Message no. 1

From:	David Buehrer <dbuehrer@******.CARL.ORG>
Subject:	Re: Writing Adventures
Date:	Thu, 16 Jan 1997 21:11:17 -0700

>I'm out of money and I have no experience at writing adventures. I have
>no idea how its even done.

Writing adventures is easy ;)

All you have to do is take a little time to research the basics and then let
time and experience take care of the rest.

The most basic aspect of an adventure, or any story for that matter, is the
plot. Almost all plots are in three parts, the beginning (or hook), the
middle (the part that builds toward the end), and the end (the climax).
James bond movies are some of the best examples of this in action. Take the
"Thunderball". Someone steals a couple of nuclear warheads (beginning,
tells the character(s) what they need to do). Bond heads down to Key
Largo(?) and spends most of the movie tracking down the bad guy (middle).
Bond takes on the bad guy in an undersea battle and saves the world (climax).

For more information on plots I suggest picking up a copy of "20 Master
Plots (And How to Build Them)" by Ronald Tobias, ISBN 0-89879-595-8.

Once you've got a plot mapped out it's just a matter of filler. Figuring
out exactly what the obstacles are that the PCs have to overcome in order to
reach the climax (figuring out who the bad guy is, what his plans are, and
where the warheads are, and how to stop him), whether the clues/information
is physical or knowledge held by NPCs, and the personalities of the NPCs
themselves. Want some good practice making NPCs, use the 20 questions from
the SRII book. You don't have to go that in depth for every single NPC
(like guards), but you should have at least all 20 questions answered for
the major NPC.

Just give it a shot, don't worry about it, and be prepared to use any
criticism as a learning tool. And if your players give you to much grief,
let them GM ;)

-David