The How To of Adventures

Adventures: very few Neopians have them. It takes time, effort, creativity and skill to create a fancy one good enough to display proudly on your page. They are little known and sparsely advertised, so what IS an adventure in the first place? On the Adventure Generator, you use links, paragraphs and pictures to create a story line, similar to those “Pick your Own Path” story books. There are plenty of genres to choose from, though it is best to have an idea of what you want to write before you start your adventure. Make your way to the Adventure Generator to begin.

Starting off:

1. Begin by naming your adventure. Try to name your Adventure by giving a hint as to what is in store for the reader. Something must spark their interest, a wish to know more. The most important thing is to be original and creative! Your Adventure will attract viewers more easily with a clever, catchy title. Out of ideas? Use the handy-dandy Title Generator! The Title Generator will create an insta-title for you, for example: “Attack of the Cuddly Kacheeks!” or “Techo Techno Dance Lessons”.

2. Choose your setting. The Space Station, Mystery Island and The Lost Desert are some classics worth trying out for your first adventure. Remember, you can always go back and change your setting to reflect your story line.

3. What is your genre? Will you have a quest, a battle, a comedy, fantasy, drama, mystery, the possibilities are endless! You can also use the Generator to create Instructional Adventures; “How To’s” or “Learn to dance like a Lenny!”. You can also use the Generator to create quizzes; “How much do you love kittens?” or “So you think you know Dr. Sloth!”.

4. Your background colour scheme is very important to aid the mood of your story. Is your Adventure a dark, mysterious horror or a daring and courageous trek through the Lost Desert Pyramids? Colour creates mood, so use darker colours for tension, paler colours for light-heartedness and warm colours for an upbeat feel.

5. You are now ready to begin your adventure! If you are still running low on ideas for your adventure, try making an instructional lesson about one of your favourite hobbies or talents; “Making a model train track” or “Decorating and Dressing Dolls? Done.” Some people create adventures about non-Neopian related themes, but if you are planning on making an adventure suitable for entering into the Adventure Spotlight, this is not the best option as TNT, those adorable people ^_^ , do not allow people to enter adventures that aren’t strictly about Neopian life.

6. Lucky us! We are allowed to add pictures to our fab adventures. Sometimes finding suitable pictures for your adventure is very hard, but you may use any picture that Neopets has already on their site! One of the best places to look is the shopkeepers section. If you want a picture with treasure in it, search “treasure” in the shopkeepers selection and you will find plenty of Neopian shopkeeper pictures gloating over a large pile of gold! Another wonderful place to look is the Neopedia, your handy guide to heroes and villains and all tomatoes in between. You can find the stories and the old plots for some in-action pictures, and not only that, The Neopedia will also help you find some background information about the star of your adventure. For example, if you are creating an adventure with Dr. Frank Sloth, look up his section in the Neopedia for the story of his take-over of the Virtupets Space Station.

Work it! Start by creating your first page. Use a good opening line like “He glanced up at the pyramid with knocking knees. Why did Mom always send him on field trips like this?” or perhaps “So you thought you knew all about petpetpets!”. The opening line is the first thing that draws someone into your quiz or adventure. They will be more likely to follow it through to the end should you make it mysterious, foreboding, classy, or hilarious!

Now you can start your second page. This often is the most confusing part of the Adventure. How do you link up each page? It is hard at first, but becomes second nature the further you get into it. Don’t worry just yet about the links, as you will add them later. Your first page may have something like

You spot the gem lying on the floor, a think layer of dust coating its surface. Do you:

>> Pick up the mysterious gem

>> Leave it on the floor; it may be enchanted!

You then make two pages with two outcomes. This means that one page may say “You pick up the gem and bang! A trapdoor opens beneath your feet! Dead End.” and the other page may say “You leave the gem safely on the ground. Go to page 4!”. Travelling back, you can then link page one up to both pages 2 and 3, one with a dead end, one continuing with the story! This applies to any adventure that you may create, including quizzes and lessons.

Link up each page, add dead ends, add pictures and the finish line, and voila! Your adventure is ready to take Neopia by storm! Lock it in and, if you feel you want to, send it away to the Adventure Spotlight to have your adventuring talents recognized! Your adventure is now complete. Don’t forget to check for spelling and punctuation and use the provided html guides on the side of the page. Thanks a bunch, TNT, for the wonderful world of Adventures!