Just Insert Imagination's Plug & Play Adventure Format

It has been a privilege for me to write for +Just Insert Imagination  in the Plug & Play format that was first introduced in Fuhgeddaboudit!, and later with Size Matters, White Noise, Aliens vs Rednecks and recently Ashen Thorns.
This blog aims to explain how and why this format came to be, and what constitute a Plug & Play adventure.
Back in March 2016 we released a system agnostic GM aid named Vamonos Pizza. It would be the first in a series of products called Snap Sites. These were designed to be maps, props, a cast of characters and story ideas tied to one location that a GM could use to run a scene or a whole session. Back in college I studied literature and learned about theater. One act is one location with characters. During the entr'acte, the crew would change the set and the action took place in another location. The more I thought about it, the more it reminded me of what happens during a role-playing game session when the GM pauses the game to change the map on the table or draw the new location on the mat. It's also how I tend to build my scenes: interesting location, dramatic characters and sparks to make the whole thing come alive. This is essentially what Snap Sites are. But enough of this, this blog is about Plug & Play. Let's get on with it.
The decision to lay out the information on three landscape US letter panels (that can be inserted into a GM screen) is also common to each Snap Site product and would end up being the foundation to Fuhgeddaboudit! that would be released later that month.
When I first started getting into Savage Worlds one of the first thing I did was to download and read every free product I could find. One of the gems out there is the Wizards & Warriors bundle. It comes with a 5 pages PDF containing expanded rules on running a medieval-fantasy game in Savage Worlds. Keep in mind that this was before the Fantasy Companion. Same mechanics are now part of the Fantasy Companion. You also found pregens, a One Sheet named Tomb of Terrors, tiles for the mini dungeon, rat swarm templates and treasure cards. It was an amazing value for a totally free product. With the test drive rules and this bundle you can try out Savage Worlds with your friends, and use it for a pick up game or convention game with little to no prep. Pinnacle has since made a few such bundles like the Moscow Connection, The Wild Hunt for Free RPG Day with a new Test Drive rules version and more recently with the latest Test Drive rules version that includes a Lankhmar adventure and pregens.
As far as I know the only other publisher to do something like that is Triple Ace Games. No other Savage Worlds Licensee has taken full advantage of this format on a regular basis.
Something else I really like are the savage tales in the Savage Worlds Deluxe and Savage Tales of Horror. Right from the start are Setting Rules for the adventure. Without leaning on a fully fledged setting the rules instantly make you feel like you are part of one, though at a much smaller scale. I felt I could take that concept a bit further.
Part of what makes a setting to me is what the GM brings to the table for the player characters to interact with. The other part are obviously the characters. In a short format such as Plug & Play where you want to limit the bulk of the material to three or four pages there isn't room for many character options. And,because this is meant as a one-off, you want to just sit down and play. Pregenerated characters are a no-brainer. As a designer, you have the opportunity to make the characters a part of the setting. You want the players to get a good feel of the setting through these characters.
Every time I write a Plug & Play adventure or work with someone who's writing one I like to follow these guidelines.

Size

This excludes pregens or handouts. 2000-3000 words.

• Fuhgeddaboudit!: 2,300 words
• Size Matters: 3,045 words
• White Noise: 2,100 words
• Aliens vs Rednecks: 2,400 words
• Ashen Thorns: 3,200 words

This is mainly a layout restriction. Ideally, you want everything to fit on three landscape pages so that you can insert them in your GM screen or lay them flat on the table in front of you without taking too much of table real estate. Also, for digital GMs, landscape is much easier to read on a monitor.

Adventure Content

• A quote intended to capture the essence of this mini-setting. Using pop culture references is quite useful here since it's something most people can wrap their head around.
• A reminder that all you need to play this adventure are the Savage Worlds Deluxe and what's included in this bundle. This is important. The core rules have so much potential, yet, most products require you to own another product or two to use a setting or adventure. This is also the perfect opportunity for YOU to show the audience what the core rules can do.
• Setting Rules. If necessary, add two or three setting rules that can be explained in a short paragraph. If the adventure uses Setting Rules from the Savage Worlds Deluxe, list them here.
• The Adventure. The premise needs to be simple. You don't have the space for a deep and complex background here. Fuhgeddaboudit! and Aliens vs Redneck are sandboxes, it starts out with a simple mission. The rest is all "what ifs". Size Matters and White Noise are location based scenarii. Ashen Thorns is a linear adventure with some choices leading to "traps". I prefer to write them more open because I believe the format has more replay value but it doesn't really matter what type of adventure it is.
• Flavor. Things like custom Dramatic Interludes and a lexicon really help flesh out this "universe" the group will be creating.
• Bestiary. Three to five personalities or creatures. You should point out to the core book and modify whenever you can. Stick to what is likely to be encountered.
• Gear. If there are weapons, equipment or vehicles needed for the adventure, put them here.
• Twists & Complications. Ashen Thorns and White Noise uses very few, if any. I prefer to use a lot of them. As a GM, I like to improvise. This is the kind of thing that end up in my notes when I prep a game. When things bog down, I need to make it more challenging, or stretch it out, I use these. Also, again, it gives the adventure more replay value.

Pregenerated characters

Not only will they save everybody time come game time, they serve as archetypes for the mini-setting the adventure is set in. By looking at these characters, the players should have a better idea of what they are getting into and the world their characters will be in. Also, you have the opportunity to make characters that will have a chance to shine during the adventure. 

Finally, this is where you can introduce new Edges or Hindrances and highlight the use of trappings. Aliens vs Rednecks is probably the best example for that since we went heavy on the trappings for two powers and introduced a new Racial Template. Aim for five or six pregenerated characters of a rank you believe is best suited for the adventure. I usually go for Seasoned rank whenever possible because I feel it's easier to flesh out a character concept, but the player (who may be new to Savage Worlds) isn't overwhelmed with character options. This is just a personal preference, not a hard rule.

Extras & Handouts

Anything the GM doesn't need to have in front of him and will be handed out to the players ends up here. In Fuhgeddaboudit! and White Noise for instance, there is an intrigue between the characters and the players are handed a card with information on it. Size Matters has cards illustrating the scale of every creature encountered compared to human size.

Props

Most people don't have the skills, software or time to make maps, figure flats, table tents and character sheets. I don't. At this point, +Morne Schaap happens. The man is very talented and happens to be a professional graphic designer for a magazine in South Africa. Without him, Plug & Play adventures simply don't happen.

Usually the first thing he works on is the cover. As with any cover, it needs to capture what the adventure is about. This sets the tone for the rest of the props he'll design. It's also a panel you can slide in on the outside of your GM screen and potentially attract strays at conventions or your local game store.

Next, he usually works on the character sheet. The challenge here is to have a clear character sheet but at the same time contain enough trade dress to immerse the player holding the sheet into the setting. 

For Fuhgeddaboudit! Morne drew inspiration from Reservoir Dogs. In Aliens vs Redneck he went for a tabloid look.

Then he usually moves on to maps if necessary. White Noise has a radar-looking map; for Fuhgeddaboudit! he opted for pop art, Size Matters has the kind of emergency evacuation map you'd find at a hotel or in this case, laboratory; Ashen Thorns has maps as if drawn by the children the heroes are trying to rescue. You can relay a lot of information on a map. In Aliens vs Rednecks, adventure seeds are all over the map if you look closely.

Lastly, Morne will create figure flats, table tents and art needed to sell the theme or make the layout fit.

What more can I say? The guy nails it every time.

While this is happening, the manuscript is sent to our editor to make sure everything is kosher. When we're satisfied with it, it goes live. It's hard to accurately say how much time goes into this but there's easily 20-30 hours of labor that goes into creating a Plug & Play adventure.

So there you have it folks. Thanks for reading! 

Savage Worlds at FG Con 9 (October 14th-16th)

Hi everybody!
Eric Lamoureux here to tell you all about FG Con 9 on October 14th-16th. FG Con is a virtual convention using Fantasy Grounds (the officially licensed Savage Worlds VTT)  and it's totally free to join! And you don't even have to leave the comfort of your own home.

There are many Savage Worlds games on the schedule from a wide variety of genre, settings, great GMs from all over the world and there is even a game in Portuguese!
Here's how you can join.

Have a look at the amazing selection of games (all times are GMT until you register and set your time zone in your profile)!

The Last Parsec: Omariss Death Worm [FULL]
Winter Eternal: Moth to a flame [FULL]
Savage Warhammer: Night of Blood
Brothers in Battle [Portuguese]
Deadlands Reloaded - The Taxidermist's Tale [FULL]
Shaintar - Fire in the Darkness [FULL]
Gotham Breakout [FULL]
The Commoners
The Savage World of Solomon Kane: Possessed
Badabing Badaboom!
Starsky and Hutch - Savage Sunday
Deadlands Reloaded: Savage Tales of the Magnificent Seven [FULL]
The Savage World of Solomon Kane: The Oncoming Frost
Tropicana - Die Easy (or Die Trying!) [Cancelled]
Savage Secrets: Lady in Distress, Code Name: Jackpot
The Savage World of Solomon Kane: From the Deep
The Wild Die Podcast presents: Live Stream of Deadlands Noir
TMNT in Gotham City [Cancelled]
Savage Warhammer: With A Little Help From My Friends [FULL]
Shaintar - Fire in the Darkness [FULL]
Weird Wars Rome - Fangs of the Viper [Cancelled]
Savage Secrets: Code Name: Skyhook

There's something for everyone at all times of the day and night regardless of where you are located in the world. If the event you'd like to join is full, you can still book. It's common for some people to back out. You'll be the first in line!
Come join us and make this even the largest virtual and international gathering of Savages!
I hope to meet you there!

In media res

This is the sequel to the blog I started about convention or one-shot games.

In the first blog I talked about the hook, now I want to talk about which scene I chose to run first. When you think about it, an adventure is a collection of scenes. When each scene is designed to follow another one, it becomes difficult to pull one out of the mix if you're running out of time and get the full effect. It's much easier to insert more scenes to make the adventure longer.
So maybe you only have 2 hours to run the game, you're expecting 6 players, half of them are new to Savage Worlds, there are 5 scenes in this One-Sheet, Savage Tale, adventure module or whatever you want to run (because you don't have time to prep). Chances are slim to none they'll get past the third scene if there's a combat in there, even with a fast system like Savage Worlds.
Now let me put on a black raincoat, cool shades and ask you: What if I told you there's a way to pace your adventure to last pretty much as long as you want it to last without having to remove any important scenes?

So you've got your hook, now let's wrap it in with the set-up, first scene and goal/destination.

The Don wants you to make Dominic the accountant disappear. Contact Jerry for more information.
[insert conversations with the Don and Jerry along with questions here]
[insert trip to hardware store to get everything on the "Kidnapping for Dummies" list here]
[insert kidnapping scene here]
Hey look at the time, you probably spent more time than you were willing to spend on this part of your adventure and most of it probably wasn't Fast, Furious or Fun with the exception of the kidnapping scene maybe.
Consider starting in media res (in the middle of things).
There's a mob accountant alive in the trunk of your car. You lost a lot of money because of him. The plan is to take him to Coaldale, toss him in a hole and pave a road over his body. You're cruising along on I-95 when your sideview mirror is blown up by what you believe to be a high caliber bullet. What do you do?
Bada bing bada boom! Your game has started with a bang. Maybe the players wouldn't have tackled it this way would they have played it, you say? You're most definitely right. But then again no group wants to role-play every minute of an adventure. Sometimes you fast-forward to the next scene. This is no different really. You just decided where it starts.
After this scene is over, you can answer any questions the players have and provide more details. What state is the accountant in the trunk in? I don't know, you tell me, what did you do to him? Would you like to play it out? Yes? let's go Pulp Fiction with this then.
Why do scenes have to be played in chronological order? Because how do you handle a character dying in a flashback scene Mr. Fancy Pants GM? Remember, incapacitated doesn't necessarily mean dead, and if it's during a flashback scene, why not modify that table and give the PC a permanent injury instead? You can also do as suggested in Beasts & Barbarians and take a Benny from the "deceased" PC.
You have to understand the players are likely playing their character for the first time. Yes, there are hindrances on their sheet and a bunch of stats giving them some type of direction but they still don't know their character.
What I found the best way to put them in character is to drop them in media res where they have difficult choices to make. From the latest examples, do they duck for cover, try to see where the shot came from, pull out their weapon or let out an expletive? This also helps you figure out what kind of players you have at your table.
For players new to Savage Worlds, this allows them to make a few die rolls and get the jitters out of the way.
Starting in media res basically cuts the crap. Do I always start a game out this way? No, I don't, but I found out it makes it harder for the game to switch gears if I don't.
In the next blog I want to show you how I turn this into a full adventure that I can ad lib with and make it last as long as I want it to.

One Sheet failures, Seven Deadly Sins and Fuhgeddaboudit!

It's been forever since I last wrote a blog. Between writing for +Just Insert Imagination, running two play-test groups for an upcoming products for JII, running games, filling in for Blaine on the Wild Die Podcast and my rekindled addiction to Civilization V, there has been very little time for blogging.
Speaking of the +The Wild Die Podcast... Episode 7 was supposed to be about convention games and encounter building but we ran out of recording time because we had so much fun doing the crossover show with the Savage Cast podcast guys. So episode 7 became the crossover show and the content we had planned for it will become episode 8. I also hear from a good source that Blaine will be able to join us for that one so I'm excited about that.
I was itching to tackle these topics, and having to wait another month to talk about it hasn't helped. So I decided to write blogs about it. There are a few challenges when running a convention or one-shot game and I intend to share my take on these issues and how I deal with them. Fuhgeddaboudit! is in a way the culmination of my efforts after years of experimentation.
If you've read Fuhgeddaboudit!, I'm sure you've noticed it has a different format then the popular One Sheets Pinnacles Entertainment and several other licensee put out. There are a few reasons for that.
I believe that a One Sheet is a solid framework to use for an evening a play, but it often has a "story" arc that spans over more than one session of play. It all depends how many hours you have committed to the session, how many players you have and their familiarity with role-playing games or Savage Worlds, and the environment you'll be playing in. It's very difficult for a designer to account for all these factors when the scenes escalating to the climax are all mapped out for you. Too often I've found myself half-way with a half-hour left to play. You're then faced with the dilemma: should I hurry things along and skip a scene or two, or should I end it when it ends, without the group playing the climax scene and maybe narrating that scene as an epilogue?
The introduction of the Quick Combat rules sure give a GM one more weapon in his arsenal to deal with the situation. I haven't used it yet but look forward to the opportunity.
The other thing about One Sheets is that you, as the GM, still need to do some work before you can play it. Often times you have to come up with your own hook. I believe a One Sheet is more a scenario so introduce in your own campaign than a one-shot or convention game scenario. It can certainly be the case but like I said, you'll need to do some work. Then you might need maps, figure flats or minis, pre-gens, etc.
In the end, unless you have no problem totally railroading the adventure, you'll realize you had to improvise for most of the session anyway because the group went in another direction than what the designer had planned. Is that a failure on the part of the GM or adventure writer? Could be. Having read how other RPG systems design their adventures, I believe in it's the format. The adventure writer needs to give the GM the information he needs to run the scenario, not a synopsis of how he believes it may turn out. Does that make sense?
While a veteran GM will usually look at a One Sheet and know how to make it work for his game, a novice GM won't. It lacks instructions due to limited space. Even I, as a long time GM, sometimes need the designer to hold my hand and guide me. How should I run this? Why did you chose to do it that way? One thing I really liked about Shaintar is how Sean Patrick Fannon talks to you throughout the book with the sidebars. He tells you why he chose to design something that way and gives you tips. As a GM I definitely appreciate that.
In recognizing what I believe are failures when it comes to One Sheets design I also recognized my own failures in the design of Fuhgeddaboudit!. When someone commented that we gave them too little to work with I immediately went on the defensive. "Really? five pre-gen characters, three maps, npc stats, setting rules, twice the length of a One Sheet, pay-what-you-want and it still isn't enough?" But after taking some distance and looking at it from the commentator's perspective I realized that this sandbox adventure needed a more thorough instruction manual or an example on how to put everything together and make it a scenario.
So while there's an actual play video here of me running Fuhgeddaboudit! and another one from +JPierson71 coming soon, I want to break it all down into a step by step example in a written format. Hopefully you'll get to understand what went on in my head when I designed and ran it. Look for it in the days (or weeks) to come.

So let's start with the beginning...

The Hook

What I feel is often neglected for a one-shot or convention game is the hook. What motivates the player-characters to jump in and risk their lives? It's easy to use the old trick that involves some dude paying the player-characters or a plea from a desperate and helpless NPC. It works, after all, the players have come to the table to play and they'd be fools to be difficult if they want to participate.
Remember, you don't have 10 sessions of a campaign to help you with the PC's motivations here. You most likely don't know who's going to sit at your table so you don't know which strings to pull. However, if you can manage to get them hooked and buy into the scenario right off the bat, the rest of the game will be much easier for you. So how do you do that?
You need to look no further than the Seven Deadly Sins. Pride, Envy, Wrath, Gluttony, Lust, Sloth and Greed.
Gluttony and Greed are the easy ones. The heroes want more gold so you give them more than they can carry. However, it's a one-shot, what the hell do they need gold for?
Last month I ran a Deadlands one-shot online called Pedro Must Die. I ripped parts out of a South of the Border Tale called Bat God, added an introductory scene involving npc interaction and changed the hook from Gluttony/Greed (going to a burial site full of riches) to Wrath. Here's the pitch: "He took your money and left you to die. He high tailed down to Mexico. Pedro must die."
The game hadn't even started and the players wanted to make Pedro pay for what he did to them. Promises of Pedro's demise flooded the thread. They couldn't wait. They were already motivated.
Let's pick another one. Envy. So you're running a Supers game. The Super Heroes are part of a team but there's this other team in town and they're stealing the show. Old ladies are baking cookies for them, the news want to interview them, children are asking their parents to go see them and get their autograph. I don't know about you but I hate their guts already. Imagine how your players will feel about them. Suddenly, while these jerks are enjoying the fame, the Super Heroes become aware of a menace in the city. It's their chance to get the spotlight back.

In the next blog I'll talk about the set-up and starting in media res without losing the introduction.

One Sheet failures, Seven Deadly Sins and Fuhgeddaboudit!

It's been forever since I last wrote a blog. Between writing for +Just Insert Imagination, running two play-test groups for an upcoming products for JII, running games, filling in for Blaine on the Wild Die Podcast and my rekindled addiction to Civilization V, there has been very little time for blogging.
Speaking of the +The Wild Die Podcast... Episode 7 was supposed to be about convention games and encounter building but we ran out of recording time because we had so much fun doing the crossover show with the Savage Cast podcast guys. So episode 7 became the crossover show and the content we had planned for it will become episode 8. I also hear from a good source that Blaine will be able to join us for that one so I'm excited about that.
I was itching to tackle these topics, and having to wait another month to talk about it hasn't helped. So I decided to write blogs about it. There are a few challenges when running a convention or one-shot game and I intend to share my take on these issues and how I deal with them. Fuhgeddaboudit! is in a way the culmination of my efforts after years of experimentation.
If you've read Fuhgeddaboudit!, I'm sure you've noticed it has a different format then the popular One Sheets Pinnacles Entertainment and several other licensee put out. There are a few reasons for that.
I believe that a One Sheet is a solid framework to use for an evening a play, but it often has a "story" arc that spans over more than one session of play. It all depends how many hours you have committed to the session, how many players you have and their familiarity with role-playing games or Savage Worlds, and the environment you'll be playing in. It's very difficult for a designer to account for all these factors when the scenes escalating to the climax are all mapped out for you. Too often I've found myself half-way with a half-hour left to play. You're then faced with the dilemma: should I hurry things along and skip a scene or two, or should I end it when it ends, without the group playing the climax scene and maybe narrating that scene as an epilogue?
The introduction of the Quick Combat rules sure give a GM one more weapon in his arsenal to deal with the situation. I haven't used it yet but look forward to the opportunity.
The other thing about One Sheets is that you, as the GM, still need to do some work before you can play it. Often times you have to come up with your own hook. I believe a One Sheet is more a scenario so introduce in your own campaign than a one-shot or convention game scenario. It can certainly be the case but like I said, you'll need to do some work. Then you might need maps, figure flats or minis, pre-gens, etc.
In the end, unless you have no problem totally railroading the adventure, you'll realize you had to improvise for most of the session anyway because the group went in another direction than what the designer had planned. Is that a failure on the part of the GM or adventure writer? Could be. Having read how other RPG systems design their adventures, I believe in it's the format. The adventure writer needs to give the GM the information he needs to run the scenario, not a synopsis of how he believes it may turn out. Does that make sense?
While a veteran GM will usually look at a One Sheet and know how to make it work for his game, a novice GM won't. It lacks instructions due to limited space. Even I, as a long time GM, sometimes need the designer to hold my hand and guide me. How should I run this? Why did you chose to do it that way? One thing I really liked about Shaintar is how Sean Patrick Fannon talks to you throughout the book with the sidebars. He tells you why he chose to design something that way and gives you tips. As a GM I definitely appreciate that.
In recognizing what I believe are failures when it comes to One Sheets design I also recognized my own failures in the design of Fuhgeddaboudit!. When someone commented that we gave them too little to work with I immediately went on the defensive. "Really? five pre-gen characters, three maps, npc stats, setting rules, twice the length of a One Sheet, pay-what-you-want and it still isn't enough?" But after taking some distance and looking at it from the commentator's perspective I realized that this sandbox adventure needed a more thorough instruction manual or an example on how to put everything together and make it a scenario.
So while there's an actual play video here of me running Fuhgeddaboudit! and another one from +JPierson71 coming soon, I want to break it all down into a step by step example in a written format. Hopefully you'll get to understand what went on in my head when I designed and ran it. Look for it in the days (or weeks) to come.

So let's start with the beginning...

The Hook

What I feel is often neglected for a one-shot or convention game is the hook. What motivates the player-characters to jump in and risk their lives? It's easy to use the old trick that involves some dude paying the player-characters or a plea from a desperate and helpless NPC. It works, after all, the players have come to the table to play and they'd be fools to be difficult if they want to participate.
Remember, you don't have 10 sessions of a campaign to help you with the PC's motivations here. You most likely don't know who's going to sit at your table so you don't know which strings to pull. However, if you can manage to get them hooked and buy into the scenario right off the bat, the rest of the game will be much easier for you. So how do you do that?
You need to look no further than the Seven Deadly Sins. Pride, Envy, Wrath, Gluttony, Lust, Sloth and Greed.
Gluttony and Greed are the easy ones. The heroes want more gold so you give them more than they can carry. However, it's a one-shot, what the hell do they need gold for?
Last month I ran a Deadlands one-shot online called Pedro Must Die. I ripped parts out of a South of the Border Tale called Bat God, added an introductory scene involving npc interaction and changed the hook from Gluttony/Greed (going to a burial site full of riches) to Wrath. Here's the pitch: "He took your money and left you to die. He high tailed down to Mexico. Pedro must die."
The game hadn't even started and the players wanted to make Pedro pay for what he did to them. Promises of Pedro's demise flooded the thread. They couldn't wait. They were already motivated.
Let's pick another one. Envy. So you're running a Supers game. The Super Heroes are part of a team but there's this other team in town and they're stealing the show. Old ladies are baking cookies for them, the news want to interview them, children are asking their parents to go see them and get their autograph. I don't know about you but I hate their guts already. Imagine how your players will feel about them. Suddenly, while these jerks are enjoying the fame, the Super Heroes become aware of a menace in the city. It's their chance to get the spotlight back.

In the next blog I'll talk about the set-up and starting in media res without losing the introduction.