Behind The Scenes: How To Write Using Art First by William Tramp

There are a lot of tools we GMs have at our disposal and one I find particularly useful is art.

Sometimes, art is used as a reaction: I have an adventure, find appropriate art, and use it as visual aids. But what about using the art as a starting point?

That’s what I did for the Cult of the Shattered Keel.

The End

At the time of starting this, I was running a game in which the players needed to travel from the big city to a smaller settlement. For many, travel is a random encounter or two and then the players find themselves at their location.

I wanted to make something more engaging, so I went to JamesRPGArt’s website.

Dark. Evocative. Culty.

These words immediately jumped into my head when I saw this and decided the adventure would end here. Sometimes when writing an adventure, I first envision a big finish, and this location screams big climactic confrontation. Cults are a big part of my game world and my players haven’t had much opportunity to interact with them, so this would give me a chance to reinforce that theme.

The Beginning

"I had an end scene, but I needed more than just one final confrontation. I needed a location to put this in my world, and I needed a reason to get them in this chamber."

Looking at the map, I knew that the players basically had two options to get to their settlement: by sea or by road. The group had plenty of cash, so I knew money wasn't a barrier and they would likely take the quicker route. I went looking for art that evoked seafaring.

Boom.

This picture solved two of my problems.

First: How to get them to that cave? Strand them! Make it the only thing in their path.

The second: How to Start Strong? Strong starts are important in games. For me, the game session needs to bring the players in on the action asap. . It’s boring to say “you start in a tavern” and watch the players mull about until it’s time to head out.

So I saw this and realized that it would be interesting to see the players work through trying to survive a ship wreck, far more interesting than combat. I designed a basic skill encounter by creating a random table for complications and then setting an amount of successes needed to complete the scene, choosing a number that gave everyone around the table at least one chance at bat.

As I was filling out the table, I thought about what could have caused the storm and decided that this was the awesome power of the cult at work.

Ok! I had a beginning and an end. Now I had to fill in the middle.

The Middle

The cult needs to be in an area with at least some population, so how would I do that without having to create an all new town for my players to lose time in? This is a one shot, we only have so much time.

"I went back to the art for the answer."

A roadside inn! Classic fantasy right there. Place it a day’s walk up the coast so the players can wander the wilderness and feel the isolation before coming upon an oasis of comfort.

I figured I’d grab a picture of the interior as well. Never bad to keep the social pillar of play in mind, give them people to talk to.

From here, a flurry of ideas. I decided the people at the inn would be discussing the storm, giving the players a topic to engage with. The damage to the roads would also keep people trapped there for a bit, so they wouldn’t move on too fast. Add a local legend as a red herring, the lie the cult uses to justify disappearances.

Obviously, the cultists will be people who were associated with the inn. But if they are running an inn, they probably want to hide it, but if they are trying to hide it, why are they running an inn?

Cults Sacrifice!

An inn grants a steady stream of travelers to prey upon. Find one that won't be missed and they have a sacrifice.

Wait. Why is there an inn in the first place? There could be a crossroads, but the more roads, the more travelers and the more travelers, the more likely it is to get caught. So maybe there was something else that drew people to this area at one point, but causes it now to be relatively remote?

I went back to the art.

Abandoned Keep!

The cults' lair is here. Now I have a ruin to explore near an inn! I could have mapped out a dungeon crawl here, but that could be a massive time sink. To focus on the mystery, I made a random table for a theater of the mind approach. Now I need a reason to direct players to the ruin.

Back to the cult motivation. Sacrifice. Kidnapping a player is a long shot, as they usually violently resist and that would end somewhat anticlimactically. I could have someone already captured by the time the players arrive at the inn, but that would seem obvious and spur them into action too fast. So who is in danger?

The answer is in the ship wreck: Survivors! Give the heroes someone to save, then put helpless people in the player’s care. Suddenly, the adventure’s purpose isn’t “defeat a random cult”, it's to save a person they have bonded with! The cult would abduct a precious survivor and spur the heroes into heroics. Plot achieved.

Finishing It Up

From here, it’s just filling out the minor details and making sure my “engaging adventure checklist” is complete.

"Social? Check. Exploration? Check. Combat? Check. A skill based challenge? Check."

And that’s my process for using art to write adventures.

I hope you feel inspired to go out and create your own!