{"id":1016,"date":"2010-11-11T20:05:41","date_gmt":"2010-11-12T01:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/?p=1016"},"modified":"2010-11-11T20:08:24","modified_gmt":"2010-11-12T01:08:24","slug":"and-then-what-happened-using-adventure-seedshooksstartsideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rpggm.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/11\/and-then-what-happened-using-adventure-seedshooksstartsideas\/","title":{"rendered":"And *Then* What Happened?: Using Adventure Seeds\/Hooks\/Starts\/Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Okay, now<\/em> what? Has this happened to you: you\u2019ve seen something that looks intriguing in a list of adventure ideas (often called \u201cadventure seeds\u201d), you\u2019d love to use in your game, but you have no idea how to actually build an adventure from it? If so, you\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n

The biggest trouble many GMs have is \u201cWhat comes next?\u201d Okay, you\u2019ve got the start of an adventure, but what happens from there? How much information do you need to create before you present your idea to your players? That depends on your players.<\/p>\n

You could take the seed and present it to your group as is. If you\u2019ve got a really imaginative group, they\u2019ll take it from there, coming up with a plot that you could never have thought of in your wildest dreams and having the time of their lives doing it. I\u2019ve been lucky enough two have had not one, but two groups that were like this. All I had to do was drop an idea and they\u2019d pick it up and run with it.<\/p>\n

The upside of doing this is that you don\u2019t have to do a lot of preparation and the players will take care of the \u201cwhat comes next\u201d problem all by themselves. The big down side is that you have to think fast on your feet, because you\u2019re going to have make up NPCs, locations, and rewards (just to name a few things) on the spot. And you have to keep track of what you\u2019ve told your PCs so the adventure stays internally consistent(Though I must admit, my groups know I run by the \u201cseat of my pants\u201d a lot of times and are willing to forgive my inconsistencies. If you have a group like this, treasure them, for they\u2019re golden.)<\/p>\n

So what do you do if you\u2019re not the kind of GM who can create an eight-hour adventure out of (metaphorically speaking) chewing gum, a pocketknife, and a few leftover pizza crusts? There\u2019s actually a process you can use to create an adventure from the simplest idea. Over the next several posts, I\u2019ll detail each step along the way and illustrate it with several examples.<\/p>\n

[Photo courtesy of Selma90<\/a> via Flikr Creative Commons<\/a> 2.0 license]<\/p>\n

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