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ACE Adventure Design Method

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The ACE Adventure Design Method is useful for RPG adventure designers and authors alike. It uses four acronyms: ACE, AIMS, LAND and WHAT to aid in the design of an adventure from a purely fictional point-of-view, allowing you to leave the "crunch" of mechanics behind while you focus of the conflict, npcs, locations and encounters.

The video link describes and shows an example of use for the L.A.N.D. acronym.


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Customer avatar
Osiris T October 09, 2022 8:22 am UTC
PURCHASER
I love the Star Wars reference in the example of a conflict.
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Brian H October 09, 2022 10:25 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks Osiris T! It's my favorite example in the text :)
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Osiris T October 09, 2022 11:33 am UTC
PURCHASER
I can tell. By the way thanks for writing this up, I have been looking to write up an adventure to sell on my own page, but couldn't find a good template or commentary on how to do it anywhere else.
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Brian H October 09, 2022 11:56 am UTC
PUBLISHER
After using this method for almost five years now, I occasionally alter how I use the acronyms. In AIMS I might use "Ideals" or "Instinct" instead of "Impulse" for example, and for LAND I've been giving the location a Name, and using "L" as an adjective + Noun "Location Type": Haunted Wilderness, Frozen Lair, Crumbling Temple, etc. I'll also add a list of moves sometimes. In my Monster Talk: Lich video, you can see a good example of nested LAND cards at 17:54 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmkvU4chJDw (I typically make everything as 2.5 by 3.5 inch cards now so I can sleeve them or put them into binder card pages)

If you go with this method for an adventure would you mind mentioning an linking back to this product?
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Osiris T October 09, 2022 8:48 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thank You for the advice, I would be happy to link back to the product in the purchase note, as I am not allowed to put links in the product description.

By the way can you tell me how I could possibly grow on drivethru? I have been doing this for months but have only made $50 and I want to expand.
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Osiris T October 10, 2022 6:56 am UTC
PURCHASER
By the way do you have any additional guidelines for creating encounters?
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Brian H October 10, 2022 8:58 am UTC
PUBLISHER
I've been doing this for several years and don't make a whole lot more than that LOL. Frequency and cross-referencing help though, and many of my products have YouTube video associated with them as well. My Dungeon World Oracle Deck is by FAR my best seller because those videos have thousands of views between them!

As far as encounter advice goes, the WHAT acronym is a good starting point. But creating encounters for a published adventure is far different than creating them for your friends because you don't have the character backgrounds and narrative as context, so you're relying solely on the adventure's narrative. Just make sure it "fits" within the narrative of the adventure. Hope that helps!
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Osiris T October 10, 2022 10:14 am UTC
PURCHASER
My best selling thing is my Cthulhu Mythos product line if we are talking money, but as for free stuff people like Misc Mechanics which are just tiny variant rules to plug into your game as either replacements or mods to dnd 5e. Come to think of it if I release enough of the variant rules one might be able to make their own system with it.

As for my adventure I am writing I would say that I am developing it based purely on what fits. The adventure I am making is called Play of The Yellow Bard, which is a Cthulhu mythos adventure about a cultist of Hastur which mingles in high society after everyone in the local lords palace was killed(I am making this a dnd adventure) and the players presumably would be investigating it, and discovering the plot of the cult.

I have some ideas of how encounters would play out. For example in my notes I wrote that the villain may take notice of a warlock player and would send a cultist to try to rope them in. I also have a mythos necromancer in the local...See more
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Brian H October 10, 2022 11:20 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Ahhhh the King in Yellow! Good stuff! I'm a fan of the mythos myself, both in books and in games. I've played Arkham Horror and Eldritch Horror with friends, and have (and played) everything for Arkham Horror the Card Game. I think what sets The King in Yellow apart is the idea of the unreliable narrator. What can the characters believe? Maybe not even their own senses and thoughts! One of my favorite scenarios in all of Arkham Horror the Card Game is The Unspeakable Oath in the Path to Carcosa campaign. The investigators have tracked a lead to the Asylum and go their to question someone about the madness surrounding the LAST time The King in Yellow was performed in Arkham. The narrative is written in such a way that MAYBE you're there to question an inmate, but MAYBE you're actually an inmate there yourself because you've gone mad after watching the play, and the guards and doctors are just humoring you.

I think I'd lean into encounters in which the details don't quite add up: They learn the true...See more
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Osiris T October 24, 2022 6:27 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Well I published my adventure and I linked your work in the credits section.
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Brian H October 25, 2022 8:28 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks Osiris! I've downloaded the adventure and will read it when I get a chance.
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Customer avatar
Osiris T October 25, 2022 9:19 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thank you for downloading it, I have to admit that it is a bit bare bones since I am just 1 man, but I will have expansions coming out at a later time.
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