Myth-Weavers - Writers' Guild

Exercise NaNo Day 5 - New Kid In Town

Shannon — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:15:08 GMT

Okay. You have the start of your first character, and now you know some things about him/her. Now repeat exercises 1-4 again, for a completely new character!

Exercise NaNo Day Four - Three More Paragraphs

Shannon — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 13:17:24 GMT

You guessed it!

You have 5 paragraphs, plus one contrasting sentence so far about a character. Add two more sentences to your contrasting sentence so that you have two paragraphs for each of your 5 sections.

Exercise NaNo Day Three - Contrasting Sentences

Shannon — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:56:32 GMT

5 more sentences. You've written a paragraph about 5 facets of your character's makeup. Now write a single sentence, meant to be the start of another paragraph, that is in direct conflict with the previous paragraph. Write one sentence for each of yesterday's paragraphs.

Exercise Day Two - Five Paragraphs

Shannon — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 01:39:45 GMT

Sorry, I've been a little sick lately. Anyway...

Day Two - Write two more sentences to add on to the sentences you wrote for Day 1, to turn them into five short paragraphs. So basically, take each of your 5 sentences, add two more, and you'll have 5 paragraphs.

Zodiacs - Short Stories and Campaign Guide

Thrythlind — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:57:20 GMT

One Army of Bandits
One Village
Six New Heroes

The Exile – Jun, born Oishi Toshiko, was a wolf of the Kikage clan of zodiac samurai. Now she is merely a wandering vagabond cook, uncertain of how to carry out the last orders of her daimyo.

The Fighter – Enkil’s father was the leader of the Amaletu clan in the Hordelands until a mysterious zodiac, sent by the Bharita witch, arrived to challenge for control of the clan.

The Hunter – This snake has accepted no name and wanders seeking to hunt down the men who cursed her to a life of pain and misery.

The Traveller – Sigurd was put on a Volstagg ship at age fifteen to escape a massacre of the caravan of dogs that was caring for him at the time. Now he feels he must return to the continent of his birth.

The Thief – Xun Fu came to a witch’s attention years ago and was given the job to collect something for her. He did, but then he refused to bring it to her. He’s been on the run ever since.

The New – Acacia is unique, the first new zodiac species to walk the world since the ancients fell. And she has a past and future that is inescapably tied to the witch, Lady Adrasteia.

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Zodiacs: Siege at Berutuha - Short Story Anthology Kindle Print

They're currently set to wholesale prices for 2 weeks.

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Campaign Guide

When the Ancient Empire fell, it left behind ruins, scattered survivors...

...and the Zodiacs.

Now, after thousands of years of rebuilding, anarchy comes at the prodding of a powerful witch, and humans and zodiacs alike face an age of fire and war.

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This book describes the various peoples and cultures of the continent of Sutats and the situations as they currently stand. It is intended to help as a guide for a gamemaster to form a gaming campaign set in this world. It is linked to no specific system and can be used by any gamemaster or group using their favored system with some interpretation.

Included

- The five major cultures of the continent of Sutats: Bharita, The Golden Empire, The Hordelands, Ryouiki, the Star Republic. And a peek at the Volstagg from across the waves.

- The seven most well known species of zodiacs and their subgroups: Canines, Large Felines, Fox, Raccoon, Rodent, Small Feline, Snake

- The Six Theories of magic predominate on the continent and amongst its visitors: Bharita's holy Chudail, The Golden Empire's insane Wu Jen and wise Sages, the Rakbu spirit talkers of The Hordelands, the blood-letting Maho-Tsukai of Ryouiki, the secretive Magi families of the Star Republic and the Enchanters of the Volstagg

- An example campaign set in this focusing around the heroes of the short stories and their attempts to bring down Lady Adrasteia, including the first ever Raven zodiac.

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Campaign Guide Kindle Print

Currently set to wholesale prices in celebration of Bystander's release.

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The Exile, one of seven short stories from the anthology

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Bystander - Novel

Thrythlind — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:36:42 GMT

Empaths. Superstrength. Kung Fu Masters. Petting Zoo People.

There is a word for people like that. A pre-packed fluffy-feeling word the government’s spin doctors had come up with.

Peak.

Lucretia had her own words for her peer group: freaks of nature, science projects, and fanatics. They were all the people that had been born, transformed or self-willed into something that should have been bizarre, but was becoming less so.

All she wanted to do was live an unnoticed life in her brownstone, working at the library and chasing down idiot cops who took her books on stakeouts.

Of course, there are problems with that, such as the fact that she's considered an interesting research specimen by some of the more amoral companies. Her tendency to stick her nose in where it probably shouldn't be. A love-hate relationship with various alcoholic beverages.

Oh yes, and the fact that she's still on parole.

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Bystander Kindle Print

Haunted Bystander - Coming 2011

Current prices are set to what is basically wholesale value (I couldn't make money on this if stores charged these prices, the chunk they'd take out would leave me in debt), in about 2 weeks, I'm ending the sale.

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First Chapter

Greenwater - Serial Novel

Thrythlind — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:26:13 GMT

Tennel Grimbeck, skinner of the Rolsarn Swamp on the edge of the Confederacy of City States, is leaving the home he’s known for all his life ahead of tragedy and rumors of murder.

Runya Sulemar, holy warrior of the Hinoitaur race, has been wandering the expanse of the Dim, the last messenger to carry a warning of doom to the world beyond.

Morriga Dagnon, young aristocrat of the city of Drenon, seeks to prove the fame and glory of her home’s legends as the greatest archers of the Confederacy.

Dobrek, a mysterious duelist, was drafted as a scout to be sent south to the Greenwater after an unfortunate misunderstanding with the magistrate of Drenon.

The Greenwater, a vast inland sea out of which grow trees the size of mountains. A place of savage, primal danger and new opportunity.

A place were the depths have never been fully tested, either in the waters or the hearts of its residents.

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Part 1 - Leaving Home Kindle Print

Part 2 - Setting the Board Kindle Print

Part 3 - The First Move - coming 2011

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First Prologue and First Chapter of First Book:

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Discussion I recently...

Thrythlind — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:27:52 GMT

...finished a novel project and have it self-published through lulu (print) and amazon's kindle (electronic)

is it all right to post a link here to let people go and see it?

Map Making Software

Conners — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:36:01 GMT

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any cartography tools that'd be good for someone who is bad at drawing maps.

An important factor is history, and stories, is the terrain and mapping of a world. Therefore, I was hoping I could get something to help me roughly depict the world in my writing. It'd also be good if the tools allowed more-detailed options (like drawing, you start with shapes, then you keep redrawing it and adding detail, being my plan).

Such a tool would likely be of great help to many writers here. So far, I've found this one: http://www.inkwellideas.com/roleplay...er/index.shtml
But I'm uncertain of how well it performs, so far. Any other options I should consider?

Azarkon the D&D detective

SagewolfAZ — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:47:50 GMT

Azarkon the D&D detective
These two stories are part of a trio of short stories I wrote as a joke for one of my friends way back in high school. We had started a dungeons and dragons campaign together, and my friend, the DM, had insisted that everyone in the campaign should have detailed backstories. Rather than write a backstory, I wrote a series of short humorous mystery stories for my character, named Azarkon. Azarkon is never described in the stories themselves. One of these days I may have to make some art for him.

Azarkon and the Case of the Frivolous Fireball

My name is Azarkon, and I work the hard beat with the local guard in the small town of Easthaven. Working here is a lot like frying a live toad, things jump around a lot, there's a lot of grease, it don't smell too pleasant, and most people will wonder why you bothered in the first place.
I had a new case, I was supposed to interview the witness to a fatal fireball that occurred in the woods last week. Some magician had apparently tried to cast a fireball while robbing a carriage filled with royal gold, and burnt down half of the Forbidden Forest of Doom, and it was my job to find the loot, find him, and put them both away.
I found the witness in his cabin and immediately I knew he had problems. There was something I didn't like about his face, maybe it was the way it had been plastered to the wall, next to bits of his right arm.
The whole cabin had been devastated from the inside, and the unfortunate witness had been in the middle of the blast. There wasn't even enough of the man left to do a s�ance. Immediately I knew the one person who could be responsible was the guilty fireball mage, and I went back to headquarters to get some clues.
"Boss." I said to my boss. "We lost our witness in the forbidden forest case."
"Consarnit!" he said, using the best curse he knew in the Elvish language. "That's the third witness we've lost this month! We ought to do something about this..."
"Perhaps we could move the witnesses to a safe house of some kind before until we got all the information out of them?"
"Nah, too expensive." said the boss. �But I want you to solve this case Azarkon, or it's my butt in the fireball."

I went to the local mages club, a quant little tavern with a sign nailed to it, declaring the place to be "Kal Dron's Melting Pot." next door was Kal's carriage, parked in a space that had written next to it, "No hitching, Violators will be toad." I went inside and saw a lot of eyes staring back at me, and most of them came from Fred, the bouncer.
"What'dya need?" asked the giant floating eye fiend. He was one of those creatures that got a bum rap in the monster manual. Beholder's weren't so terrible once you got you got past the mouth full of pointed teeth, their innate ability to fry you with electrical jolts, and their desire to see all other sentient life eradicated. Fred bobbed up and down and stared at me with his dozen or so stalk eyes. The large one in the center of his bulbous body was checking other parts of the bar. I couldn't look at him for too long, or the costal wizards would get me, but I asked him, "I'm looking for the mage who burnt down half of the Forbidden Forest of Doom and killed two people."
The floating bouncer considered for a moment. "Oh. I know da guy. 'Sname's Don. Don Flagration. 'e came through 'ere couple 'o days ago. 'ad a drink an' said he was gonna go blow something up.'' Fred ran his huge tongue over his rows of pointed fangs, ''We all 'ad a good laugh, cuz that's what 'e does."
"Do you know where I can find him?" I asked.
"Eh. No idea." said floating Fred. "Go ask Kal."
Kal Dron the bartender got done serving a nearby hag, and when he looked up from his work he noticed me.
"Azarkon! Old friend, what can I do for ya today? Eh?"
I leaned up against the cold metal bar and bought an ale. �I'm looking for Don Flagration, the man who robbed three thousand G from a royal coach and set fire to the forest. The dryads have put out a bounty for any information leading to his capture, and I want you to have that bounty Kal. What do you know of Don?"
Kal scratched his beard, which was standard magic user issue. "Don, Don... Quiet fellow? Mage, right? Yeah, I thinks I know him. He said he had to lay low for awhile, but I get lots of those kinds of customers, ya'know? But maybe if you wait a bit, he'll be back, and I can point him out to ya."
I waited for over an hour, sitting on a filthy barstool and watching a pathetic stage magician pull cantrips out of his sleeve. Just about the time I started to work on my third glass of mead, Kal the bartender elbowed me hard in the ribs and motioned to the man who was chatting at the door with Fred.
Don Flagration was a skinny man, but you could tell he had some magic to him. If the mystic symbols, pointy hat, and the fancy robe didn't tip you off, the fact that half of his face was covered in striped fur did. Obviously the man was a powerful mage, but not a very good one. Anyone who could bungle a transformation spell that badly was more than capable of setting off a wild fireball, and so I sipped my drink and waited for Don to leave the bar so I could follow him.

Fifteen minutes later, I was tailing him down the road, when suddenly everything went bright. A bolt of lightning shot past me, and I dived into the bushes to avoid it.
"You'll never catch me you stupid guard!" shouted Don as he ran into the woods.
Apparently my sneak skill was not as high as I thought it was. I chased after him, drawing my blade and trying to catch up. A second bolt whizzed past me.
"You can't win, you foolish fighting type!" he said to me over his shoulder. "I'm a half elf and I..."
He never finished his gloat, because at that moment he slammed into a tree, and I was on him just seconds later.
"Curses!" he squealed as I dragged him back to the bar and flopped him down before Fred and Kal, who helped me tie him up.
"Ok, Don. Where'd you hide the loot!" I asked him politely.
"You'll never find it! Not in a thousand years, I..."
He fell unconscious as a second concussion hit him.
"Oops," said Fred. "I's accidentally used my racial ability. Sorry."
"Well that's just great, now it will take forever to find out where he stashed the gold!" said Kal angrily.
Fred looked thoughtful, he bobbed up and down a few times, then he turned a few of his eyes toward me and said, "Uh, you know, Officer Azz. When he paid for his room I took his luggage to my pig pen. Cuz 's where I puts all the guest stuff that theys don't need. I bet he done hid the gold in there."
I went out to the barnyard behind the bar and climbed over the fence, I pushed a few of Fred's pigs aside, and there it was.

And that's how I found out that booty was in the sty of the beholder.

Azarkon and the Case of the Bad Bards

Some call me Azarkon, Azarkon the Gray. I don't know why they call me that, because I never have decided on a decent last name. Most just call me Azarkon. Sometimes Azz. I'm an investigator for the guard of the town of Easthaven. We've been having problems lately. The Easthaven music festival is coming up, and it's always been a big deal. Every year we get rowdies who have had too much ale and lute music causing trouble in the town, and quite often it's my unpleasant job to stop them. This year was going to be a little different though, the king was coming to visit the festival this time, and security had been tightened up like a fat maid's corset.
Fifteen new guards had been hired for the fair, and all of them were as green as could be. Especially because they were orcs. They roamed around the town square, comparing the sizes of their weapons and talking about things they would enjoy eating; and I discovered that I had become bored.
"What's up?" asked my boss.
"Town's as clean as it could be." I answered. "No rogue mages, no fairy-dust trafficking, not a single bar fight, it's as though all the crime has packed up and left town."
"Well Azarkon, the festival only lasts a week, and there will be plenty to do after it's over. Why don't you take some time off and enjoy yourself a bit, the orcs have got this one covered for now."
"Do I still get paid?"
"No."
"Oh well. I..."
Just then a junior officer ran up and saluted me and the boss.
"Sir! We just brought in a drunk performer sir! He says that someone here at the festival plans on assassinating the king, Sir!"
"Put your arm down kid." I said. "How did you get this information?"
The young guard slapped his hands to his side and stood at attention. "The musician was molesting a horse sir! And when one of the orcs got him in a headlock he blurted it out. We tried, um... 'Interrogating' him sir, and he says he doesn�t know whose plan it is, but he clams someone hired him to shoot the king with an arrow."
I assumed 'Interrogating' in this case was simply a fancy way of saying "an-orc-started-breaking-his-fingers-with-a-blunt-object-until he-talked." but even though I don't usually condone torture, regicide is serious business.
The boss turned to me. "Maybe you should take that vacation after all Azz."
I stared at him in shock, as I have never had a good hard look at an insane person before. "What are you talking about? You need every officer on the force to go after this! How can you possibly..."
He silenced me with a commanding hand. "I mean what I say, take a vacation. Visit the festival. From now on you are working undercover. See if you can get any information from the visiting musicians about what is happening here, and above all, find those assassins!"

The next day I was up at the crack of dawn. Dawn cracked hard around here, and I got up with a bit of a headache, and an odd desire for toast.
I had slept in one of the tents that had been set up for the traveling players, men, elves, dwarves, and others who had come in from all over the continent to be at the festival. Outside a team of cooks were making breakfast, and I went to the table and snatched a scone from one of the plates. Biting into it, I discovered that the pastry was as hard as the forehead of a troll, and about as flavorful. I felt a tooth snap on the rough surface. I cursed and pocketed the rock-hard scone for later disposal.
The musicians were rising, setting up their stages and tuning their instruments. One active half-elf was blowing particularly hard on a bagpipe that sounded like a dying carrion crawler, while his partner nearby was playing an off-tune flute with a wild abandon. I decided to avoid their cacophony, and luckily there were better talents to be found elsewhere.
All around me I could see people who had invested much into their performance skill. Lutes, harps, pan pipes, the whole array of portable instrumentation could be found here, but I was just as entertained by the vocal talents. A choir of Elvish women sang heavenly songs so piercing that I was forced to stop looking for killers in order to listen, and a group of mages burst into a rousing rendition of "The Golem Makin' Blues" as I passed by.
Then the king arrived, bedecked in gold and scarlet from head to toe. He and his court set up camp on the field opposite to the grandstand, and when he was settled in, a group of Halfling tap dancers got up and began the show.
As big a fan of Halfling tap-dancing as I am, I found their exploits hard to watch, and went back to the Elvish singers, who were now preparing to go up on stage. There the bagpiper and flutist who had done so poorly that morning were singing beautiful ballads with a some of the Elvish chorus girls, they also appeared rather drunk.
And speaking of drunk, just then a troupe of dwarven men armed with accordions pushed their way past me toward the grandstand and I helped myself to a jug of ale one of them had left behind. I sipped it on my way up the hill, and from here I gazed out over the scene. The festival had been set up in a valley, and much of it was now filled with tents. A large section had been left empty in front of the main stage, though that section was now filled with thousands of eager music lovers. Here I took a little nap, and when I awoke, a noisy Sorcerer violinist was starting his part of the show; and he pulled the bow across his strings and it made an evil hiss, then a band of demons joined in and it sounded something like this one weird dream I had last week.
I got up and passed the food table, and heard the choir of elves finish their singing on the grandstand off in the distance. That was when I realized that there was something wrong. The bagpipe player and the flute player I had seen earlier did not belong in this crowd of talented musicians, they just sucked too badly. They had no idea how to play those things, they were vocalists. So why were they wasting their time with wind instruments?
There was only one explanation, they were the assassins, and something about those bagpipes and that flute were important.
I rushed through the crowd and past the king's stand.
There they were, holding their bagpipe and flute in the air and preparing to play. The crowd was too thick, and there was no way I could get to them in time to stop them from blowing their deadly pipes, so I fished around in my pocket and grabbed the rock-hard breakfast pastry from this morning. I lobbed the scone as hard as I could in their direction, and it hit one of them on the side of the head so hard that it knocked him unconscious. He fell on top of his partner, who stumbled under the weight, and the two of them collapsed to the ground.
There was a small commotion in the crowd, but I was able to push my way though to where the assassins lay still. I called the orcs over and we arrested them both. Sure enough, the bagpipes and the flute had been converted into blowguns, designed to shoot poisoned darts. After some 'interrogation' both of the Elvish musicians confessed that they had been hired by a foreign government and had been trying to kill the king, and we had them locked up and later executed.

And that's how I killed two bards with one scone

Exercise NaNo 2010 - Day 1 - 5 Sentences

Shannon — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:45:06 GMT

A quick introduction! For those of you who weren't here last year, these are some exercises - both simple and complex - that will help you flesh out some characters and eventually get an overall plot for a novel. Since NaNoWriMo is right around the corner, here at the Writer's Guild we're going to go through these exercises.

These exercises are adapted from Michael Stackpole's 21 Days to a Novel. If you want to read more details, I highly recommend his book, it is very good!

Start with an idea if you want, or don't - it's totally up to you. For now, we're going to just start with a single character.

Day One - Five Sentences

This one's simple, and you'll be building on it for the next few days.

Five simple sentences, no more than a dozen words each, describing five different aspects of a character's circumstances. It may be something about the character's work, or romantic life, or any number of things.

5 sentences, no more!

Post your results here! We can't use this pre-writing for the NaNo novel anyway, so you're not blocking yourself from eventual publishing. Comment on others or not, as you choose. Exercises start slowly and gradually take more time. I'll be giving a day or two between exercises, depending on the length of each. Some are short and should be okay to do in a day, others take longer.

One thing we did last year is include our text in spoiler tags, so that as we expanded, it was easier to keep it all in one place without having pages through which to scroll. Your choice.

Happy writing!

The judgment.

Silverthorne — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:42:39 GMT

Tamer looked out at the world of Imortus. His fellow gods ruled with an iron fist and little love of the people below. He was only a chronicler, not one of the true gods, just a human that had been taken by the gods and forced to do their bidding. He had none of the powers of the true gods, just that he was here was a great blessing to him. Even if he was immortal for ever, he was satisfied with his life. Tamer returned to the book he was working on. A soft smile on his lips. He wrote the commandments of the gods to the mortals so that all knew the laws. He himself did not write them, he just kept the pen from drying out. A drop of his blood would keep the pen writing for one day. He knew that in time he would have no more blood to fuel the pen, he was the third chronicler listed in the roles of gods. He touched the pen to get it moving again. The pen drifted to the oldest book and touched it. The book slid out, Tamer had never seen the book, but moved the current chronicle to make room.

*Unto these gods do I warn. There are things in the heavens more frightening than them, and more powerful.* These words were written ages back, their presence on the page almost gone. The pen flowed out new words. *They have ignored the first warning and committed the first of the sins against man. No judgment will come. If they do not harken to the laws of the charter, there will be a judgment.*

The book lay open as Tamer read the book. He touched the bar that alerted his patron to a problem. The god arrived with a look of annoyance. He looked upon the words with humor in his eyes. ~Boy, this is a joke is it not. There is nothing above us.~ He turned and walked out. Heading to his rooms. Tamer nodded and started to return the book to its place. The pen however moved back to its position above the page.

*Unto these fools do I come. Mine is the Judgment.* The book closed on its own and the pen settled into place.

Tamer took the book, which weighed almost as much and he did and carried it out into the hall. He turned to look at the main council room. His breath left him and his fear of the gods spoke to him loudly, 'Be not a fool and tell only your master.'

Tamer nodded and turned to head down the hall to his master's room. A bolt of lightning blasted him down the hall. The book had absorbed much of the blast and prevented Tamer from taking much damage.

~Your not supposed to be out of your hole, lesser.~ Galen Lord of War drew back his hand and let fly another bolt of energy.

Tamer could only hide behind the book. The second blast scorched the cover of the book and drew a growl of rage from Galen. He drew as much energy up as he could and threw it at the book and Tamer. The book opened and then closed. Galen stood his mouth hanging open. The book had eaten his blast, one which should have destroyed a good half the city.

Galen stormed up and grabbed the book. He turned and stormed off to the council room. His bellowing could be heard for miles. ~Magn, What is the meaning of this?~

The councilors turned to look upon him with aloof self interest. Three men in the room felt a bit more in the way of feeling. Magn, Lord of the Gods, felt fear, he recognized the book. Larisa, Goddess of The Seas, felt lust for Galen. And Neral Lord of Death, felt hatred, for it was his turn to speak when Galen burst in.

Magn looked at the book and raised his hand. The arguing between the others ceased. ~Galen, that is the book of the Charter. Why do you have it.~

Galen unceremoniously dropped the book on the floor and again drew up all of his energy and fired it at the book. The book again only opened and then closed. ~Father, What is this?!!~

Magn felt the wave of despair at the blast that did nothing other than disappear. ~It is the laws by which the gods took their powers.~ He stopped as the chronicler came to the door. ~Chronicler, Why was this book drawn out?~

Tamer felt the power of the council slam into him and drag him out and up into the air. Tamer who could not speak mimed opening the book. Magn glanced at his guard. The hulk of a man stepped over and flipped the book open. The pages rolled by like they were carried by the wind, though non stirred the council chamber. The first page appeared. The two new sentences appeared for all to see. Magn crushed the chronicler without a though and turned to Galen. ~Prepare to go to war.~ Magn turned to all those that had followers nearby. ~Prepare to fight.~

Galen stood proud and waved up his legions. Shadus bowed slightly and drew her assassins from the netherworld. Cain, drew his hunters from their forest rests. All those who had died for their gods were summoned. Magn turned to the sky, he laughed. ~Come, Judge, We will be ready for your arrival.~ He spoke to himself. ~And let us hope he is weak.~

Discussion Shades of Green

Samaelryn — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:42:47 GMT

Ok, so.. I'm trying to find the best way to describe the eye colour of one of my characters. His eyes are a dark green, with hints of blue.

Now, I've narrowed it down to the two options in this poll... Which one to you suggests the base color of his eyes is green?

Picture prompt!

InaVegt — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:05:20 GMT

750-1000 words, based on this picture. I'd like to see more than one response this time, please. :)

[Request] Strucuture - RPG Adventures?

jpneok — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:20:18 GMT

Just to establish a point, I'd like to say I'm on a few meds for depression and anxiety so I feel like part of my problem is memory and creativity - basically higher functions, ability to improvise well and such, have taken a major hit.

* * *

I've never been good or known how to "write adventures" or scenarios really, I never had any writing classes, but I've written a couple of adventures that I think were "ok", but they felt and still look sloppy and "loose". Because of my aforementioned deficits, I generally need to run "canned" adventures; in fact I generally run one-shots, as I've not been able to get a group together consistently to even run a sequential multi-session scenario or campaign, so even just a one-session one-shot would be great for me.

I'd like to be able to work on making my own adventure or scenario, for a game. Really, any kind - fantasy, modern action, horror - I mostly run WFRP2, CoC and Feng Shui, and would like to not only be able to make my own adventures, to be able to share them with other people and help add to and provide free resources for other GM's for those games, because I'm highly appreciative of fan-supported and produced material.

Basically, ARE there formulas for writing adventures? I've looked and read articles on the net, but nothing has been particularly helpful, that I've found. I've read some rpgs that have scenario creation tips, but everything seems to be situational and covers tone and abstract concepts like what players need and such.

I'm looking for literal structure, like roadmaps, flowcharts, blueprints, actual formulas that say "Location 1: Introduction, the Hook, NPC Foreshadowing" and things like that, like I've seen movie or book layouts done. There ARE things like this aren't there? Stories and adventures have GOT to be formulaic, at their basest form at least, that I could work on something, to work my way into better things, surely? I've watched enough sitcoms and TV dramas to know formulaic things when I see them, but I can't quite pick things apart without some help finding the "edges".

* * *

I was really thinking a bit more simplistically for myself, and I also don't know how to make flowcharts, at least for an adventure's method, as the structure problem I outlined.

I know basically it would be something like:

[Starting Location (in a square or something]
|
{NPCs in that Location, or maybe triggered events?}
|

|
[New Location]

Something like that? I can't obviously illustrate it with text in a forum, and I know that's a straight linear example. In a way, I think of an old Gygaxian scenario writer sheet you were supposed to fill out, but the thing was massive; I think he had a random thing you could roll on too, but that one didn't seem right, though it does seem like it had the literary components I'm kind of remembering.

Is this how adventures are done, at all, anywhere? Like, Hook, Intro, Complication, Challenge, Conflict, Pursuit, Revelation or however all that goes?

* * *

I've written a couple of things and people said they were pretty good (one guy even said one was the best he'd ever read in his 15 years of GMing) but I don't know "how to write", "correctly", and I'd like to be able to put things together "the right way", with confidence, to be able to share with other people, and keep in practice, and also keep my own creativity percolating if I am at all able, and be able to make adventures for my games using the ideas that occur to me, rather than trying to find and adapt things that fit the bill, that other people have written.

Thanks for any help!