RolePlay onLine RPoL Logo

, welcome to Community Chat

12:44, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Adventure Templates? Lore organisation? Wiki?

Posted by chromatophoria
chromatophoria
member, 670 posts
Tentacles for all!
Fri 28 Dec 2018
at 02:33
  • msg #1

Adventure Templates? Lore organisation? Wiki?

Hi fam

Are there any great templates for creating adventures?

Ideally not system specific, but I'm sure I could tweak something. I play SWN Revised, but I'm sure D&Dx templates would be of some assistance.

I'm looking for a Wordpress theme or template, or even a set of Google Docs & sheets?

Any leads or suggestions would be warmly appreciated.

Take care, merry festivus etc
This message was last updated by the user at 03:19, Mon 07 Jan 2019.
writermonk
member, 224 posts
Freelance Writer
Librarian
Fri 28 Dec 2018
at 03:43
  • msg #2

Adventure Templates?

In reply to chromatophoria (msg # 1):

Some articles:

https://geekandsundry.com/how-...-dd-adventures-ever/
Some good advice here, generic enough to fill in anywhere. Not templates, just advice.

http://hcoder.org/2017/10/05/t...ntric-rpg-scenarios/
Even yet MORE advice. Similar to the above, but a bit more brief.

https://rpggeek.com/thread/204...venture-your-players
A discussion thread about creating adventures along with some examples nested in other links.

https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/adventure/
Adventure generator. Will give you a basic outline of some main points, randomly created.

http://www.d20srd.org/fantasy/adventure/
Similar to the above; a decent generator that will build a basic outline.

http://blog.artlords.com/2018/...three-dungeon-ideas/
5 part structure for building adventures/dungeons with 3 examples

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/hook/#
Really basic Adventure Hook generator (these will give you some basic ideas, but nothing in the way of encounters or complications per se).





I found some other examples online, but since some of those contain some adult language, I'm not going to link them here.

Basically, you can find a variety of generators online or suggestions, but because of the wide range of play styles and games, you're not like to find a direct template that will work all the time for all games (stat blocks alone are going to vary widely across tables).

Too, you don't really want a template that's going to give you too much detail because it would quickly become unusable - the Players at least would want some sort of variety.

But, the stuff above should give you some starting points and maybe spark some creativity to help you along.

Best of luck!
This message was last edited by the user at 04:09, Fri 28 Dec 2018.
chromatophoria
member, 671 posts
Tentacles for all!
Fri 28 Dec 2018
at 05:13
  • msg #3

Adventure Templates?

In reply to writermonk (msg # 2):

Thanks for the effort & thoughtful post.

I've previously digested a handful of those links, and the others look most helpful.

Maybe I need to embark on a mission to create some templates, that are easy to fill out, and look great...

Ideally, I want a framework which encourages LEAN adventure building. Something easy to pick up & run with, in those brief 15 minutes windows of opportunity when inspiration strikes.

Something that can track World-level plots, NPCs, BBGs...
But also capable of drilling down into Scene-level experiences (encounters, etc).

Here's the RPG Session Script template (scroll-wheel mouse click to open in new tab) I produced a while back, based on my analysis of Adam Koebel's GM style in the first 40-odd sessions of Swan Song (SWN).

On a tangential thought... Maybe what would be most useful to begin with, is a "Whole-of-World Tracking Tool"... something that is easy to maintain between sessions, and provides powerful at-a-glance material (dot points, etc) for World events, Faction events & motivations, NPC events & motivations, etc.

This would encourage consistency of background plots & movements, whilst providing potential opportunities to Help, Hinder or Witness key events, tying the PCs to the world around them.

In your experience, what are a couple of key categories of things you like to track during or between sessions, that spurs on your creativity for the next session?

One of my favourite things to track, is one or two 'seemingly innocuous' PC decisions, that have a ripple effect and come back to help or hinder the group down the track.
chromatophoria
member, 672 posts
Tentacles for all!
Fri 28 Dec 2018
at 12:50
  • msg #4

Adventure Templates?

Here's an interesting example... - some dude's OneNote notebook.
chromatophoria
member, 678 posts
Tentacles for all!
Mon 7 Jan 2019
at 03:19
  • msg #5

Adventure Templates?

So I've actually started using a web app called Nuclino. It's quick, fast, simple, etc. And ultimately a much nicer User Experience than Mediawiki or other standard wiki's.

The free version is all you need, if you don't mind your players having read AND write access to all articles.

The biggest drawcard for me is the simple interlinking of articles, using the familiar @method. Type @ then start typing, and it'll list the articles you have that match that string, or allow you to create a new article.

It's like... online index cards, really. And the search box in the header means I can throw any keyword in, and get a relevant list of results.

One feature I'm sorely missing though, is tags. Custom, limitless tags. Maybe in a future update... I'd love to be able to tag my articles, or even paragraphs/sections of articles, with tags to improve searching. It's not a dealbreaker, but it would be nice.

Ok, so here's how I architect the content.

I'm using a Cluster (aka folder) structure to organise my content into the following:

- Mission Log
- General Knowledge
- Characters
-- Players
-- NPCs
- Factions
- Locations
-- Planet
--- City A
- Loot
- Psi
- Spells

So as the game unfolds within RPOL (or during IRL sessions) the players can refer to this knowledge base as needed.

Essentially, it's like the Codex in Mass Effect...
See http://i.imgur.com/fNeRcBV.jpg screenshot

The Mission Log is probably my favourite part though. I have a Cluster up the very top of the structure, which will contain ALL the Adventure threads the group play through, or are exposed to.

Again, very similar to Mass Effect...
See https://cdn.jwplayer.com/thumbs/9cJtwX8r-720.jpg screenshot

or even Witcher games, I suppose...
See https://staticdelivery.nexusmo...430-0-1460926092.png screenshot

Within the Mission Log cluster - I will present each mission/adventure/etc as it's own article -- and it can @internal-link to as many other articles I need to, like NPCs & Locations, etc.

AND Nuclino provides a Task List feature within your article content. So we can keep track of the progress, and what to focus on next.

Also, I have the player character sheets in Nuclino too. It's easy to make tables (rows, columns) within an article - but it's nowhere near as powerful as Google Docs/MS Word, or Sheets/Excel. However, it's neat & smart enough to work quote nicely.

For eg, I have a 6 column table like:

Skill name | Value | Skill name | Value | Skill name | Value

And about 9 rows, which allows for 25 skills. This way just utilises more screen real estate than a 2 column list.

In summary, I'm pretty happy with the tool & this approach as the framework for my games on RPOL & IRL.

It's easy enough to copy & paste content from one article to another, so I've created templates for each of the article types (characters, locations, factions, etc).

---

Once I got going with this, I asked myself another question...

What's the best way to streamline the creation of hooks & opposition in my game?

This question is about process, rather than organisation.

I searched Reddit, StackOverflow, and RPOL forums... and nothing really jumped out at me...

Until... I saw people talking about Fronts... Grim Portents... Dangers... Threats...

Enter Dungeon World's Fronts system.

O.M.G.

What an eye opener this system was for me. I've only GM'd a handful of times IRL & on RPOL, and have been a player fewer times than that.

But this Fronts system seems to really be the distillation of solutions to so many challenges I've faced, as a budding GM.

I'm all about sandbox-style play... rolling with character goals & needs, and creating experiences & encounters based on player input. As opposed to using published modules, or writing intricate plots... I like to keep things flowing, improv-friendly, but be in a position to have prepped enough for the next session, with the limited time I have for prep.

Now I've got my wiki tool, and the Fronts method...

I wonder what else I can fold in to my prep & organisation process ^_^
This message was last edited by the user at 03:28, Mon 07 Jan 2019.
Sign In