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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vanifae" data-source="post: 5307333" data-attributes="member: 58765">Thanks, I tend to just like to get everything I can down at first.Well I suppose I can cover how I do adventures, I sort of go with the narrow-broad-narrow design as well in contrast to my campaign and overall story prep my adventure prep is pretty slim with a focus on major characters, set pieces, and the goal I hope to achieve for the session.Adventure DesignI adopted this style from my Legend of the Five Rings game I also run.  I basically focus on really two well three things, the third is somewhat 4th Edition D&D specific but I will mention it.  The first thing is I write down any major characters or locations that will figure prominently in the adventure/session.  I focus on characters that I feel will have agency and affect the plot; major helpful NPCs, villains, or plot movers in the story.  Invariably I will probably wing more during the session but these are people that I feel will have an impact on the story in some way even if only to serve to jumpstart or just move the plot from Point A to Point B.An example taken from my previous outline:[sblock]Desha: A young half-elf girl, perhaps no more than fourteen or fifteen marked for death was the only survivor of a caravan that was slaughtered by raiders.  They took her used her and sold her into slavery, which is how she ended up in the slave levy.  She is not much of a fighter and knows enough to put the sharp end of a dagger towards her enemy.  She is from a free slave village, Tam’s Rest, and knows how to get there from this current location.  She does not know much else of worth and is currently dying when the PCs find her, victim of a terrible stab wound and the necrotic energy from the Dragon.  Her fate is in their hands but she will most likely die without some kind of intervention, before she expires she tells them of a safe haven and to tell her sister Sadira that she loved her.[/sblock]A couple of things from this is that I have some background data that probably may not see the light of day but if the PCs choose to save her which is a possibility then I can fully flesh out her personality from these broad strokes.  I list her because she serves a purpose of giving the PCs direction after the first encounter.  The names in red are places/things I may not have described yet but are important and so I don’t want to forget them as I continue my plotting.  Also I have an immediate quest I can create from this, simple one but something to draw them along to my next target.  Knowing my players it may be enough.I also do the same with locations I figure will be important:[sblock]Muddy Oasis: Calling this location an oasis is being generous but it provides freshwater, not overly clean but enough to sustain the heroes and refill their strength and canteens.  There is a single palm tree and some shrubs overlooking the muddy watering hole amidst the yellow-red wastes, the corpulent red sun blazing down on relentlessly.  A small group of ssurran have claimed the oasis as their own and although not openly hostile it will take either an act of violence or one of diplomacy for the group to use the water to resupply.  Considering this is the first water they may have seen in a few days, they won’t have many options.[/sblock]In this case I use locations to set up my main set piece locations I figure will either be important for dramatic non-combat scenes or great backdrops for combat encounters; often times both.  I also put locations I think will be important to the story or the characters will spend a great deal of their time in or around.I usually have a page or two of these kinds of notes for reference.  I then focus on the main encounters I like that I think will be fun, thematic and exciting.  So I would probably create 3-4 encounters that I would like to do I may not actually get to them all or any of them depending on what characters do, but it gives me content to work with.  So I would probably at this point focus on the initial encounter of the adventure; the battle against the templar and his guards while the Dragon is doing whatever crazy thing he is doing.I want it to feel epic right out of the gate even if the encounter will probably be on the easy side, they won’t have any armor and access to fairly simple weapons to start with. I won’t really bore with the details but this is where I figure out the encounter make-up, terrain effects, and other stuff to make it a fun combat encounter.  Once I have this done for about 3-4 encounters, also includes skill challenges, I go over my notes see if it’s all semi-consistent and I usually stop.I am a visual person so I usually develop scenes, which is how I navigate my story is via scenes like in a movie or show.  Once I have a general flow of scenes semi-pieced together I note those as well often tied to my encounters and I have a loose framework of events.  I keep it flexible and I leave some holes for the player to fill in, they usually always do and I go with the flow.  I guess this seems like a bunch of prep but basically to summarize I do the following:1.    I create my major characters and locations that I consider important to the goal/story I am trying to tell.  I give them some info enough for me to role play them effectively and get a grasp of why they are here and what they are doing.2.    I construct encounters around scenes and try to get a general flow of events.  If/then usually, cause and effect kind of flow.  Keep it broad so there are a number of ways one can go from one scene to the other and even notes on what to do if one scene is skipped in favor of another; forks in the road.  Generate quests.3.    Mentally prepare and piece it all together and make sure it makes semi-sense.  Leave some holes for the players to fill in the gaps.  Focus on keeping things flowing, using my notes to make sure it makes sense.  Then it’s game on.</blockquote>

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