DM Dilemma - I Need Help, ENWorld! - *UPDATED* - Putting YOUR ideas to work!

[Hussar]

I'm currently putting the final touches on my first 4e adventure, and, honestly, the first adventure I've written for D&D in quite some time (I've used a lot of modules in the past). My process was a bit different this time around. I took a general plotline - humanoids are ravaging the countryside (trite I know) and then went to work.

Unusual for me, I took a very mechanical approach. 4e says it takes about 10 encounters to make a level, so, I figured on 12 encounters. I then roughed in the xp budget for each encounter, not really thinking about the actual encounter just yet. I then arranged those encounters in a linked series where the most likely event would lead from the previous one.

Of the twelve encounters, three or four are mostly unrelated to the main plotline and are there for both setting exposition and some other goodies. And I added in a couple of "parachute" encounters that I could drop in on the fly if I need to - if the party decides to build a fort, say, I have an assault encounter prepped, that sort of thing.

Once I was done with the rough outlines of each encounter, I went back and built maps for each one to suit the situation.

We'll see how it runs. It's not a terribly linear adventure - there are a number of ways this could go - the party could charge straight in, they could get bogged down, they could try to recruit help, that sort of thing. I've got stuff for all the main points.

If the party just walks away, well, that'll suck and I'll be scrambling, but, fortunately, my players generally aren't going to do that. I would actually be pretty disappointed if my adventure was so unappealing that they just pissed off and did something else.

 

[pemerton]

But ANY adventure is susceptible to a player saying "No." Even the one you outlined above. For example, you put:

Younger brother will be assaulted on road by rebels
I had an adventure in which a similar (escort) event occured. Instead of aiding their charge, they turned on him, killing him.

There is no way (that I know of) to guarantee against things going in an unexpected direction.

But if you build your adventures around hooks that the players have provided to you by building them into their PCs (eg loyalites or other relationships) then you can normally be pretty confident that the players will engage with them.

As for how I prep: I write up lots of backstory notes, explaining the history and motivations of various NPCs, gods, organisations etc. I make sure that these things are relevant to the hooks that the players have provided to me in their PC descriptions. These notes get added to and expanded as the campaign goes along. Over time, the complexity of the relationships and the way the PCs are caught up in them will increase.

For any particular session, I write up notes about particular encounters - probable location and sequence, stats for fighting and/or skill challenge (if I'm expecting one sort of encounter and the players initiate another, than I improvise - 4e rules make this fairly easy), and indications of how this encounter is relevant to or expresses elements of the backstory. I will also incorporate some feature into the encounter so that this backstory element will become known to the players (eg written material the PCs might discover, things an NPC or monster might say, carvings, statues, strange phenomena that an Arcana check can interpret, etc).

Sometimes I have to improvise, if the players make a choice that I didn't anticipate. But in practice this is not all that often, because of the integration of campaign backstory with PC backstories. (And to reiterate - preserving this integration makes it crucial that the relevant aspects of the campaign backstory are coming out in every encounter.)

 

[Jhaelen]

I constantly strive to give my players a dynamic, evolving game in which their choices matter.

However, I'm guilty as sin of running "adventures on tracks." I understand the concepts of situational preparation vs. plot preparation. I understand the basic idea of WHERE I want the adventure to go. However, I run into a HUGE stumbling block when I actually try to sit down and WRITE IT DOWN.

And there's your problem:
in writing it down, you've laid down your tracks. Don't!

Outlines don't work for me, flowcharts end up a confused mess that leave me overpreparing. I love preparing adventures, but I don't want to do so much that it stalls my start time (as it has already done so).

Yep, definitely sounds like you're already overpreparing. Ignoring the flowcharts for a moment, why don't outlines work for you?

So, I'm hoping to tap into YOUR methods of adventure CREATION. I want to know WHAT you physically write down, HOW you physically right it down, HOW MUCH you physically write down (or type, whatever).

I start with two or three sentences describing what the adventure's about.
Then I think about potential encounters. Then I'll create maps or decide which existing maps I'm going to use.
Most work goes into designing the (potential) encounters. These are relatively detailed, including full stat-blocks. I try to prepare about twice the number of encounters I think I'm going to need.

Finally, I'm writing a list of things, I'd like to include in the adventure. This is no more than one or two sentences for each idea. Some of these will not even be connected to the actual adventure. They can either be red herrings, atmospheric pieces to improve the sense of immersion in the setting, potential side-quests, hooks for future adventures, etc.

When playing the game, the players' actions will decide, which of the ideas and encounters take place and when. If I notice they're interested in something I didn't feel was important, I try to turn it into something important, either immediately using improvisation or by taking notes and revisiting it in a later session, after I've had time to prepare a bit more.

Generally, I try to let the players play at their own pace. But if I feel things are slowing down, or they appear to be stumped, I throw an encounter at them or introduce a new idea.

I also wanted to add that I keep a DM Notebook. In it I have random traps, plot ideas, NPCs, place/street/ward/NPC names, treasures (magical and mundane) NPCs, and all the other doodads that DM Notebooks commonly contain. So, I have resources for improv.

Brilliant! What more do you need?

After playing an adventure, I typically have a bunch of stuff that I didn't actually use. This enters into my repository for use at a later time. As the campaign moves forward this collection will steadily grow, making prep ever easier. For the encounter I just have to adjust levels.

See, back in the days I used to overprepare, as well. I tried writing down adventures using the same format as official modules. And when the players tried something I hadn't written down, I'd panic.
But at some point I realized, that this apporach is nonsense, really. You only have to describe an adventure in such detail if someone else is supposed to run it.

If I've created an adventure, it's all in my head. I don't need to write it down. The important thing is to KNOW YOUR PLAYERS! When preparing for an adventure, I think about what my players are interested in, what motivations drive their characters, and let it guide my design. These days my players rarely manage to surprise me (completely).

Even though they theoretically have complete freedom in choosing their course of action, they tend to fall into certain patterns that are easy to anticipate.

 

[Jhaelen]

Dark Sun Adventure Campaign Arc

Heroic: Recover Dark Lens
- Kalak is alive, not bad, and pulls the heroes from another plane through the Gray

Paragon: Defeat a (de-leveled) Dragon of Tyr
-Gain access to the Hollow where Rajaat is...I want to involve Rajaat somehow

Epic: Restore Athas and/or gods
- Defeat Sorcerer King(s)

That's my basic concept. It's rough, but workable.

Now, that was FINE, no problem. But when I sit down to actually MAKE my first adventure, here's what I know:

If you're trying to think about your first adventure, why do you even worry about what might happen in Paragon and Epic tier? It's likely your players will never get there and if they do, the situation may be completely different from you think it might be right now.

In my current 3e campaign, which is currently one adventure short of being concluded (and the first campaign, ever, which we might actually finish), I thought about a setting and a theme but not about anything beyond that.

The first couple of adventures were basically just means to draw the pcs into the setting and get them to know the most important npcs in the area. I never planned more than one adventure ahead. At about the mid-point of the campaign I inserted an adventure involving conflicting factions, and by choosing to side with one of them, I finally knew, who they were going to oppose in the end.

Before the adventure I had introduced them to an ambigous prophesy, btw., and their interpretation of its meaning influenced their actions in interesting ways. The cool thing with this approach is, that no matter how the players interpret the prophesy, they interpreted it correctly

 

[Gilladian]

I like site-based adventures because they're easy to design. Then again, the PCs may also easily avoid them, fail to notice them, or actively decide they don't like that hook.

That's when you need to feed them another hook.

In my current campaign, the PCs are 5th level. They live in a large city with many layers of dungeon below it. They own a house and have a lair under the house.

But last week, I ended the game with a hook: the PCs had previously had a brush with a necromancer, and also had previously been told by local orphans that street kids were going missing. Then a servant whom the PCs had rescued from the necromancer's first lair came to them and told them she'd seen the necromancer escorting a shabby-looking child into a house in a nearby street.

I KNEW that the PC who has recently spent 300 gp of his own money rebuilding the orphanage would LEAP at this hook. Sure enough, he did; so next week we'll spend the game exploring the necromancer's house.

To design this site, I first decided what level the Necro was. I gave him a backstory (deceased wife, dead baby, livng son; he wants his wife back, of course).

I began outlining the contents of the house: found a map I liked, named the rooms, began adding content notes. Drew up a timeline of a 'typical day' for the bad guy and son. Named the servants. Added dangers. Added entry to undercellar lair. Posted online for ideas and redid my necro's backstory. Decided his wife is a brain in a jar in the basement.

Added the baby in as an "automaton" he's built to keep his wife from realizing that she's mostly dead and the baby died, too. Decided that the older boy is thoroughly evil. I'm hoping they "adopt" him and send him to the orphanage to live (evil dm laugh).

I have gone over the writeup for my house and lair about six times. Each time, I focus on a different aspect. First, I lay out basic elements (this is the kitchen, this is the laboratory). Then I add combat elements and rules stuff (traps, etc). Then I add mundane color. Then I add noncombat NPCs. Each time I may expand, shift, redo any of the previous info. I tighten the plot.

This can go on for days, weeks or years. If my pcs had avoided this adventure for any reason, I'd have kept this site in my notes, and next time they visited a wizard-sage, it might easily be this house, with the evil necromancer swapped out as an evil sage, and the whole basement lair reflavored.

Here's my wikipage for this adventure: Vishteer Campaign / Necromancer's House

You can see I ran out of steam for the final rooms of the dungeon lair. I'm going to have to go back and spend some more time on them. Oh well!

Yes, I write almost a module for stuff. I'm overboard, and I know it, but I love it...Dig around on the site. You'll find other stuff for this campaign and others. Do what I do: steal it!

 

[WHW4]

Here are the DM's notes for a hex in my game.

I too would love to hear more about this randomly generated hex approach. I love sandbox fantasy. Please as many details as possible.

 

[Doug McCrae]

1. Look up or create some monsters or other foes that will challenge the PCs.
2. Think of interesting NPCs, locations, events.
3. Create connections between the aforementioned. A plot, if you will.
4. Give the PCs a reason to get started, a hook, such as financial gain or being asked to solve a problem.
5. OPTIONAL: Write some history/backstory as needed.

The process is the same for both adventures and campaigns.

As an example, for the most recent session I looked up the level appropriate monsters for a level 5 party - dark creepers, kenku, orcs, bugbears, chitines, apes, ustilagor and some other stuff. I also had a cool NPC, Silver, a civilised dryad who runs a business, Levesel Natural Resources, which exploits the natural resources of a forest called the Levesel. To tie this together I came up with the following:

The town of Sarstour is at the NW corner of a crumbling empire (the crumbling vibe creates tension and adventure opportunities). To the west is the Levesel with foresty type creatures (called tallemaja in this area) + useful plants and herbs. Beyond this are old ruins with weird monsters and beyond that, the spider-infested Hollow Hills. To the north are the mountains of the savage humanoids. I decided to name the bugbears and orcs 'gurks' and 'skogra' to confuse the players a bit and keep things interesting. There are two crime gangs in town, the Squawks (the kenku), and one run by the mayor's son, Unsound Erdan. Erdan is a mad wizard and has imprisoned and stolen the power of a fire spirit, Krasillix, in old tunnels beneath the river. Under the town are crypts containing undead and dark creepers. (I saw the Shadowfell as being a force bubbling up from deep underground.) My idea for a PC hook is that they have been hired by Silver to deal with her 'sister', Garland, another dryad who is raiding the empire and causing trouble for her operation.

At this point I have a problem - very little of my material is getting used. The PCs only have reason to go to the Levesel and won't get involved with the Squawks, crypts, Erdan, etc. Then I had the idea that a boy could've disappeared + needs rescued, the son of an alchemist, named Ulver the Spagyrist, working with Silver. The Squawks have been kidnapping ppl around the area, mostly transients, to 'feed' to the Dark Creepers, who use them in vile experiments. Silver knows this and suspects the Squawks so tips the PCs off that they are likely culprits. In fact though the boy has been kidnapped by gurks who actually have a small outpost in the town, and taken to a bigger slave camp up north.

Silver is heavily involved in the illegal trade of the drug, Black Blossom. originaly I thought she was working with the Squawks. But then why was she implicating them, that made no sense. So I changed it so she was working with Erdan, with the Squawks as rivals trying to muscle in. Another option I didn't think is that Silver was with the Squawks but wanted out so was using the PCs to get rid of them. That's actually a lot better. Oh well.

The PCs are supposed to infiltrate the Levesel creatures to get close to Garland. In doing so, their sympathies may change. They may discover that really it is Garland's lover, a shifter called Vask the Pursuer who is the real militant force.

If the PCs befriend the forest dwellers they may be asked to go into the Hollow Hills or Old Ruins to face the monsters that raid the Levesel. Alternately the nature spirits of the forest will tell the PCs about the suffering of a fellow elemental spirit, Krasillix, cruelly imprisoned. This will take the PCs back to town to face the real bad guy - the Enemy Within! Classic, eh? I like the symmetry of this structure.

Now I have tied all my material together into a sort of a kind of half-baked plot.

My adventure plan is *always* kept to one sheet of paper. I use additional sheets for names, info, stats etc, but I keep the overview always in front of me so I can eyeball it quickly.

This was my actual adventure plan:


EMPIRE IN FLAMES

1. Sarstour
Silver - Levesel Natural Resources
Mayor Granulph
Unsound Erdan

2. Ulver the Spagyrist, son Dastuce - 14
Squawks - Cracked Kemelin (their pub)
House in Badside (Gurks), Ruined Fort (Skogra)

3. Get Garland
Wild Men (wilden, satyrs, shifters), Tallemaja (nymphs, dryads, treants)
Circle of Trees - respected elder Tallemaja
Vask the Pursuer

4. Free the Flame
Crypts
Unsound Erdan, Krasillix

5. The Hollow Hills
Chitines, spiders

6. The Old Ruins
Apes, ustilagor, beholder gauth, oozes, dragon.


In addition to the plan I had a page of notes (the stuff mentioned above), and a map of the Sarstour area. I had no map of the crypts.

Of course what actually happened did not follow my plan. The PCs decided to massacre the Squawks (I'm a little unclear why, but you know what players are like), found out about the crypts, and went down there killing undead and dark creeepers and looking for Dastuce. They learned a lot about what the Squawks and creepers were up to.

 

[Gloomshroud]

As an aside...anyone know of a good sandbox/module combo pack? I mean? Can you synthesize the two? Have a well developed world...with a plot?

Thanks to you whom I have not yet thanked! All of these are going onto paper as I take notes. You're lifesavers.

 

[LostSoul]

I too would love to hear more about this randomly generated hex approach. I love sandbox fantasy. Please as many details as possible.

I'll start a thread in Plots & Places in the next few days where I create a setting using my method. I'll randomly generate a map via hexographer and populate it.

My random tables don't deal with sea/ocean hexes well. And by well, I mean at all!

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

Whenever I try to sit down and prep a full scenario, I tend to get writer's block within a few minutes at best. The system I use to remedy that is more or less the following:

1. Brainstorm. Write down a bunch of random ideas as they come to mind, silly or not. If nothing is coming up, try opening up the DMG or a book or something to get the ideas flowing
2. Pick out a few cool ideas from the brainstorm
3. Flesh them out enough to get a very vague outline of where I'd like things to go

After that, I improvise 90% of the session.

Sitting down and trying to write out my adventure plans causes me to get nowhere, fast; however, I'm excellent at coming up with ideas under time pressure. As long as I keep notes during the game and have some references nearby to keep things from being totally random (the local area map so I know what's in the direction the PCs are headed, that sort of thing), things tend to work out one hundred times better.

Here's an example of something I'd use; others might want more or less detail depending on their needs when running a game.

• Party finds out that villagers are being attacked (or disappearing?) along the nearby local river
• Rumors point to a number of possibilities: local bandits, a sea monster, a curse...
• Possible sources of info: while investigating, PCs may witness a kidnapping; they may look for tracks; clues might be left behind; someone might attempt to kidnap one of the PCs

Whenever I need an idea for something to happen next, I just pick an idea out of my list and run with it. Allows for a lot of player flexibility, and keeps my prep time light while still giving me enough to run with

Hope this helps!