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Post by Zulgyan on May 20, 2009 22:52:34 GMT -6
I'm getting very exited about all this one-page philosophy. I love how, by self constraint, you get much more energy to produce your own stuff. You focus on what's important and relevant to the game, you leave the rest to healthy, good improvisation. You don't over prepare, you can adapt to your campaign needs and the decisions of the player's easier. Everything also becomes much more manageable at the table.
The One-Page Manifesto goes: Have a 1 page wilderness map: like Melan's Fomalhaut maps. Have 1 page of hex descriptions: like early JG products. Have a 1 page of random encounter charts: like the ones of the AD&D DMG - you could have 1 for hot climates, 1 for temperate and 1 for cold, finally 1 for sea adventuring and 1 for cities. But you are using 1 at a time. Have many 1 page cities: like my Enharza. Have many 1 page adventure sites: ruins, dungeons, caves, crashed spaceships, you name it - like what we have already seen. Have a 1 page player's handout of your campaign. Have a 1 page "stock monsters" compendium of stats: like the JG ready ref sheets. Have 1 page of weird tables.
Of each of anything... have 1 page.
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Post by coffee on May 20, 2009 23:11:51 GMT -6
I absolutely love it! You could have a complete campaign setting in one book!
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Post by Zulgyan on May 20, 2009 23:34:48 GMT -6
Imagine all the wonder you could cram into a 32 pager... like the WOHF perhaps?? The were pretty much doing the 1 page thing there!
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Post by machfront on May 21, 2009 3:51:45 GMT -6
*drooling at the possibilities* Oh, I wish the ol' 1E Lankhmar book would have been produced under that philosophy... Of course, with this guiding principle, one could design a rather complete guidebook for all of Nehwon in less pages than the AD&D Lankhmar book. Nice. How cool would that be?
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Post by amityvillemike on May 21, 2009 13:59:24 GMT -6
I think the most unintended side-effect of the One Page idea (or two page for us longwinded types) is that I might have actually found a way to fulfil my long-defered dream of completely stocking the Forbidden City a few blocks at a time.
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Post by Melan on May 23, 2009 15:13:20 GMT -6
A bit too radical for me, but it is a fine philosophy. Brevity is the soul of wit, as I have learned.
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Post by supernaught on May 23, 2009 19:31:14 GMT -6
Years ago, Gary Gygax mentioned his design approach to Castle Greyhawk. ;D
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Post by Zulgyan on May 24, 2009 20:53:58 GMT -6
A bit too radical for me, but it is a fine philosophy. Brevity is the soul of wit, as I have learned. Of course I don't pretend to be dogmatic, and having more than 1 page for something would not be a condemnable violation of some kind of tenet. It's just a guiding principle that has been quite helpful to me.
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Post by parmstrong on May 26, 2009 11:47:04 GMT -6
Years ago, Gary Gygax mentioned his design approach to Castle Greyhawk. ;D It makes me wonder what products would looked like and how the direction of the game may have gone if they published this style of module instead of the tournament-style adventures.
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jrients
Level 6 Magician
Posts: 411
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Post by jrients on May 26, 2009 14:06:45 GMT -6
Without being particularly married to a single page, I have been contemplating something along these lines. Basically, I've been looking for a structure for laying out a campaign sourcebook in 64 pages or less. "No single subject may take up more than one sheet of paper (i.e. 4 pages)" is the guideline I'm using in planning the project. Key to the wilderness map? 4 pages or less. A dungeon level? Four pages or less. A new spell section? 4 pages or less. Etc., etc.
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Post by Zulgyan on May 26, 2009 17:58:17 GMT -6
Sounds great! I'm also in pursue of something similar!
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Post by calithena on May 30, 2009 10:05:27 GMT -6
The other nice thing about this approach is that it would be super-easy to get these kinds of articles into Fight On!, also promoting the upcoming publication of your sourcebook etc. thereby.
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korgoth
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 323
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Post by korgoth on Jun 8, 2009 18:13:57 GMT -6
I've had all my creative stuff on hold lately; I just passed some stuff for my academic career so I've got some free time and energy again.
I experimented with One-Paging some Carcosa stuff today. I did one page for an upper works area, and one page for a dungeon. It worked out pretty well... the forced economy helped me get rid of all my worthless prose about the texture of the dungeon walls and the odor of the lichen. There's no reason I can't fill in all those details on the fly... it's not like it takes actual work to think of them.
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benoist
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
OD&D, AD&D, AS&SH
Posts: 346
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Post by benoist on Jun 20, 2009 19:47:36 GMT -6
The One-Page Manifesto goes: Have a 1 page wilderness map: like Melan's Fomalhaut maps. Have 1 page of hex descriptions: like early JG products. Have a 1 page of random encounter charts: like the ones of the AD&D DMG - you could have 1 for hot climates, 1 for temperate and 1 for cold, finally 1 for sea adventuring and 1 for cities. But you are using 1 at a time. Have many 1 page cities: like my Enharza. Have many 1 page adventure sites: ruins, dungeons, caves, crashed spaceships, you name it - like what we have already seen. Have a 1 page player's handout of your campaign. Have a 1 page "stock monsters" compendium of stats: like the JG ready ref sheets. Have 1 page of weird tables. Of each of anything... have 1 page. The One-Page Manifesto is pure Win. I hereby subscribe to your newsletter.
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Post by dekelia on Aug 4, 2009 14:49:21 GMT -6
I love this. I'm going so far as converting existing things to "one page". Although I like many published adventures, I find them cumbersome to use at the table. Converting them to "one page" gives me something usable at the table to remind me what I had read. I'd like to see future works that include a "one page" version of different sections in the back to be removed and actually used while playing. All the other fluff is great for preparation, but I really need the one page document to run it smoothly.
I'm having so much fun with the one page stuff. I'm working on a hierarchy of sorts. I'm doing a sort of sandbox around the Isle of the Blest in the Wilderlands. So I'm creating a page (probably end up being two) that has the island and shows the random wilderness encounter tables and lists the adventure sites with the absolutely most pertanent information (ie. this village doesn't like swordsmen, 2 dragons here, etc). Mostly a re-list of material elsewhere with some notes.
I then make a one page adventure site for each of them. In some cases I might have two, a detailed wilderness map around the dungeon/lair, and one (or more if needed) of the lair. It depends on the site and how much I need.
I don't mind having more than one sheet, what is brillient about this is that at any given *time* you only need one. I'm ok if that sheet needs to change (even many times) over the course of the adventure.
It is so freeing, I love it.
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Post by kesher on Aug 5, 2009 14:18:37 GMT -6
Sounds like the man's in love! I for one would love to see what you end up with, if you're willing to share it.
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Post by Mr. Darke on Aug 5, 2009 14:46:52 GMT -6
I am definitely going to be trying this in the future. My Raven's Keep area gets the first treatment.
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Post by geordieracer on Aug 5, 2009 16:52:06 GMT -6
I'd love to see some one-page-wilderness ideas. Also, a 3 page KOTB-style setting - settlement, wilderness, dungeon.
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Post by Mr. Darke on Aug 5, 2009 19:12:48 GMT -6
I have been looking over the PDF of the contest entries. My final opinion is that this is a bloody brilliant idea! You guys have made me a believer and I will be using this format from now on.
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Post by greyharp on Aug 26, 2009 0:12:01 GMT -6
The One-Page Manifesto just gets better and better, with one-page rules - fantasy or sci-fi.
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Post by geordieracer on Aug 28, 2009 0:44:35 GMT -6
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Post by geordieracer on Sept 1, 2009 10:45:45 GMT -6
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Post by greyharp on Sept 15, 2009 15:58:57 GMT -6
I would love to see the creative types out there produce some one-page towns and villages. We've got dungeons covered and there's a nice array of cities out there, but it's the towns and villages that player characters are most likely to come across in the wilderness.
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Post by machfront on Sept 15, 2009 18:25:56 GMT -6
So would I. I'd like more cities, too.
I tried to do a One-Page Wilderness, but...well...I suck. I'm about as creative as a chunk of mud...and about as confident in my abilities.
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Post by coffee on Sept 15, 2009 21:11:42 GMT -6
So would I. I'd like more cities, too. I tried to do a One-Page Wilderness, but...well...I suck. I'm about as creative as a chunk of mud...and about as confident in my abilities. I could say the same thing. But I'd have people telling me I'm wrong. So instead, I'm going to take it as a challenge. The secret to success is to not be afraid to suck. So that's what I'm going to do with part of my day off tomorrow, create a one-page village. And I'll do a one-page wilderness area to set it in. Hey, it may suck, but I'll be in the game. Plus, and this is the hard part: I'll post the results on my blog. No matter what. Care to join me? It'll be like National Novel Writing Month (which is where I learned to just produce and not worry about quality). Anybody who joins in of course is not required to publish their work -- but it'd be nice to see what comes up! Any takers?
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Post by coffee on Sept 16, 2009 20:02:35 GMT -6
Well, even though there were no takers to my challenge, I went ahead and did it (well, part of it). I did a pretty generic one-page wilderness. Nothing to set the world on fire, but I think it'd be playable. There's a lot left for the referee to fill in, too (and, as usual, everything is subject to change at the referee's option!). You can get the pdf herehere or read about it in my blog.
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Post by kesher on Sept 16, 2009 20:52:28 GMT -6
I'd say it's eminently playable! It's got real personality. The encounter table is different, too, because it gives a sense of a living world instead of just random monsters.
And Wreckspire is pure gold as a name. Sounds like it's straight out of Gormenghast...
Thou Art Exalted for Just Doing!
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Post by coffee on Sept 16, 2009 22:19:31 GMT -6
The full name of the wizard is Wreckspire the Wred, you know, like Gandalf the Gray. (He didn't need the extra W, but hey, when you're a Wizard, you can spell things how you like...)
Thank you for your exalt and your kind words! I appreciate them.
Not to turn this into the Fiction thread, but I keep seeing Ghormengast in a three-in-one-volume set at bookstores, but I just never picked it up.
I need to read more.
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Post by machfront on Sept 17, 2009 3:47:50 GMT -6
coffee, Fine work, indeed. I love stuff like that that leaves so much open, so many questions. Why does hex 103 smell slightly of sulfur? Why was the dwarf mine abandoned 100 years ago? Where are the Lizard Men going to or coming from when they move through 807? (Goats! More goats! -lol-) ;D I had to save it as a pic, though, as Google doesn't let you download it as a pdf unless you're signed into Google and I don't have a Google account.
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Post by greyharp on Sept 17, 2009 5:42:14 GMT -6
Well done and thanks Coffee, this is fantastic stuff. ;D
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