Wandering Gamist’s “Adventure Template Library”

I can’t help but think that John’s idea of an Adventure Template Library is a damn good one.

I propose therefore the creation of a cross-edition open-source adventure-template library, comparable in purpose and workflow to sourceforge. Someone (or several someones) creates an adventure for their game and decide to upload it. They strip out edition-specific elements, creating a ‘template’ of maps, NPC personalities, room descriptions, and other invariants, and throw that into the web licensed such that it can be fully modified with attribution. Other users go “Man, that’s a nice backbone for an adventure” and fill in the edition-specific gaps, then upload their modifications.

A repository of detailed adventure outlines that just need mechanics added. This has the potential to be an excellent resource.

I find that the most complicated part of adventure construction is determining the scenario itself, the major figures, the situation, the relationships, and so on. This is why my Campaign and Scenario Design articles focus on those elements — once they are determined, producing the mechanics for any particular system is a largely mechanical exercise.

I don’t want to say at this point that I’ll provide anything to add to it — I’d like to, but I’m busy enough that I can’t really make any commitment to it at this point. I look forward to seeing where this goes.