Building a TTRPG Adventure

Liquid Euphoria, the Cairn 2E adventure we crowdfunded last February, is coming along at a steady pace.

I’m writing, Aleksandra is drawing, and, to make sure we were on the same page, we’ve drafted a zine layout with the main elements (titles, room keys, stat blocks, etc.) and placeholder text. I recon most publications go through the design, writing, and layout stages in this order, but with her being in charge of the layout and me of writing, we figured having a page ready to be filled in required less back and forth than the alternative.

I have to admit: as a first-time designer, it took me some time to fully accept that every Warden will run the adventure a little bit differently. I do the same when I facilitate other people’s modules, so why should mine be so stringent? Since then, what I write and how I key have become increasingly leaner and more open to interpretation, which I think is a good thing.

If you’re interested in the topic, Murkdice wrote about negative space just last week: What you don’t write is key for DnD and TTRPG adventures. Reading it (as well as this other article of theirs) made me wonder: why did I even bother with a grid map? It could have been a point crawl 😅 Oh well, lessons were learnt.