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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 2747548" data-attributes="member: 26473">I'll echo three suggestions that have already been offered:1. Metaplots: Gotta have 'em. These are the events of the game-world going on in the background, and that may be brought into the foreground by the adventurers' choices. Some may be local, some may be regional, and one or two may be world-encompassing.These metaplots get folded into the news of the land, rumors in taverns, chance meetings, and so on. For example, one metaplot could be a band of slavers establishing a fortress and raiding a stretch of coastline - unknown to anyone (except the chief of the slavers) they are working surreptitiously for the monarch of principality across the sea. This translates into a town crier reporting the sacking of a market town along the coast a fortnight ago, a grizzled man deep in his cups who's heard that the slavers are killing men and stealing women and children only, and a royal messenger carrying a missive to a frontier outpost regarding the slavers' activity.Note that none of these are 'plot hooks' per se: no one's advertising for adventurers to battle the slavers, the grizzled man isn't hiring someone to track down his missing wife and son, and the messenger isn't looking for protection on his way to the outpost. It's merely information about what's going on in the game-world, and the characters can act on it or not as they please: they may decide to see if anyone is looking for adventurers for hire, decide to root out the slavers because it's "the right thing to do," or find the slavers and join up - or they may decide to go off and become pirates, or travel across a frozen waste in search of a mysterious wizard who may have a spell one of the party spellcasters seeks to add to her spellbook.Each metaplot should have a rough timeline - keeping track of the passage time can be rather important as events take place with or without the players' characters' participation - and if you really want to get flashy, find ways for a couple of metaplots to interact with one another.2. NPCs: Gotta be three-dimensional. In my games I spend more time on NPCs than I do just about anything else once the initial world-creation process is complete. I don't develop plots so much as I come up with non-player characters, their affiliations, and their goals - the 'plots' such as they are arise from the interaction of these characters. Usually the adventurers will develop a favorable relationship with one or more NPCs that can be the source of information and connections to others in the game-world - the players should be encouraged to exploit these resources.3. Character Goals: Gotta be compatible. One adventurer looking to find his long-lost brother, another looking to become a barbarian warlord, and another who wants to be the richest second-story burglar in the largest metropolis of the land may find themselves competing to advance their individual plot lines. This is a metagame issue that needs to be resolved before the game begins - since there is no plot hook to draw together disparate characters behind a common goal, the adventurers must begin with a common goal, a reason to adventure together, right from the giddyup.I hope this helps. As a player and GM, these sorts of games are my favorite. Good luck!</blockquote>

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