Writing Wages

In January, I quit my job to work at Tuesday Knight Games full-time. Wages of Sin (crowdfunding soon!) is my first book written whilst doing games full time. The core of the book is 100 Bounties, each a complete scenario. A major point of inspiration was 76 Patrons, which is still one of my personal favourite RPG books. The manuscript clocks in at around 80,000 words. I learnt a lot writing it, which I’ll summarise down below.

Rather than just trying to write 100 bounties, I worked through set of defined stages. They all began in a spreadsheet with the most high-level details: target, client and a one-liner pitch for any complications or setting notes. To help with this, I also created a big list of crimes. Whenever I was uncertain, I could scan the list for inspiration. Having a number of similar resources is essential when creating a large number of similar items. For the &Treasure project, I had a number of lists to pull from. At this phase of the project, I only allowed myself to work on the spreadsheet. By immersing myself in the process, I avoided context-switching, helping find a flow state to generate quality ideas at a good pace.

Once the spreadsheet was complete, I created ‘sketches’ of each bounty, working in batches of ten. This consisted of gathering the existing details and building on them, producing an outline with all the important details worked out. All of this writing happened longhand in a notebook, dedicated to Wages of Sin. For me, the utility of having a single place to put everything was huge, and is something I’ve started doing for everything going forwards. This phase was about generating more concrete ideas and finding the interesting elements within the one-liners in the spreadsheet. By splitting the tasks and focusing only on ideation-in-detail, I didn’t need to worry about presentation or legibility at this point. More on this later. Working longhand, I find myself much less distracted and able to produce better ideas - taking advantage of the flexibility by using lists, diagrams, or simply clustering text by topic. For stationary nerds: I used Mitsubishi 9850s and Hi-Unis in HB for most of the project, working in a Muji A5 30 page notebook.

The project book.

A bounty ‘sketch’.

Finally, it was time to write the bounties. At each stage of the process, they had become clearer and more complex. By doing each stage as a discrete unit of work, each piece was given more time to mature and evolve. Thinking on this, and seeing it happen across the whole project has made me consider the role of patience in writing. Ideas and their expression both need time to grow. Doing this deliberately and slowing yourself down reaps benefits in the quality of both. All this to stay, whilst typing up the text from my notes, things changed and developed. This happened freely and spontaneously as part of the natural writing flow, rather than requiring me to stop and context-switch to ideation mid-writing. The two tasks are deeply linked but are independent, and treating them as such allows better engagement with each part. For writing, this allows you to focus on the best possible expression of the already existing ideas - and any elaboration occurs easily and organically. Further, writing with the knowledge that you will revise the text allows for better writing. The work of revision is once again, an entirely different relationship to the text. Trying to edit your work as you write it will slow you down immensely, as well as producing weaker writing overall.

As mentioned before, the bounties were written in batches of ten, alternating with the idea-sketches. This meant the different phases were in communication with one another. After completing each batch, improvements and refinements for future batches were identified. For example, earlier idea-sketches didn’t include names for all NPCs, which slowed writing down. By batching this work, this flaw was spotted early and corrected going forwards.

The same bounty from before, in Vim.

For computer perverts: the initial writing was done in Vim, using my .vimrc which is a cludged-together mess. Beyond being some turbonerd shit, writing in an offline editor means you can turn off the internet whilst writing - removing a major distraction. Turning off the internet is another reason to do all your research beforehand!

Once all Bounties were complete, I read through all of them with a mind to revision. The process of revision is essential in producing quality process. The best approach for me is to consider it a form of play: “Does this sound better worded like this? Or like this? What if I delete these words?”. There are many approaches to this, but ultimately you are trying to make the words sound better. Taking the time to do this yourself, catching all the low-hanging fruit and giving it an initial tune-up, means your editors can focus on the improvements you will not be able to see in your own work. With this done, I combined all the individual bounties into a single document and uploaded it to Google Docs. As much as I love Vim, Google Doc comments and suggestions remain untouched for collaboration.

The approach (headlines -> sketch -> write) detailed above works for less structured writing too. Wages of Sin features a prison, written using the same process: an initial pitch was developed further using longhand notes into a sketch of each element, which was then typed up once iterated across several times. Rather than batching bounties, the prison was developed a component at a time: a section on prisoners, a section on guards, a section on defences. The batching technique wasn’t used here, as I felt it more useful to have the entire concrete idea mapped out before writing anything.

Much of this will seem fundamental. It is. Yet I have seen countless people jump into a Google Doc to start their project, writing their introduction before anything else. Then they will stop, think, delete a line or two, re-word it. Go back, change an idea. Approaching things a little more deliberately reaps huge benefits.

Travel Too!

When travelling, shit goes wrong.

Each day (or watch or whatever) of travel, make your encounter roll as normal. In addition, check for a travel mishap:

Roll 1d12, and look up the x-in-12 value on the chart below. Note that Roads are a modifier to the x-in-12 value, to a minimum of 1.
If the roll is equal-to or below that value, then roll on the Mishap Tables. In the case of mixed groups, select between them randomly.

Weather Dependent

Any inclement weather conditions intensify or cause an issue - roads flood, heat exhaustion kicks in, fog leads you astray. If weather is mild and clear, ignore this result.

Terrain Dependent

The problem you’d expect from this sort of terrain occurs - bogged down in the swamp, tangled in the forest undergrowth, buried beneath a collapsed dune. If the terrain is gentle and unchallenging, ignore this result.

Foot

Twisted Ankle

A random character twists their ankle. They may attempt to avoid this with a Save vs Paralysis. On a fail, they instead break their ankle.

Sprained ankles reduce movement rates to a quarter usual rates; a broken ankle a tenth.

Blisters

A random character is afflicted with blisters. They may either travel at 1/2 speed for the rest of the journey or push through. Those pushing through are unable to recover HP and are at risk of infection from the burst blisters.

Sting, Bite, Reaction

A random character suffers with biting/stinging insects, a reaction to a poisoned plant or similar. They may attempt to avoid this by making a Save vs Poison. On a fail, the issue is intensified.

A mild case gives a -2 penalty to all d20 rolls. A major case gives a -4 penalty.

Fall

A random character falls, taking 1d6 damage. On a 6, the fall is serious, and a random limb is broken. For each HD the character has,roll an additional 1d6 of damage. A Save vs Paralysis can be made to reduce this to a sprain, and avoid the damage. On a failure, multiple limbs are broken.

Damage from Falls cannot kill, but can fuck you up.

Equipment Loss

A small item from a random character pack is missing, having fallen during the journey. Items on the exterior of packs are most likely, and are unlikely to be bigger than a ration.

Exhaustion

Exhaustion creeps over the entire group earlier than expected. A kingdom of cramps and swollen feet. The next day must be spent resting, or characters being to take damage equal to HD per day of continued travel.

Horse

Spooked

A random horse is spooked. Roll Morale: on a success, the horse merely bolts, the rider clinging on. On failure, the rider is first thrown - resolve as a Fall, but doubling the initial damage dealt.

All other horses must make a Morale roll. For each that fails, conduct the above procedure.

Broken Leg

A random horses leg breaks. It begins to scream.

The rider must make a Save vs Breath to get free from the falling beast. Those failing take 1d6 damage. On a 5+, their leg is broken too by the falling, thrashing horse.

All other horses must make a Morale roll. For each that fails, treat them as Spooked.

Lameness

A random horse becomes lame. Roll 1d6 - on a 1 or 2, the lameness requires extended rest (2d6 days) and specialist attention. On a 3+, a day of rest will suffice. This is obvious to any with experience riding.

A lame horse can be forced to continue, but takes 2 damage each day and has a 70% chance of collapse if ridden above a walk.

Poisoned

A random horse has eaten something that has poisoned it. The beast should Save vs Poison. On success, 1d6 days of rest are needed as the horse messily purges from both ends. On a failure, the horse sickens and dies over the 1d6 days. It is equally messy.

Stubborn

A random horse has become stubborn, refusing to continue along the current route. A detour must be found if the horse cannot be convinced or tricked.

Sores

A loose saddle or such has caused sores to develop on a random horse. These have only a 2-in-6 chance of being discovered each day. If left for 4 days, they become infected, requiring rest and medicine (or luck) to treat. The horse makes a Save vs Poison - on a failure, the infection sets and the horse begins to die. Medicine gives a re-roll on a failed save.

Drawn Vehicle

Whenever these occur, roll 1d6. On a 4+, the mishap occurs whilst in motion.

If any horses are injured, horses ridden as mounts must roll Morale. Those failing become Spooked.

Axle or Wheel Broken

The axle of the drawn vehicle breaks. All aboard the vehicle must make a Save vs Paralysis - those failing subject to the Fall procedure.

Any horses in the team must make a Save vs Paralysis, in order from the front. For each horse in the team that has failed, a disadvantage is applied. Each horse failing takes 1d6 damage for each horse in the team. Any horse taking more than 5 damage breaks a leg.

If not in motion, the vehicle still collapses. It is useless without a replacement axle or wheel.

Frame Broken

The frame of the vehicle breaks. All contents are spilled out, and any roof collapses onto the passengers. Anything delicate is ruined. Repairs are simple, taking a few hours.

Suspension Broken

The suspension of the vehicle breaks. It can still be used, but is deeply uncomfortable for passengers. Those remaining aboard take a -2 to all d20 rolls for the rest of that day. Any delicate cargo is smashed, and any increase in speed risks the content being knocked loose of the vehicle.

Such damage needs specialist training to repair. An ad-hoc fix might involve strapping down cargo or heightening the walls of the vehicles body.

Tackle Broken

The tackle between the vehicle and the horses breaks. For each horse in the team, there is a 20% chance they break free. Check from the front. Those breaking free run forwards - if the route is clear, they bolt and must be recovered. If the route is not clear, both horses fall into a tangle, taking 2d6 damage and dealing the same amount to any adjacent horses.

Bonus Content

Some general tweaks I’ve been fucking with:

• Heal 1HP per HD when resting the night. Keeps it proportional.
• Players set 3 watches during the night. Once check, then roll for which watch the encounter occurs during. Ask people what they do on watch randomly sometimes. Nice roleplaying opportunity, and keeps them on their toes.
• Each character tests for surprise individually. Makes surprise feel like less of a “fuck you” moment, especially combined with split initiative

Reputation Tables

Instead of a ± to Reaction rolls or whatever, track individual events the characters take. To do this, we first make a Reputation Table. At its most basic, it’s an empty d100 table.

Whenever the PCs do something people might talk about, write it down on your Reputation Table - representing both fame and infamy. Particularly noteworthy stuff should go in there multiple times.

Then, in future, whenever the reputation of the PCs is important (e.g. Reaction Rolls) you can roll against this Reputation Table - either acting to justify results or modify them as you see fit.

When adding results to your Reputation Table, roll the appropriate dice - overwriting any existing entries “beneath” the new one.

The easiest way to implement this is a universal d100 table, used across the gameworld. Alternatively, you could:

• Have a d20 table of reputation per kingdom.
  • Kingdoms with trade relationships, shared linguistics/heritage/whatever share the first 10 entries of their Reputation Tables.
• Have a d8 table for each social class, guild, family, gang, whatever in a single city, adding events to multiple tables at a time depending on their specific nature.
• Have a local d20 table, with individual (random) entries “permeate” outwards to surrounding locales each month as gossip spreads - perhaps with a chance of mutation.

Nesting and linking multiple tables is more work but can give some powerful results.

Bigger tables highlight the size of a place and the relative unimportance of the PCs (to begin with, anyway) whilst smaller tables might highlight the limited geographical area or population being considered - or a more uniform opinion held within a group.

Of course, you can also use this as a method for advancement instead of XP or Boasts.

You Don’t Need Hooks, You Have Been Lied To

I’ve seen a lot of critics and readers talk about the strength, quality, quantity and absence of hooks in adventure modules - often held up as an important indicator of quality.

This metric is bullshit.

What is the use case of a hook? It’s a reason to engage with the content of the module/adventure/whateverthefuck.

First and foremost - if the content itself isn’t interesting enough to drive players to want to interact with it, maybe that is a more important problem to solve rather than having someone point at it and say “gee I sure wish someone would interact with this!”. Of course, your players might still not interact. This is the beauty of agency - the ability to not do things, and possibly face the consequences of that. Of course, these consequences should probably be hinted at or signposted, allowing for actual, informed decision making to be made.

Next up, specificity. The author of the module doesn’t know you, your players, their characters or your game - how on earth are they meant to write something to cajole your playgroup into engaging with the module? If, instead, they wrote something generic, then they wrote something boring - and ultimately, worse than whatever the GM would come up with having possession of all the information above. Of course, this isn’t questioning the logic of wanting to so heavily influence what your players do, but let’s not get into all that again.

Finally, the value proposition - you bought the book, and you want to make sure it gets used. Just talk to your friends and say “hey I would like to use this module, do you all think it looks fun?” - ditto for a one-shot. If you’ve got pre-gens, give them a motivation - otherwise, just ask players to make characters with a reason to be there.

The takeaway is to read the fucking module you are going to run and find the reasons to go there that make sense for your players and your world. If they’re skint, highlight the valuables. If they love old books, drop some rumours about the wizard on level 3. Or, of course, just drop it in to your sandbox and wait for them to find it themselves, possibly providing some rumours as lead-ins.

Rumours are generally the best way to seed information about modules, dungeons, whatever, into your game world - but you’ll need to think about what the people of your world will talk about in relation to each specific place. My elves might talk about the Elixir of Forgetting in the Deathswamp - yours might only care about the hobbit-chef who lives there. (He is a guy who cooks hobbits, to be clear.) This brings us back to the idea of specificity and its challenges.

Alternatively, pretend I wrote “A wizard teleports them there.” at the front of every adventure.

d100 Carousing

Players in my Thursday Whitehack game are going carousing every damn time they get back to Fester, the coastal city of the ghouls. A dinky little d20 table won’t cut it anymore.

For those unfamiliar - characters choosing to carouse spend a randomly determined amount of money, gaining XP equal to the money spent. If the number rolled is higher than their current level, they have to roll on the Consequence Table.

If you spend more money than you have, you end up in debt to someone you’d rather not be indebted too - and you get to roll a Consequence, if you didn’t already.

Villages : d4x100 GP.
Towns: d6x100GP.
City: d12x100GP.
Wild Cities: d20x100.

Membership in an exclusive society or club increases the multiplier to x200, but only counts in that specific area or cultural group.

† represents Drinking Buddies. Only one group can be benefited from per Carousing session.

You know in an ideal world you’d be able to do a big d20 table for every city and expand it out as needed, adding the specific details that make each city feel unique. Big generic tables are useful but they’re never gonna be as good.

Man-Suits of the Flatboat People

When a child has stopped growing, those who wish to live as men must be initiated. First they must find a Shaman ¹ and beg from them the use of a team of flesh-boring beetles. They may be rejected and try again elsewhere. Those consistently rejected, or who do not wish to try, live forever as children or become women, subject to their own inductions.

With the team of beetles stored in a gourd or clay-lined hide, they may gather as many of their mothers, sisters and siblings as are willing to aid them. This band sets out as a hunting party to seek an Old Man of the Forest [3HD, AC as Leather, 1d6+1 Damage] of the right size. Such beings can smell men coming, and always flee before them. The Old Man of the Forest must be captured alive, with as few injuries as possible. Bound and held prostrate, the prospective man must decapitate the Old Man in a single strike. If this fails, any in the hunting party are allowed to try and finish the job, earning the right to be a man if successful. ²

With the head removed, the flesh-boring beetles must be introduced to the neck, chewing their way through the organs and viscera of the skin, hollowing it out. The man in the making must guide them with a stick that they do not chew a hole in the skin and escape, as well as retrieving them once their work is done.

With the skin is hollowed out, the man must don their suit for the first time, abandoning their child-name and dubbing themselves anew. They must then travel home in the raw suit, before being sealed away in their new home to have the matters of Manhood taught to them whilst the skin is bathed in smoke and the skin is stretched and cut to be fit for use. After five days, they will never be seen outside their homes without their Man-Suit. Only their wives, husbands and children will see them naked, as they were when a child.

The Man-Suit protects against spiritual warfare - hexes and curses struggle to take root in such poor soil that they may never bear their poison fruit. It offers some protection against physical threats too, although many wear hides from the crocodiles of the river to protect their borrowed skins.

AC as Leather.
Worn by a member of the Flatboat People, it is as a second skin - allowing additional armour to be worn too.
When a man of the Floatboat People is wearing his Man-Suit, he saves vs Spells as if 4 levels higher.