The first parallel adventure is out!
Holy medieval cow! That was harder to pull off than I thought!
Saving time, blowing minds
Hopefully by spending very little time you’ll be able to add a whole subplot to your ongoing campaign and blow your players’ minds.
Check out the Parallel Adventure Publication #1: Benedict’s Paradox
19 Comments
11:50 am on October 15th, 2007
I watched the whole thing and I think I can use it but i didnt print it first and I would have needed to take notes right on the adventure.
Ill let uyou know when I include it in my game
11:53 am on October 15th, 2007
Yeah. Since I wanted to keep the video short I had to cut corners and it will really help to have to document in front of you when you listen to the video overview.
12:52 pm on October 16th, 2007
I definitely like this. Even without the players participating, this is a welcome addition for adding a lovely sense of worldliness, if you will. Whenever possible, I have other things going on around my players that they either won’t want to participate in or have little ability to do so, just so they don’t always think the world revolves around them.
Also, love the site! Keep on bringing the tips, they’re great!
2:49 pm on October 16th, 2007
Thanks!
I understand if you guys take a while to watch the video because it’s almost 20 minutes long.
I plan on expanding on this concept so leave your thoughts when you do get around to watching or using it.
4:20 pm on October 16th, 2007
Good job! I really like what you did, not only because of the nice storyline, but also because this seems to be a confenient way of preparing adventures. I read you LOCK article but didn’t quite get it, now I do. I will try to use that method on my next adventure this Saturday.
I do have 1 question. All the scenes seem to be optional, could it be that de PC’s ignore all 4 of them? Or is there a catch to make sure they actually are pulled into the scene somehow?
5:36 pm on October 16th, 2007
Yeah. The PCs could ignore all of them.
The way I see it. If the side-quest takes place in the PCs hometown/homebase they will likely be more involved.
The best hook is to build up hype about the Red Robber or the Templars before the side-quest starts.
You know your players: what ticks them off? What or who do they really like? If the Red Robber steals from their friends then you can bet they’ll want a piece of the action!
5:40 pm on October 16th, 2007
Also my PCs have a tendency to mind other people’s business. Just being witness to something often causes my players to jump in the action.
10:38 pm on October 16th, 2007
I love it too, Yax. With the video feed I bothered to read it all. I like the way it is set up as a grouping of scenes, rather than a railroad. I really like the rounded stats of the NPC, time saving and focuses on the important parts, everything else is average.
And PCs minding other people’s business - “If the DM brings it up, it must be important.”
11:01 pm on October 16th, 2007
It’s good to know what stands out.
I have a few stand-alone adventures that I’d like to convert to this format but I want to do it right when I’ll invest the time.
11:11 am on October 17th, 2007
First the bad news. For me, there was no point to the video. It’s almost all just reading or paraphrasing the PDF and I can read (and probably remember more) the pdf twice in the time it takes to watch the video. in fact it’s double frustrating because I need to watch the video to gather the few snippets that don’t appear in the PDF.
The good news. I really liked the adventure. I particularly liked the 3/4 way conflict.
You’ve managed to produce a deceptively simple adventure - simple in that it only needs a few words to give all the information necessary, the scenes are all easy to grasp, it certainly looks runnable in a very short prep time. Deceptive in that despite the aforementioned simplicity the resulting adventure is not simplistic.
11:21 am on October 17th, 2007
Thank you so much for the honest feedback. Keep it coming!
11:21 am on October 17th, 2007
I think I need to add notes directly on the maps. That would help.
9:41 am on October 20th, 2007
I do like this format. It will really add some real life effect to my game. If the players don’t get involved with it, they will see other happenings going on around them, and if they do get involved it will serve very well to demonstrate that some things that happen are not related to the main story line of my campaign.
Thanks for your work and this is a great site. Please keep the tips coming and let us know when you will be doing some classes at the cons.
10:33 am on October 20th, 2007
Thanks!
2:17 pm on October 23rd, 2007
I have to agree that the video is redundant even though I really like the idea. My suggestion is to trim down the adventure PDF to a bare bones bullet point style. I usually do this with pre-generated adventures because it’s much easier to find things while playing if they are nicely listed one after the other as opposed to stuck in a paragraph somewhere. Not only that, but if a DM only has 30 min to prep they can skim through the PDF, make a few necessary adjustments, and they’re good to go with a nice outline for the entire adventure. Now, back to the video idea. If the PDF has everything you need to run the adventure, that opens up the video to all kinds of options that should add value and color to the parallel adventure. I think this is the ultimate place to include tips for running the adventure, NPC ideas, planting opportunities, and even scene details. I know that may go against your MO of doing things on the fly, but where else can DM’s listen to another DM’s perspective on an adventure? The best part about sites like yours (for me anyways) is learning how other DM’s run their games, what strategies they use, and how they incorporate all of that into one kick-ass game.
3:23 pm on October 23rd, 2007
You know… You might have solved my 2 problems!!!
1- DM needs to watch the video and be good to go. So we need a bullet-list style of pdf
2- Video is a great way to suggest ways to run the game and share the vision of GMing and the adventure itself. So we need a full-fledged adventure document.
So we have 2 pdf files (or 1 pdf with 2 sections) and 2 videos. Depending on what you feel is important and what your Dming style is you could drop the prep time to 20 minutes (with the bullet list and overview video) or you could spend about 1 hour and read the adventure and then watch a “How to make this scenario better” video.
What do you think?
7:11 pm on October 23rd, 2007
I think it sounds great, but I still don’t see the need for 2 PDF’s and 2 Videos. I think a single bullet style PDF with the adventure essentials with a companion “How To…” video is all that is needed. My idea is that the PDF is a stand alone item. There’s no need to reiterate what is on the PDF in the video. Rather, the video would be a tool for those DM’s that have the time to really add some flavor to the adventure (and I’m talking specific ideas). If you want an adventure presentation, I hate to say this cause I’ll probably be hanged, but maybe Power Point is a better option. You could map out the scenes, the key players, and even have a simple timeline for the scenes.
How’s that sound?
8:49 pm on October 23rd, 2007
It all sounds good. I need to try this concept again and implement some of the suggestions you all took the time to make.
I’ll make a version 2.0 soon…
3:16 pm on December 13th, 2007
When the new publication comes out ?? Any progress ? It’s a good adventure format I think. Did you considered adding a FlowChart or other graph type to summarize all possibles scenarios ?