Mark one thing off my "Things to do 'ere I die" list!
As a young kid playing D&D in my friend's basement in the late 70s and early 80s, I would leaf through the classic D&D adventures--Keep on the Borderlands, White Plume Mountain, Tomb of Horrors, and others--and dream that maybe someday I could create something similar. How cool would it be to create something that thousands--or maybe even tens of thousands of people--would test their characters' mettle against? How awesome to not just tell a story, but to create something that would allow others to live their own stories?
Through the intervening years and various editions of D&D, I continued to play and enjoy the hobby. The dream of creating an adventure for honest-to-goodness publication slowly began to take a backseat to other realities: jobs, chores, family, and the endless obligations of living in the 21st century. On a whim in 2001, I decided to look into playing in the RPGA's Living Greyhawk campaign with the release of 3rd Edition D&D. I connected with a wonderful group of players in my area, and we started playing. Since the RPGA runs on the back of volunteers, I eventually had the chance to offer my time to do a little work for my local Living Greyhawk triad, led by Sam Weiss. Far from glamorous, the work involved creating some NPCs and areas of Keoland where adaptable adventure could be set. The work was fun, and it rekindled that flame--the love of the game I grew up playing and the desire to give people the means to have the same kind of fun I got out of the game.
Step by step I got more involved. Volunteering my time to the Keoland Triad for various projects eventually led to a spot on the Triad editing adventures. The flame grew stronger. The Triad work led to writing adventures for Living Greyhawk and Living Kingdoms of Kalamar. The flame grew hotter. Campaigns came and went, and I continued to seek opportunities to learn as much as possible about the game and the craft of designing adventures.
In late 2007, I was selected by Chris Tulach to be one of the three Global Administrators in the Living Forgotten Realms campaign run by the RPGA. I couldn't have been more excited. I cannot even begin to count the number of hours I had put into various campaigns since 2001, mostly on a volunteer basis. I did it all because I wanted to get better at creating games, and I wanted people to have fun with characters and worlds and plots we all shared.
Then came the email. Andy Collins, RPG System Design & Development Manager for WotC R&D, emailed me. My LFR position meant I had to have some advance rules knowledge of 4e, and I assumed the email was an update for that. It wasn't. Someone was needed to help develop an adventure for R&D. That pre-teen kid I used to be, sitting on a stool in his friend's basement gripping a tattered copy of Tomb of Horrors, fell right off his seat.
Although I had a lot of projects going, I couldn't turn down an opportunity like that. And so started a new journey. Bruce Cordell, with whom I would be designing the adventure, emailed me the details. My wife asked who Bruce was, and as an answer I just started pointing out all the books on my shelf that he had worked on. There are many, and they all contain great work. I have to admit that just the act of pulling all those books off the shelf intimidated me. But I was up to the task, right? After all, I had written a couple dozen or more adventures for the RPGA across many campaigns, and I had edited almost as many. How much harder could it be?
Yeah, but this was 4th Edition, and I really didn't even have a final copy of the rules yet. My total experience of 4e adventure writing was one adventure for Dungeon magazine, and making notes for a couple of Living Forgotten Realms adventures. Ah well, I've never before let a total lack of knowledge get in my way, so I wrote down one of the first rules of writing that I learned on an index card next to me: "Always be finishing."
So now it is over, and I look back through my work notes and my personal journal on what I have learned. I know I can certainly churn out word count. I know that compared to 3rd Edition, writing adventures for 4th Edition certainly isn't going to be any more difficult, and parts of it are certainly much easier. Adding levels or a class template to monsters is so much easier. Working on creatures that would have had me banging my head on my desk in 3rd Edition were a breeze in 4th. I didn't use any math much more difficult than what my daughter does in 1st grade in changing monsters. I know that I love the new skill challenge format: any mechanic that can help a DM or adventure writer make better encounters by making them think inside a format is a good thing--precisely why sonnets make such great poetry. The methods of putting encounters together help make them more dynamic and potentially fun for the player. Oh, and I know that Bruce Cordell is a great person to work with: very knowledgeable and the most generous and supportive of collaborators.
Now comes the interminable wait until the adventure is released. It'll be worth every second.
Through the intervening years and various editions of D&D, I continued to play and enjoy the hobby. The dream of creating an adventure for honest-to-goodness publication slowly began to take a backseat to other realities: jobs, chores, family, and the endless obligations of living in the 21st century. On a whim in 2001, I decided to look into playing in the RPGA's Living Greyhawk campaign with the release of 3rd Edition D&D. I connected with a wonderful group of players in my area, and we started playing. Since the RPGA runs on the back of volunteers, I eventually had the chance to offer my time to do a little work for my local Living Greyhawk triad, led by Sam Weiss. Far from glamorous, the work involved creating some NPCs and areas of Keoland where adaptable adventure could be set. The work was fun, and it rekindled that flame--the love of the game I grew up playing and the desire to give people the means to have the same kind of fun I got out of the game.
Step by step I got more involved. Volunteering my time to the Keoland Triad for various projects eventually led to a spot on the Triad editing adventures. The flame grew stronger. The Triad work led to writing adventures for Living Greyhawk and Living Kingdoms of Kalamar. The flame grew hotter. Campaigns came and went, and I continued to seek opportunities to learn as much as possible about the game and the craft of designing adventures.
In late 2007, I was selected by Chris Tulach to be one of the three Global Administrators in the Living Forgotten Realms campaign run by the RPGA. I couldn't have been more excited. I cannot even begin to count the number of hours I had put into various campaigns since 2001, mostly on a volunteer basis. I did it all because I wanted to get better at creating games, and I wanted people to have fun with characters and worlds and plots we all shared.
Then came the email. Andy Collins, RPG System Design & Development Manager for WotC R&D, emailed me. My LFR position meant I had to have some advance rules knowledge of 4e, and I assumed the email was an update for that. It wasn't. Someone was needed to help develop an adventure for R&D. That pre-teen kid I used to be, sitting on a stool in his friend's basement gripping a tattered copy of Tomb of Horrors, fell right off his seat.
Although I had a lot of projects going, I couldn't turn down an opportunity like that. And so started a new journey. Bruce Cordell, with whom I would be designing the adventure, emailed me the details. My wife asked who Bruce was, and as an answer I just started pointing out all the books on my shelf that he had worked on. There are many, and they all contain great work. I have to admit that just the act of pulling all those books off the shelf intimidated me. But I was up to the task, right? After all, I had written a couple dozen or more adventures for the RPGA across many campaigns, and I had edited almost as many. How much harder could it be?
Yeah, but this was 4th Edition, and I really didn't even have a final copy of the rules yet. My total experience of 4e adventure writing was one adventure for Dungeon magazine, and making notes for a couple of Living Forgotten Realms adventures. Ah well, I've never before let a total lack of knowledge get in my way, so I wrote down one of the first rules of writing that I learned on an index card next to me: "Always be finishing."
So now it is over, and I look back through my work notes and my personal journal on what I have learned. I know I can certainly churn out word count. I know that compared to 3rd Edition, writing adventures for 4th Edition certainly isn't going to be any more difficult, and parts of it are certainly much easier. Adding levels or a class template to monsters is so much easier. Working on creatures that would have had me banging my head on my desk in 3rd Edition were a breeze in 4th. I didn't use any math much more difficult than what my daughter does in 1st grade in changing monsters. I know that I love the new skill challenge format: any mechanic that can help a DM or adventure writer make better encounters by making them think inside a format is a good thing--precisely why sonnets make such great poetry. The methods of putting encounters together help make them more dynamic and potentially fun for the player. Oh, and I know that Bruce Cordell is a great person to work with: very knowledgeable and the most generous and supportive of collaborators.
Now comes the interminable wait until the adventure is released. It'll be worth every second.