covered.

The Beginning of the End

2007-06-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

Today is the last official day of Worldwide Adventure Writing Month. We'd like to congratulate Phill Winters for completing his project, the D&D 3.5 adventure Skyfell: the Discovery. Way to go, Phill! His work is available for download, along with all the others we've received, at the official WoAdWriMo Adventure Archive.

No let us suppose that you stepped up to the plate and took the WoAdWriMo Challenge, but that you haven't quite finished your adventure. What should you do? First of all, do not panic! Everyone on the WoAdWriMo team understands that it isn't always possible to come through on a time limit operation like this. We totally respect that you took the challenge and celebrate the work that you have done. But what to do with an incomplete adventure? Here are some options:

Drop the project and try again next year. Response was sufficient that your WoAdWriMo team will be at it again in 2008. We'd like you to be right there with us. You can start a new project or pick up where you left off this year.
Turn in an unfinished adventure. One of the major goals of WoAdWriMo is to provide free materials for GMs. If you think your incomplete project could still be of use to others, we will gladly accept it into our archive. We'll label the work 'incomplete' as a courtesy to prospective downloaders, but that doesn't mean your work is unappreciated. Thank you for your contribution!
Keep working. We will gladly accept late submissions. Our one month time limit has always been a guideline, not a straightjacket. If you've got an adventure to share, we'll host it even if you turn it in 11 months from now. We want to show the world your awesome work, no matter when you finish it!

Note that these options can be used in conjunction. If you want to submit what you have now, but update your work later, we're game. We simply ask that you not overload us with a large number of updates on the same project. Send all your adventures and updates to martin AT treasure tables DOT org. Please label the email "WoAdWriMo submission" or something like that.

If you're almost done, stop reading this blog and get back to work! :)

More Completed Projects!

2007-06-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

Jay Hafner (WoAdWriMo forum member Emirikol) has completed his adventure! The Blue Mountains is a Conan/D&D adventure done "Keep on the Borderlands style with pregenerated characters. It makes an excellent intro for Norse or cold land gaming campaigns." Awesome! Congratulations, Jay!

And Gabor Lux has sent in Systema Tartarobasis, a 56-page adventure for Castles & Crusades. Wow! Thanks for taking the WoAdWriMo Challenge, Mr. Lux! We are super thrilled to be able to support a great game like C&C!

Peter Seckler (a.k.a. Abyssal Maw) has submitted a second WoAdWriMo adventure! Called Xathyl's Redoubt, this dungeon can be used as a standalone or in conjunction with Peter's first module, The Maze of Cherno. Great work, Peter!

These adventures and any more we receive can be found at the official WoAdWriMo downloads page.

The Final Week is here!

2007-06-24T04:32:00.000-07:00

We're down to the point in Worldwide Adventure Writing Month where only one thing matters: determination. I truly believe you can finish your WoAdWriMo in the next seven days, as long as you make a conscious decision to do so. You've got to want it. Don't let yourself make excuses. Only a positive attitude and grit can see you through.

WE BELIEVE IN YOU!

Q: What if I miss the deadline?

2007-06-19T08:09:00.000-07:00

Like the target size of 32 pages, we at WoAdWriMo consider the 'deadline' of June 30th to be a goal, not a stick with which to beat the participants. If you complete your adventure in July or later, do not be ashamed of not completing the project in June. We're not here to bring you down. Any adventures submitted on or after July 1st will be cheerfully accepted! Don't stop writing just because you missed a completely arbitrary deadline. We want you to succeed and we want you to be able to share the fruits of your hard work with others. Just don't let our easy-going attitude be an excuse to put off working on your adventure!

First completed module!!!

2007-06-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

Peter, a.k.a. Abyssal Maw, has completed his Worldwide Adventure Writing Month project! Follow this link to The Maze of Cherno, "A D&D 3.5 Megadungeon for characters levels 1-5". Peter, congratulations on being the first person we know of to successfully complete your adventure!

Tips from the Pros, Part 2

2007-06-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

We're almost halfway through Worldwide Adventure Writing Month. Keep up the good work! You can do this! If you get stuck, here's some great advice on overcoming writer's block from S. John Ross. Mr. Ross has been working in the game industry since 1990. Click here for some of Mr. Ross's credits. Nowadays Mr. Ross runs his own publishing company, Cumberland Games & Diversions. Cumberland was one of the first all-electronic publishing ventures, though in recent years Mr. Ross has made some of his product line available via print-on-demand. Below the line are S. John's tips for beating writer's block.

As a warm-up, any game-writing newbie facing “writer’s block” should consider discarding the phrase “writer’s block” entirely. It’s a heavy phrase, encumbered with quasi-mythical creative fears. The net result is a kind of Wizard of Oz effect where the tiny trembling little problem puffs itself up into a Great and Powerful foe. Yank that curtain back; and see? It's just workaday anxiety.

Walk away – for a little while. Never use this as an excuse not to write, but sometimes just going for a swim, washing the dishes, having some sex or taking a brisk walk is the best tonic. Don’t bring work along (mentally or physically); just swim, wash, screw or hike, as you please. Work the knots out, stay active, and make sure there’s more going on in your mind – and your life – than whatever it is you’re trying to write. Stay physical, stay social, and keep perspective.

Feed your brain with good writing by others, but feed it something unexpected. Read (or watch, or listen to) something tangential. If you’re writing a fantasy module, try a crime-TV-show episode guide or an article on windowsill gardening. If you’re writing a space-adventure piece, read about ancient Persia or try a new cookbook. Sometimes, you’ll find inspiring fragments you can translate back into you work, but for the most part just focus on the writing. Is it clear, engaging, informative? Let it inspire your approach. Is it muddy, dull, and rambling? Let it inspire you to show them how it’s done. Writing well is its own wellspring of energy.

Take your eyes off the finish line. You eat a pizza one bite of one slice at a time; don’t try to shove the whole pie down your throat. Pick a morsel and savor it, devoting yourself with gusto to a single portion of the project – a sidebar, a particularly eccentric NPC, an especially deadly monster encounter. Then, move on to the next morsel, and enjoy just how different the pieces can be. Before you know it, you’ll be reaching for the crumbs, all done and still hungry for more.

Never forget to groove on the joy of what you’re engaging in. This is game writing, and that rocks. If the idea of creating RPG material excites you, then you’ve already got the one true secret weapon: tap into your greatest campaigns and favorite characters from the gaming table. Everything you need is right there.

Tips from the Pros, part 1

2007-06-13T08:11:00.000-07:00

This week we'll be bringing you some advice from two professional game designers. Today we'll hear from Mike Mearls. Currently employed at Wizards of the Coast, Mr. Mearls is one of the brightest luminaries to come out of the d20 revolution. His list of credits is both long and impressive. You can read further insights of Mike's at his livejournal and at the Wizards website. Take it away, Mike!

Here's a few things I've learned:

1. When it comes to gaming, doing is better than thinking. Some of the best ideas I've had for adventures or mechanics have come off the top of my head. I think that, in the heat of the moment when I need something cool or entertaining, I just go with what's fun. It's easy in game and adventure design to get caught up in theory, or obsessed over minutia or corner case situations that don't have a real impact on play. When you have five players waiting for something cool to happen, all you want to do as GM is find something fun and entertaining. In that moment, you strip away everything except fun, and I think it's conducive to good gaming ideas.

So, run a game, or play a game (RP, video, or board; whatever's handy) and just focus on what was fun about it. At the end of the day, elegant die mechanics, compelling plot lines, and everything else are all crap unless the end result is fun.

(As an aside, adventures that I ran before publishing have always turned out better than ones that I never ran. I think this bit of advice is the reason why.)

2. Talk games with other, active gamers. I find that just talking about games is stimulating, particularly if you throw some ideas you've had out there. New perspectives, especially from people who game in ways that are really different from your own, can make you look at things in different ways. This doesn't mean slavishly doing what others tell you, but it does mean listening and learning. Sometimes, a fresh angle is what you need to get around a problem.

3. This next bit is totally cribbed from every lame motivational speaker ever, but I think it's useful to keep in mind. Failure is better than mediocrity. It's easy to get too worried about looking goofy, or stick too closely to how you think everyone else wants you to do something, and in the process lose your own voice, vision, and perspective. If you think an idea is maybe a bit stupid, or a little too weird, follow it. At the very least, talk it out with your gaming buddies. It's easy to talk yourself out of a risky but good idea.

(By the same token, if everyone thinks your idea is dumb, trust your friends.)

Hope that helps!

- M

Welcome to Week 2!

2007-06-11T07:21:00.000-07:00

If you look back on the first week of WoAdWriMo and aren't happy with your work thus far, do not despair! Our forum is full of cool people who can help you work through mechanical kinks or assist in brainstorming. If the slow pace of your work is causing you to lose hope, don't sweat it! The point of Worldwide Adventure Writing Month is not to judge anyone. We won't poo-poo your module if it is 'only' twenty pages long. I promise! If you come to the end of the month and have written a complete, useable, but shorter module, that goes in the win column! Yay, you wrote a module that other GMs can use!

If you feel like you've stumbled and can't quite recover, remember that dedication is the only thing that can see you through to the end of this challenge. You've got to pick yourself up and get back on that bike! If it's been a day or more since you've added something to your module close this browser window and go write something right now!

You can do it!

Q: What counts toward the page goal?

2007-06-08T08:38:00.000-07:00

A question tha has come up more than once is whether things like maps or pre-gen PCs count towards the 32 page goal. The short answer is YES! Anything that helps make your adventure awesome counts towards your goal. Over at the WoAdWriMo forum user WeaveWarden (of MythWeavers) came up with this great post:

Just as there are many possibilities for a given adventure, there are many possible ways of describing an adventure. Let's take a look at some of the common elements that writers can use to fill those pages with useful content.

Textual Descriptions

Discussion of how to integrate the adventure into an ongoing game (hooks, description of preceding adventures, ways to fit into an established campaign setting)

Setting Description

Character Descriptions

Pre-Readied Character Speech

Pre-Readed NPC/Monster Action descriptions

NPC/Monster Statistic Blocks

GM Meta-Advice on ways to introduce/handle certain situations

Custom Adventure-Specific Rules

Treasure Tables (and other tables of random possibilities)

Lists of possible results for information-finding attempts (possible rumors uncovered, knowledge known on a subject, clues uncovered in a room)

Suggested extra media for a given scene or story (music, movie clips, links to videos available online, etc)

Non-Textual Descriptions

Scene illustrations

Images of characters (consider both illustrations and photographs)

Adventure/encounter flow charts (to help organize the progression of the story along possible paths of action)

Illustrations of opponents / monsters

Maps (small-scale and broad geographical)

Relationship diagrams (family trees, rivalries, political organizations)

Formatting elements (background or border images and patterns, etc)

Don't forget to check the copyright laws governing any images you end up borrowing from other sources.

Good work, MythWeaver!

How's your module going?

2007-06-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

If you write at a regular pace and you started on the 1st, then you should have one quarter (8 pages) of your module written by tomorrow. Don't panic if you're see yourself coming up short. I said "if you write at a regular pace" for a reason. Some people write in bursts. Maybe your time is tied up during the week and you'll make more progress over the weekend. Don't berate yourself for 'only' writing a paragraph or two today. If you're working on your WoAdWriMo project, then you're doing something right, no matter what your current page total. Just be careful you don't come to the last few days of June with the majority of your adventure unwritten.

If you have any questions or concerned, feel free to drop a comment here or visit the gang at our official forum. Are you stuck and need some ideas for a slick mechanic or neat plot twist? The WoAdWriMo forum is full of talented people ready to offer a hand!

Q: I'm done! Now what?

2007-06-04T06:57:00.000-07:00

We are thrilled beyond measure to hear reports of WoAdWriMo participants that are almost done writing their adventures! So let's say you got a completed adventure. What happens next?

First, please let us know! We want to sing your praises! Drop a comment here or at the WoAdWriMo forum, or send an email to me personally. If you want us to host the adventure so that other may download, please send me a copy in an email. We're trying to get an automatic uploader set up on the WoAdWriMo Adventure home, but so far it is not ready. We'll let you know when we have that up and running.

If you want to host your adventure elsewhere, please provide us with a link so we can pass it on to others. We want people to see all your hard work, and we want GMs interested in your module to be able to find it. Maybe you want to try to sell your work, instead of making it available for free download. If you find a buyer, please keep us informed of the details. We'll help get the word out to prosepctive buyers.

Welcome to Worldwide Adventure Writing Month!

2007-06-01T13:15:00.000-07:00

Come join the fun! The challenge to to write a 32 page adventure in the month of June. Then share your adventure with other GMs around the world!

Here are some links to people already participating!

805pm

Stuart

Tezrak

David Jacobs

maikeru

Jeff

Settembrini

Roger

Jeffrey (some graphics here NSFW)

all the gang at our official forum

If you have links to other participants, please let us know!

The Adventure Begins Tomorrow!

2007-05-31T09:52:00.000-07:00

June is Worldwide Adventure Writing Month, where participants are challenged to write a 32-page adventure module to share with the rest of the internet community of RPG fans. We invite you to join in the project! All are welcome! This is your chance to flex your writing chops, promote a favorite game system, and help out other GMs worldwide.

If you need assistance of any sort, please feel free to leave a comment here, or to participate in our official WoAdWriMo Forum, hosted by Treasure Tables. Once your adventure is complete, Treasure Tables will be happy to host the file so that you may share your work with the rest of the world. Or host it yourself and we will gladly link to your accomplishment!

Have you decided to take the challenge, but are still having trouble picking a system or a scenario? Feel free to pitch ideas here or at the forum! Need some adventure writing help? Try the articles linked in this thread or check out these two WoAdWriMo blog entries.

Guest post: A Play-By-Post Opportunity

2007-05-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

As mentioned yesterday, here's our guest post by WeaveWarden of MythWeaver outlining a great opportunity to make your WoAdWriMo project accessible to the world of play-by-post!

The folks at Myth-Weavers are volunteering to help out with supporting WoAdWriMo by offering an extra way to spread the word and make your WoAdWriMo adventure accessible a wide audience of gaming groups. Myth-Weavers is a roleplay-by-post site that will be hosting your finished WoAdWriMo adventures as special "ready-to-play-by-post" game forums.

Wait, What's RolePlay-By-Post?
RolePlay-by-Post (or just play-by-post) is when gamers run their roleplaying adventures using the medium of online message-boards, often with the help of a variety of gaming-enabling features, like online character sheets, dice-rollers, out-of-character text, and so on.

So, what's a "Ready-to-Play-by-Post" game forum?
A ready-to-play-by-post game forum is the interactive online equivalent of a pre-made adventure (like the one you'll be writing for WoAdWriMo). The general idea is to take an adventure and make it supremely easy to play online.

The adventure information will be formatted for the message board and split into private (GM-only) threads so that it's easy for GMs to copy story descriptions, NPC quotes, and so forth directly into open-to-player game threads. The adventures' maps and images will be uploaded and hosted next to their part in the story, ready to be revealed at the right moment. Important NPCs will be given their own online character sheets for easy customization, and these sheets will be integrated into the Myth-Weavers dice-roller system so that GMs might not even have to look up stats to make critical rolls. The little perks roll on ad infinitum.

Plus, the ready-to-play-by-post adventures will be instantly copy-able for any group that wants to play them, so many different online gaming groups will get a chance to play your adventure!

What do I have to do?
Sit back, relax, and focus on writing your adventure! The WoAdWriMo team members at Myth-Weavers will take care of the conversion of the final adventures to ready-to-play-by-post for you! If you don't particularly care about online play, it's no sweat off your back, since this new way of sharing your adventure will be in addition to hosting your efforts in pdf format at TreasureTables.

If you have any questions or ideas about the ready-to-play-by-post games, go ahead and direct them to the official WoAdWriMo forums.

Thanks for this generous offer, WeaveWarden. I'm unfamiliar with the world of play-by-post, but anything that gets more people playing games they enjoy is okay by me!

...and we're back!

2007-05-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

Worldwide Adventure Writing Month is only a few weeks away! Look for more tips and words of encouragement as we dust off this blog and get ready to ramp up towards WoAdWriMo. Have you resolved to take the challenge? Need help picking a system? If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to leave comments here or at our official forum.

Tomorrow we'll feature a guest post by WeaveWarden of play-by-post site MythWeavers. In the meantime, do you need help building plots for your adventures? Doctor Rotwang's Adventure Funnel might be just the tool to help!

Two More Ideas on Structure

2007-02-21T12:57:00.000-08:00

WoAdWriMo forum member Devin Parker outlines the adventure format of some classic Shadowrun adventures.

In practice, the Shadowrun adventure templates always seemed to work for me as a model for games where the PCs aren't necessarily going to travel in a simple A-B-C progression through the plot. It works well for PCs who will be acting independently, following their own leads, investigating people and places at their own discretion. It generally feels pretty versatile, allowing for such free-roaming PC behavior while still maintaining a plot (rather than simply an "Explore The Hex" type oldschool AD&D module). On the down side, it requires the GM to really familiarize himself with it before running it; doing it cold means a lot of page-flipping and possible mistakes.

Click here to read Mr. Parker's breakdown of the Shadowrun format.

On a more old school tip, here's David Cook explaining how the A series of modules for first edition AD&D were created (from the forward to the compiled A1-4 Scourge of the Slavelords megamodule):

First, each designer chose a low-level monster that would be the basis for his round: orcs in A1, hobgoblins in A2, and gnolls in A3. Next we decided on the number and type of encounters that would occur: nine encounters to fit the time limit of 3 1/2 hours. We guessed this would give a good team just enough time to get through every encounter.
...
We also set what would happen in each encounter. Thus we came up with the following list:
2 Traps
1 Trick to fool the players
1 Problem the players had to solve
1 Encounter with the basic monster of the round (orcs, hobgoblins, gnolls, etc.)
1 Ambush prepared by the basic monster of the round
1 Encounter with the basic monster and a friend (an ogre, for example)
1 Encounter with an unintelligent monster
1 Encounter with a brand new monster
1 Grand Finale
Using this list, we each went to design our tournament rounds.

What's interesting for our purposes is that even with the smaller stat blocks of yesteryear, the A series of modules clock in at around 30 pages each.

Planning by Pagecount

2007-01-25T06:21:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to report that more folks have signed on to take the WoAdWriMo Challenge. Without a doubt there a still some out in internet-land who are still on the fence. Here's one way to make the 32 page goal seem a lot less daunting: Try cutting up the task into distinctive pieces of only a few pages at a time.

Here's an example. Say I want to write an old school adventure module, with a dungeon in the middle of a wilderness area. That easily breaks down into chunks. The wilderness area will include a two page map spread, and at least four pages of description of various encounter areas. The dungeon will be three large levels and two small levels. The large levels will each have full page maps and maybe three pages of text. The maps of the two smaller levels will share a page and will need maybe 3 pages of description between the two of them. A mini-dungeon elsewhere on the wilderness map will require a single map and three pages of text.

That ought to cover the basics of an old fashioned site based adventure. For extras I want a village that the PCs can use as a base of operations. That will need another page for a map and maybe 2 pages of text. The main villain and couple henchmen will need full NPC write-ups, say one page for the villain and 1 split between the evil lieutenants. Let's see where this puts us as far as pagecount goes:

2 wilderness map
4 wilderness description
5 dungeon maps
15 dungeon text
1 town map
2 town text
2 NPC

That's 31 pages! Wow, that worked out a lot better than I thought it would when I started this exercise. If anything, this particular project could go over the 32 page goal, as the list above fails to include several items that will add to pagecount. I don't have an introduction or a table of contents or index. I have allocated any space to illustrations. I was thinking 2 half-page and at least 4 quarter-page illos, in addition to the cover image. And I wanted to include at least one new monster and magic item in an appendix, simply because I can.

For more plot and story oriented adventures more of your pagecount will be taken up with things like background information on the situation at hand, more NPCs, story flowcharts, and things like that. But I think this same basic method could help out those kinds of adventures as well.

Again, I urge anyone still hesitant to take the Challenge: just give it a try. We will help you! Do not hesitate to ask for assistance either here or at our forum.

Resolve to take the Challenge

2007-01-01T16:56:00.000-08:00

If you are still on the fence about joining the WoAdWriMo team, now is the perfect time to make a New Year's Resolution: to write a complete 32+ page adventure module by June 30th, 2007.

Don't worry if the size of the undertaking seems intimidating. Maybe you just need to look for ways to make our challenge easier on yourself. Do you have a favorite homemade adventure? The fact that it's old hat to your local players doesn't disqualify it from becoming a WoAdWriMo module. Flesh those notes out, give them some real polish, and you'll be surprised how close you are to the 32 page goal. Do you have a system that is particularly easy for you? If you think to yourself "Oh, yeah. Making foes in System X is a snap," then maybe that's what system you should use for you WoAdWriMo project.

And finally, don't hestiate to take tired, old clichés out for a spin. Dragons menacing princesses, tramp star-freighters smuggling spice, and slick espionage agents packing Walther PPKs are clichés for a reason: that stuff works. And you'd be surprised by the number of veteran gamers who would appreciate your spin on these tired old ideas.

Q: What system should I use?

2006-12-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

A: You can write your adventure for pretty much any system you want. WoAdWriMo is about you and your adventure and what we can do to help you, not about us and our needs or desires. Writing a systemless adventure is also a perfectly acceptable option.

Perhaps you are having trouble selecting a system to use. There are many approaches that will help you narrow your choices down. You could pick a popular system in hopes that more GMs will use your adventure. To that end expect a future WoAdWriMo blog entry regarding the proper use of the d20 license and Open Gaming License.

Going in the opposite direction, you could use your WoAdWriMo adventure as an opportunity to shine a light on a system that isn't as popular as it could be. If you hope to evangelize for your favorite game it would be a good idea to write an introductory adventure for new PCs. Several very good games flounder in obscurity at least partly because some GMs don't know what to do with them. A good intro adventure helps overcome that obstacle.

Adventure writers that want to go systemless may find it helpful to introduce a little bit of system into their adventures. The Fudge role-playing game uses a seven step ladder of ordinary words to describe all traits. The ladder is as follows:

Superb
Great
Good
Fair
Mediocre
Poor
Terrible

Using a simple system like this one allows for consistent shorthand remarks such as "The orcs are Good warriors overall but Poor archers." For more information on Fudge (include a free download of the entire rules), check out the official Fudge website, or visit this unofficial Fudge fan forum, or just grab this two-page quickie Fudge in a Nutshell. But please remember using the Fudge ladder system is not a requirement of the WoAdWriMo challenge, just a helpful suggestion that you are entriely welcome to ignore.

Along a similar vein one WoAdWriMo participant, known as VV_GM over at the WoAdWriMo forum, is working on what he calls the Universal Adventure Design Language. We'll keep you posted as details become available.

One final note about system choice. The good folks at Palladium Books seem to have a rather draconian and confusing policy towards online fan creations. While your WoAdWriMo support team loves many Palladium products, their internet policies and reputed litigiousness scares us just a bit. So while we heartily approve of anyone wishing to write adventures for any of Palladium's games, we will not be hosting such works at the WoAdWriMo section of Treasure Tables. But if you provide us with a URL to an alternative host, we will cheerfully link to your adventure.

[Many apologies to all readers for the lack of updates over the last week! My daughter came home with the chicken pox and I had been unable to finish this post.]

Q: Why is the goal 32 pages?

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A: The 32-page goal is an arbitrary guideline only. Many of the classic D&D adventure modules from TSR clock in at around 32 pages, so that's why we picked that number. The point of setting a pagecount is to signal that we're challenging you to write Full Length Badass Adventures, not short one-night jobbies. That being said, if you write a complete, coherent adventure and it's 'only' 20 pages long we are not going to give you an 'F'. We will cheer! Don't pad out your adventure just to achieve our 32 page goal. All the parameters of WoAdWriMo are guidelines designed to help you. If one or more of our guidelines isn't cutting the mustard, please ignore it!

But suppose you really, really want to meet our 32 page goal and you're coming up slightly short. What should you do? Anyone who has had to squeak by in the classroom by handing in a short assignment knows all the tricks you can pull to make a small text seem bigger. The font size can be increased, the margins widened, etc. We ask that you not do this just to reach an arbitrary pagecount. Instead, consider adding bonus materials.

For example, you could add a Designer's Notes section explaining exactly what you are trying to achieve in your work. Or perhaps you could write up a one-page history on the creator and wielders of that cool magic sword in room 23a. A player's hand-out section might be handy for your adventure, if you use lots of clues. Or if your adventure involves a lot of interpersonal intrigue, consider devoting a page to a relationship map. Or just throw in some new crunchy bits, like new monsters or magic items. That's always fun. Basically, ask yourself "What could I add to this module to make it more user-friendly or fun?"

Q: What happens to my completed adventure?

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A: First of all, you get our heartfelt congratulations. Congratulations! You made it! A winner is you! What happens next is entirely up to you. Throughout the entire WoAdWriMo process you are in the driver's seat. Martin Ralya at Treasure Tables will host any WoAdWriMo adventures that participants want to submit to us. Our vision is that the WoAdWriMo section of TT will serve as a central clearinghouse of adventures produced as part of the WoAdWriMo challenge.

But that's just our vision. If your vision is different, that's what we want you to go with. If that means you find another host for your adventure, we will happily link to that other site. Or perhaps you want to submit your manuscript to a publisher. That would be super! We would be thrilled to flip through a copy of Dungeon magazine or click over to RPGnow and see a WoAdWriMo adventure on display.

There is one option we would like to avoid. We don't want you to produce that adventure and then keep it to yourself. Please share! The WoAdWriMo challenge has a two-fold purpose: to motivate you to write and to make great adventures available to other GMs. We can't fufill that second mission goal unless the resulting adventures enter general circulation.

As always feel free to ask questions, share concerns, and make suggestions. We're here to help you.

Nothing New Under the Sun

2006-12-05T08:45:00.000-08:00

No one had any delusions of originality when we launched WoAdWriMo. This project is directly inspired by NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, though our methods and goals deviate from that endeavor. Game design challenges like Game Chef and the 24 hour RPG did much to convince us of the feasability of WoAdWriMo.

But we were unprepared to discover that WoAdWriMo is covering the same exact ground as another effort. June may be Worldwide Adventure Writing Month, but December is the Knights & Knaves Alehouse Module Writing Month. Knights & Knaves is a fabulous message board community dedicated to what they like to call "Gygaxian D&D", meaning the original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set from 1974 and the first edition of Advanced D&D. Anyone still interested in these august incarnations of the game would do well to visit the K&KA boards. Note that despite the tight focus of the community, the K&KA module writing challenge is open to any system.

The goal of your WoAdWriMo team is two-fold: to motivate people to write adventures and to help share those adventures with other GMs. Anything that accomplishes those goals meets with our hearty approval. If you would rather work under the aegis of the Knights & Knaves program, we encourage you to do so. If you want to take both challenges, that would be excellent. Or if you want to write a module for K&K then submit the results to the WoAdWriMo database, we will gladly host your adventure.

Later today we'll field more FAQ questions.

Can I start now?

2006-12-04T06:50:00.000-08:00

Over the next couple of weeks we'll be using this space to organically grow a Frequently Asked Questions page for Worldwide Adventure Writing Month. Once we seem to have most of the common questions answered, we'll get a complete FAQ posted over at the WoAdWriMo section of Treasure Tables. Today we'll start by tackling one of the first questions asked, even before this project went live.

Q: Do I have to wait until June to start writing my adventure?

A: Absolutely not! If you want to start immediately, that would be fantastic! Think of June as the final stretch, the crunch time with the finish line in sight. There's no reason to wait if you don't want to. We started this project several months in advance so that people could get cracking early if they desired. If someone handed in a complete adventure before June 1st we would be thrilled.

In the meantime consider us your personal cheering section. Yay! You rock! The WoAdWriMo team also wants to be your clearinghouse for useful information and resources in the coming months. If there is something we can be doing to make your module-writing easier, please let us know. We want you to succeed and we'll do whatever we can to help you out. You can leave a comment here, start a new thread on the WoAdWriMo forum, or email me personally.

Future FAQ fodder: What happens to my completed adventure? Are there any legal issues I should be worried about? Why is the goal 32 pages? What system should I use?

The Challenge

2006-12-01T12:11:00.000-08:00

Tabletop roleplaying games have traditionally relied on a Game Master to create and run adventures. Sometimes that Game Master uses published adventure material. I know for a fact that the internet is chock full of extremely talented GMs. We can all help each other out by writing adventures we can share with each other. Please consider taking the WoAdWriMo challenge with us: to write a complete, playable rpg adventure of at least 32 pages in length by the last day of June next year. You can do it.

Keep watching this space for my personal thoughts on WoAdWriMo or join us at the Treasure Tables forums where host Martin Ralya has set aside a space for the official WoAdWriMo forum. Ask questions. Voice concerns. Sign on to take the challenge. Spread the word. This is about you and what you can do for our hobby.

Remember June is Worldwide Adventure Writing Month. Start planning now.

Jeff Rients,
WoAdWriMo Coordinator