Writing Your Own Solar Echoes Mission (part 5)

I have a few more final tips for mission writing. I highly recommend keeping the GM's narrative sessions short, because players often have short attention spans and they are not very patient when it comes to “story time.” Don't write a book! I usually try to keep things down to one or two paragraphs of narrative if possible, the only exceptions being the mission briefing at the beginning and the mission debriefing/epilogue at the end. Intersperse your narrative with decisions for the players to make. Even a simple “Awareness Check” involves everyone making die rolls with the hope of rolling high so they can determine something helpful for their team. Keep things concise in your writing and don't get overly descriptive—you can do that when you're talking with your players and describing the situation as they're playing. For example, as the players' characters breach a warehouse and see the smugglers, you can quickly describe the smugglers as a group of 5 humans that immediately reach for their assault rifles. Keep things moving and get to the action, but during the action, you can start to fill in the description. For example, a player targets a particular smuggler and as they exchange gunfire, you can describe the smuggler, saying something like, “this human leers at you maliciously as he quickly turns to fire back, his black leather trench coat whirling behind him like a cape.”

I'd also like to add that you need to keep loot and flavor in mind while writing a mission. Players are always excited to discover new weapons, armor, and equipment during their missions, so make sure that they can find a few unusual items. Flavor is a term I use to describe short embellishments of the setting you've created. I hope the mission-writing tips this week have been interesting and useful! I'll end with a short flavor example from the mission, “Egg Drop,” when players finally locate a bar called the “Star Wrangler” that they've been searching for:

As you pass various curio and souvenir shops at the starport, your attention is suddenly captured by a bright, holographic projection. A colorful animation shows a star being captured with a rope and pulled in to another cluster of stars by a Krissethi wearing a ten-gallon cowboy hat. He sits proudly upon the cluster of stars, points right at you, and winks. The words "Star Wrangler" appear for a few moments, and then the animation cycles again.