The Caffee Rules

Here are my thoughts on how to write published RPG adventures that do not suck. I will tackle other elements of RPG writing (including home games) in later posts. Publishing an adventure is a whole different animal than creating an adventure for your regular gaming group. The most important difference being that you know your gaming group well enough to tailor the adventure to them almost instinctively. On the other hand, if you publish an adventure, whether as a freebie on your blog or a paid product, you are creating something that will be played by people you've never met. You don't know their tastes, play styles, or personalities. What's more, you are writing for several potential gaming groups at once, meaning that you will have to account for a wide variety of individual preferences. All that aside, here are the rules. #1. Know what makes this adventure special. What's that? Your adventure isn't special? Why are you wasting everyone's time? Any rol

The last post focused on the rules for designing a campaign world or setting. This post is going to look at designing a campaign itself. A roleplaying campaign can be a tricky this to build from scratch, but these rules can help you not be terrible. Will you still get stuck? Yes. Will you paint yourself into a corner? Probably. Will you get frustrated and kick the players out of your house? It happens. However, your campaign will suck slightly less if you follow the rules. 1.  Know what you want. Are you designing a single epic quest? A series of unrelated dungeons? A game of political intrigue? Whatever you are doing, be clear about it before you start. You want to make a campaign where the adventurers find and explore various lost temples just for the lulz? That's way different than planning out an evolving story line with a main villain to beat at the end or a Game of Thrones style political drama. 2. Talk to the players. Better yet, listen to your players. If they are r