Article - Basic but Vital Tips

Author	Topic: Article - Basic but Vital Tips
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Tuesday, April 6 2004 15:43 Profile Homepage #0 Obviously, scenarios can differ in many ways, but all good scenarios essentially have some things in common that every designer should pay attention to: 1. Limit your outdoors.  Place yourself in the shoes of a player.  You open a scenario called "Quest for the Sword", or something.  The opening town is decent.  Then, when you emerge into the outdoors, you're swamped by a massive, empty world with only one town in each outdoors section.  Not a good idea.  When you're making a scenario, lots of outdoors may SEEM like a good idea, but it rarely is.  A scenario can take place in less than 10 outdoors sections, no matter how large the scenario is.  Not only will you not be able to provide +20 interesting outdoors sections to provide, but it will be a burden on both yourself and anyone playing your scenario to wade through that many.  Slice your outdoors down a bit, it pays off in the end.  And also, as a rule of thumb- an outdoor section should have at least one town in it, preferably more.  2. Limit your combat.  Immediately after finding the dungeon in "Quest for the Sword", and quite annoyed after traversing simultaneous outdoor sections for fifteen minutes, you (the player) stumble upon a dungeon.  Inside that dungeon, there are many rooms.  These rooms exist, of course, to hold lots and lots of monsters.  Not interesting monsters either, just lots of them in tedious fight followed by tedios fight.  As a designer, this may SEEM like a good idea, but it's not.  Players will want to fight a limited number of monsters in any one dungeon.  Either make the monsters they fight interesting, or don't place many of them at all. 3. Plan Ahead: Endings are a GOOD thing! Blades was made so that you could dream up your own adventures, and there's nothing wrong with doing so. What you need to do before you begin a scenario, however, is make sure that your scenario has a clearly defined STARTING and ENDING point. If you don't know how or where your scenario will end, you will most likely end up creating a large, fluid puddle of a plot rather than a unified storyline. As a designer, this may SEEM like a good idea, but it really isn't. A shorter scenario loses focus of its objective if it swamps itself down with too many menial sidequests, whereas a larger scenario can have a few sidequests, but requires more focus and planning to be successfully executed without deviating from the plot laid out for it. Sidequests and other types of missions are not the end of the world. They should be, however, either little in number or related to the plot. You don't need to draw every town or dungeon before you make it, but always keep in mind how that dungeon or town will advance the plot. Scenario design is tricky, but if you approach it with a modicum of sanity, then it becomes much easier. -Terror's Martyr -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Tuesday, April 6 2004 15:59 Profile Homepage #1 Limits should be the number one priority for first time scenario designers. I embark on the creation of huge epics, and I never get anything done. Start small and finish scenarios. It can become a habit. —Alorael, who has certainly noticed that finishing scenarios has become a habit for TM. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Tuesday, April 6 2004 16:05 Profile Homepage #2 Eighteen scenarios... Not enough... Must keep designing... *twitch* -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
The Creator BoE Posse Member # 112	written Tuesday, April 6 2004 16:58 Profile #3 Hey, there's a bandwagon! Jump on it! Seriously, great article. A must-read for newbies. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00
The Immortal BANNED Member # 4	written Thursday, April 8 2004 19:06 Profile Homepage #4 Bump, since Jeff didn't get this article in his most recent run-through. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
The Creator BoE Posse Member # 112	written Thursday, April 8 2004 20:23 Profile #5 Read the forum header again. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00