I was editing an old (1984) adventure I’d written, in order to include it in reprints of my articles from back then, when it occurred to me that adventures often have particular cores, a particular “something” that makes them go. The idea is to build the adventure around the core. It’s “the star of the show” in other words.
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” – J.R.R Tolkien
I like to categorize to help me understand things, so here goes:
[h=3]New Monster/Species[/h] An adventure built around a new monster has the virtue of any new monster: surprise. Much of what a game designer does is attempt to surprise the players, often with some new rule, sometimes with a story, with a new combination of things, with misdirection, and so forth.
[h=3]Situations[/h] “Situations” are pretty obvious. For example, situation: someone robbed/sacked the monastery, characters need to recover the goods and punish the wrongdoers. Or situation: the princess/heroine has been kidnapped, we have to get her back (always good for Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom stories). Or situation: we need to scout out the approaching enemy army. I suppose these could be called “mission adventures,” but that would apply to lots of others as well.
[h=3]A Puzzle[/h] I don’t like puzzles, but lots of players do. Lots of adventures amount to giant puzzles with some active obstacles (monsters, some kinds of traps) as well as passive ones.
[h=3]A Location[/h] Long ago I searched for diagrams of a cathedral (much harder to find in pre-Web days than now) and populated it with religiously-oriented badguys. Cathedrals are relentlessly 3-dimensional, and you can find pictures to show to players who haven’t had the opportunity to be inside one. They’re organized differently from other kinds of buildings, too. This resulted in fascinating adventures (I GMed it several times for different parties). A fortress is another common kind of location that can be unique. A treasure map can easily lead to this kind of adventure. The map itself can be “the location”.
[h=3]NPCs[/h] An adventure might revolve around NPCs that players need to get to know, or that have a great deal of influence over the player party. The NPC might give players a quest leading to further adventures. In video games, there’s a strong tendency for games to provide players with several quests, and most of the play is following/completing those quests. Sometimes meeting the quest-giver is an adventure in itself, sometimes they seem to just about “come out of the walls.”
[h=3]A New Character Class/Skills/Spells?[/h] This may be a form of monster, where the “monster” is an NPC with an unfamiliar character class or related powers such as skills or spells, not available to players. Or it might be a way to introduce a new class/skill/spell a player can adopt.
A likely difference between my 35 year old adventure, and ones written today, is that I’d played it with three different groups. I suspect most published adventures, and especially other kinds of supplements, aren’t tested as much these days. But if you’re more or less writing a story, “testing” feels less necessary.
What other adventure cores can you think of? And what kind do you favor?
This article was contributed by Lewis Pulsipher (lewpuls) as part of EN World's Columnist (ENWC) program. Lew was Contributing Editor to Dragon, White Dwarf, and Space Gamer magazines and contributed monsters to TSR's original Fiend Folio, including the Elemental Princes of Evil, denzelian, and poltergeist. You can follow Lew on his web site and his Udemy course landing page. If you enjoy the daily news and articles from EN World, please consider contributing to our Patreon!
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” – J.R.R Tolkien
I like to categorize to help me understand things, so here goes:
- A story
- A monster/species
- A situation (mission?)
- A puzzle
- A location (perhaps only a map)
- NPC(s)
- A new character class (rare)
[h=3]New Monster/Species[/h] An adventure built around a new monster has the virtue of any new monster: surprise. Much of what a game designer does is attempt to surprise the players, often with some new rule, sometimes with a story, with a new combination of things, with misdirection, and so forth.
[h=3]Situations[/h] “Situations” are pretty obvious. For example, situation: someone robbed/sacked the monastery, characters need to recover the goods and punish the wrongdoers. Or situation: the princess/heroine has been kidnapped, we have to get her back (always good for Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom stories). Or situation: we need to scout out the approaching enemy army. I suppose these could be called “mission adventures,” but that would apply to lots of others as well.
[h=3]A Puzzle[/h] I don’t like puzzles, but lots of players do. Lots of adventures amount to giant puzzles with some active obstacles (monsters, some kinds of traps) as well as passive ones.
[h=3]A Location[/h] Long ago I searched for diagrams of a cathedral (much harder to find in pre-Web days than now) and populated it with religiously-oriented badguys. Cathedrals are relentlessly 3-dimensional, and you can find pictures to show to players who haven’t had the opportunity to be inside one. They’re organized differently from other kinds of buildings, too. This resulted in fascinating adventures (I GMed it several times for different parties). A fortress is another common kind of location that can be unique. A treasure map can easily lead to this kind of adventure. The map itself can be “the location”.
[h=3]NPCs[/h] An adventure might revolve around NPCs that players need to get to know, or that have a great deal of influence over the player party. The NPC might give players a quest leading to further adventures. In video games, there’s a strong tendency for games to provide players with several quests, and most of the play is following/completing those quests. Sometimes meeting the quest-giver is an adventure in itself, sometimes they seem to just about “come out of the walls.”
[h=3]A New Character Class/Skills/Spells?[/h] This may be a form of monster, where the “monster” is an NPC with an unfamiliar character class or related powers such as skills or spells, not available to players. Or it might be a way to introduce a new class/skill/spell a player can adopt.
A likely difference between my 35 year old adventure, and ones written today, is that I’d played it with three different groups. I suspect most published adventures, and especially other kinds of supplements, aren’t tested as much these days. But if you’re more or less writing a story, “testing” feels less necessary.
What other adventure cores can you think of? And what kind do you favor?
This article was contributed by Lewis Pulsipher (lewpuls) as part of EN World's Columnist (ENWC) program. Lew was Contributing Editor to Dragon, White Dwarf, and Space Gamer magazines and contributed monsters to TSR's original Fiend Folio, including the Elemental Princes of Evil, denzelian, and poltergeist. You can follow Lew on his web site and his Udemy course landing page. If you enjoy the daily news and articles from EN World, please consider contributing to our Patreon!
