How To Organise 50 Small Adventures

[daplunk]

Hi Team,

Looking for some input on how people think this should be done.

Let's say we have something like the D&D Adventure's League. A heap of small adventures that for all intensive purposes should be provided as a separate Export file.

How would you organise it all?

For example.

There's a base pack this is being prepared in. The campaign world.

Then on top of that I'm building the adventures.

Now if i just go and add the adventures into the mechanics section where everything 'should' go. Well that will become a management issue when the time comes to separate everything into individual adventures.

I want everything to be in this thing though. Because of linking. Having 10 adventures entered who are all linking to each other and then exported individually that can later be imported and the links start working again is great.

Ideally the Mechanics Sources looks useful. Using that as a parent of all mechanical items that come with the adventure work's visually to separate everything and that will make everything easy to export.

But...

The categories exist for a reason and it's preferable to use those.

Perhaps I need to create the Export tag at the start of the process and just tag the articles as I create them.

[kbs666]

If I was doing the PFS scenarios this is what I'd do:

I'd build each as a separate realm. Since they're set in Golarian I'd rely on the people who import them to have as much or as little of Golarian as they have, which is how it works at PFS tables in real life.

For DDAL you don't want to be doing all of Faerun too. So just do the scenarios. If people import them and want them to fit into a different world let them do that without to much stuff you've added in.

[daplunk]

If you build as a separate realm then you export without any links to any of the campaign world though. Yes the player could go back and link everything. But it would be preferable for them not to do that.

[Pollution]

deleted

[daplunk]

Yes it makes sense, it's how I pictured doing it. But then I sat back and pictured what that would look like... I didn't like what I pictured.

I guess I like my Realm to come across as less episodic and more of a growing and breathing world. Probably why I have always leaned towards putting NPCs under locations.

Hmmm... i need to think on this one some more.

[Bidmaron]

I would not put any world content in mechanics. Mechanics are for rules according to any readonable way to use realm works

[kbs666]

If you build as a separate realm then you export without any links to any of the campaign world though. Yes the player could go back and link everything. But it would be preferable for them not to do that.
This is why RW needs the ability to scan imports for links. Until then this sort of thing is going to be a mess.

[Farling]

This is why RW needs the ability to scan imports for links. Until then this sort of thing is going to be a mess.

You mean like is available in the latest version (to scan the entire realm)?

[kbs666]

You mean like is available in the latest version (to scan the entire realm)?
If that is what that is. It isn't clear and I haven't tried it yet. Based on where it is and how its described I'm not sure.

[Farling]

If that is what that is. It isn't clear and I haven't tried it yet. Based on where it is and how its described I'm not sure.

Ok, I just pressed the button and it doesn't do what I thought it did :-(

[kbs666]

Ok, I just pressed the button and it doesn't do what I thought it did :-(
nope.

[Vargr]

Maybe (MAYBE) this will work...

I would place each adventure under Events as a Quest.

Everything to do with the adventure under that container.

When imported the quest will appear with the name of the adventure.

The enduser can then choose to keep things here, not "polluting" his realm or he can move the topics into place.

In order to move them into place the enduser just have to "Clear container" and the topic neatly drops into the category that its topic type points it to.

I haven't done the export/import thing, but so far the links stay in place.


This is just a loose idea.

[Avi]

I am slowly (very very slowly...) entering adventures from old Dungeon magazines.
Created a "DungeonMag" Realm.
Then a custom Topic "Adventure Module" based on Quest, with lots of tags (rule set; Source mag; levels; settings ...). Contained in this header I put all the data from the module (Locations, Adventure Areas (for dungeon Levels) ; Scenes (for rooms); add a cast list and even special items.

Before creating the new adventure I create a new tag, unique to that adventure and auto assign it.

I do not convert on the fly - I put all as originally published.
Using the tag I can export a single adventure.

In the future I want to import into my Live realm and convert to my "system of the day",
at that stage I should also tie it in with the local story.
Never did this yet so not sure if practical...

What is missing is the "import then scan all new content for Links..."

[rob]

Yes, I'm coming late to this party, but hopefully I can still contribute a little...

I'll start with the disclaimers. I'm only tacitly familiar with DDAL and how it works. I assume it is similar, on a general level, with PFS, although I also have a very limited familiarity with PFS. So I'm mostly going on the details provided in this thread. There are going to be pros and cons with different approaches that will influence what I outline here. But this is how I'd approach it, based on what I understand right now.

NOTE! Much of this approach is outlined in the Content Sharing Guidelines (www.wolflair.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Realm-Works-Content-Sharing-Guidelines.pdf), although this is more of a “how to systematically attack it” game plan, so this complements what’s in those guidelines.

Putting everything into one realm seems appropriate if the number of adventures is manageable. It looks like DDAL has about 15(?) adventures per "season". That's getting up there a bit, but it should be ok. It's not a lot for RW to manage, but it's 15 different stories for which the content needs to be cleanly decoupled. So it can get fiddly to keep them all distinct, unless you're very disciplined and avoid making and organizational changes after having them all in place.

First of all, each adventure would have its own Storyline topic that encapsulates it. Similarly, there would be a corresponding GM Synopsis and Player Synopsis for each. If you plan to export an entire "season" together, you'll need one Story Source for it all. If you want separate exports for each, which it sounds like, you'll need a separate Story Source for each, as well.

Start with the Story Source topic – NOTHING else at this point. Once you create the topic, generate the export definition. This creates the corresponding Export tag, which you'll need. You should also create a matching Story Scope tag. The latter will allow you to filter readily if should ever export the entire "season" together.

Once the two tags exist, go to the Global Filtering button (to the left of the Home button above the content pane). You need to auto-assign the Export and Story Scope tags to all new content that you create. You can choose whether to include the tags in the global filter or not, depending on how you want things pared down.

Now you can start adding content, as it will be properly auto-tagged for you. Create the Storyline, GM Synopsis, and Player Synopsis topics. Just to be paranoid, make sure they’ve been auto-tagged.

If each season has a collection of recurring NPCs, create a Cast List container for them. You also may want a Cast List container for each adventure, but that depends on whether there are NPCs that justify it. If the NPCs are primarily tied to specific locations for each DDAL adventure, you can just place them in those locations and not maintain them separately.

Do the same for important quest items, if any, by creating a Thing List container and possibly containers for each adventure. And do the same for important groups with Group List containers.

I don’t know if DDAL introduces lots of mechanics or not. If new rules, items, spells, monsters, traps, and whatnot are introduced, you’ll need to setup a similar structure on the Mechanics side.

At this point, you’ve got the outer framework in place and can start putting all the material in for an adventure. Obviously, for linking, you should start with everything on the Mechanics side. That way, it’s all in place when story-side material references it, enabling the auto-linking to detect it and hook it up.

You’ll need to setup the regional geography for where everything takes place. So creating the various topics for the major places probably makes sense to do next. Don’t create topics that aren’t needed, though. Only create assorted Region topics for places that are actually used. You might want a place or two to serve as an overall container, but don’t create intermediate places unless there’s a use. Those places might exist in the realm where the material gets imported, and then you’ll have lots of deletions to perform. It’s best to keep that merging and deletion to a minimum. :)

Putting pieces in to place that are going to be regularly referenced by auto-linking should probably be done next. That means key NPCs that appear in different locations and scenes. That also means groups and things.

From here, it’s all about creating the specific places for the adventure: Adventure Area, Location, Community, and Merchant topics – plus the occasional Urban Region. As long as everything is being auto-tagged, you’re already well-versed in that process, so there’s no need to go there.

And then it’s down to the Scenes. There are lots of storylines that are explicitly tied to locations in pre-fab adventures, so a lot of scenes will appear beneath an Adventure Area or the like. However, there are a fair number of plots where it’s more appropriate to put the Scene topics directly beneath the Storyline. These scenes aren’t explicitly tied to a location, or a location had many scenes play out there (e.g. the office of the Mayor, who happens to be the NPC that the PCs are doing multiple tasks for). I’m just flagging this in case you haven’t run into this situation before. I’m sure you will at least a few times when dealing with DDAL adventures. :)

Once you’re done with the first adventure, you can start with the next one. You’ll need to be sure to switch out the auto-assigned tags when starting each new adventure. And you'll need to make sure you disable auto-assignment when you back in and do editing passes on previously entered adventures. You’ll also need to go back and assign the appropriate Export and Story Scope tags to all the various regional geography places that encompass the new adventure. The same applies to NPCs, groups, things, and possibly other topics that appear across adventures.

I’m sure that I’ve overlooked something here. And I’m sure there’s a wrinkle somewhere in the DDAL stuff that will need to be figured out. But this should give you a basic approach that ought to work pretty well. It’s the same general approach we’re using on our end for similar types of situations.

Hope this helps! :)