Designing Adventures Using Legal Pads

When I was hired by TSR in 1995, it was like a dream job. In fact, it was a dream job, even though things didn’t work out as I’d expected. Instead of coding a D&D-branded MUD as I’d been hired to do, I was asked to write a paper and pencil 96-page adventure with the working title Gates of Firestorm Peak.

Well, I got to work on it. I sketched out my thoughts and ideas for the adventure using one of the many yellow legal pads I had lying around. (I had extra legal pads thanks to being on my high school debate squad, despite ten years having passed since that time.) After working just three months on “Gates” I was asked to write a new project, working title Return to the Tomb of Horrors. Again, I had lots of space left on empty legal pads, so I used them for concepting work. Both of those products seemed to do well.

Fast forward several years: http://www.montecookgames.com/a-dark-spiraling-and-fun-ride/

Tomb of Horrors

My colleague Rob Schwalb penned a great article with fantastic art that touches on the adventure Tomb of Horrors by Gary Gygax. As some of you may know, awhile back I wrote a follow-on, Return To the Tomb of Horrors. Rob's article incorporates lore from that adventure, updating a few creatures to 4th edition D&D and providing all new horrors to boot. That plus several other interesting bits!

Download the article here (DDi members).