Elven Academy

I’ve written and self-published four epic novels (120k+ words). I’ve participated in writer’s groups for many years. If you have a look at my novels (link in the sidebar), you will probably agree that I don’t suck. I’m struggling a fair bit more to write compelling game narrative.

During my decade or so as an ardent writer, I perused many tomes of writerly wisdom. Here I’ll share the distilled wisdom of all of those books. Characters are the heart of fiction, of course. Setting requires special attention in sci-fi and fantasy fiction.

After those basics, the structure of a scene is a key art form. A scene could be a chapter of a novel or game, but is most seen in television shows and movies, which have to be pared down to the most essential components. I’m looking for improvement to my scene handling by returning to these old notes. So I thought I’d just post them here, in case they might help anyone.

The golden scene rule is to “get in late and leave early”. The golden scene formula is: situation, complication (and increasing stakes for failure), and resolution. So don’t neglect to study the scene section at the end, and I’ll include a list of recommended reading after that. Happy writing.

Focused Writer’s Check List

Last Revision: 4/9/2024

Characters:

a. Appearance. Strong first impression?
b. Description. Sensuous, with metaphors, similes, hyperboles, mannerisms? Sufficient exaggeration? Use of a reinforcing echo to hit the key characteristics?
c. Distinguishing Characteristics/Core Self. What are they? What are the character’s deepest, most stubborn convictions?
d. Worst Fault/Greatest Strength. Do they come through?
e. Goal. Does the character have a goal, and is she passionate about it?
f. Reaction. Are situational reactions consistent within the various layers of the character (Core beliefs, values, attitudes, opinions)? Do situations have impacts and ripples on those layers?
g. Contrast. Enough strengthening contrast with other characters?
h. Outer Conflict. Is the character paired off with an opposite?
i. Action. Can the character be more vivid by being more active and risk-taking?
j. Resolution/Change. Does the character have a satisfying ending? Does the character change somehow through the crucible of all that has happened?
k. Voice. Word usage, contractions, emotional level are consistent?
l. Contradiction. Does the character seem real and not a cardboard cutout?
m. Reactions/Growth/Character Arc. Are the character’s reactions to situations consistent?
Does the character learn things, deepening the plot? An arc must have a build or it will not be
convincing: a beginning, a doorway, impacting incidents, deepening disturbances, moment of
change/epiphany, aftermath.
n. Sympathy and Neutrality. Anti-heroes are not pure evil, and heroes have flaws? Is the reader allowed to judge, without being told how to react to a character?
o. Establishing a Bond.
i. Identification. The lead appears to be a real human being with human issues.
ii. Sympathy. In contrast to empathy, intensifies emotional investment in the lead. Overuse can make the reader feel manipulated. Four simple ways: jeopardy, hardship, underdog, vulnerability.
iii. Likeability. The character does likeable things, is witty, engaging.
iv. Inner Conflict. Characters who are absolutely sure of their actions are not that
interesting.

Dialog and Monologue:

a. Four types to deploy. Direct/dramatic, indirect/reported, stylized, and asynchronous. Direct is
critical to seem real.
b. Interior monologue. Is there enough of it?
c. Consistent Speech. Do the characters have consistent and distinct speech patterns?
d. Momentum. Have you considered using a conversational goal- information to obtain or an
opinion to be sold- to keep dialog moving forward? Setting an otherwise static conversation in the
context of other action, or time pressure?
e. Avoid dialog killers: stating what the reader already knows, sounding scripted, stating scene
issues explicitly.

Setting:

a. Description: are all settings adequately conveyed, and do they convey feelings? Try writing at
least three descriptive sentences about setting before the character is referred to, then several more
sentences without the character, then back again. Start wide and focus to a POV.
b. Mechanics: are these adequately explained? Is magic in particular clearly explained? What
about birth and creation, death and the void?
c. Social, political, religious structures (in fantasy/sci-fi). Are these adequately explained?
d. Races (in fantasy/sci-fi). Are they adequately explained?
e. Killer Details. At least five high-focus details in each chapter, including a simile and a
metaphor?
f. Do details adequately ground the larger events and images?
g. Do readers emerge from a scene with an adequate sense of where it took place?
h. Is there enough trivial information, which is extra-important in fantasy?
i. Variety. Is there enough setting diversity to keep things interesting?
j. Fictive Dream. Readers seek a dream experience, a conveyance to a world that is other than
their own. Is there enough peculiarity?

Word Choice:

a. Quality of Prose. Is it credible, and thereby in control, and thereby trustworthy?
 i. Credible diction. On par with audience? Words are not misused? Clichés are avoided?
 ii. Economy. Does the prose sprawl? Is it too repetitive? Are info dumps avoided?
 iii. Sentences. Smooth and well-constructed? Variety of lengths?
   iv. Parts of Speech. Too many amateurish adjectives and adverbs, and too weak?
v. Tone. Is the author invisible? Humble with punctuation?
d. “Was” and “felt”. Use of “was” and “felt” to tell rather than show?
e. POV. The character’s view, and not the writer’s? Is emotion just being described, or is the
character really experiencing it from her point of view?
f. Five senses. Are there consistently appeals to all five senses?
g. Motifs. Are there any dominant or particularly remarkable visuals or motifs?
h. Vagueness. Are some things left vague, to allow the reader to think?

Plot:

a. Promise. Is a promise made to the reader about what to expect? Can the novel be clearly
categorized into a genre in order to make that promise? Is the promise made in the opening?
 i. Emotional promise. The reader will be thrilled, chilled, entertained, uplifted, nostalgic,
saddened, turned on, etc.
 ii. Intellectual promise. The reader will see the world from a different perspective, or have
her view of the world confirmed, or will experience a different, more interesting world than this
one.
b. Overall Pattern.
i. Genre schematic. Is it literary (inner journey->hopeful ending or downbeat/ambiguous
ending), or commercial (goal + ever rising actions -> seesaws of successes and setbacks->climax)
or a mix?
ii. Pattern types.
 1. The Quest. The lead is incomplete. Searches for something of vital importance. Huge obstacles. Results in character change for better or worse.
 2. Revenge. Lead should be sympathetic. Revenge is violent business. Wrong done to lead is not his fault, or out of proportion to his fault. Story-starting disturbance is the wrong that was done, followed by a period of suffering.
   3. Love. Goal is obtaining love from the object of affection. Opposition can be the other lover, classically, or a rival. Lovers are separated. They get back together, or not. One or both grow as a result.
4. Adventure. Lead sets out on a general adventure. Meets interesting characters and sees interesting things. Usually derives some insight.
 5. Chase. Threat, chase, and ultimately relief. Lead can be chaser or chased.
 6. One Against. Lead embodies a code of the community. Threat to the community from the opposition, who is stronger than the lead. Lead inspires community. Victory may come through self-sacrifice.
 7. One Apart. The Lead is apart from the community, according to a personal code. The Lead is drawn into the larger conflict. The Lead must decide whether to take a
stand.
     8. Allegory. Many forms, but the pattern is that the characters represent ideas, and the events of the story are meant to show the consequences of those ideas.

c. Structure.

i. Act one. Entry into the hero’s world. Call to adventure. Call can be ignored. Hero crosses
the threshold into a dark world.
ii. Act two. A mentor may appear to teach the hero. Battles happen with the forces of
darkness. Hero must confront a dark moment within herself. A talisman aids in the battle.
iii. Act three. The final battle is fought. The hero returns to his own world.
iv. Plot points/Doorways one and two. Transitions between acts that incorporate a
thrusting forward, an inevitability, and most importantly no going back. First transition at about
1/5 mark, second at 3/4 mark.
 i. Starts with present action, conflict, and/or a dramatic situation that presents a significant
threat, a change. Routine-disruption of all kinds is a primary strategy. The protagonist must act to
get back to equilibrium.
ii. Immediately interests the reader and raises questions in her mind, even at the expense
of setting and elimination of exposition?
 iii. Is there a dramatic situation presenting the character with change?
 iv. Does the lead decide on a course of action, creating a story question, something the
character wants, and an obstacle?
 v. Are strong specific details used? Effective details are critical. They anchor the story in
reality, distinguish your opening from thousands of bland ones, and lend credibility.
e. Types of Hooks.
 i. Action. in medias res. Dialogue with conflict counts as action.
 ii. Raw Emotion. Can create a bond to the main character.
 iii. Look-Back Hook. Employed by Stephen King. Suggest a not-to-miss story about to unfold.
 iv. Attitude. When using first person, particularly in lit fic.
 v. Prologue. The most effective entice readers to move to Chapter One. It must connect to
the main plot, but does not have to introduce the main character.
1. Action prologue. A staple of suspense fiction, typically involving death.
 2. Flashback prologue. May involve a past event featuring the main character.
 3. Story frame. A character is about to look back to tell a story. Suggests consequences and events that have reverberating effects through future and past.
4. Teaser. Rarely used. A preview of the coming attraction.
vi. Exposition. Avoid information dumps. Strategies:
1. Act first, explain later.
2. Iceberg. Explain only 10%, give the rest later.
3. Information in confrontation. Crucial information from the character’s POV
thrown out in a scene of intense conflict.
f. Flow of Events.
 i. Too linear and predictable? Or do twists and turns, side-paths and indirectly related
points, red herrings and reversals satisfy?
ii. Are passive and active scenes well-mixed, or are they too bunched together?
 iii. Are too many of the scene settings too similar?
 iv. Is the law of stimulus and response followed? Do sequences of events chain logically
together?
 v. Does the struggle build to a climax?
g. Momentum In The Middle. Keep stretching the tension and raising the stakes.
i. Stretching the tension. Milk your high points. Don’t let them whimper.
 ii. Setting up the tension. Make sure the stakes are high enough.
 iii. Stretching the physical. Extending beats can stretch tension even when a character is
alone. Orchestrating beats to match tone and tension of story is very important.
 iv. Stretching the Emotional. Play up the throes of emotional turmoil.
v. Raising the stakes. Train yourself to torture your character. Create a list of possible bad
things that could happen. Order them by severity in order to create a roadmap of woe.
1. Plot stakes. Commercial fiction is plot driven. Almost always involves someone
trying to do the lead harm, physically, emotionally, professionally. Constantly increase the
opposition and penalty of failure until it is death, or worse.
 2. Character stakes. Stress in lit fic is usually on this inner aspect, but problem is
the same. Why should the readers care? Catcher in the Rye-psychological stakes increase.
3. Societal stakes. When social and political stakes are high enough, they can
greatly complicate a lead’s woes. War.
vi. Energize a lethargic middle. Re-analyze the stakes. Strengthen bond between
protagonist and antagonist. Add another level of complication. Add a new complicating character,
even a love interest. Add another subplot, like a romance.
h. Story Question.
i. Is there enough at stake for the main characters?
ii. Are the plot complications complicated enough?
iii. Ending.
iv. Does the resolution answer the story question posed at the beginning?
v. Does the resolution come at the climax of the story?
vi. Does the climax involve the protagonist taking action?
vii. Is the resolution satisfying?

Scene:

a. Timing. Did you get in late and leave early? (The Golden Maxim)
b. Formula. Situation, complication, resolution.
c. Scene Goal. Is the scope of the scene goal too large, or too small? Is there immediate impact that can provide an outcome that is significant to the overall story? Does the scene goal relate to the story question, or at least to character arc development?
d. Conflict.
i. Is the scene conflict related to the goal?
ii. Is the conflict with another person?
iii. Are physical, emotional, and psychological angles all considered?
d. Climax
i. Is there one?
ii. Is there adequate conflict and buildup?
iii. Is the climax played out blow by blow, with no summary?
e. Scene Resolution. Consider the goal, angles of conflict, and nature of end disasters which can
change the plot.
f. Scene Devices: Half-scene and scene snippets can flavor and break narrative summary, injecting
scenic devices to make summary alive, and can also characterize. He’d grown closer to her with
every passing day. She’d make him brush her hair every morning. “Well done, Anin,” she’d say.
Also called “routine action” as opposed to present action. Off-screen elements: create tension by
having events happening elsewhere affect the character.
g. Subtext. Is there subtext to create richness, depth, and interest?
h. Sequel- emotion, thought, decision, action -> another scene.
i. Mini-hooks: are mini-hooks employed as lifelines for the reader to keep reading, especially
where there are absences of scene goals?

Recommended Reading:

Scene And Structure by Jack Bickham (and other books by Jack Bickham).

Plot And Structure by James Scott Bell.

The New Well-Tempered Sentence by Karen Elizabeth Gordon.

The Craft of Fiction by William C. Knott.

Story by Robert McKee.

The Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell.

Here is a list of 100 quest ideas. I spent about six hours googling existing lists of side quests and ideas, then I edited, revised, and added some of my own. I didn’t copy and paste a single idea without some improvements (except the 20 ChatGPT templates at the end.)

There aren’t many silly quests involving mysterious pink cows, angry chickens, etc. because that isn’t my style. (In fact, some quest lists I found online were kind of bad, which is why I’m posting this.) There also aren’t any quests intentionally copy-pasted from existing video games.

As a fantasy fiction writer, I was advised that ‘side quests’ should connect into the ‘main quest’ (aka storyline) in some way, at least to develop important characters and setting. In an interactive game, the main character is most important. So it’s good to choose side quests that allow the main character to develop and roleplay, i.e. as a druid, as a ranger, as a wizard, etc.

The best ideas here are ‘subversion of tropes,’ so just doing that is a way to find good ideas.

The quests are loosely divided into three tiers. That doesn’t mean Tier Three is bad, maybe less useful to my current project. I consulted ChatGPT for 20 generic quest archetypes at the end, and also to pad out Tier Three to reach 100 total quests in this list.

I will be using this list, editing, and adding to it. I hope you also find it useful, better than the existing lists I could find, and certainly better than AI. Good luck, have fun, and happy Game Mastering!

Tier One:

1. A wealthy person, faction, or competing adventuring group wants to hire one group member on a permanent basis, and offers a better deal than the current adventuring party.
2. A wealthy and/or powerful person with a grudge from the past has posted a bounty for the capture or death of one group member.
3. A royal has been assassinated. Find clues and find the mystery for a reward.
4. The group needs to beseech the help of an evil faction in order to achieve greater aims.
5. A gang of female thieves (or equivalent) is extorting money from a male merchant or royal.
6. A very rare reagent or monster organ is needed by a wizard for a particular powerful spell.
7. A bard needs a fabled magical instrument, which was stolen by an evil witch, along with his tongue, or maybe something else.
8. A cowardly fighter wants you to retrieve a powerful sword/item to make him more powerful, makes excuses why he can’t go.
9. A magic mirror or secret portal reveals the dark secrets of the person who uses it, or maybe the person it’s pointed at.
10. A public execution or unjust imprisonment is occurring due to prejudice and hate by otherwise good people.
11. A wizard is possessed by a demon or devil they summoned. They must be captured alive and exorcised.
12. The party, or a member of the party, is framed for something they didn’t do. But why?
13. A son/daughter of a nobleman is in love with a scoundrel or member of a lesser/unliked race.
14. A string of noblemen have turned up missing. A few of them reputedly visited the same brothel. Or this an intentional red herring by the real culprit?
15. A lord/lady of the realm is seeking a new wife/husband, has heard of the exploits and/or lineage of one or more of the group, and sends formal invitation(s) to attend his/her party of candidates.
16. A young girl is accused of an assassination, but it was actually her possessed/demonic doll.
17. Two lovers have become separated due to one being arrested or lost at sea, use divination to help them find each other, with a possibly unforeseen twist when they are found.
18. A sacred shrine or other building is on fire. Use water magic to douse the flames and be a hero, while attracting the ire of a fire elemental, evil entity, or other arsonist.
19. A gnome inventor needs rare components and/or schematics from the goblins, but they are terrified to try to obtain them on their own.
20. An evil lord chooses someone’s beautiful young daughter to be his new wife. The parents want to hire the group to kidnap the daughter, in hopes it will either lure the evil lord out of the castle to be killed, or at least persuade the lord to choose someone else.

Tier Two:

1. A powerful chaotic wizard is building a deadly dungeon. They need help procuring deadly monsters or traps, which you realize will brutally murder innocent low-level adventurers.
2. A highly conservative anti-drinking/drugs/sex/race/anything religious group wants you to sabotage and ruin a local business or person, which isn’t doing anything technically law-breaking.
3. A librarian wants a priceless tome returned from the wizard who won’t give it back.
4. Someone wants to hire the group to kidnap a princess, instead of rescuing one.
5. A vigilante group is killing a repressed minority.
6. A creature or group of creatures has moved into a place, using it as a base to maraud countryside.
7. Whole party is captured somehow, must find a way to escape.
8. A bar room brawl, which includes another group of adventurers. To the victors go the spoils, and maybe a map to a nearby hidden lair, dungeon, gold mine, or lost dwarven stronghold.
9. A member of the party somehow earns ownership of a slave. This causes conflict.
10. Mysterious earthquakes in a nearby region, investigate the cause.
11. An ‘evil’ faction turns out to be just misunderstood.
12. A ship or something wrecked, depositing a huge treasure. Race to get it.
13. A dragon is rumored to no longer be guarding its hoard. Race to get it.
14. A group of bandits is making travellers pay a toll.
15. The group is afflicted with a curse of discord, which turns them chaotic or evil.
16. The group is afflicted with a curse that turns them into monsters that are killed on sight.
17. The group defeats thieves who have stolen something that blackmails a local corrupt noble.
18. A noble hires the group to find blackmail material on another noble.
19. Fire destroyed a special village inn or landmark. Lift the spirits of the people by helping them gather the resources to rebuild.
20. An artist is cursed when his paintings keep coming to life, or predicting death. Solve the mystery.

Tier Three:

1. A princess has been kidnapped and held for ransom … one too many times.
2. The group finds a wounded angel that needs help getting home, before being captured by devils.
3. An evil character is in love with someone good, and wants to be better.
4. One of the group turns out to be a doppelganger. Where is your companion?
5. A circus has come to town, with strange creatures, exotic people, and…?
6. A new party member has a secret past that catches up with him/her, and hopes the group will lay their lives on the line to take care of this problem.
7. Group rescues a damsel, but she’s actually an assassin/thief pretending to be innocent.
8. Salesperson-like promises of gold and glory in a nearby kingdom leads to an ambush and/or a trap.
9. Bounty hunting a goodhearted pirate, vegan troll, evil princess, or other character that defies tropes.
10. Two of the group members have somehow changed bodies.
11. A local lord is trying to build a new road. A powerful landowner, a retired adventurer, or a group of elves or druids is strongly opposed, with escalating stakes and violence.
12. A group member has inherited a long-abandoned estate with an odd groundskeeper or housekeeper, secrets.
13. A cult is trying to revive its lost god.
14. Retrieve an old artifact from a shipwreck at the bottom of the sea.
15. A nobleman hires the group to let his son/daughter tag along to see the world.
16. Deliver a ransom to kidnappers.
17. A mysterious egg is found. Is it hatchable?
18. A curse, or cursed object, is found, group must find a way to get rid of it ASAP.
19. Everyone in a town has gone missing, no one knows why.
20. Someone was kidnapped by something. Rescue them.
21. The group finds a gladiator arena, can participate.
22. An evil faction or aggressive warlord is corrupting small towns before expanding to an assault on the capital. He wants something, maybe marriage to the local lord’s daughter.
23. Chanting or singing is heard in nearby ruins or glade.
24. Someone in the group is afflicted with lycanthropy.
25. Undead are attacking a nearby village, controlled by an evil mastermind.
26. A new cult has arrived in the area, and is recruiting members. Are they up to no good? An established faction wants you to ‘find’ evidence they are no good, and either convince them to leave, or kill them.
27. A mad wizard or cleric is selling potions that have terrible side effects, refuses to stop, and is trying to silence those who call him out.
28. Someone wants the group to find a stolen or missing precious, with payment on receipt of the item. Maybe they are counting on the item’s power to help them avoid paying.
29. You are racing another adventuring group to the treasure, but the other group falls into a disaster. Will you let them die? Or will you help them?
30. The plague scenario. Find the cure, or burn the whole place to the ground, risk getting sick to help the sick, or whatever. (If a group member is out, maybe they got sick.)
31. The pop-culture reference quest. Recreate a popular story with abundant references.
32. A farmer is clearing land to plant crops to feed the growing human village. Local nature spirits or elves aren’t pleased. Take a side and/or mediate.
33. The adventuring group has an opportunity to build their own stronghold. The effort requires various side quests.
34. A group member wants to join a religion, holy order, or assassin’s guild, but needs to complete a difficult quest for entry, and could use some help.
35. A group member is in a guild, church, or other organization who needs them to complete a very important quest, and to bring friends.
36. A legendary but eccentric chef went missing. Find out where they went and what happened, and they might reward you with a secret recipe.
37. A group member is a member of a vulnerable minority. As a relatively wealthy and capable member, they are in a unique position to help defend their people against persecution, and find diplomatic solutions.
38. Hostage crisis. Rescue the princess by negotiation and tact, rather than covert assault.
39. Mediator. Prevent a war by negotiating with both sides. Evade an assassination attempt by those who want a war to occur.
40. A highly publicized wedding of peace is arranged between two usually opposed factions. Escort the bride along a treacherous road, along with a precious dowry.

ChatGPT-Generated Generic Quest Templates

Here’s a list of good generic quests for an adventure game:

1. Retrieve the Lost Artifact: The player must venture into dangerous dungeons and overcome obstacles to find and recover a powerful artifact.
2. Rescue the Captive: The player must locate and rescue a kidnapped character, navigating through enemy territory and facing off against formidable foes.
3. Solve the Mystery: The player becomes a detective and must investigate a puzzling crime or a series of mysterious events, collecting clues, interviewing suspects, and piecing together the truth.
4. Protect the Village: The player is tasked with defending a vulnerable village from imminent danger, such as an invading army, monsters, or a natural disaster.
5. Explore the Forbidden Land: The player embarks on a perilous journey to explore a forbidden and uncharted territory, facing unknown creatures, solving puzzles, and uncovering ancient secrets.
6. Retrieve the Stolen Treasure: The player must track down and recover a valuable treasure stolen by cunning thieves, leading to a pursuit across various locations and encounters with clever adversaries.
7. Defeat the Evil Overlord: The player’s ultimate goal is to defeat an evil overlord who threatens to plunge the world into darkness, assembling a team, gathering powerful artifacts, and engaging in epic battles.
8. Master the Elements: The player must undergo training and trials to master the powers of the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) and bring balance to a troubled world.
9. Seek the Legendary Weapon: The player embarks on a quest to locate a legendary weapon with immense power, journeying through treacherous terrains, deciphering ancient riddles, and facing formidable guardians.
10. Uncover the Ancient Civilization: The player explores ancient ruins and forgotten cities, deciphering ancient texts, solving puzzles, and discovering the history and secrets of a long-lost civilization.
11. Aid the Wise Sage: The player is tasked with finding and assisting a wise sage who holds crucial knowledge or a solution to a pressing problem, overcoming obstacles and proving their worth.
12. Lift the Curse: The player must break a curse that plagues a person, a village, or even an entire kingdom, embarking on a quest to find the source of the curse and finding a way to undo its effects.
13. Restore the Sacred Relics: The player sets out on a quest to recover stolen or scattered sacred relics, each with unique powers, and return them to their rightful place, unlocking their potential along the way.
14. Help the Lost Spirit: The player encounters a wandering spirit trapped between worlds and must aid them in finding peace, venturing into ethereal realms and solving ethereal puzzles.
15. Expose the Conspiracy: The player becomes entangled in a web of political intrigue and must uncover a conspiracy threatening the stability of a kingdom, gathering evidence, interrogating suspects, and navigating dangerous political waters.
16. Ascend to Godhood: The player embarks on a journey to ascend to godhood, undertaking divine trials, amassing followers, and making choices that shape their path to divinity.
17. Collect the Elemental Crystals: The player must search for and collect a set of elemental crystals scattered across the world, each imbued with unique powers, to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.
18. Protect the Last of a Species: The player is entrusted with the protection and preservation of the last surviving member of a rare and endangered species, shielding them from hunters or poachers.
19. Save the Dying World: The player must find a way to heal a dying world, whether through restoring natural resources, bringing harmony to warring factions, or finding a mythical artifact with the power to rejuvenate the land.
20. Reclaim the Lost Kingdom: The player’s mission is to reclaim a lost kingdom that has fallen into the hands of an oppressive regime or monstrous creatures, rallying allies, and engaging in epic battles to restore peace and justice.

Feel free to customize these quests to fit your specific game’s setting and mechanics.

(I’ve returned to work on Elven Academy, and released new patch notes and a short state of the game, including a bit of new content. The patch notes are in the post below this one. And TLDR – The Magicians sucks, and I couldn’t really get much use from this murky clown fiesta.)

When I initially started working on Elven Academy, (then called ‘Owl River’, whence to return if anyone steals the name Elven Academy from me), I imagined a more adult, darker version of Harry Potter.

It turns out my writing skills are not as good as J.K. Rowling. Nonetheless, this general idea has been tried, of course, many times by other writers. So naturally I want to check out those writers to see what they are up to.

One such attempt is ‘The Magicians’, a SyFy series based on a novel trilogy by the American author Lev Grossman, first published in 2009. In recent weeks I’ve forced myself to watch the first season of The Magicians on Netflix. I find the show to be rather bad. ‘Forced myself to watch’ is not an exaggeration.

In fact, I’m on episode 2 or 3 of season 2, and can’t seem to force myself any further. This is frankly terrible, even though season 2 was supposed to be better. It’s a writing mess imho.

So I wanted to write out the relevance of this show to my own project, a relevant review let’s say, in case my adventure with this show is at an end, but while it is still fresh.

Could I read the novel? Yes. Do I have time for that? Maybe. Am I going to pay $12.99 for a fucking Kindle novel? Hell no. Game over Mr. Grossman.

Adult Content And Sex

An explosive consternation of mine has been any insertion of adult content in a game that is largely educational in intent (on equal footing to pure amusement, depending on the user), yet also set in a very dark fantasy setting, darker than The Magicians certainly.

I’m worried this can be taken the wrong way, even though I’ve made it clear that the academy is a college setting with people of all ages traveling from Earth to study there.

The Magicians has a 16+ audience Rating in the U.S. (TV-14 official in the U.S. and Mexico), and is described as a “Darker, more adult magical quest for the Harry Potter set.” There is an uncensored version showing on Syfy.com apparently, which shows nipples.

So what does the 14 – 16+ mean in reality in this case? Well, it means no nipples. Netflix has the censored version. I found the ratings 14 and 16 stated on other websites. Here are my notes from show season one.

Examples of “TV-14 or 16+” from The Magicians

Bad guy rips the eyeballs out of the headmaster and tosses the bloody eyeballs on a desk.

Someone overloads a spell and burns to death, becomes a hungry ghost that tries to strangle his own sister. (Goofy, pointless scene that led nowhere.)

Graphic scene of woman’s head exploding with blood from a curse. (No character rationale for committing wanton bloody murder with insanely powerful magic btw, or any ill effects from casting such curses.)

Scene of bad guy possessing a young man, using the guy to choke to death a beloved female character, then squeeze her head until it explodes with blood all over his face.

Beloved children’s author turns out to be a pedo. Graphic scene of coaxing, grooming, and photographing a young boy.

Meanwhile author’s sister cruelly punishes, and eventually drugs and murders the children to prevent them from escaping or revealing the pedo secrets, buries their bodies in the cellar. Heroes dig up one of the kids’ bodies to get a magic button.

Curse that causes a plant to grow under your skin and strangle your heart.

Light lesbian scene, groping breasts with female character dressed as a slave (Leia.)

Drinking. Drug usage (pills). Cocaine and crack use by main characters, with discussion of overdoses.

Various drugs, psychadelics, the air around Fillory is .02% opium (for no apparent reason.)

Mild Roman orgy with togas, upskirt. Side boob and bare back with towel. (Badly shot scene, gratuitous, followed by same in a bathtub scene.)

Bestiality with a talking horse mentioned. Eating goat penis for virility mentioned.

Cup of satyr semen is drunk.

Torturing someone to death mentioned.

Sex magic with simultaneous orgasm required, leading to a bedroom scene with bare girl’s back, riding cowgirl, bad moaning.

Graphic suicide by shotgun in mouth with blood spraying out the back of the head. (Getting rid of the other really good, likeable side character and actor btw.)

Scenes of mass murder with bloody bodies.

Graphic forced rape (with clothes on), with blood all over and gooey overabundance of semen.

Language Examples

Dick buckets. Shitty. Fuck. Cameltoe. Mind slut. All kinds of drug references.

Conclusion On Adult Content

The Magicians first season seems to load every episode with as much sex and drugs as possible, even involving the main characters, filling the show with cheap thrills and juvenile decadence that gloss over the weaknesses in writing.

The Magicians has random occasional use of Latin and complicated hand gestures (mudras) to make magic look like serious business. Harry Potter style wands are not a thing here. I like the wands. The hand gestures are used sometimes, but not others. Overall I’m not a fan.

After watching this show, 16+ is clearly a lot nastier ‘these days’ than I’ve always imagined. I am old.

So apparently I can push things a lot further without too much worry, including fountains and lakes of dead bodies and blood, and horrible graphic curse effects, as long as I don’t show any nipples or butts.

This is ridiculous?

It really just makes me want to do an 18+ game. Another option is to sell an 18+ ‘Romance Pack’. This allows me to offer the free download to all audiences, and better control who gets the 18+ somehow. But that has really sleazy optics. It would probably look worse than just making the game 18+, yes?

But maybe that’s the way. It doesn’t need to be sleazy, I mean look at all the adult games on Steam. I’ve never felt more like a boomer, but that’s where I’m at.

Game Design Take-aways From The Magicians

I feel I could do a bit more drugs, sex, and partial nudity.

In season one, the best parts were the humor and comedy, but that idea just falls on its face in season 2. I can’t stand any scene with Julia really.

More semen drinking? Lots more blood? Blood doesn’t have any effect on me for horror, so I never use it, and I should probably use it more.

The Wikipedia entry discusses character development and arcs, but those were lost on me in the show. I thought Quentin Coldwater was supposed to represent Everyman, and help the audience identify with him. The point is raised about the hero not really being ‘the hero’, which is a twist that approaches higher literary levels, but Quentin is no Bilbo or Frodo?

I definitely need to improve those personal story arcs in my characters, but let’s be honest, the character motivations in the Magicians are very frustrating to get a handle on, honestly. The main character’s primary motivation throughout seems to be that he loves Fillory. That’s it.

Why? Well it turns out his books don’t depict an accurate Fillory. Does the show really get into this character inner conflict, his dashed expectations? His revised goals in life? No, not nearly enough. What are his goals? What happened to Julia’s goals? Think dumpster and fire.

What does any character even want? Eliot doesn’t even care about being king. Julia wants revenge, but every scene with Julia I want to skip. The show would be better if she didn’t exist. (Hands raised in confusion, at a loss.)

I could use more curses. They aren’t used as well as they could be in the Magicians because they never seem personal. In Harry Potter, curses are very personal. You get up in someone’s face and wave a wand and say ‘Cruciatis,’ and they know what’s up.

Now that I think of it, the conflicts in the Magicians are also a dumpster fire. In season one and the early innings of season 2, who is conflicting with the main hero, Quentin Coldwater, like the Dark Lord conflicted with Harry throughout the HP books? No one. The ‘dark lord’ just keeps sparing Quentin for no particular reason.

The magical traveling modes, the magical libraries, the quirky librarians, the different dimensions of existence are all well done.

The time travel is interesting, but the show establishes at first that time passes much faster on earth (when Penny first visits Fillory, he is gone 2 weeks instead of 2 hours), but the show then seems to throw that time problem right out when it becomes inconvenient to the plot. The characters would be gone for months from school. Do they even take classes? What are the professors even doing? Etc..

That’s it, please leave any comments below, and thanks for reading.

I used to be fascinated by romance in fantasy RPG’s. I played through Baldur’s Gate 2 multiple times to experience the different romance arcs with Aerie, Jaheira, and Viconia. I’m happy that Baldur’s Gate 3 is continuing in that tradition.

I recruited Fall From Grace in Planescape: Torment just for her backstory and attractiveness. I completed romance stories in Skyrim and Dragon Age.

I was very disappointed when SWTOR pulled romance out of their game at launch. I was disappointed more recently that Planescape: Tides offered no romance arcs, especially since the lead writer was an erotica writer.

I was also disappointed that a real romance arc was not offered in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, especially since The Witcher has such legendary writing in this regard.

Recently I’ve considered taking my game project in a more R-rated direction, so I researched the Book of Erotic Fantasy. It is a very old D&D supplement under the OGL v1.0a. Here are my notes and reactions from the reading. Another, more exhaustive treatment is found here.

Basically, most of this text just doesn’t merit a deep analysis from where I’m at, so let’s look mostly at the gems.

Review of the Book of Erotic Fantasy

The BoEF is broken into seven chapters: Love, Sex, and Roleplaying, Rules, Skills, and Feats, Base and Prestige Classes, Magic, Items, and Adventures and Organizations.

Most of the book consists of lists of spells, classes, creatures, and magical items for your adventure campaign. There is a list of 100 “Adventure Ideas”, but a lot of these ideas boil down to just “something happened”. The something is often: “it happened, good to know”, or “someone is raping and must be stopped.”

A few ideas were cute and doable, however, like the band of halflings that challenge the adventurers to a game of sexual endurance.

Humor was one of the main takeaways from this elder tome. Sex has always gone hand in hand with humor, and therein lies its most valuable asset, since we do play these games to have fun. So why isn’t sex more prominent in RPG’s? Here is my take on the problems.

• Sex and romance offer poor gameplay. (Roll dice to see whether you have an orgasm, etc. is just lame.)
• It doesn’t advance the main story.
• It often doesn’t develop character unless done very well.
• If used as a final reward to a story arc, it loses its ability to advance a story arc.

If we don’t boil sex down to just a reward, like banging the prince after you save him, then there are good reasons to have it: develop a character (NPC or PC), and advance a plot. Romantic titillation and roleplay in themselves are also valid, but not as powerful.

The BoEF touches on these issues in a few actually insightful paragraphs sprinkled into the text. Plot, character, and humor. I was disappointed in the “adventure ideas”, so I wrote some of my own, broken down into the categories where sex can actually be best used. Here are my starter lists that I brainstormed in an hour.

Ideas to develop a non-player character. The NPC:

• Reveals something about the racial sexual customs in an interracial experience, possibly amusing.
• Reveals poor character, i.e. implies it’s free, but now wants money, has a boss to threaten the PC with.
• Reveals they are surprisingly the opposite personality in bed.
• Reveals they are deeply vulnerable in some way, emotionally needy for some reason.
• Reveals they have secrets on the pillow, i.e. this was the point of seducing the PC.
• Reveals tattoos that tell a story about past deeds, exploits, beliefs, mottos.
• Reveals tattoos or marks that indicate of a gang, a cult, physical abuse, sex work.
• Reveals a prosthetic limb, an implant, a welded cuff or a collar suggesting wounds or an owner.
• Reveals deformities, fur, or other evidence of non-human crossbreeding in family.
• Reveals they are a shapeshifter or have an enchanted form, i.e. a dragon or someone really hideous.
• Reveals they have a husband/wife/someone else really jealous.
• Reveals they have a fetish, must have something specific to become aroused.
• Reveals they have an STD. Sexual transmitted diseases are just not fun, unless you’re using them just to whimsically punish a player for fun. It could be used as a consequence of a failed saving roll, however.
• Reveals they are conflicted about sex, they were trying to be chaste, etc.
• Reveals they were a virgin, and now you’re in big trouble with someone or something.

Ideas to develop the player character. The PC:

• Is allowed an actual love romance that leads to a long term relationship.
• Is then allowed to recruit a henchman or henchwoman that provides perks in a relationship, or even bring them along on adventures.
• Is allowed to feel powerful.
• Is allowed to feel powerful by submitting.
• Is allowed to be a prostitute for money, themselves.
• Is allowed to use character skills in new and creative ways, if the sex scene is gameplayed.
• In forming a relationship, creates conflict in terms of faithfulness, promises, and infidelity.
• Offers a roleplay path to retiring a character to the married life in a castle, and possibly children which can form a new adventuring party.

Ideas to advance a plot through the NPC. The NPC:

• Sleeps with the PC, but then falls more for another member of the party.
• Is trying to use sex because they want something from the PC.
• Is using the PC as an alibi for something.
• Actually dies in the PC’s arms, leading to accusations of murder, or demonic possession.
• Incapacitates the PC to steal a map, a book, treasure, horse, sword, etc.
• Reveals a quest on the pillow. PC can offer help, or can try to get to the treasure first.
• Insists that according to their cultural laws, they are now married to the PC (Firefly, etc.)
• Reveals a life-threatening situation they are in, and their desperation for help.
• Is trying to persuade the PC to join a cult, sex club, etc.. This leads to quests.

In many of these cases, the primary question becomes: what does the NPC want? If you establish powerful wants on the part of the NPC who the PC is having sex with, good writing naturally flows from it. This is hard though, and I’ve failed at this to some extent.

It may also help to ask, if the NPC is a possible romantic interest, then who or what are the attracted to, and why? This can also reveal a lot of character.

A big sticking point to incorporating all of these ideas is the gender-locked nature of the gameplay. To incorporate romantic encounters at important points in your plot, you would almost need to have a gender locked protagonist.

Or you would have to “cheat” and change the gender of the NPC to the opposite of your PC, and then assume the PC is straight. What a mess. Maybe that in itself is a big reason why romance isn’t used much in a meaningful way in RPG’s, and why the Witcher franchise seems to stand so tall in this capacity. (I haven’t played the Witcher games personally due to not liking to play male protagonists.)

The BoEF also touched on the idea of “ratings”. I’ve been grappling with that lately myself. Here are the proposed ratings, which are the American scale of course:

PG-13 – Deals with mature subjects including sex, but without explicit scenes or descriptions. Love, flirting, and seduction are all acceptable, but the actual sex occurs offstage.

R – Nudity and sexual situations are common, although level of detail stops at gratuitous details that could be described as pornographic.

Other useful points from the Book of Erotic Fantasy:

BDSM is now mainstream, not a fetish or taboo. Clubs have BDSM nights, it’s a fixture in the fashion industry. Love between Human and non-human (Vampires and Werewolves) is also mainstream.

Assigning an alignment to a type of lover is interesting to help a player to play their character.

Assigning an alignment to an entire society is also useful. The alignment becomes a sort of shorthand for thinking about sex norms in different societies and regions of the game setting.

Not so useful points:

Some things in the book are just silly. A “masterwork” condom, for example.

I also wasn’t a huge fan of the photos, but they’re OK. Consistent, quality artwork throughout would have been very expensive and time-consuming most likely.

Tantrist, Kundalini. I strongly disagree with using real-world Earth terms like this in a D&D setting. These come from Hindu and Tibetan religions. Maybe the authors were trying to be non-specific in terms of campaign setting, but this is just worse.

I skimmed the ‘bestiary’ in the BoEF, which did not really interest me, as my campaign setting is well-developed, for better or worse. Some interesting entries, however, were the half-devil, half-giant, and pleasure golem.

That’s about all for my reactions and notes on this thick, lengthy tome of erotic treasures. It’s well-worth a perusal, and I find myself curious about trying to design some erotic gameplay. The sections of the book dedicated to gameplay, like the mini-scenario at the end, seemed very short of practical examples.

The book lists play-testers in the credits page. I’d like to hear their feedback. Because honestly a lot of this could boil down to the vanilla D&D rules, but spiced up with adventures in brothels. And how do you ‘succeed’ at a sexual encounter? How would this work?

1. Simply getting the NPC naked and/or into a compromising situation is enough to complete many character developments or plot advancements.

2. Physical success (Agility, Toughness, Romance (techniques), Engineering (toys, ropes, who knows)): pleased your lover X times, resulting in advancement or quest success.

3. Emotional success: (Empathy, Psychic) need to achieve some kind of intimacy to solve the puzzle and advance. Physical skills don’t matter.

4. The opposite of #1, the NPC getting the PC naked and into a compromising situation is enough to slip the PC a pill or wake up tied to the bed, etc. and move the plot forward.

If your plot hinges on this encounter, the design concept of “Failure with Consequences” might be useful. You moved the plot and achieved your goals, but failure on your rolls means the success is only partial, or you received no extra reward or treasure, or something bad happened, but you still moved forward on a technicality.

That’s all for my reactions to this book. Good luck, and happy gaming.

In my last post, I reviewed the Tunnels and Trolls Solo Design Guidelines: How to Write A Solo Adventure, which was written mostly by Michael Stackpole many years ago. The most useful takeaway from that PDF was to make a flowchart.

Over the Christmas holiday, I completely played through a couple of the best adventures for T&T—Elven Lords (Deluxe) and City of Terrors (Deluxe), both authored originally by Michael Stackpole. I flowcharted them as I went, per his adventure writing advice. (See example image.)

So this blog post is a writing analysis of Elven Lords and City of Terrors. Both of these were the most recent deluxe versions purchased from DriveThruRPG.com, and they are chock full of beautiful artwork from my favorite pen and ink fantasy illustrators, Liz Danforth and Rob Carver.

I’ll go over Elven Lords pros and cons, then City of Terrors pros and cons, then finally sum up with some takeaways to use in my own adventure writing. Hopefully!

Elven Lords (1987)

First the negatives.

1. Author/reader contract failed. Don’t buy this module looking for elves. It’s like they had to pick a title, so they chose the one elf scenario. So there was a failure to live up to the author/reader unspoken contract. This is a thing in fiction. Readers expect to be paid off for taking the time to read, and a book title and cover make promises.
2. Characters. I mentioned the lack of advice from Stackpole on this topic in my previous blog post. He doesn’t mention characters at all in his guide. Elven Lords is consistent with this weakness. Some important characters have no names in this module (or weak ones like Mr. Big), including the titular elves.
3. Paths are too short. Stackpole tried to live up to his stated goal of 30+ endings. Turns out many of those are far too short. City of Terrors is designed better, because short episodes loop you back to the hub, where you can hunt for the longer stories.
4. Moral decisions with no clues. A frequent shortfall of T&T modules seems to be giving you decisions that are just plain random. Pick one door. Good luck! I really feel like something to go on is worth the effort and words, even if it amounts to nothing.
5. Unbalanced rewards. Final boss fight ended with no conversation or ceremony, same XP as any other storyline.
6. Stackpole is revisiting Gull, but it isn’t as good. Elven Lords is set in the same city as the City of Terrors module published years earlier. As an artist/writer, I have to assume Stackpole wanted to improve on his original effort. (I would.) The question is why? Or was he just writing a sequel for the money, and, well, it’s a sequel. Maybe it’s as simple as that.

A list of positives next.

1. Some saving rolls are blind, some not. Sometimes you know how hard something is before you try, other times you are surprised. This a realistic way of handling SR’s.
2. Choice of attributes to roll against. Solving a puzzle with your luck vs. your agility, for example.
3. Saving rolls are consistent with adventure themes. If you choose a roguish path, you get more agility and luck situations. If you choose a scholarly path, you get some INT rolls. Solid design.
4. Start a scene with a mini-mystery hook. Once or twice, the text mentions something very strange in a scene right away, which makes you wonder what it’s about, but you have to read on for some paragraphs to find out. This was very effective. This is also a contract! You’d better pay off the reader.
5. Superlative art as a reward. In a few cases, an important scene has gorgeous art. This could be seen as a payoff. Big budget video games do this today with spectacular cut scenes for example. It’s just not something you normally think of as a reward.
6. Meta paths. Elven Lords has outstanding design in terms of short paths unlocking longer, more important storylines. Unfortunately the dead end paths really needed to loop around like in CoT.
7. Final boss. In a few T&T modules, there seems to be a concept of a final boss (even way back 40 years ago.) This seems effective.

City of Terrors (1978)

Negatives first.

1. Cover Art. I don’t like the colored cover. It sucks compared to the original line art back in the day. Sorry, I just needed to get that off my breast plate!
2. Number/letter system. I like the numbers better than the number/letter combos for various reasons.
3. Incorrect use of the verbs Lie and Lay. Come on, guys. Laying in bed is not a thing (also one instance of this in Elven Lords— ‘You lay low and…’)
4. A missing page. Page 12. I was unable to go to 12B from 56B.
5. Moral options don’t have clues. See above with Elven Lords. There are some situations where your pick turned out to be moral, but it was totally random. You had no chance to choose correctly. I don’t like that.

That’s it. That’s all the negatives for City of Terrors. The positives for City of Terrors mostly mirror the design takeaways for this blog post. So I’ll just go right into them.

Adventure writing insights from T&T modules:

1. Illustrations show action. This was design advice in an Amazon prime documentary I watched recently, featuring the greatest old school fantasy art painters. Make fantasy art with action happening. The concept is working here. The trick is that T&T has the style of showing a random adventurer dying, or whatever. You sort of have to go all-in on that style of presentation, and it might not appeal to most today. I’m just used to seeing it due to T&T.
2. Short paths loop, long paths end the adventure exclusively. I like looping back to a road, instead of the adventure just ending. The optimal adventure design, I think, would be for all short and medium adventure paths to loop back to the beginning. The only true exits are by boat (i.e. voluntarily quitting from the main hub), or an exclusive long story line finale. There are only a few story finales, and you can only complete one. After that, you can’t run the adventure again.
3. Mixed telegraphed and blind roll difficulties. So, in some cases you know how hard something will be (climbing a pillar). In other cases, you don’t know until you go through the door or whatever, in which case the saving roll will be blind.
4. Permanent attribute losses as a penalty for failure. Maybe your foot got caught in a trap and maimed. Permanent loss of DEX. Or you were burned in a fire. Loss of CHR. This is a solid idea. It’s not instant death, but the player will have to decide whether to start over regardless.
5. The gods are not pleased. This was an interesting ‘thing’. If you’re a coward, the gods curse you, basically. I’m a big fan of divine powers in fantasy settings. It expands the universe, the feeling of magic and enchantment, basically everything without much drawback. The Temple of the Beetle in CoT brings in this aspect, which is missing from Elven Lords.
6. Places to rest. There is a healer shop in CoT. I was not rolling dice or doing any combats, but surely adventurers get worn down. Or are you supposed to heal between every combat? In any case, I think more opportunities to rest along the adventure and gain a bonus or healing would be an immersive thing.
7. Options have agency and roleplay. Other T&T modules are boring because options are very, very dull. “Go east?” “Go southeast” “Go down?” Etc. etc. Stackpole warned about this in his designing advice, and implemented choices that allow you to roleplay your character (if you’re a rogue, you can sneak in the back.. etc..) This is kind of obvious.
8. Sex. City of Terrors has as much or more than any other officially published T&T module (I believe. I don’t own literally all of them.) Elven Lords had some hard drug scenarios, where you can run drugs for example, but those were pretty eh.

So. Sex. Stackpole warns against sex in his design guide, citing the importance of writing for all ages, but then he writes sex scenes? Since this is a big question in my own adventure writing, I wrote down examples from these T&T modules.

I feel like I want the classic, Age of Conan experience with handsome, bare-chested studs and wenches. I’m concerned about criticism, since I also want my game to be educational, but I also want to do what I want. The game has mature themes.  That’s the Fey/Underworld setting.

By the way, I’m 100% committed to gender equality in Elven Academy. Literally if there is a ‘scantily clad’ (cringe) woman, there is also a scantily clad male to roughly the same degree.

If you can sleep with a female dwarf, you can also have the chance to sleep with a male ogre, for example, somewhere.

In any case, here are the cringy classic “sexcerpts” I found for future reference. I’m interested in the standards for erotic suggestiveness in fantasy fiction today. The popular stuff on the bookshelves.

I also clipped the associated artworks in these modules showing partial nudity, but I decided not to post those. I don’t want to anger the gods.  You’ll just have to check out the modules for yourself.

Elven Lords

196 Since this is a family publication, we’re going to be a bit delicate here. As much as you would like to deny any desire to be there, you actually are curious (…) At the end of your service, you’re released into the world, maybe a little bit wiser, and definitely a whole lot sorer.

240 The book you pluck off the shelves is a lusty old romance tome entitled “I Was the Death Empress’ Love Slave”.

City of Terrors

40C If you want to make love to her, go to 50E.

46A You feel her reaching for you and moaning softly. She calls for you to make love to her. (If no, you are admonished for leaving a woman in need.)

50E It takes a real degenerate to proposition an old lady … She makes love to you after she casts a modified Bigger is Better spell on you.

1C You find she is an amorous lover. It is one of your greatest experiences. As you lay panting, she advances again.

37C You find the Sheik’s brother in bed with a beautiful woman (with illustration).

Thanks for reading, and happy gaming. Feel free to leave a comment.

In this post, I want to talk about adventure and story writing as a reaction piece to a recent publication by the makers of Tunnels and Trolls: T&T Solo Design Guidelines: How to Write A Solo Adventure. From Flying Buffalo, available at drivethrurpg.com.

This PDF is a collection of Tunnels and Trolls solo adventure guidelines and advice, which spans many years and a number of authors. The document was recovered and edited recently by Steve Crompton after the death of Tunnels and Trolls founder Rick Loomis.

The primary author is the legendary Michael A. Stackpole. Stackpole is a well-known and regarded fantasy fiction author, particularly in the genre of Star Wars. His Wikipedia page doesn’t have a T&T publication list, unfortunately.

In any case, Stackpole was the author of City of Terrors,  my favorite T&T adventure, and also the Elven Lords solo adventure.  I purchased Elven Lords and started playing it today.

I wanted to write down my thoughts as soon as possible about the Solo Design Guidelines, and then reflect on the design of Stackpole’s own Elven Lords after multiple play-throughs.

Stackpole is arguably one of the best T&T solo writers, along with Ken St. Andre.  He also has a lot of professional fiction writing credits. So let’s have a look at his early writing advice for adventures.

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Time In Adventure Writing

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In my last dev blog post, I wondered whether I could use time better in my adventure writing. T&T modules use a large amount of “telling” and summary to relate events. I tend to use a large amount of second-by-second dialogue.

I feel like my adventures could be better if I used more summary to enable more expansive adventures and more branching options, without having to create all of the needed art and moment-by-moment minutiae that a tight time focus would demand.

In other words, I could write more like a T&T module. Stackpole goes into time considerations on page 18 of the Guidelines. He notes that time movement is more important in a novel-type adventure. Geographical movement is more important in a dungeon delve.

Stackpole notes the Overkill adventure was the first T&T module to use “temporal progression.” I’ll need to play that to understand what he means. Stackpole also warns of a few major traps to avoid at all costs in temporal progression of adventures.

Temporal fugues: the text incorrectly acts like a character has already done something. This is a pretty obvious problem, and it’s shocking such a “bug” was actually published in Beyond the Wall of Tears.

Impossible Choices: the text incorrectly assumes a character has an item, or can do something that should not be possible (kill someone who is already dead.)

Looping: avoid the ability to loop infinitely.

OK. These things seem very obvious and simple. In fact, a lot of points in the Guidelines target very bad writers who were sending in manuscripts back in the day.

So I went to Google. I found the concept of Scene and Summary. When do you write a full-fledged scene? When do you just sum up events. You can open any fantasy novel and see how to do this. It’s sort of an art form.

In fact, Scene and Structure is a book that I’ve studied thoroughly. I’d recommend it. Am I doing it well in my RPG project? Not really.  I did it well in my novels.

The general rule, which seems obvious once stated, is to slow down time at times of the highest tension. When the blood, tears, or kisses are flying, you want to zoom in on every warm, wet droplet. When people are riding a train to Timbuktu and the next dramatic scene, you can sum up that train ride.

After playing Elven Lords, I see how T&T sums up time to its bare essences, the barest bones of a story.  In fact, one recommendation was to not have any paragraphs that do not offer a meaningful choice.

One very notable thing missing from the Guidelines is the actual heart and soul of fiction, which is characters.

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Characters: There Aren’t Any!

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I see virtually nothing about characters in How To Write A Solo Adventure. In fact, the second sentence of the advertising splash for this PDF says “how to develop NPCs” (last page of the published PDF), but there is nothing on this topic.

If you search “NPC” in the document, there is only one other use of the word NPC, which just says that Catacombs of the Bear Cult has a bunch of NPC’s. OK. Maybe that’s a good adventure then, but that doesn’t help us much. All “character” references refer to the player character.

So that’s a glaring mis-statement on the part of the advert. Actually, the best T&T modules do have the most memorable characters, but they are not discussed in this PDF.

That was a little disappointing, because I actually grabbed onto that advert sentence as a selling point for this PDF. This PDF is definitely worth the sale price of $4, and Crompton isn’t exactly going to rake in the dinero for his effort on this one. He should be commended actually.

I’m currently playing Vampire The Masquerade: Coteries of New York, and the characters there are a bit lacking as well. The takeaway is that characters are one of my strong points. I need to have better facial expressions for my NPC’s, reactions, etc..

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Flowcharting!

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Easily the most valuable part of the T&T Solo Design Guidelines is the concept of flowcharting an adventure design.  A big reason I am struggling with adventures is because they are much more complicated than novels.

Tracking all the branching paths is a big headache, so there tends to be less branching paths.  It turns out that no alternate paths is the path of least resistance!

Flowcharting is a great idea.  You will have to read and look at the PDF text for a full treatment. Stackpole’s examples include numbering the flowchart nodes to match your numerical system of categorizing locations.

There are also dead ends (literally you are dead), reward locations, exits to the dungeon, etc. all flowcharted. Stackpole notes that a repeating diamond chart (the way my adventures are going) tend to be boring.

On the other hand, Stackpole suggests he wants at least 30 playthroughs possible for the player, and that seems a bit insane.  He advocated for massive adventures, twice the size of City of Terrors.

To sum up, here are a few more takeaways from this easily digestible historical T&T development document, which I would recommend as a purchase for any adventure writers, historians, or fans of Tunnels and Trolls.

1. Try to give players heroic or moral choices, not road map choices.

2. When you need to make map choices, try to frame the choice within motivation, reason, or evocative language, something other than just a direction (“go north”).

3. According to polls on old T&T modules, replayability was highly correlated with enjoyment(?). The best adventures have lots of choices and ways to complete the module. This might be different in the modern day, however.

4. No explicit violence or sexual conduct due to age issues. Wait what? There are a few scenarios, including in Stackpole’s City of Terrors, where you can sleep with someone in T&T modules. I’m not sure what he means. Maybe explicit sex?

4a. Later in addendum #4, Stackpole mentions that Corgi publishing editors neatly skirted the COT and DED sex scenes. What does that mean? Which booklet edition did I originally play back in the day?

5. Try not to have any instant death choices without a saving roll.

6. Keep in mind your themes. (In other words, enrich the setting, but keep it consistent without anachronisms and without copyright infringement.)

7. Conflict is the fire in the the heart of fiction, and the heart is a character. Ok I might have mostly written that one myself. But even in T&T adventures with little character development or characters to speak of, there are plenty of ways that Stackpole creates conflict with monsters, factions, and the environments, etc..

To sum up, I wanted to get my thoughts down after studying the T&T Solo Design Guidelines: How to Write A Solo Adventure. I intend to play through Elven Lords a fair bit more (at least long enough to actually meet some elven lords!), then I may return to edit this post with some reactions and further reflection.