 December 12, 2011 - 6:27am | Nuts and bolts, or How to write such an adventure. Idea came up but I feel at a loss to write such a thing. I mean I can go to WOTC and find a list of things that they expect to see in a module as well as consult one of the numerous modules that I own for ideas for a group based adventure but where to go for examples and how to on a solo adventure? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 12, 2011 - 6:36am | One thing comes to mind - equipment package for the character to ensure they have things that are important to the adventure and points written in for key equipment to be found. That leads me to a new thought: the temptation to "milk" an area for all the possibilities that it holds- with no referee to enforce a time pressure people could linger in an area to fully search it just because there are no opponents there. So perhaps a "game clock" turns are recorded and room descriptions say things like if entering room 12 on turns 1-6 turn to paragraph 23, if on turns 7-15 turn to paragraph 45 and etc. There could even be a count down event: at turn 25 X happens. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 12, 2011 - 6:42am | To preserve the adventure for multiple runs there probably needs to be multiple paths of advance giving a player opportunities to explore different choices. Hhhmmm... sounds like a pick your path book. I think I'd want to start with a big sheet of paper and draw a flow chart. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 6, 2012 - 6:52am | Check list: 1. Pregenerated characters 1 or 3-4 (designed for the adventure) 2. Equipment package(s) Perhaps a basic package and choose 2 items form a list. 3. Multiple lines of advance should be possible 4. Game clock or time limit. rather than tell the player to track time, the character sheet has boxes to check off every time a paragraph entry says, "Mark off a turn." when all the boxes are used up the game is over; ship exploded, or poison kills the PC, or the bad guys get away clean, etc. Mapping? is it required? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 7, 2012 - 10:37pm | Years ago when I played Tunnels & Trolls with my friend, they had solo adventures. I think his burned up in his family room fire. I did run across a sight a few weeks ago about solo adventures. I will see if I can find it. The flow chart is a great way to see where your story goes. There wer a few choose you own adventure books for SF I think? If you have any or know where to get your hands on one that would be a good place to get ideas. I do agree though that players will milk a page for everything it has if you don't put something in play to prevent it. I know I would, should say I did back then. I try not to even use cheats anymore when playing a game. My son thinks I am nuts. I just want to do it on my own then use the cheats later after I have beaten it. Which reminds me. My daughters went to a video game building workshop and they used flow charts to map out the game ideas. |
February 8, 2012 - 5:15am | I have a couple of the pick you path books and one thing that stands out is many of the paths are short. I can't be 100% sure but I m guessing there is just a few golden paths. It would seem that the nature of the beast with a pick you path book format is that many paths are short. TSR did modules with invisible text and a marker that revealed the text. It did the go to paragraph number x thing as well IIRC. Of course a pick you path book isn't playing the game though ISTR doing a car wars pick your path book where you had a vehicle record sheet and had to have a die handy and a book mark while you rolled for combat. The module format makes it more of a game because there isn't golden paths per se since its 0 STA that ends the game. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 12, 2012 - 1:25pm | Players make choices for their characters, the Referee reacts to those choices. Even with well-planned events PC's can throw you a curve ball (right Bill? :-p). Why can't characters search until the sun goes down? If it's an issue then create something that moves them along. Another idea is to list when can be found in variable amounts of time, see Mutiny on the Eleanor Moraes as an example. --- Adventures are simply a series of adventure areas, objectives and obstacles. Imperial Lord, Bill Logan, Alpha Dawn - The Referee section and I have all provide methods of creating adventures. --- T&T has some excellent solo adventures, in fact there is a new one out and helps Jeff get a new kidney. http://fierydragon.com/dragonsbreath/?cat=10 Just a thought, I don't think choose-your-own-path and table-top adventures go hand in hand. The are different design methods. |
