Foundry Authors: How do you start your planning?

stomp

Do you just sorta start with a basic premise like "Stop Cult from taking over city" and then build as you go? Do you do an outline in full detail showing each step and scene with NPCs listed out and dialog prewritten? Do you do something in between?

For me, I am planning my first "Trilogy" of adventures and I wrote out the adventure descriptions I intend to use, the Campaign description, and a short "step by step" outline detailing what I want to do in each part. I will possibly fill it out more before I start but for now its pretty straightforward.

antonkyle

I start by making something I want, Like my Dwarven stronghold and then fit a story to go into it. With that a started reading the comments and taking idea's from that for the next part. Part three to my campaign started as a remake of wow's Deadmines which I changed to fit with my story. My into the underworld started because I wanted a dungeon that had three rooms one of fire one of water and one of earth. then I added the rest to go with.

My Magical Mystery Tour was planned on paper before I even started. but then the foundry was closed for a while so that's probably why.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is I have no planning and just go with how I'm feeling. I usually work on two or three at the same time. I tried to make a football stadium and was going to make a quest based aroung football (soccer) riots. Was never happy with the stadium though so scrapped it. I often try again but it never works for me.

orangefiree

I am supposed to plan the storyline before starting? I guess I am doing it wrong then, I just start building on some random idea that pops into my head and eventually it turns into a quest. I rarely plan much other than a few random parts that popped into my head before I got online. Sometimes I come up with the last quest's storyline first, other times I just come up with an NPC and make a foundry quest based on said NPC. The only issue I have found with this method is that a new idea pops into my head as soon as I publish a previous one.

boomba66

I planned mine pretty hardcore ahead of time. I started with the idea of bringing Tyr back, then I combined it with some Dante(Aka his journey with Beatrice through the gates of Hell), a play off of the seven deadly sins(Seven greater injustices). Planned the main bad guy to have subtle and obvious moments to build the players animosity towards them, and developed my players party one episode per time.

I wanted the story to have a +20 level epic feel so I used powerful lore monsters, then combined in elements from all previous NWN and Baldur's gate games. That all allowed for a frame work to have my imagination run wild for each chapter and build neat stuff I always wanted to see when I was dming or reading the novels.

All that said, like any author can tell you writing anything is a journey and often times what you intended to tell changes into something totally different.

leinahtanwc

Whether you you have a story or not - the best approach is to have an overall idea or theme before laying anything down. In my case, I try to have the last map be a throw back in some way to Escher/Void as the finale. Whether your story involves a Lich or a Killer stuffed Tiger, it doesn't matter that much.

Once you have a themed setting, begin by selecting the basic maps you want. I recommend selecting a small outdoor map as the first map - a location people can travel to via the gates where they can gather after the usual long loading times (subsequent maps load much faster). I have ran into many foundry missions where the starting location/entrance to a dungeon/area is a pile of boxes and it always irritates me. I even find it mildly annoying when I realize the foundry map isn't a unique location on the world map, but some door in PR or some other map.

Just select the map - and do not start detailing it. Leave it be for now. Proceed in selecting the later maps you intend to use, either indoor or outdoor. If you select an Indoor Custom Map, assemble the room layout, with a start and finish point only. Do not stick monsters in, do not add details. You'll find out quickly that different rooms do not fit "nicely" and will require some handiwork if you intend to use different tileset rooms (Caves into Crypt for example). Once you have your level layouts complete, we progress to the next step - Basic Detail.

At the Basic detail, it is important to decide whether you want to use the populate command - once you start sticking details into a room, you can't auto populate it without deleting the prior details. Once you decided to populate or not, run through your map. You'll notice it is rather bland - no trees, blank rooms. This is good so far, since you are now looking for graphical glitches. More times than not, you'll find weird glitches such as a chain sticking out of the ground (2 story crypt room) or a ugly clipped room connection (Caves into Crypt). Using details, cover up these glitches as best as you can. As mentioned before, you don't want to touch up a room's glitches and then decide to use populate. Once you are done covering up the "ugly", you have completed your first pass.

Second pass involves actually decorating your foundry and is very time consuming. Placing flags/banners/rugs everywhere. Hand picking details to give it an authentic feel. Get the music working, get the details laid out. Once the second pass is complete, you will then proceed to encounter layout - actually placing monsters. Once the monsters are placed, then go to the story tab and link all the maps together. It is at this point you want to make it "publishable", but do not publish it. Run through it again and make sure it can be done from start to finish - checking for bugs (monsters walking through walls/teleporting/jamming). Once you debug the map, it is time for the third detail pass. Go through it again and fine tune it constantly. After this third detail pass, you may be at a publish state. Then after - keep detailing and fixing it up.

grimah

Because my foundry (as you can tell if you played it) is an adventure style game, as opposed to an RPG. I designed it with a starting point (task), a setting and built the environments around the story.

The quest objectives and such I crafted step by step to ensure pacing was well done, (made many re-edits of certain tasks, locations, re-design of environments.)

Like in any writing, theres 2 types: discovery and planner. Discovery you write the story as you go along, walk in their footsteps.
planning is you break things down step by step before you write/make it.

I prefer discovery as it feels more real, stuff will happen that feels more organic and fitting to the situation.

Also designing lots of areas then dumping quests and tasks in it, i think is a bad approach, because i believe its important to tailor every step the player makes to be a interesting and atomspheric one. E.g. If the player h as to go from A to B, there better be something interesting visual/audo/interaction etc between those points (not just mob encounters)

Unlike the above poster, i place my feet and build section by section, When i build interiors i start from the entrance and build outwards. My village i started designing from the step you start (that starting part first), fully decorating as i went along, so i knew what Line of Sight the player would have, and what he would see. what would block his/her vision, where i can place spawns that are not visible, things i can place to catch people's eyes.

But again i say mine is an adventure game not a free-roaming RPG quest >.< on design structure often will differ.

angrysprite

Everyone is different.

I usually think-up the final plot-line first. Then I'll go in and start building-out my maps as I have a general idea what I want. So, for example, on my third and final quest of my first campaign I had decided before I even opened the Foundry that I wanted to do a maze.

However, I don't want to create a real maze - one that people can easily get lost in, causing the quest to take too much longer to play and also "cliche". So I thought the idea of a "living" (dynamic) maze would do the trick and be different; a maze that changes its shape as the player moves through it to create a sense of confusion (but still maintaining control of path to steer the player along).

Since I already had the final goal in mind and the basic 'story motivation' for it, I simply continued creating my story to explain the maze, where it is and why it is what it is.

Then I built the maps, triggers, and basically everything except the encounters that will be there. I then wrote all the dialog in my text editor to proof and spell-check, etc., then copy-paste into NPC dialogs. Ran through the entire quest to make sure it was mechanically functional first. Finally plopped in my encounters in (starting with boss area first and working backward so I can test them incrementally).

That's my own method: have a basic idea of the end-plot, then explore the maps and that helps build creativity for filling it out story-wise. I build the maps first, make it 100% functional for everything except encounters. I add them last, and work backward so I can test each encounter "section" without having to do the trash-mobs near the beginning every time.

By the time I publish: the quest should be 99% complete and ready to go. Then I test it and all that's left is minor tweaking (patrols or wandering encounter elements getting stuck behind a wall or whatnot).

reiwulf

I usually have a certain idea of what the quest will be like, a crypt, a ruined town, just an exploration quest, etc, and then I start building from there.
I start with the maps and then I add the story to it.

eldarth

For me, I tend to have an overall idea of the environment and basic quest goals I want to accomplish, then get in and start building the core of what I need.

For example, my Under Siege! quest, I started with the idea of a small (possibly dwarven) keep in the mountains, and Winterforged laying siege to the intruders.

Once I put a fountain inside the keep - I realized there were both non-running and running fountains, I struck upon the idea of having a small waterwheel outside the keep in the river pumping water into the fountain. Which lead to ice trolls blocking the waterwheel preventing the water flow. Of course, that lead to why the water flow was important, and I struck upon the idea of a steam-forge that could power something -- a siege/ammo lift to carry supplies to the top of the keep walls!

...and ammo is needed for --- siege weapons of course, so that lead to catapults and ballistae on the walls, which lead to a whole firey catapult exchange with the Winterforged siege catapults ... breached keep walls ... wall breaching mobs ... etc.

I like to let the tools and the story unfold based on how things look and what I can accomplish (usually workaround bugs) using the tools.

kithlis

I think I could be much more cavalier with "just trying things out and going with it" if I were content with making a single quest vs a campaign.
If building a campaign, to me the overall plotting is much more important, so more care needs to be taken in the planning stages. It doesn't mean I'm locked in to that idea, but I find it more helpful if I have a target to shoot at (even if I "miss" and end up hitting something else).

For me, I wasn't sure I'd enjoy the foundry at first, so I figured I'd just play around. I found a few assets I liked and wondered ... "what if there was a sort of museum of curios?"

But I'm one who values story/characterization over many other things, so I couldn't just stop with "fun assets and maps".
So I went with that idea, and then a plot started to wrap around this place (The Rarified Repertory) - someone stole the prized display!
Add a dash of cultists, a bit of eccentric collector, and suddenly things were off running.
All the characters (from Epheme, Salbuthan, and even Awdi) all had different iterations before they ended up with the their current form: things like personality and costumes/sex were all tossed around at various points. (Even the quest titles changed from time to time.)

I designed the first quest to fit into a series if it was fun enough to continue, and it was well received, so I moved on to complete the Trilogy (which is actually 4 quests now, because quest 2 was a bit too long alone).

That took a bit more care in planning. Now it was a campaign. Now I had characters to work with, a plot to follow, and new things to try in the Foundry. Not only did I have these brand new characters, but some that had been collecting dust in my mind from ages-old stories came forward and wanted to be part of the tale, so I had to repurpose/retcon some of my old favorite creations for Neverwinter.

Even though I had much of the plot worked out in my mind, it was ever evolving during the process - usually in little ways, but I will say my ending morphed from what I had intended originally. It now fits the whole story much better.

Now I have that Campaign behind me, and a daunting task of starting another (now people have expectations of me... bleh).
Again to figure out the next quest, I worked much like I did with the first: I grabbed some fun assets and it sparked an idea.

However, much earlier in this process I have added established characters and plot. I already have those "on my palette", so to speak.

I have my general plot... now I just need to find time to get into the foundry again (things like Holidays and Hunters keep getting in the way ).

Fun thread - always nice to see how people work!
There definitely isn't a "cookie-cutter" build to creativity!

melinden

I write short stories for my quests. My schedule is so uneven depending on where I am in the academic year it seemed unfair to try and write a campaign but make people wait months to find out what happens next. That is a different challenge from writing a long story. I need a beginning, middle, and end in half an hour or so! I do have people ask for more but to be honest not all stories need more. Most people can tell when something is being padded or is just a time sink.

Usually I start by thinking what I want to do. So, do I want to use a zone that I really liked (for example Neverdeath), or write a story that addresses some of my rambling thoughts (It would really suck to be a cleric of a god who gets killed (and eaten)), or uses an area of the FR that I like (I'm working on an Icewind Dale story now)?

So, being a historian, I go read up on everything I can find either from the sourcebooks here at the house or online. Then that has to percolate in my brain for awhile. I then use a combination of things other people describe: outline, just mess with a map until I get ideas, etc.

There is another process for the puzzles. For that I often get puzzle ideas separate from the stories and then I see which story it might fit. For the puzzles I often think of the ones from NWN, things I've used in PnP games, riddles, etc. But the limiting factor are the details and the AND logic.

So I'll just scroll through the details and notice we have a whole range of colors, for example. Do we have things in -matching- colors? (I would kill to have those little redcap flags in several color options). What images do we have? Do we have those things? Do we have the items and then the sound effect that would go with that? Ad nauseum ...