"Most modules [scripted adventures] are too wordy. In my experience, modules tend to be more trouble than they are worth. One of the reasons for modules is to save the referee's [game master's] time, but if the referee has to spend hours studying a module, what's the point?"
Furthermore, Geoffrey McKinney, one of the judges, says scripted adventures, have become bloated. Citing that Dungeons & Dragons co-creator, Gary Gygax's first adventure, Castle Greyhawk was two pages, one for map and other for the 18 bullet points. Join the fight against module bloat by enlisting in...
The One Page Dungeon Contest is level design contest for creating a scripted RPG adventure that fits on one 8.5x11 page. All information, the map, story, encounters and more have to fit in one page. Sort of writing a haiku, short and sweet.
The dungeons are RPG-system neutral and vary greatly in style. Several are classic hack-and-slash dungeon-crawls, while others involve mysteries, horror, solitaire play and lots more.
The winner and the categories:
- Meckwick’s Revenge by Aaron Frost & Mundi King -- Best Dungeon as Thunderdome
- Into the Worm’s Gullet by Dyson Logos -- Best Old-School Dungeon
- The Bastion of the Boglings by Greg Gillespie -- Best Monster Lair
- Hallways of Thime by Herwin Wielink -- Best Map Art
- Raid on Chinatown by Jason Morningstar -- Best Gangster
- The Heart of the Minotaur by Joe Sarnowski -- Best Twist to an Adventure
- Horror Comes to Haddonfield by Kelvin Green -- Best Horror
- Hanging in Wolverine City by Leslie Furlong -- Best Investigation
- Escape From the Lost Laboratories by Lester Ward -- Best Use of Teleportation
- The Belly of the Beast by Mike Monaco -- Best Bio-Crawl
- Crime and Punishment by Paul Cunningham -- Best Science Fiction
- Vermin Hollow by Rob -- Best Evil Cult
- Citadel of Evil by Stuart Robertson -- Best Design
- Another Knight Like This by Thom Wilson -- Best Solo
- Black Tom Muddye’s Treasure Map by Tim Hartin -- Best Pirate
My favorite is The Heart of the Minotaur, which packs an interesting plot twist. Depending on the players' choice, the ending can be can be climatic or an anticlimactic letdown. I also enjoy Another Knight Like This, a great attempt at a solitaire adventure. I wish Another Knight Like This was fleshed out more so I could pick it up and play it. However is it even possible to make a one page gamebook? I look forward to more entries in the solitaire category.
AD&D for ADD
While brevity is an improvement over verbiage, I suspect this new form has just as much to do with attention deficit disorder, and tailoring the typically verbose RPG form to the current crop of gamers.
I usually find brevity is
I usually find brevity is completely empty of content, something usually like "The orcs here are angry at the druids 'pro-active' defence of the forest"
Oh really, they are - wow, that totally triggers my imagination and I instantly create a session of engaging gameplay around it. Not.
The more brief it gets, the more it's "Well, I could have made that up and I have to make up the bulk of it anyway - why am I bothering to read you to begin with?". It'd be like buying a book and inside it reads "Imagine a really awesome book - now write it! Then read it! Isn't this book we sold you a great read!?"
Do they get around that sort of thing in their brevity?
~~~
Philosopher Gamer Blog
Driftwurld : My WIP browser game
I suspect this new form has
I suspect this new form has just as much to do with attention deficit disorder, and tailoring the typically verbose RPG form to the current crop of gamers.
Well, no. Nothing about this form need affect the play experience -- it's a constraint on design and design only.
Inspiration or Read
I think the main point is that if something is a good read, that doesn't necessarily make a good game, and if something takes very long to read, you could have just played the game and made much of it up on the spot. In fact, knowing that you might have read it somewhere in the book might inhibit your ability to improvise then and there. At least that is my problem.
An Outline
@Callan S,
You are hilarious! Great Sarcasm. ;)
These one pagers are supposed to outlines. A good game master should be able to "wing it" on the fly. This is like those quick meals, sort of like Hamburger Helper. Not the most nutritious but hits the spot in hurry.
Read or Inspire
I think the main point is that if something is a good read, that doesn't necessarily make a good game, and if something takes very long to read, you could have just played the game and made much of it up on the spot. In fact, knowing that you might have read it somewhere in the book might inhibit your ability to improvise then and there. At least that is my problem.
On behalf of mediocre GMs,
On behalf of mediocre GMs, let me come out in favour of the non-brief modules.
I only just (Literally, in the last fortnight) agreed to take on the GM mantle for my family. Two kids and my partner. If it wasn't for pre-made modules, there is no way I could bring my kids into the game. I just don't have the sanity and creative flow to flesh out proper, long-lasting campaigns.
If anything, my big complaint is that I can't FIND many modules, especially since we are doing 4e Essentials. I haven't played at all since AD&D 2e, and no tabletop games of any ilk for almost a decade. To say that I feel like I am drowning in information, and a desire for more /content/, is not at all wrong. :)
gamebooks
Doesn't seem like it'd be too hard to fit a tiny gamebook on one page. I just retrieved a couple of my old The Fantasy Trip gamebooks, and Death Quest 2 (for instance) is 287 paragraphs, around half of which seem to be mucking around in corridors or what happens if you escape and like that. Shrink the dungeon some and eliminate all the cruft and I'd bet you could get it down to around 50 paragraphs. If you don't have to include enemy stats or detailed room layouts, and if you can keep your prose brief, you could fit that on one page, couldn't you?
I hope I haven't just given myself an assignment.
Sebastian Sohn, The things I
Sebastian Sohn,
The things I describe isn't like hamburger helper, as that contains content. They are like stone soup. There was just the impression there was something good there to add ingrediants to. But in the end the only thing that tastes good about it is what you put in. Which isn't great, it makes the stone soup utterly superfluous.
You wont believe me, so here's a dare - get a piece of paper and attempt to write something that sounds like it'd help a gaming group play some sort of game, but doesn't actually at all.
You might be surprised at how easy that is to write. And how similar it is to what I describe. Or would you say such a thing is impossible to write?
~~~
Philosopher Gamer Blog
Driftwurld : My WIP browser game
I'll say something about
I'll say something about long modules I've read - they simply have not been layed out sequentially in the order you need to actually play it in the moment. Say like there's monsters in a room that attack the instant you walk in. Sooooo, are the monsters initiatives at the start of the room description, since that's what we'll be rolling first? Of course not, they are plumped in the middle or at the end or by crom, at the back of the book.
Shitty layout is one traditional issue.