Browsing Archive: May, 2020

How I Develop, Part 2 of 3: Your Milestone

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Thursday, May 28, 2020, In : RPGWriterTips 

Professionally, I’m a game developer. I focus on developing adventures. That means outlining adventures and assigning writing to freelancers, checking freelancers’ milestones, and developing the freelancer’s text before sending it to the editors. Let’s break those three things down! Second, the milestone.

What A Milestone Is. A milestone is a check-in point where I’ve asked you, the freelancer, to turn in about half your word count. This is to make sure you’re on track, and to make...


Continue reading ...
 

How I Develop, Part 1 of 3: Forging the Outline

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Monday, May 25, 2020, In : RPGWriterTips 

Professionally, I’m a game developer. I focus on developing adventures. That means outlining adventures and assigning writing to freelancers, checking freelancers’ milestones, and developing the freelancer’s text before sending it to the editors. Let’s break those three things down! First, the outline. 

I work with a lot of internal stakeholders to come up with a project outline that I give to my freelancers. Because I work on the Pathfinder Adventure Path line, the projects I’m outl...


Continue reading ...
 

What Actual Feedback Looks Like

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Friday, May 22, 2020, In : RPGWriterTips 
So, I wanted to talk about how feedback a developer gives you as a freelancer is going to range from the exceptionally specific to the exceptionally general. I know when I give feedback, this is nearly always the case. And I thought an example would be helpful, but I don't feel comfortable sharing the feedback I've given to others. Instead, here's some feedback I got myself!

Back in 2013 / 2014, I wrote The Choking Tower, the third adventure in the Iron Gods Adventure Path. James Jacobs gave m...
Continue reading ...
 

What Makes a Good Milestone

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, May 19, 2020, In : RPGWriterTips 
If you're writing for RPGs, it's pretty likely you'll get asked to turn over a "milestone" about halfway through the process. This is basically a midpoint check-in, where you show you've got about half the word count completed. But a milestone can and should be a greater opportunity for that for you, the freelancer, to interface with your developer. What makes a good milestone?

* Word Count. What is "about half" of your word count? Anywhere near 50 percent is fine, so long as it's showing good...
Continue reading ...
 

That's So Platinum

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Thursday, May 14, 2020, In : Wizards of the Coast 
I was looking over a conversation about the "metal levels" on DriveThruRPG, the most significant site for digital RPG sales. These levels (Copper, Silver, Gold, and so on) correspond with sales: higher sales get rarer metals.

I've felt lucky if some of my third party press products even get Copper rated, but I was surprised to find that I actually have three Platinum products! All three adventures I wrote for the D&D Adventurer's League campaign (Beneath the Fetid Chelimber, The Seer, and Quel...
Continue reading ...
 

Another Solo Adventure!

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Wednesday, May 13, 2020, In : Announcements 
I've released my next solo adventure, a conversion to my popular Night of the Skulltaker for solo play. You can get it right here!
Continue reading ...
 

Bells and Whistles

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, May 12, 2020, In : RPGWriterTips 
As an adventure writer, I like to think that the story comes first, and is the most vital thing I'm providing. Sure, there are monsters, but you can go get those stats in a monster book (whether a Monster Manual, a Bestiary, or an Alien Archive). The same with traps; something in the core rulebook is something you can look up yourself. Maps are often really important to tell the story, but you can draw those out yourself, or print the ones I include in the adventure. You've got all the tokens...
Continue reading ...
 

When Results By 10 Aren't Enough

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Wednesday, May 6, 2020, In : RPGWriterTips 
In Pathfinder First Edition, it was pretty common to see results broken up by 5s. Failed to climb that wall? If you failed by 5 or more, you'll fall. Failed to disable a trap? If you failed by 5 or more, you accidentally set it off. I saw plenty of tables, such as for information gathered while investigating something, that came in units of 5: If you got a result of 15 or higher on your Perception/Diplomacy/whatever, you learned X. If you got a 20 or higher, you also learned Y. If you got a 2...
Continue reading ...
 

The Duskwalker's Gift, by Ken Melvoin-Berg

Posted by Ron Lundeen on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, In : Hints and Teasers 
In what might be the first piece of fan fiction my works have ever received, here's a short story about Tarklo Dirge, the protagonist of The Duskwalker's Due, the solo adventure you can get right here. It's by my good friend Ken Melvoin-Berg and it's a lot of fun!

The Duskwalker’s Gift by Ken Melvoin-Berg


Hunting is what I was born for, literally. I was born again in this body of Tarklo Dirge and given a mission: hunt the undead to restore the balance of life and death. I was getting a smile ...
Continue reading ...
 
« Back to posts
 

About Me


I'm Ron Lundeen, game designer for Wizards of the Coast. Before that, I worked as a development manager for Paizo, Inc. and as an RPG freelancer. I've recently had products in print for Paizo, Wizards of the Coast, Petersen Games, and Ulisses Spiele. My opinions here are my own and do not reflect those of Wizards of the Coast.

Blog Archive



 

Make a free website with Yola