Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Dustin Wood <cukoo@*****.NET>
Subject: SR Planning
Date: Sat, 9 Sep 1995 22:13:59 -0700
Can anyone out there offer good suggestions on ways to come up with
adventures, ie sites on the internet, users who would like to trade,
inspirational sources, etc.
Message no. 2
From: Kelly Martin <kelly@*******.BLOOMINGTON.IN.US>
Subject: Re: SR Planning
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 1995 00:29:31 EST5
"Dustin" == Dustin Wood <cukoo@*****.NET> writes:

Dustin> Can anyone out there offer good suggestions on ways to
Dustin> come up with adventures, ie sites on the internet, users who
Dustin> would like to trade, inspirational sources, etc.

adopt plots from movies, tv, or books. adventure/intrigue stuff is an
especially good source (e.g. Magnum PI, Remington Steele, MacGyver,
and so forth). mystery novels can be a good source too, if your
players go for that.

read everything you can get your hands on. the more material you have
to work with, the easier it is to be creative. :)

write out an entire background for the domain in which your players'
characters are going to run. the advantages of doing this over using
prepublished areas are (a) you know it more intimately because you
created it and (b) if you need to fudge something nobody will know.
it also gives you ideas: in the process of hashing out a background
for indiana, i've come up with a number of possible ideas that could
be worked into adventures rather easily.

be creative. be off-beat. don't make every run the normal
snatch-and-go; that goes boring after a very short while. if you do
snatch-and-go runs, put a twist on it somehow. get characters
embroiled into intrigues without their consent (after all, anyone
who's been running for long has enemies as well as friends).

you can make whole adventures just out of a mage seeking a magical
group, an initiation, or a rare component for an enchantment. make
sure you give your players plenty of opportunity to role-play. make
them role-play instead of roll-play. can't stress that last one
enough. :)

if you want, i'll give you my write-ups of indiana as i develop them
if you'll write up an area you're familiar with (take what you know of
it now and extrapolate to what you'd think it would be like in 2050)
and let me have it. in fact, this offer goes generally to anyone
interested.

k.
--
kelly martin <kelly@*******.bloomington.in.us>

A duck is a duck. A dog is a dog. And a cat is a person.
-- The Dick Van Dyke Show
Message no. 3
From: "Stephen M. Bugge" <bugge@********.EDU>
Subject: Re: SR Planning
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 1995 03:35:45 -0700
>
Can anyone out there offer good suggestions on ways to come up with adventures,
>
> adopt plots from movies, tv, or books. adventure/intrigue stuff is an
> especially good source (e.g. Magnum PI, Remington Steele, MacGyver,
> and so forth). mystery novels can be a good source too, if your
> players go for that.
>

Personally I find that Tom Clancy's novels are excellent, as are John
Grisham's. Older TV detectives shows such as the Rockford Files are
excellent as well. Earl W. Emerson is a local Seattle writer who writes
excellent mysteries set in Seattle.
Message no. 4
From: Dustin Wood <cukoo@*****.NET>
Subject: Re: SR Planning
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 1995 08:38:19 -0700
>"Dustin" == Dustin Wood <cukoo@*****.NET> writes:
>
>Dustin> Can anyone out there offer good suggestions on ways to
>Dustin> come up with adventures, ie sites on the internet, users who
>Dustin> would like to trade, inspirational sources, etc.
>
>adopt plots from movies, tv, or books. adventure/intrigue stuff is an
>especially good source (e.g. Magnum PI, Remington Steele, MacGyver,
>and so forth). mystery novels can be a good source too, if your
>players go for that.
>
>read everything you can get your hands on. the more material you have
>to work with, the easier it is to be creative. :)
>
>write out an entire background for the domain in which your players'
>characters are going to run. the advantages of doing this over using
>prepublished areas are (a) you know it more intimately because you
>created it and (b) if you need to fudge something nobody will know.
>it also gives you ideas: in the process of hashing out a background
>for indiana, i've come up with a number of possible ideas that could
>be worked into adventures rather easily.
>
>be creative. be off-beat. don't make every run the normal
>snatch-and-go; that goes boring after a very short while. if you do
>snatch-and-go runs, put a twist on it somehow. get characters
>embroiled into intrigues without their consent (after all, anyone
>who's been running for long has enemies as well as friends).
>
>you can make whole adventures just out of a mage seeking a magical
>group, an initiation, or a rare component for an enchantment. make
>sure you give your players plenty of opportunity to role-play. make
>them role-play instead of roll-play. can't stress that last one
>enough. :)
>
>if you want, i'll give you my write-ups of indiana as i develop them
>if you'll write up an area you're familiar with (take what you know of
>it now and extrapolate to what you'd think it would be like in 2050)
>and let me have it. in fact, this offer goes generally to anyone
>interested.
>
>k.
>--
>kelly martin <kelly@*******.bloomington.in.us>
>
> A duck is a duck. A dog is a dog. And a cat is a person.
> -- The Dick Van Dyke Show
>
If you could see your way clear to send me you're copy of indiana I would
appriciate it, though I may have a hard time coming up with an area to write
back about, I'm from Seattle and that's covered turf. If you like, I do
have a page of rough ideas I could send you, I've just had a hard time
turning them into full adventures.

cukoo@*****.net
Message no. 5
From: Peter Bailey <pbailey@*****.IPSWICHCITY.QLD.GOV.AU>
Subject: Re: SR Planning
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 22:06:22 +0200
Hi Dustin,

> Can anyone out there offer good suggestions on ways to come u=
p with
> adventures, ie sites on the internet, users who would like to trade,
> inspirational sources, etc.

To be quite honest, I look around me when I'm walking through town, and=
I
listen to the news. That's where most of my inspiration comes from.

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about SR Planning, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!