Two Modules Aborning

So yesterday, in the middle of thinking about how I really needed to get started getting ready for NTRPGCon, I had the idea for a pair (possibly a trio) of linked adventures.

"Imagination," I said, "now is not the time for this. I have a great deal to do. We have to get ready for NTRPGCon. In fact, I expect your assistance with that."

"Fine," replied my imagination. "I'll just throw all this stuff in the recycle bin and forget all of it like we forgot Jeanette's new phone number when you were ten and had a crush on her and they moved away from down the street. How about that?"

"Okay, fine," I said. We'll just write down a quick skeleton outline of the new ideas and then we'll get on with prepping the megadungeon, seeing as how the parties almost made it off the map last time."

Well, that was several hours ago, and the outlining continues. The fact of the matter is that when you're on a roll you might as well stay on the roll. I did, at least, notice one interesting thing about the process that got followed when my subconscious mind decided to derail me from Mythrus Tower onto these other two projects:

1) One of them began with the monster, followed by the physical setting of the adventure, followed by more and more detail about the backstory as I filled in some details on the map.

2) The other one began with the simple fact that I needed a second type of bad guy for the first adventure. For whatever reason, even though I didn't immediately think what sort of monster that would be, it created a good adventure title. And from there I started sketching a map, which is, as with the first adventure, giving me ideas for the backstory.

What I find a bit strange here, and I can't recall things going in this order before, although maybe they have ... it's odd that the physical map (and a few VERY basic notes on where the monsters are) is creating in the case of both modules a relatively detailed backstory.

You'd think that the backstory would come from somewhere other than the physical features of the map. There's some feedback going on where the elements of the backstory have started to feed the map, which is more the normal pathway for me.

Odd. One of these, by the way, is shaping up to be really unusual and cool. The other one has a good backstory developed from its still-not-perfect map. But both the backstory and the map are getting better as they continue developing.