Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

I have a small question. But first a little bit of info!

I've started concepting a series of related adventures that, while set within my person campaign setting, The Eastern Lands, would be loose enough to fit in pretty much anywhere. I'll be using the BFRPG rules to do these since I feel it would probably be easier than using much larger and/or clunkier systems. Said adventures would be done in 5 modules that take a party of 4-6 players from level 1 to ~12. Each adventure could be stung together to form a coherent and ongoing campaign or be ran individually too! Ah the joys of modules.

But you see, while I can often BS my way through running an adventure and do well with pre-written modules, these would be my first ones written. So now my question.

How hard is it to write a module?

It's as difficult as any writing task.

Begin.
Write, write, write.
Read what you have written.
Edit. Read.
Delete. Read.
Write.
Publish. Read.
Read feedback.

Skip detail. The imagination of the readers will add detail.
Be determined.

You will do good.

Eastern Lands is something I'd like to read.
Go write, now.

Writing adventures is easy; writing them well is hard.

The good news is, if you plan to release your work for free on this site, you can get a lot of help for free on this site. Collaboration is something we're quite good at.

The important thing is, show us what you have as soon as you have it. Don't let fear of rejection or embarrassment stop you... create a Workshop thread and show us your work. Then, when we tell you what we think you should do to improve it, have a thick skin; don't let the commentary get you down.

We all sucked the first time. And the second. And for a long time after that. You get good by failing a lot and learning from it... and the good news is, if the core idea is any good at all, by the time you get through all that failure you'll find you've succeeded.

lars_alexander wrote:Skip detail. The imagination of the readers will add detail.

THIS. Right here.

Keep your descriptions short. Don't write a huge amount of background material. Leave some stories untold; hint at them if you want, it's really better that way. The GM will add to it or alter it to fit his or her world.

The more background detail you add, the more the GM has to remember. Make life easy on the poor fellow... it's the point of writing a module in the first place.

I would also suggest looking at other modules.. familiarize yourself with the layouts.. use what works for you.. scrap what doesn't.. Feel free to post them here for feedback..

Solomoriah wrote:Writing adventures is easy; writing them well is hard.

What Solo just said. Many of the adventures I've created have been junk. You just have to keep trying. Eventually you'll get it right. That's what works for me anyway.