The Keys of Heraka-at is an adventure that allows the PCs to learn the truth of the fall of the Donnerkonig, and to potentially become the new Donnerkonig. This adventure takes place in and around a large stone outcrop near Heraka-at, the capital of Sturmhame. The adventure site as a …
Player agency is a critical element of role playing games to me. One of the things that greatly dissatisfies me about most series of modules is how much they tend to need the story to progress in a certain direction. The label ‘Adventure Path’ itself rings player agency warning bells …
I’ve been asked on Google+ if it is really necessary to do all of this work making graphs and thinking about things far away from the adventure I’m actually working on. My answer is, I suppose, a mix of “not really” and “it can help”. Not Really If I want …
Yesterday I started moving from macro scale to micro scale, outlining a set of possibly-related campaigns. Now I’m digging for some more detail in Donnerkonig Heirs. I’ll start by working on the graph for the campaign. I know I’ve got Keys of Heraka-at and four adventures to acquire the treasures …
In Layers Upon Layers in the Sandbox I described how things can be linked together. Now it’s time to put it into practice. First, I’ll map out some potential campaigns. I know of two already, The Donnerkonig Heirs and Return of the Donnerkonig, and can imagine several others. Some are …
The campaign and scenario design methods I use encourage nonlinear design and play. They are fractal in nature, applying to many levels and degrees of scope. This can lead to a rich and complex campaign setting. At the adventure level, it is pretty easy to devise encounters that hold nonlinear …
I have talked in the past of how I dislike linear scenarios and adventure paths. A friend has described strongly-linear games as “walking in a painted tube” because you can see what you are presented, and your only real choices are to go forward or maybe to go back. As …
I have a very structured mind. I have been told that I am remarkably adept at organizing information and making sense of things. I never been told I have a great imagination, and honestly, I don’t think I do. It’s a bit of an inconvenience when designing things — I …
This article expands on a sometimes troublesome piece of the Entity Template I posted earlier. ‘Scope’ measures how broad an influence or impact an entity has on a game. This is not necessarily a measure of how much power an entity has, but power and scope often are related. Scope …
The Entity Template is one of the more frequently used tools in my campaign and scenario design toolbox. Whether I actually present it or not, the template guides my thoughts to ensure I don’t miss any standard design elements. There was a time, long ago, when much of my scenario …