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Hey all,
Thought I'd throw in a little poll to see how my fellow GMs like to get inspiration for their adventures.
The idea here is not to know from which book, movie, you get your ideas :) The goal is to determine, when you read other people's stuff about campaigns, episodes, what do you prefer to read? What does help you most?
Duh, forgot to vote :) I choose fully-fledged scenarios. I do not have much time, so I like to have all the elements written for me. However I heavily adapt everything (to the point it's unrecognizable), so as to fit it in my campaign.
Star Trek is no different for me than from any other the other rpgs I play -- my "world" (universe?) is always different from everyone elses. Thus full scenarios are usually of little help to me as they take place in a different location or have different underlying assumptions compared to what I am actually running.
Since I started gaming in 1976 I have bought maybe a dozen scenario packs; more than half of these have been for Paranoia, just because they are so much fun to read ;) I have looked through the scenarios that my friends habe bought and my usual feeling is, "Ummm, I wonder what I could do with this to actually make it a good adventure".
Quite happy to make my own, tailored to particular group of players and the requirements of the campaign. :)
KW. You do not have time to be posting polls. Get back in your dungeon and finish the ESO. Or I'll send in "Da Ladz"! :D
Seriously though. I normally buy adventure supplements/books and totally gut them for ideas I can transfer in to my own campaigns. Consider them more aides to inspiration. I rarely run anything purchased as it is written without severe alterations.
But see I learnt very quickly not to run stuff as written. Because as experienced and good at roleplay as they are, my players are your typical bunch of roleplayers in that they do whatever they hell they want and it rarely follows the path laid out in a pre-written book. I've yet to find one that it written in the "cover every single eventuality under the sun and then some" style that my own notes are written in (although the Cyberpunk supplement boxset Land of the Free is pretty close - not run it yet though so the jury's still out on it). More's the pity because as much as I enjoy spending my days making notes (and copying them up one or two nights a week) for my groups weekly game session on Saturday it does become a tad wearing on the brain.
Besides - I love to take a setting/situation/scenario/background etc and corrupt it for my own evil and nefarious means of making my player's lives hell.
What I find most useful is a set of scenarios that can be applied to anything.
What would be nice was some scenarios that are tailored to all of the major 'themes' of the show - I.e. some adventures for a TNG style campaign, some for a DS9 style - what most designers forget is that you have to often transplant their design onto your current campaign setting.
Having a bunch of stuff laid out, which is specific only for the adventure is most handy - I.e. Worlds they can visit, cities, villages, individual shops - with their respective NPC's - scenarios that happen.
"A Ferengi walks into your bar, and tries to sell you Jumja sticks, but it turns out he is a....." etc.. - Give you the stats for the Ferengi - give you shis ship, details of his cargo, give a string of contacts to follow, hints leads and personalities. Give you a whodunit, or a msytery that can be dropped into any adventure as a module, which is compelling, but also not location specific. - make him a recurring vilain/good guy give him a string of things he might turn up to do.
Thinking up people names and places is the hardest thing I have to do, the story is not so bad, but something like that would then give you future hooks and some nice NPC's to bring back again ! :D
Creating and maintaining a world as rich as Startrek is tough work - having chunks of stories you can throw in is good.
NB: I much prefer totally original characters too - because it automatically gives the game away if you have 'mudd' or 'Garrak' turn up in an adventure - for people who watch the show avidly.
To be honest, I try very hard to avoid drawing from established sources for my settings. They do, undoubtedly, influence my creative direction, but I strive to draw from my own storywriting ability. I greatly prefer my own material to anything that's published (and the reason that it's a testament to the quality of Penumbra's Nyambe setting for d20 that I use it without modification in my D&D campaign).
Obviously, for established settings like Star Trek or Star Wars, it's difficult to escape what's been previously done, so I build upon "canon" and work my storylines from there. But, I still write my own "scripts." :)
Oh there's got be a joke in there!Quote:
Originally posted by Tobian
"A Ferengi walks into your bar, and tries to sell you Jumja sticks, but it turns out he is a....."
A Klingon, A Vulcan and Ferengi walk in to a bar....
I usually don't like using pre-made scenarios - I feel too cramped by them. Otherwise, I can use every other choices of the poll to create a story - plot seed, adventure seed or background element - all of them can spark an idea.
But usually my main source of inspiration is the "wouldn't it be cool if I had the players do/meet/realise..." line of thought... ;)
Oh JonA please don't send me back to the Dark Place, I hear things creeping in the night, I'll behave, I promise :)
That's interesting input guys - I was actually wondering if, and under what form some of the material from my campaign could be useful to you fellow GMs :)
I like the full adventure because I don't have much time. I never use them the way they were written but I can tweak them easily and have a chance to play. Putting one together on my own is fun but I seldom have time to do so.
And the Romulan Ducks!:DQuote:
Originally posted by JonA
Oh there's got be a joke in there!
A Klingon, A Vulcan and Ferengi walk in to a bar....
Hmm. Okaaaaay. But any misbehaving and I'll call my mates at the Nausicaan Embassy.Quote:
Originally posted by KillerWhale
Oh JonA please don't send me back to the Dark Place, I hear things creeping in the night, I'll behave, I promise :)
Well your ideas on Holographic rights and the LCARSI idea have helped me flesh out something in my current campaign that will have my players (currently in the Delta/Gamma Quadrant area) chomping at the bit to come home and join the action. You obviously have a vast imagination that is in the spirit of Trek so anything you give us will be received and assimilated (pun intended).Quote:
That's interesting input guys - I was actually wondering if, and under what form some of the material from my campaign could be useful to you fellow GMs :)
Yeah yeah. And the Klingon attacks it with his Bat'leth and the Ferengi sells it for scrap.Quote:
Originally posted by Karg
And the Romulan Ducks!:D
:D
I like the fully-fleshed out scenarios. Since my crew is non-starfleet (for the most part), any scenario can be easily re-written to fit.
For inspiration for my own scenarios, I watch Andromeda. It's not very good as sci-fi goes, but, a) no one in my group watches it, b) The plots are simplistic enough to quickly re-write as a star trek adventure.
I like full scenarios as well - I never run the unaltered, but I find them invaluable for stealing bits and pieces. For instance, the pyramids from the Traveller adventure Shadows wound up in the Dyson Sphere in my Relic campaign - used very differently than GDW originally intended.