How to Build a One Sheet Adventure

Written by Tyson J. Hayes on 2010/02/24 – 00:00 -

While I was writing Game Mastering on the Fly I started thinking about Savage Worlds One Sheets and what it would take to design one.  Most of them are written like fleshed out hooks with images and fleshed out enemies.

For example in “Feast of Famine” a Deadlands: Reloaded Savage Worlds One Sheet (really guys are you trademarking One Sheet or SW One Sheet?) the hook could have been, “After coming across an empty Saloon the posse hears rumors of ‘tall, black-suited salesman’ spreading lots of merchandise upon further inquiry it seems there is something more nefarious afoot.”  It’s a little vague but leads you with questions to expand upon and tell your story.  But how do we go from hook to fleshed out One Sheet?

Start at the End

As backwards as it may sound starting at the end gives you a clear picture of where you want to end up.  Coming up with ideas about your enemy and the end goal allows you to easily figure out how to get there.  What’s your enemies purpose, their goals?  If your looking to setup a dungeon crawl what kind of traps do you want to unleash on the PCs?  What treasure brings them to this location?  Once you’ve picked your enemy or your dungeon/treasure try to summarize the adventure in a couple of sentences, similar to developing your hook.

How do they get there?

Once the end goal is in mind come up with how they are going to get there.  Be general to the setting.  Taverns are great places to hear about unexplored dungeons full of treasure.  Futuristic/Modern/City settings may lend themselves to a bounty hunt.  Give enough description for other GM’s to know what your trying to get across without being too specific.  Naming a tavern is wonderful touch.  Naming the city, state and current king in power might be getting to be to much.  Try to lend your One Sheet to fit into any campaign where the style fits.

Flesh it all Out

Now it’s time to put the pen to paper and block out enemies name some NPCs and begin the hard work of writing.  The most amount of detail is going to be needed at the end with the stat blocks and final scenes, so start there.  That way if you end up taking an entire page (the back in this case) you know how much space you have to get the PCs where they need to be.  Once your all done writing it up PLAY TEST!

The Red Pen is Mightier

Run through the adventure a couple of times with a couple of different groups.  Keep good notes, where did you have questions?  What could be cut out and left up to other GMs?  Then edit, edit, edit.  Your goal should be to reduce your word count while still leaving things clear.  Once done hand it to another GM to play it without you around.  This step is important as you will not be around to explain to anyone else running so sit on your haunches and wait.  When the GM gets back to you, let them tell the tale once through before letting asking questions.

When they’re done, ask the following:

  • Did you have fun running it?
  • Did your players enjoy themselves?
  • Was it easy to understand?
  • Did you have any parts that didn’t make sense?
  • Would you want to run it again?

Make sure to thank them for their time, absorb their feedback and make changes as appropriate.  Now, find a new GM and do it again. Continue this process until your ready to claw your eyes out.  Once your done bleeding your ready to publish! HURRAY! We’ll pause for celebration.

Tyson loves creating adventures, but sometimes wishes he could lower his standards.  He does wonder however, how much luck have you had writing a published item?  How much writing, editing and play testing did you do before you released?


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