Dos and Don’ts of Modifying Adventures
Adding and Subtracting Foes: Do add or subtract foes of the same type from a combat to keep the challenge level appropriate to the group. Don’t add foes of a different type or switch out combat encounters entirely.Different types of foes have different abilities that can make combats much harder or much easier than substituting one foe for another of the same challenge rating may otherwise indicate. D&D Expeditions explicitly states which monsters can be added or subtracted for each encounter, however, D&D Encounters/Casual Games are a bit looser and rely on the DM to modify the encounters per the guidelines in the Dungeon Master’s Guide on encounter building.
Changing the Intended Difficulty of a Combat: Do try to keep combats at the intended level of difficulty when modifying them; make sure combats written to be easy for the group remain easy and combats written to be difficult remain difficult. Making an early easy combat too difficult uses party resources, turning later difficult combats into bloodbaths. Similarly, making an early hard combat too easy preserves resources, making later combats too easy.
Adding Encounters: Be very careful when adding encounters. Most adventures are written to be played in a certain amount of time. If you add encounters, you run the risk that the players will not have time to finish the actual adventure. Add only those encounters that the characters actually trigger, such as being confronted by the town guard after they break the law or speaking to an NPC whose assistance the characters seek. When you add encounters, be very conscious of the time. Play them out only if there is time; narrate past them if there is not.
Cutting-off Encounters: Similarly, be very careful when cutting-off encounters. If you are pressed for time, such as when a convention slot is ending or a store is closing, you can waive the last few rounds of a combat that the characters will obviously win or narrate through an encounter. However, doing so deprives the players of the chance to play the game by deciding what their characters do and by roleplaying their characters. It can also deprive them of the feeling of success that follows a combat or the opportunity to interact with an NPC. To avoid taking the game out of the players’ hands that way, don’t cut encounters short or narrate through them unless you must.
Eliminating Encounters: Don’t eliminate encounters. As a DM, you don’t know what later events the designer and the campaign staff are setting up by introducing an NPC, a foe, a location, or an object in an adventure. The material you eliminate could be very important later in the campaign.
Modifying Encounters: For the same reasons, avoid modifying encounters. However, do modify them to account for the characters’ actions. If the characters befriend someone, make an enemy, or come up with a creative solution, reflecting that fact in the encounter gives the players a sense of accomplishment. As noted above, if players somehow inadvertently miss an encounter or a reward, you may modify the adventure to insert the encounter or reward later in a way that makes sense in context. Such a change is often a good way to get an adventure that has gone far off track back in the intended direction.
Subtracting Rewards: Do reduce awards if circumstances warrant doing so. If a character does something that would anger his or her faction, you may choose not to award renown that the character otherwise would have earned. Similarly, if characters take actions in an adventure that would result in them spending time in jail or on the lam, reduce or eliminate downtime awarded to reflect that fact. Be careful in reducing wealth and magic items, as tempers can run high when that happens. However, if circumstances warrant, NPCs can withhold rewards, and the authorities can fine characters.
Adding Rewards: Don’t add any rewards to adventures, and don’t award rewards that the characters did not earn. The level of experience, wealth, magic items, renown, and downtime in the campaign, and the particular magic items available have been intentionally set by the designer and the campaign staff. You cannot change them. Moreover, characters must earn their wealth and advancement. If a character steals from an NPC or otherwise obtains extra wealth, reduce wealth found in other parts of the adventure so characters don’t receive more wealth than the adventure permits. Similarly, if an adventure is subject to limits on experience rewards, such as D&D Encounters and D&D Expeditions, make sure you don’t award experience in excess of the applicable limit.
