Approaching writing adventures for home games?

[TheSword]

Hey folks so I’ve been thinking a lot about adventure writing. It’s not something I do a lot of. I tend to just adapt stuff that has already been published. But if I did want to come up with my own adventures how do people approach it?

 

[TheAlkaizer]

I think there's kind of a logical process everyone circles around. Have a concept, a setting or something that pushes you to want to write it. Have an idea bout the length, the system, the tone, etc. Then I think maybe people might do the concrete work in different order. Identify some key moments or rooms, put some monsters in there, some loot, some puzzles. Playtest, iterate.

I can't vouch for their effectiveness (haven't really pulled the juice from them yet) but I can share two resources I've saved for later recently.

The author of His Majesty the Worm wrote a full multi-step course on adventure building.

Joseph R. Lewis, who wrote several well known adventures in the OSR, has a YouTube series about adventure creation. I consider his adventures to be of really high quality. Here's the playlist.

I don't think either are revolutionary, but sometimes it's nice to have a clear order to follow.

 

[aco175]

I might take an idea from a PC. Perhaps he has a history event or ongoing feud or such. I had one PC who's background had him owing a debt for freedom and after several levels of adventuring, I made an adventure with a collector coming around and offering to cancel it for a specific mission.

Sometimes I take the PC's level and find a monster I want to use. Then I make an adventure around the monster. Maybe 3rd level PCs are traveling between villages and I want to have them run into a manticore. There could be a planned encounter where the spot the manticore and maybe a chance it attacks. The players can decide to take the hook and I might have the lair in a 5-room dungeon.

I might also make an item I think one of the PCs would take and place it in someplace they can find it. I add hooks to see if they bite.

 

[TheSword]

Not sure what happened to the title. I’ve corrected it!

 

[TheSword]

I might take an idea from a PC. Perhaps he has a history event or ongoing feud or such. I had one PC who's background had him owing a debt for freedom and after several levels of adventuring, I made an adventure with a collector coming around and offering to cancel it for a specific mission.

Sometimes I take the PC's level and find a monster I want to use. Then I make an adventure around the monster. Maybe 3rd level PCs are traveling between villages and I want to have them run into a manticore. There could be a planned encounter where the spot the manticore and maybe a chance it attacks. The players can decide to take the hook and I might have the lair in a 5-room dungeon.

I might also make an item I think one of the PCs would take and place it in someplace they can find it. I add hooks to see if they bite.

My issue is less coming up with ideas or inspiration and more the actual practicalities of turning that into an adventure. @TheAlkaizer ’s resources look really interesting. Though both do seem to be specifically about dungeon building. Rather than other types of adventures. I might try and find some flowcharts.

 

[John Lloyd1]

I follow the 'return of the lazy dungeon master' approach by @SlyFlourish .

 

[Cadence]

I sometimes look up a map (building(a) at college, Biltmore, etc...) and imagine what I would put in it that would make sense.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

Though both do seem to be specifically about dungeon building. Rather than other types of adventures. I might try and find some flowcharts.

Ah. You're right. I've been mostly focused on single-dungeon adventures lately so I equated the two.

 

[cbwjm]

I've created an adventure in a forest that was essentially a dungeon with permeable walls. I had clearings that were linked by paths but nothing stopped players going off the beaten track. For each clearing I had different encounters, some of them knew about other clearings (as in what was in them), some of them wanted specific things done which provided rewards that allowed easier progression towards their final destination.

So I guess I had:
1. A map
2. An overarching questline
3. Encounters/people with knowledge and minor quests.

Those three things combined into an adventure.

 

[Reynard]

I am a big proponent of prepping situations rather than stories. If you focus on the situation as it is, the entities that have an interest in it and their motivations, and the locations associated with it, it is much easier to respond the the inevitability left turns your players are going to take.

For example, instead of writing an adventure in which the PCs have to unseat a cruel baron, define the people involved. Who is the baron and why is he cruel? Who wants the baron overthrown and why? Who knows things about the baron? What other events are going to occur if the PCs don't act? Then let them loose. See what they do. Play to find out.