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Novice Game Master looking for advice - StreamSeeker - 12-05-2016
Greetings and well met fair adventurers! I'm new to this forum and rather inexperienced in the art (and science) of GMing. I recently purchased a copy of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor and after having read it am very anxious to get a campaign going, though I'm feeling short on inspiration, but very much want to create my own adventure to start with. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to help me out by telling me how you (personally) come up with ideas for good adventures and stories. How do you guys kindle the red hot flames of inspiration, and once lit how do you keep it burning steady and bright?
Re: Novice Game Master looking for advice - Havard - 12-07-2016
StreamSeeker Wrote:Greetings and well met fair adventurers! I'm new to this forum and rather inexperienced in the art (and science) of GMing. I recently purchased a copy of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor and after having read it am very anxious to get a campaign going, though I'm feeling short on inspiration, but very much want to create my own adventure to start with. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to help me out by telling me how you (personally) come up with ideas for good adventures and stories. How do you guys kindle the red hot flames of inspiration, and once lit how do you keep it burning steady and bright?
Hi there StreamSeeker!
Welcome to the Comeback Inn!
This is a great topic and I look forward to seeing what others will add to this discussion as well. Let me start by saying that I get a lot of inspiration simply from GMing and Roleplaying. More gaming leads to more gaming in my experience. I have also started some campaigns that seemed very uninspired from the beginning, but that developed into greatness once the players were let loose upon the game.
Reading fantasy novels and watching movies also helps for getting ideas.
I will add some more thoughts later, but that's for starters.
-Havard
Re: Novice Game Master looking for advice - RobJN - 12-07-2016
StreamSeeker Wrote:Greetings and well met fair adventurers! I'm new to this forum and rather inexperienced in the art (and science) of GMing. I recently purchased a copy of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor and after having read it am very anxious to get a campaign going, though I'm feeling short on inspiration, but very much want to create my own adventure to start with. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to help me out by telling me how you (personally) come up with ideas for good adventures and stories. How do you guys kindle the red hot flames of inspiration, and once lit how do you keep it burning steady and bright?I usually start with a situation (something that needs fixing) or question that needs answering:
Say, for instance, "What would happen if Blackmoor's anti-demon weaponry were turned against the Empire?"
After that, it's just a matter of coming up with the adversary's plan, how that presents itself as adventure hooks (how the PCs get involved), as the plan unfolds in the background and those adventure seeds get dropped, how the PCs can pick at those threads, and then map out where those go as they unravel.
From the example above, the PCs didn't just stumble into the Ministry of Defense, or get summoned by the Regent's Council, they simply attended a crystalview broadcast in downtown Blackmoor City, where cultists attacked a performer bearing a remarkable resemblance to the ancient first King's daughter, who'd just made the revelation that she was Uther's daughter reborn...
The PCs embark on adventures to keep her safe and investigate her claim, to determine the truth of her statement, or discover the truth behind her uncanny resemblance...
... which leads to them fending off attacks by government kill squads and defending Castle Blackmoor against a sudden surprise attack by the Egg of Coot...
... getting teleported halfway across the world, to the decadent outpost at the edge of the Empire, where an ancient evil from the beginning of the world slumbers, and awakens...
Re: Novice Game Master looking for advice - aldarron - 12-11-2016
So, first I think it helps to have read a number of old-school adventure modules. But, what I do is read the Blackmoor place descriptions carefully. Each town/city/region description is loaded with hints of interesting things. When some little nugget about some place catches my attention I think about what pre made adventures, or parts of pre-made adventures, or adventures of my own will fit.
For example, for a new group of players I started gaming with this year, I got really interested in the town of Erac, as a run down coastal location with a much better past. This reminded me of JEH's sample adventure in the D&D Bluebook, (Dungeon of Zenopus) which itself also ties in pretty well with only a few modifications with the Barrowmaze adventure.
Another example is the Temple of the Frog. You could base the players in frog town, have them go on various adventures in the swamp as they also get to know the town and it's inhabitants and work their way in various ways and stages into the temple itself. You could easily base a whole campaign there.
You could go really old school, and do all your adventuring in and around the town of Blackmoor itself. There are all kinds of hints of things and there is the dungeon.....
Re: Novice Game Master looking for advice - StreamSeeker - 12-26-2016
First off I want to apologize for how late I'm replying to all of the great suggestions everyones' sent me :oops: , and second I'd like to say that all of the replies have been great.
After having read Lord Havard's reply, I actually took what he said into account about “More gaming leads to more gaming...” while I was playing Terraria with intermittent breaks of Final Fantasy III. It came to my mind to think about gaming as more then just one type of game. I started thinking about how all gaming (traditional: chess, checkers, etc. and non-traditional: Rpgs, Contemporary Tabletop games, video games, etc.) has some sort of connection between them. Something that makes me (and if I'm not being to bold in assuming) and others want to play them. Well what ended up happening is what normally happens when I start thinking like this. My thoughts began to meander out of control, and I really only remember about half of what I thought, and the important one was how Terraria's vague setting could be supplemented with Final Fantasy's explicit use of crystals as a central plot device. So thank you!
Re: Novice Game Master looking for advice - StreamSeeker - 12-26-2016
As to your post Lord Robert (if you don't mind me addressing you as such my liege) it was a little harder for me to fully grasp where exactly your ideas lead, if you catch my meaning. Though I may not have duly grasped what you meant, I would greatly welcome further elaboration of your ideas. For verily I say unto you my lord...what you said sounded most interesting— and cool! Truly its temperature was most low, chill even! :mrgreen:
Re: Novice Game Master looking for advice - StreamSeeker - 12-26-2016
Would the modules have to be old school Lord Aldarron? Could they perhaps be the Blackmoor MMRPG modules on this forum? Also could this method also apply to things besides modules?
Oh yeah! My Lord Havard, what of your opinion on The Videogames? Could those be good sources of inspiration?
Re: Novice Game Master looking for advice - RobJN - 12-27-2016
StreamSeeker Wrote:As to your post Lord Robert (if you don't mind me addressing you as such my liege) it was a little harder for me to fully grasp where exactly your ideas lead, if you catch my meaning. Though I may not have duly grasped what you meant, I would greatly welcome further elaboration of your ideas. For verily I say unto you my lord...what you said sounded most interesting— and cool! Truly its temperature was most low, chill even! :mrgreen:
Ask away, good Ser StreamSeeker, either here or in PM, and I shall be more than happy to expand/elaborate where you have questions.
Re: Novice Game Master looking for advice - StreamSeeker - 12-27-2016
"After that, it's just a matter of coming up with the adversary's plan, how that presents itself as adventure hooks (how the PCs get involved), as the plan unfolds in the background and those adventure seeds get dropped, how the PCs can pick at those threads, and then map out where those go as they unravel."
Well, I was kinda hoping you could rephrase that part. I not sure I understand how all the ideas those words bring to my mind fit toghether. Kinda of like when you look at 3d illusion art the wrong way, but then when you change the angle of the picture it just hits you. "oh hey there it is!"
"From the example above, the PCs didn't just stumble into the Ministry of Defense, or get summoned by the Regent's Council, they simply attended a crystalview broadcast in downtown Blackmoor City, where cultists attacked a performer bearing a remarkable resemblance to the ancient first King's daughter, who'd just made the revelation that she was Uther's daughter reborn...
The PCs embark on adventures to keep her safe and investigate her claim, to determine the truth of her statement, or discover the truth behind her uncanny resemblance...
... which leads to them fending off attacks by government kill squads and defending Castle Blackmoor against a sudden surprise attack by the Egg of Coot...
... getting teleported halfway across the world, to the decadent outpost at the edge of the Empire, where an ancient evil from the beginning of the world slumbers, and awakens..."
I'm not sure how all these fit toghether, especially with what the original example was. I think I'm just looking at it the wrong way again. Oh! And also apoligize that I'm not sure how to make that grey quotation box appear. :oops:
Re: Novice Game Master looking for advice - RobJN - 12-28-2016
StreamSeeker Wrote:Most adventures, like stories, arise from conflict: The offbeat cult of frog lovers in the swamps have suddenly become a cohesive, tangible threat to the fledgling Kingdom, and must be dealt with before their evil spreads any further. The Afridhi have gained the means of creating an artifact that could ensure their victory in the war with the North, and it must be destroyed at all costs.RobJN Wrote:"After that, it's just a matter of coming up with the adversary's plan, how that presents itself as adventure hooks (how the PCs get involved), as the plan unfolds in the background and those adventure seeds get dropped, how the PCs can pick at those threads, and then map out where those go as they unravel."
Well, I was kinda hoping you could rephrase that part. I not sure I understand how all the ideas those words bring to my mind fit toghether. Kinda of like when you look at 3d illusion art the wrong way, but then when you change the angle of the picture it just hits you. "oh hey there it is!"
Driven either by a main villain or, in some cases, circumstance, the plan or disaster will unfold if nobody acts to stop it.
Enter the PCs. The villain may or may not be aware of their involvement, but certainly, after a few of the cogs in his Nefarious Plan™ slip, the PCs are sure to draw his attention. Thus, the villain can go from a big picture behind-the-scenes mover-and-shaker to direct antagonist. This could happen over the course of a single adventure, or span several strung together one after the other, depending on how you run your campaign.
In other cases, the adventure may be solely about exploring a strange location, where the set-pieces themselves are the adversary. The wreckage of a city that fell from the sky, and its (surviving) inhabitants, for instance. Not necessarily bad guys, just obstacles to the PCs' exploratory efforts. Do the PCs mercilessly kill these interlopers? Do they seek parley with them, or seek to aid them? That is up to the players. ("I bet we could fetch a pretty penny for those pretty glowing crystals all tangled up in those pipes!.... Why is that siren going off, and why are the lights all red all of a sudden??")
StreamSeeker Wrote:I'm not sure how all these fit toghether, especially with what the original example was. I think I'm just looking at it the wrong way again. Oh! And also apoligize that I'm not sure how to make that grey quotation box appear. :oops:Steps along the path to adventure: what begins as the PCs intervening to save a celebrity spirals deeper into the mystery of her origins, which are tied to the demonic influences that have found their way into the heart of the Empire. But the adventure didn't just start with one of the Ministers of Defense running into the PCs in a bar and saying "Hey, we think elements of the Regency Council are working with our enemies and by the way would you please root them out and stop them, if possible?" Because, then, you know, the PCs would likely want some kind of reward, and why should the Crown pay both sides of the conflict?
The "gray box" is the result of using the "quote" button, and then breaking it up with the tags to close and re-open a PhPbb board quote. {quote="E_A_Poe"}Quoth the Raven...{/quote} (replace curly brackets with regular ones [] ) (You'll see the quote-coding as you compose your message, too, so you don't need to memorize any of that)