Now that you know where you will begin and how to bait your players into the adventure’s main thrust and how it will all end when the players complete the run, you must figure out how you will approach the writing of the material. There are three writing strategies useful for our purposes. These are the Linear Approach, Sandboxing, and Modularity.

The linear strategy is writing each event in order as it is supposed to happen as the Players progress though the adventure. This is the easiest manner in which to begin writing. However, this format is much more fitting for written fiction as it limits the interactivity by laying tracks by which the adventure runs with little or no room for deviation. This writing strategy assumes that the adventure will proceed uninterrupted along a single straight line. It focuses on the predetermined or assumed path that the PCs will take through the playing field. More clever versions of this strategy may present a few extra lines that will eventually connect back up at certain points but though this variation has a higher tolerance for player shenanigans it can still be derailed by them leaving the GM lost or stuck at an impasse.

This goes for those linear adventures that use a branching logic to compensate for certain choices or present certain choices to the players. The linear technique to writing an adventure is a bad idea in most cases because it can be so easily broken and because it leads to railroading. Railroading being the GM forcing players to make choices that they have prewritten and only those that they have preplanned that move the plot forward thus limiting interaction. Of course, improvisation on the GM’s part can improve the performance of these types of adventures. However, even then, the PCs are back on the tracks with a prewritten set of choices.

The advantage of this kind of writing is that it is easy and quick. However, you should not use this method to write an entire adventure from beginning to end. You can still make use of this technique to try to forecast certain PC choices and be prepared when those or similar choices are made. NPCs on the other hand may require a prewritten path. They follow it or always seek to rejoin it if derailed enhancing the plot. Forcing them from their track may even have a relevance to the adventure narrative for the Players. The second technique is much more flexible and builds the setting first fleshing it out to compensate for errant adventurers.

The second technique is The Sandbox or sandboxing. So-named because this technique relies on a wide playing field so the PCs can pretty much do what they want within it like a child’s sandbox. This is writing up a larger area and populating it with descriptions, background stories, NPCs, encounters, and items leaving none of the major descriptive or gaming points blank. Essentially the GM builds the sandcastles and drops in some toys. This allows the GM running the adventure the ease of supplying answers to Player/PCs questions about their surroundings and allows the GM to focus more on improvisation when confronted by an event outside of the supplied material or an unforeseen Player choice.

The main drawback to this strategy is obviously the work involved. You will need the time to imagine and write/gather the details. Sandboxing also has its limitations when writing for large areas such as cities. It is okay to sandbox for a small portion of it (typically a few locations) but the entire thing would simply take too much time. The second drawback is if the PCs find the edges and simply stray over the borders of the defined and into the incomplete or unwritten portions the GM is bereft of material. However, again improvisation on the GM’s part can help to mitigate this as well as employing the third technique, Modularity.

Modularity is as the name implies, writing bits and pieces that you can use to dynamically drop into an adventure as it unfolds like a puzzle piece. However, as a picture puzzle this method requires the GM to recognize what piece to use and at what time to drop it into place. Modularity focuses more on the pieces rather than a limited playing field like the sandbox strategy. Parts or chunks of elements are written with a level of detail according to the assumption of how much the GM will need them during play. The more required it is in game the more detail that piece will have.

The advantages of this writing approach is that it encourages GM improvisation and allows the Players to pry, explore, and deviate as much as possible and not have to worry about breaking the adventure. However, the main drawback of this strategy is that the impetus of keeping the players on track with the adventure falls entirely upon the GM’s ability to improvise.

The advantage when it comes to writing in this fashion is that it is easier to write small chunks of information even if they are quite detailed. You can write pieces that are more general in nature dropped in at any time to fill out any lacunae the adventurers have discovered. These bits of adventure can be of any nature such as a single locale or location, a single but prominent feature in a location, an NPC, a group of NPCs or an organization, an encounter, a shop stock list, etc. A modular blob of information is any mass of text (or numbers) that you as the GM can use like a puzzle piece to fill in a gap.

The most effective way to go about writing an adventure is to make use of all three techniques. The first technique should be limited to NPCs and chain reactions that occur without Player intervention or are its result. However, the PCs can stop or alter these sequences of events. It is also appropriate when the PCs’ choices are limited organically. The sandbox option is best for locations where the PCs will spend a majority of the time or repeatedly return to throughout the adventure. When used in conjunction with Modularity the GM can maximize their flexibility.