[DL] A little help, perhaps? For GMs

["Bill Hein" <darkchil@rea-alp.com>]

I'm helping one of my HS age players learn to GM.  He asked me for some info
on how to make an adventure.  I've sent him what follows to get him
thinking, and we'll get together this weekend to work on specifics.  Can any
of you amend/add to this?  I've been at this so long it's subconcious for
me, so explaining it is a bigger problem than I thought--GMing has become a
reflex--how do you teach a reflex?

BTW, the game we're currently playing is Deadlands, so this is slanted
slightly towards the Weird West, although he's interested in D&D, and
others.

Thanks a lot,
Darkechilde
darkchil@rea-alp.com
ICQ # 12901136










Okay, here we go.  This takes some time to explain, so bear with me.

There are three different kinds of adventures, basically (These can be
expanded upon, and subdevided, but these are the basic three);  There are 1)
Linear adventures, 2) Situational adventures, and 3) Matrix adventures.
It's arguable whether Linear or Situational adventures are easier to write
and run, but matrix adventures are definately the most difficult.

Linear adventures are first.  This is just like it sounds--events happen one
after another, either physically (like a dungeon adventure--first room 1,
then room 2, then room 3, etc), or on a time-line (this happens at 1am, this
happens at 2am, that happens at 5pm).  The upside is that this is easy to
design, and moves quickly; it works better in terms of a dungeon crawl, b/c
that's what the players expect--what roleplaying is involved is still
limited be the environment, as is the decision process--they can go forward,
stop, or go back.  Not much else.  However, these get old.  The potential
for storytelling is limited and/or railroaded down the pcs throats.  In a
game like deadlands, esp, where little happens in a straight line
environment (other than a mine), it's hard to have the pcs travel in one
direction w/o forcing them to the path, which removes the players
right/ability to make decisions.  That's an important thing to remember
here--one of the players big sources of enjoyment comes from being able to
make decisions, and regret or appreciate them later on.  Anyway, the upside
is that the occational dungeon crawl or linear adventure is  a good
"brain-dead" break from regular gaming.

Second are situational adventures.  These are more fun for the players, and
are easy for a GM to set up, but they have the potential for getting out of
control, or of getting side-tracked.  I'm going to use that Texas town with
the Walking Dead problem for an example--Nogadoches.  You stick the PCs in
the town, let 'em run around for whatever daylight is left.  Let 'em shop
around, talk to some of the locals, and role-play.  The problem here is
playing all the non-player-characters (NPCs) is to make 'em interesting w/o
being distracting, and using them to drop hints, news, etc.

In our example, drop hints about the upcoming items--"Damn Bayou Vermillion
train, wrecked right off the trestle and into the local bone-yard!  Now I
gotta go plant all them flowers on Gramps' grave again!  Do you know how
tough it is to grow daisys in Texas?" or "Sorry, mister, but you're gonna
have ta stable yer own horse today.  Our hired man is helping sort the
wreckage down be the tracks.  No passengers, but all them barrels a' brine
sure smell like shit ta me!"

The problem comes in when the PCs get sidetracked or distracted.  Some might
run down a tangent or rumor that you just dropped to add color to the
adventure.  Others might decide it's time to rob/kill locals, for some fun.
In one game, I dropped a story about a local group of heroes that had killed
an old dragon, but gotten their butts kicked in the process.  The first
level theif decided that if they'd be whupped that bad, he could just slip
in, cut their fifteenth+ level throats, and have a whole dragon hoard to
himself.  Screwed the night's adventure to hell, and got 3 out of 5 PCs
killed.

In our example here, a couple of PCs get bored and start mugging/robbing
local townsfolk (ahem) and end up either in a shootout w/ the local law, or
in jail when the walking dead come.  Or the PCs decide the town is boring
and decide to ride on.  Or decide to go loot the train while it lays there.
Or decide to call out the local gunman who they don't realize they'll need
tonight for  a duel.

The nice part of situational adventures is that if you're practiced enough,
you can make 'em up with a minimum of preparation;  a lot of my adventures
are situational, b/c i can make 'em up off a broad outline of how/where I
want the campaign to go.  But I need to keep notes of names, places and
events I mention, b/c I will need them later, and it breaks the players
suspension of disbelief if I can't remember the name of a semi-important
NPC/place.

The downside of situational from the campaign side of things is the lack of
depth and continuity.  There's rarely more than one layer to such an
adventure--once the villian is defeated, it's over, b/c it's hard to plan in
more.  I'm not saying it can't be done, but you _really_ need to know your
campaign area/background, and you need to know your NPCs well, so you can
play background and tips into them.

The last major adventure type is Matrix.  This is the hardest to explain,
and the hardest to write, but it tends to be easy to run, memorable for the
players, and good for the campaign overall.

The matrix is a set of locations and/or events that happen along a story
arc, sometimes happening on a timeline, and sometimes occuring only when the
players/PCs trigger 'em.  For my example, I'm going to use a murder mystery.
If this isn't clear, I'm not explaining it well, so be sure to ask questions
(ask me questions on any of this--but on this one it's probably going to be
a nessessity).

The PCs arrive in a town that's suffered the mysterious murder of their
mayor--he died by drowning, and was found, soaking wet, in the middle of
town.  Now, the PCs will want to find out where there's water--in the local
water tower, at the local swimmn' hole about 3/4 of a mile away, and in the
towns water troughs.  They can visit each location, finding clues or not.
At the tower, they discover a crazy old coot who lives up there, b/c he went
thirsty once--when they visit the bar, and mention the coot, they find out
the coot was angry that the mayor was going to evict him from his wet home.
At the lake they find a pair of socks half hidden under a bush, along with a
pair of fancy french silk bloomers.  The troughs don't yeild up much, yet.
It doesn't matter which ones they visit first, b/c they'll get the same
basic info, except for the tower/bar--they won't know about the coot w/o
climbing up there, and if they don't visit the bar _and_ mention the coot,
they won't learn about him.

next they can track down any and all clues--if they check the mayor's body,
he's got his boots on, although one isn't quite on right, but he's not
wearing socks (his launderer will confirm they're his, but his wife
won't...?), if they ask around, quietly, someone may tell them that only the
young school marm orders french stuff to wear...but where does she get the
$$ to do so?

See where this is going?  Matrix adventures are made up of multiple
encounters and/or locations, each with different info to yeild up--some
useful, some misleading.  At this point in the adventure, did the coot kill
the mayor for making him move out of the water tower?  Did the wife kill the
mayor b/c he was cheating on her w/ the school marm?  As a twist, the mayor
was dirt poor, and couldn't be giving the money to the marm, so where was
she getting it?  Was she doing something else illicit, and when her lover,
the mayor found out, did she kill him, or have him killed?

Like I said, matrix adventures have the greatest power, but require the most
work.

That's enough for tonight.  Hope it helps.  Let me know if you have
questions, and I'll try to provide you w/ some more pointers.  At some
point, if you like, I'll have you co-gm w/ me, playing the NPCs.  That'll
let you see my side of it, w/o having to try to run the game--you can
concentrate on playing the baddies w/o smashing the pcs.  While that's
happening, you can work w/ me on writing some adventures, and when you've
had some practice, we'll run 'em.  And then move on from there.