DMs, How do you write your adventures?

[Cougar]

Ok, pretty simple question, but I am sure with as wide and varied answers as is possible.

How do the DMs out there (that don't constantly wing it) write your adventures? I have been DMing for about three years now and I have yet to find a method that really works for me. Do you find it best to outline everything? Write detailed descriptions to read to your players? Pick out monsters and design NPCs before and than weave the world on the fly? Any ideas or thoughts here would help me, and I am sure some others, out.


Thanks for your time.

 

[Fieari]

Step 1: Design a world, or use one ready made.
Step 2: Design important NPCs, with goals and abilities.
Step 3: Sit your players into said world. Let them play, and you play the NPCs in the background.

I find that this tends to work fairly well.

 

[Cougar]

Step 1: Design a world, or use one ready made.
Step 2: Design important NPCs, with goals and abilities.
Step 3: Sit your players into said world. Let them play, and you play the NPCs in the background.

I find that this tends to work fairly well.

Well Fieari, this is good advice, but not exactly what I was hoping for. When you DM, don't you have a plot that your PCs are following? Or are they just running around doing what they want and you provide the stage for them? That works, but it isn't what I am after. I ran a game like that and it was very fun for everyone, but now I am looking for the save the universe plot-type game! Even so, you have to prepare SOMETHING.


My problem is not envisioning a campaign or an story arc, but actually coming up with enough "script" (for lack of a better word) to fill an eight (sometimes more) hour session. I find it difficult to get myself organized and this makes it near impossible to have a cohesive adventure session.

I am DMing in Kalamar right now and ran through the excellent Coin Trilogy set of modules. I wanted to personalize the game, which I did quite well, (according to my players) by introducing some extra things, just a few a session. But now the modules are over and the PCs are on their own and want to deal with the plot I set up. Only problem is, the adventure prep was easy with the modules. I could read them minutes before the game and if we went longer than I had anticipated I could read more of the module. I hate using modules as a crutch because even the good ones feel canned to me. Even so, it wouldn't be appropriate NOW, due to my plot lines.

So, the question I am asking is what method do you as DMs use to write what is going to happen during your very next session?

 

[Whisper72]

Okay, let me have a shot. Usually, I wing most things, but I DO have a general plotline written out. The way I do this is using some 'guidelines' as follows:

- Do NOT write in detail the world and everything, leave room to improvise
- DO write up the important NPCs (both on the 'good' side and the main villains)
- Create a believable history for the antagonists (i.e. WHY is the evil Lich trying to conquer the world? 'what happened in his childhood to be this way'
- To make things 'grand' have a rich history for the main villains (i.e. the Lich used to be the king of this and that kingdom, was overthrown, and now seeks revenge as beeline, but write out a bunch of important details:
- large important battles that took place
- stories about people who were important at the time (generals, mages etc.)

- then speckle your adventures with encounters from this history, i.e. when the PC's loot some random tomb, make it such that the main interred person so happens to be the general who fell during the siege of whatever, and leave some clues about the main villain in ancient texts found in the tomb etc.

Slowly build up a realization that the main villain is about, what his plans are etc. do not introduce the main villain early on, leave the PC's a bit in the dark. Let THEM come to the realization that the name of the villain is the same as that found in the ancient texts for example...

The trick is IMHO to sprinkle the campaign with events which all lead to one thing without railroading the PC's through a series of set events that have to happen in sequence.

 

[Whisper72]

Hmmm.. if you have any more specific questions on 'how to' I'd be happy to share my view on them.

 

[Emperor Valerian]

So far, I tend to divide my planning into different stages:

1) Next Session: I develop specific monsters for the party to face, treasure, outline of events, etc.
2) Session beyond next: Very broad outline. Important NPCs might be fleshed out, but little else. Lets me take into account things the PCs do to sway the story.
3) Long Term: Very very basic idea of what happens (this is the BBEG, etc.). But very little beyond that.


Interestingly, I actually write out most of my NPCs, treasures, and story plots while watching basketball games on TV. I'm not sure what it is, but during timeouts or commercial breaks, my pencil works feverishly copying stats until the game starts up again.

I'm odd

 

[Frostmarrow]

I decide upon a three themes. For example; Roses, barbed wire and golded cups. I come up with a plot that is simple enough to grasp even though it's late and you haven't been paying full attention (as player). Then I try to describe the plot along with the themes on a few letter-sized papers using tidbits of text, small sketches of things and people, and maps. If I need to, I copy stuff from the SRD and print out for handy reference.

The themes are the most important as those are the things that make the game cool. I pick new stuff everytime even though some things always works (e.g. roses). If I've been impressed by something lately it will find a place 'here'.

 

[Chain Lightning]

I first make sure I know what tastes my players are into. Lots of action? Lots of dialogue? Dungeon crawling? City intrigue? Stuff like that.

Then I write broad adventure hooks based on that. Also based on what I think would be fun for them. For instance: we did a dungeon crawl last adventure, next adventure is about them lost in a series of haunted canyons. I try to vary the "flavors" of each adventure. I label each adventure as such so I know what "flavors" I'm using too much or which "flavors" I haven't even given yet.

After that, I come up with what the antagonist is all about. Now, keep in mind, the antagonist isn't always living beings. Such as the adventure to escape the haunted canyons. In that case, the antagonist is a location. Anyways, if its a mad wizard trying to break into a library for instance, I pretend to be the mad wizard and make my plans.

-I make up stats for NPCs.
-I make up personalities at same time.
-I make up spare NPCs, just in case PCs wander off and do 'extra' stuff.
-I draw up rough maps.
-After that: I 'wing it' all.

Some of my DMing style also includes trying to keep some air of realism in motivations and action/reaction. If a PC doesn't take the side quest that helps save the farmer's daughter from the wizard, I don't just leave it at that. Like the daughter just ceases to exist afterwards. I make a note as to what happens to her because she isn't rescued (as well as her Father's reaction)....and that may come up fairly soon....or in the future (in a cool "ah, remember that one time when...." type connection).

Or also, if they choose not to stop the wizard from raiding that library, I sigh and break out another back-up adventure. But.......I make a note that this wizard now has gotten that special book that makes him that much more dangerous now. This can come around and effect the PCs in different ways.

Also, something I do a lot to add realism: If the wizard plans entering the library 4 days from the start of the adventure, I don't 'push back' the time just because the players stopped to goof off on the way. The wizard still goes ahead as planned regardless of what the players do. Now, this may sound tryanical....but it actually makes for cool gameply IMHO. The adventure suddenly turns from stopping the wizard....to now chasing after him and getting the book back. Because the theft has already happened. These unexpected changes may frustrate other DMs, but I like 'em! It keeps my job from being predictable!

I always like to narrate in such a style that makes the PCs feel like they're not being railroaded. I'm not sure how other groups are (I'm sure it differs from one group to the next) but with my group, the less hints and pushes I hurl their way to get on track, the better they stay on track. I guess because, after they get the initial story starter, they feel the rest is up to them. If I keep making it obvious they need to go a certain direction, the more they either resist it or dislike it because they can start to obviously see what the story is all about. They like it when they can figure it out for themselves.

Yes, this can make for PCs going WAY OFF the story sometimes, but really...I haven't encountered that too often. Plus, if you know the motivations and personalities of major key players around the kingdom you're playing in...its easy to free-form and wing a new adventure up on the spot.

Kind of a simple way to describe my basic adventure writing.

 

[Morpheus]

There are many different ways to plan an adventure and I think I use all of them. The one thing I would advise is to flesh out your NPCs. I use index cards and on one side are the NPC's combat stats and on the other side I put the roleplaying stats (i.e. Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, any Knowledge, Craft or Profession skills and Sense Motive). I also write what languages the NPC knows and a few notes about their personality.
Once I have my NPCs made, I write down the plot of the adventure on index cards (notice a trend? ). I try to leave the plot open-ended so that the PCs have plenty of room to manuever. As an example, last session the PCs had dinner with the Consul of the bad guys of the setting (Dawnforge-the Valhedar Dominion). I wrote down what Maladon knew and what his goals were. I also wrote down a few events that would occur during the dinner. The result-The PCs had a blast and got the information they were looking for (but not without a price).
For more very good advice on all things roleplaying for the GM, go to:

www.roleplayingtips.com and look under the archives.

 

[Whisper72]

Hmmm... yeah, good idea to always have a bunch of NPC's for all occasions ready.

What also always helps, is have a bunch of 'random encounters' ready along the lines of:

- on the road from A to B you pass a ruined tower from which you suddenly hear a bloodcurdling scream (and have a small dungeon type adventure where you need to rescue somebody or whatever)
- a bandit encounter

Whatever, several encounters that are not dependent upon time or place and have no real direct plot-advancing elements baked into them beforehand (this you could do on the fly with a few subtle substitutions), so you'll be ready if the PC's decide not to take the initial bait you've thrown at them, but decide to go someplace else... Let the adventure find THEM in stead of them having to go to the adventure....