How do you plan out your adventures?

[Fallen Seraph]

I usually plan out some broad strokes of an adventure, with some more detailed specific points that are likely to come across and let the players go about playing through the adventure as they see fit.

 

[Dykstrav]

I normally take a sort of backward approach to creating an adventure. I usually start with the ending and final conflict and then write backward to the beginning.

This is exactly what I do. It's easier to reach a narrative conclusion when you know where you're going with it out of the gate.

I typically plan the BBEG and how they plan to reach their goals, then leave some "wiggle room" or "blank space" so I can expand a subplot that the players latch on to or otherwise develop as needed. I don't meticulously plan out every encounter months beforehand, but I definitely like to have an idea of where I'm headed.

 

[Wombat]

I look over a few published adventures (any system ... I am strictly mining ideas) and use some of them in my games.

Most of my games, however, are created by me to fit my own game world(s). The adventure has to fit both the world and the characters involved, rather than being generic.

More importantly, how I design adventures is important -- I strongly plan out a strong set of hooks, a filled-in beginning, lots of NPCs and possible counters to the PCs progress ... and then get less and less specific as the adventure goes along.

If an area is passed by in the adventure, but I want to encounter found there, I simply shift it to somewhere else that would work.

The point is to be very, very flexible. No adventure survives first contact with PCs ... especially pre-published adventures and imaginative players!

 

[The Little Raven]

I don't have a single set method I use all the time, and instead use different methods for different games/campaigns.

This. Sometimes I have a collection of notes that tell me what plot points to get through that night. Sometimes I have a script that goes for weeks. Sometimes I'm just making things up on bathroom breaks. I never stick to the same game plan.

 

[Fenes]

A mixture of those:

I plan out my own adventures from scratch
I do not plan anything since adventures are completely player-driven, so I do everything on the fly

I design NPCs and their goals, and locations if needed, then the adventure develops from actions and reactions by both PCs and NPCs. Sometimes NPCs start something, sometimes the PCs start it.

 

[Nebulous]

Years ago i almost exclusively ran my own adventures. Now, i prefer to pick up premade ones and modify them some to make them unique to my campaign. It saves tons of time and leaves me with extra time to focus on models, minis, sound effects, props, etc.

 

[Ander00]

I think of a theme for the campaign, along with a potential end or two. Then, I mix and match adventures of my own design, published adventures, and parts/concepts from those, depending on what fits into the grand scheme of things at the time.


cheers

 

[Mercule]

A range from tweaking published stuff to planning it out completely, heavily favoring the latter. I used to do almost entirely on-the-fly DMing, but 3e cured me of that. In 1e, I could ad-lib entire dungeons full of humanoids. In 3e, even ad-libbing one can be troublesome.

 

[The Ghost]

I write up all the main encounters I want the PCs to face throughout the campaign with little to no thought about story or plot lines. Then I ad lib the plot as we go through the adventure; generally playing off of what my players are interested in pursuing and the in game ideas they come up with about what is happening in the world.

I like this as all the encounters are done before we ever start gaming but the players still feel as though it is their story that they are telling.

 

[el-remmen]

I make an outline/checklist for each session, with each point briefly covering the most likely outcomes.

These are supplemented with NPC stat blocks.

The actual adventure plots and some of the locations are usually lifted from issues of Dungeon.