How to Write Adventure Modules That Donã¢â‚¬â„¢t Suck
Jobe Bittman
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This book is a collection of short essays on writing RPG adventures, where each essay is paired with some adventure/encounter that supposedly demonstrates the principle discussed in the essay. And the essays have topics like:
* give context only when it matters to the adventure
* tailor parts of the adventure to your players
* use all five senses in description
* how to deal with player character dea
This book is a collection of short essays on writing RPG adventures, where each essay is paired with some adventure/encounter that supposedly demonstrates the principle discussed in the essay. And the essays have topics like:
* give context only when it matters to the adventure
* tailor parts of the adventure to your players
* use all five senses in description
* how to deal with player character death
Now some of those topics are peculiar to roleplaying, but others are just sort of general writing advice, the sort of advice that, frankly, you can trip over anywhere these days. And even the RPG specific advice seems pretty common. Maybe I'm being curmudgeonly and heartless towards people who are just now starting to think about this topic -- maybe for them a compendium of advice would be authentically useful when they try to write adventures. I will say, though, that the adventures-as-exemplars thing doesn't entirely work -- adventures are such big, complex, full things, that any single one will have many things going on. (This could actually probably be fixed with some designers' notes explaining what they did, why, and what it would be like if they didn't take their own advice.)
(Another possible change to make: the organization of this book is... thin. It might be alphabetical by author rather than, say, broken into topics and the topics are at such different levels of organization, from "how to outline an adventure" to "how to unleash your creativity." Note: you should probably unleash your creativity before outlining and then move on to adding sensory detail to your description. Also, do we need two essays about adding sensory details?)
(Also, while it's nice to see the names of a bunch of old time TSR and D&D folks, I also might edit this to add a summary of what the essay is trying to say. Several of these essays take the long way around to getting to their point. I am not surprised to learn that this book grew out of a convention pamphlet.)
All that complaint to one side, there are some fair ideas here, but I still think you might be better off listening to Ken and Robin Talk about Stuff if you're interested in writing RPG material.
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Needless to say, the Kickstarter was successful, the book is now in print, and I'm relieved to say my money was well-spent. In just 156 pages, this book covers topics ranging from atmosphere, to playtesting, to level balancing, to making old monsters/encounters fresh, to proper formatting, and more. It's a tremendous resource for anyone looking to write their own adventures in a more marketable format, and I can't wait to start putting some of this advice into practice. It's largely D&D-centric, but the principles can be adjusted to nearly any game system. Highly recommended to any DM, GM, storyteller, or judge, no matter your choice of RPG.
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I wanted to give this fun little book 3.5 stars, but since that's not an option on Goodreads, I had to choose to round up or down. In the end, it just didn't have enough juicy bits, great suggestions, head-slapping "Why didn't I think of that?!?!" moments to warrant five stars, and the quality of the entries varied considerably, for anot
How to Write... is a multi-author compilation of RPG advice from writers with many years, collectively I'd guess centuries, of experience in the TTRPG industry.I wanted to give this fun little book 3.5 stars, but since that's not an option on Goodreads, I had to choose to round up or down. In the end, it just didn't have enough juicy bits, great suggestions, head-slapping "Why didn't I think of that?!?!" moments to warrant five stars, and the quality of the entries varied considerably, for another half-point deduction. I rounded it down because of a few other quibbling problems - some formatting errors and the like - dropped it a little more.
Nonetheless, this is a fun, recommended read for GMs and RPG writers looking for solid advice on improving their games. You'll find yourself taking notes!
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The missing fifth star is due to the very uneven proofreading I found impossible to ignore while reading it. The errors were so numerous in some articles that I wondered if they had been proofread at all. This obviously
This book, in addition to offering a wealth of insight and wisdom, is a pleasure to read. By the end I was ready to buy up a (imaginary) second volume as soon as it appears. There are many sage voices to be heard on the topic in addition to those heard in HTWAMTDS, so let's hope!The missing fifth star is due to the very uneven proofreading I found impossible to ignore while reading it. The errors were so numerous in some articles that I wondered if they had been proofread at all. This obviously distracts from the content a lot and went way past a threshold where I'd let a first printing slide.
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How to Write Adventure Modules That Donã¢â‚¬â„¢t Suck
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