Paolo Garelli
We begin this review by thanking Mauro Longo and Roberto Ferri for providing us with a copy of Scrivi la tua Avventura.
If I had to explain to you what I’m talking about, it would be enough for me to quote the first sentences of the introduction to this manual:
Write Your Own Adventure is a manual designed to guide you step by step in creating your role-playing game, your rules, your setting, your expansions and scenarios connected to your system or a system you could adopt, and to give you the tools historical, literary, theoretical and critical to know and understand the most beautiful hobby in the world.
I could stop here because that’s actually what it does. If the words of the two authors were enough to convince you to purchase this manual or have intrigued you enough, know that you can purchase Scrivi la tua Avventura in the main stores for around €24.
For those who are still not convinced, let’s look in more detail at what it is and what this manual is about.
A First Look at Scrivi la tua Avventura
Let’s start by saying that the full title of the work is Scrivi la tua Avventura – Dai Giochi di Ruolo alle Avventure in Solitaria. This clarification is necessary given that it is not the first time that our authors have come together to provide us readers with the tools to realize our most bizarre ideas. This manual is the natural consequence of Scrivi la tua Avventura – Dalle Storie a Bivi ai Librogame.
Scrivi la tua Avventura is a 547-page manual with a soft cover. Inside we find all the issues concerning the creation and publication of a role-playing game covered in great detail and examples. It is divided into three sections that start from an examination of the RPG in general, and then move on to its creation up to book games and larp. A monumental amount of information that brings with it the examples and experiences not only of the two authors but also of many professionals in the field of role-playing games.
What is a Roleplaying Game?
In the first section of this manual, we try to give an answer to this question which, if we think about it, is not at all simple. Each of us could give our own personal vision, but Scrivi la tua Avventura takes it a step further. It initially analyzes the various types of role-playing games, from electronic ones to tabletop ones, passing through larps and play-by-chat. Subsequently, he identifies the key concepts of role-playing games, taking for example games such as D&D, Pathfinder, Vampires and many others.
A real examination of 143 pages that even touches on the safety mechanics, a concept that day after day increasingly enters the habits of all masters. It’s banal to think that before writing something you should at least know the topic. Scrivi la tua Avventura gives us just that, a foundation on the topic.
A Thousand and One Tips on How to Write Your Roleplaying Game
We arrive at what is the most substantial part of this manual. A section of more than three hundred pages that analyzes the various aspects of creating a role-playing game. Personally, before reading this manual I wouldn’t have even bothered with more than half of the aspects covered in Scrivi la tua Avventura. With an innocence of total inexperience, I would just think about the system or the setting. Fundamental aspects certainly, but which are only part of everything behind the creation and publication.
The manual provides us with advice in detail and delves into points such as community building, the creation of the editorial team, the design and ideation phases. We even get to chapters regarding Italian and foreign forms of publication. Concepts I hadn’t thought of, such as defining the format and graphics from the beginning, save a huge amount of revision work.
Gamebooks and Solo Games
Finally we arrive at the third and final section, which mainly deals with gamebooks, leaving the section concerning larps in the appendix. This section is a continuation of the previous book that I mentioned in the previous paragraphs..
The concept of gamebooks is revisited and explored in depth with the latest data and analyses of the sector. Furthermore, in this section, there is no shortage of practical advice from industry experts on writing game books and solo adventures. Small pearls are always useful food for thought, which completes a very useful job for those who want to try their hand at this undertaking.
Final Considerations of the Scrivi la tua Avventura Review
Scrivi la tua Avventura is a full-bodied and complete manual, which provides us with knowledge given by the experience of the two authors and all those who contributed to the present concepts.
If you are thinking that this is a guide to becoming a millionaire through role-playing, you are wrong. Scrivi la tua Avventura provides you with the foundations and leads you to consider aspects that due to inexperience are considered secondary.
I recommend this manual to everyone, even just to look with different eyes at those manuals you keep in your library, the result of sleepless nights, nervous breakdowns and missed deadlines.
For those wishing to delve further into the topic, I leave you the links to the YouTube channels of Mauro Longo and Roberto Ferri.
