What is a SAAM?
The tl;dr Version
"SAAM" stands for System-Agnostic Adventure Module: it can be used with any Foundry game system. To do so, Actors and Items cannot be included, but a GM can use the ones provided by their system (or create their own). My SAAMs mitigate this by making the most of everything else, especially Journal entries: a GM could run the adventure without preparing anything and roll dice straight from the text provided.
For a freely available example, see Tombs of the Serpent Kings.
The Long Version
"SAAM" stands for System-Agnostic Adventure Module. This means that it is built to be usable with any Foundry game system. For a freely available example, see Tombs of the Serpent Kings.
An adventure can be written for a specific ruleset but still be a SAAM: it does not mean "rules-agnostic". The idea is to let GMs use the Foundry tools they already have and still be able to use ready-to-run adventure module. So an adventure written for the Old-School Essentials ruleset can be offered as a SAAM. I could then be played in Foundry using the Shadowdark Foundry system, the D&D 5e Foundry system or literally any other.
A SAAM makes Foundry adventures as flexible as a PDF or a hard copy is for analog play: it lets GMs use all the tools they already have to run it at their virtual table. Maybe they already entered lots of data in their system of choice; maybe they already bought premium compendia; or maybe they want to play using a system they know and love for which they selected add-on modules. A SAAM does not force them to use another system to take advantage of a ready-to-play Foundry adventure module.
Seeing lots of publishers offerering SAAMs, from small indies to big companies, is a dream of mine. I hope it will catch on.
What Is Missing From a SAAM?
There are only two things that cannot be part of a SAAM: Actors and Items. A GM would have to use the ones provided by their system (or create their own).
A Foundry game system without Actors and Items would feel lacking: no ruleset-specific automation would be possible.
But for adventures offered as a Foundry module, this is much less of a problem. Sure, monsters and NPCs cannot be provided as Actors; equipment and abilities cannot be provided as Items. But adventures rely for the most part on what is already offered by their Foundry system for this: a GM would only need to create new monsters, NPCs, equipment and abilities. The existing compendia would suffice for the rest. Having ready-to-play scenes (set-up with walls, light, sounds, regions, etc.), journal entries (including map keys and handouts), rollable tables, card decks and macros is what saves GMs the most time when preparing an adventure.
How I Mitigate the Lack of Actors and Items in my SAAMs
To make the GM's job as easy as possible, I make the most of system-agnostic Foundry tools available, especially Journal entries.
- Journal entries including all things that would be represented by an Actor or an Item are provided. A GM willing to put a bit of effort creating them for their system of choice can simply go down the list and even copy-paste the text in the Actor's or Item's descritpion if they wish.
- Inline and described dice-rolls are included in the text where mechanics are provided, so a GM that want to start playing right away can do so. If a Goblin attacks by rolling a d20+1, deals 1d6-1 damage on a hit and has a morale score of 7, all those mechanics would be rollable by clicking the button in the text. The chat card would also describe each roll: "Goblin attack", "Goblin Damage" and "Goblin Morale 7", for example. Rolls that are meant for the eyes of the GM (random encounters rolls, for example) are invisible to players by default (using /gmroll instead of /roll).
Suggested Add-On Modules to Mitigate the Lack of Actors and Items
Foundry VTT is great in large part because of the sheer quantity of available add-ons provided by the community, most of them free. Some of them can be especially useful to mitigate the lack of Actors and Items in a SAAM. I'll update this list as time goes on.
- Spotlight Omnisearch can be used to place tokens on the map without manually finding them in your directories. Simply spell what you are looking for, then drag-and-drop it on the scene. It can also search all your Journal notes, so you'll easily find what you are looking for in a SAAM.
My Sales Pitch to Publishers
SAAM is my dream, but I can't make it reality alone. Fortunately, I think that they are great not only for GMs, but for you, too!
- The potential customer base is much bigger: every single Foundry user can buy your SAAM, not only the ones using a specific game system. There are very few Foundry adventure modules right now, but a lot of people use the VTT to play. There is a market to tap, here.
- Creating a SAAM is not more work-intensive than creating a system-specific adventure.
- A SAAM does not require much maintenance and updates, since all of it is built exclusively on Foundry core functionalities. Unless a new Foundry version completely break these without providing an easy way to update them (which is very unlikely), your SAAM will be usable (and sellable) without more work on your part for a long time.
- The SAAM itself is much more robust and potentially profitable as a product: when a shiny new Foundry system comes along, your catalog is still compatible; when the next ruleset that takes the world by storm on Kickstarter happens, you can directing your marketing efforts at them; when the nice developer maintaining the system you rely upon decide to spend their spare time elsewhere, this does not mean your adventures become unsellable.
- You can still offer system-specific version of your adventures in addition to SAAMs without doing a lot more work. One way to do so woulb be to build the SAAM as a base and sell it as is; then use it as a base, add system-specific Actors and Items and package it. Other ways are also possible, like creating a system-specifi module with the SAAM as requirement.
- For publishers that already offer system-specific adventures, creating a SAAM from it does not involve redoing everything. The biggest task would be removing some UUID references. Other than that, it's mostly a matter of deleting tokens from scenes and packing the adventure without actors and items. You can dramatically expand your customer base without that much more additional work, and all the marketing you already did and the reach you already have is easily leveraged.
My Sales Pitch to the Foundry VTT Team
Having lots of SAAMs on offer makes your already top-of-the-line VTT even more attractive. We can already play without a subscription. There is already a ton of add-on modules. With SAAMs, it would make it easy to play online as we do since the beginning of the hobby: by kitbashing adventures from a magazine using another ruleset with tons of house-rule.
This ideal of freedom, sharing and community is right at home with the Foundry values.
I would love it if you encouraged your user base to create SAAMs. Some ways it could be done:
- Adding it as a suggestion and providing advice to create them in the knowledge base.
- Creating a SAAM category both on on your add-on module browser and on your marketplace.