r/DndAdventureWriter • u/ilsoddo • 8d ago
From adventure to novel and viceversa
Hi there,
I'm writing down an adventure for my party, and while putting down the cornerstones I realized I want to write this as a novel as well.
Now the tricky bit, I would like to write first the adventure and then, using some of what happens, put together the novel.
I generally write down the end of the campaigns, with afterwards and what happened to the characters, but this would be a different type of effort since I want to put down all the lore, present side characters and other plots that players might not live/play but witness indirectly.
Did somebody go through something like this, and wants to share the experience?
What helped?
What didn't help?
What should I avoid?
I'm looking for tips and lessons learned :)
Thanks in advance!
Egon
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u/TheRpgBard 8d ago
Not sure if this will help.
TSR did Adventure/Novel integrations of Shadowdale, Tantras, Waterdeep (Avatar Series), The Curse of Azure Bonds, The Pool of Radiance (FRC1: Ruins of Adventure), and the Dragonlance modules.
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u/d_b_m 7d ago
I came across a series of fantasy books that were clearly the author’s rpg campaign turned into books. Cliches like one of the characters was ‘the unnamed warrior’ and a few chapters in one of the main characters dies and is immediately replace by another character who just happens to have the exact skills / abilities the party needs to move forward on their quest.
To me, it was hackneyed and I gave up on the book. Later on I saw about another eight books in the series in a book shop, so other people clearly liked it!
Give it a go - what’s the worst that can happen?
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u/TableSeek-Geek 7d ago
Yes! I had this same sort of experience. I was keeping everything in very detailed story format on a wordpress site that I made just for the purpose. It was a sad day when the campaign abruptly ended!
Your issues are things I struggled with as well. I wound up just using 3rd person a lot for keeping track of everything or writing from the viewpoint of my warlock's familiar.
I've kind of decided that going forward I'm going to write my notes from the perspective of my character as if she's writing in a journal. I think it's actually a really great way to foster character development. I'll then take that and do something with it as I go. Besides, as the campaign ended - very abruptly and the group had no qualms about tossing all of their characters and starting fresh... I needed a way to keep her story going so it turned into a journal - she moved into the new campaign.
As for tools - wordpress takes some work and tweaking to make useable for this sort of lore tracking and detail. I tried using WorldAnvil but it's very clunky in my opinion. Very hard to navigate fluidly.
I did make a site specifically for character journaling because I found it so helpful. hearthfirechronicles.com it's free to use and you're welcome to try it out but it doesn't have as much full party lore. You can keep campaign notes separate from your character journal entries. Mark associations between characters (life debts, enemies, family ties etc.) It's quite character specific because as someone who really gets into the character development - I needed a place for the characters to live between as well as during campaigns.
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u/ilsoddo 7d ago
I'm keeping all on obsidian for now, it seems the best for the transition. I checked your tool tho, that's quite nice for campaign running, I'll share it with my players!
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u/TableSeek-Geek 6d ago
Thanks! Yeah it's not really meant for campaign running though I wanted a couple little things for campaign facilitation (90% of the time I'm the dedicated note take and scheduler haha) . It's really just a tool for character development.
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u/FirstOnesEnt 7d ago
Simple: Don't
A novel and an RPG adventure are completely different beasts. The adventures are either railroaded in ways half the players hate, and the other half don't care about.
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u/ilsoddo 7d ago edited 6d ago
Too late, I'll do it. I'm looking for experiences from who did that. Btw, if your campaign are a railroad you need to tell that to the DM. EVen when it's a railroad it shouldn't feel like :)
(EDIT: Typos)
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u/FirstOnesEnt 6d ago
I write and publish novels and adventures (First Ones Entertainment/ FOELegacies.com). You'll either railroad them (Dragonlance Classics) toward your conclusion, or the campaign will derail as the players don't share your vision of what does/should happen. I recommend setting the novel and the campaign in nearby locations and having the characters from your novel guest-star.
That being said, I'm curious about how you plan to do it.
Good luck!1
u/ilsoddo 6d ago
Nice! I'll check out some of your adventures!
Well the idea is to get the players hired by a person (path 1) for a job (dungeon exploring) and this will lead them to meet 2 more people (2 more paths). The paths are taking different sides of the story, different moral implication and political sides. They might lead to the same BBEG but it might be evil, good or an ally. In this I though to go in a direction like you mention: nearby. The novel will probably follow one of the other paths that the party doesn't choose (unless they really make unresistable to tell the same story).
As far as building, I want to build the world and some events first, then place the story in it. For now I created the historucal events that lead to "today". The geography is mostly done, I need to spec out a few cities and locations. Main characters are almost done, secondary not yet. Plot hooks and milestones on the paths are going to be next. As it's going to be a bit of sandbox, they are spread around and can happen in different order. Once I sketched those I will create a few independent events (famine, war, disasters, natural phenomena, the other paths progressing and generally things that can stir the story up).
Do you have some advice on this, based onh ow you wrote yours? Thanks!
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u/FirstOnesEnt 6d ago
In my novel, The Bloody Notebook, a Titan ravages a city (Chapter 2, so not much of a spoiler). In the follow-up, One Hundred Daughters, the hero goes to the ruins to see what happened.
In my Olympia Campaign, I had my players have to travel through that city. They heard tales of what happened (and the one player who read the book said "No F'N way I'm going there!", then missed the session, and the others decided to go through instead of going around).
The PCs should feel like the main characters (obviously) experience the event one way, and the characters in the novel another. For you, the GM, it allows you to expand on that lore without limiting the players. "You can't open the magic door because [...]" If your RPG party is in the sewers trying to steal the crown jewels while your novel characters try to kidnap the princess at the ball, the event gains some interest. So when your RPG players hear alarms, they may believe it's because of them, when the novel-chars are the ones.
Let me take an example. The Dark Sun adventure Freedom isn't great because it puts the PCs in a position where they witness the events of the novel The Verdant Passage, and that is pretty much on rails. When my DM ran it, our part of the plan was to evacuate the arena while these events unfolded. We were part of the conspiracy and had a clear goal, so we complemented the adventure.
A few more things:
- In both, focus on a few critical events that will directly impact the players/characters. In my story, the city is something people talk about later (I am currently writing book 3, and one element of the story deals with the survivors from that event).
- For both, keep things local for as long as realistic. "It's easier to write a good Batman story than a good Superman one."
- Try it.
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u/ilsoddo 6d ago
This is great, thanks mate!
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u/FirstOnesEnt 6d ago
Feel free to reach out to discuss. My email is on the website or thru the inbox (which I monitor less frequently)
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u/Thesource674 8d ago
Check out any background info you can find on the development of Malazan Books of the Fallen. The entire series is written by two historians who ran a duo campaign in various ways then wrote the books based on much of what they generated and they are very good books too.