How to YOU create an adventure?

[Uller]

I've been creating my own adventures for over 20 years now, and I like to think I have the process pretty well down pat. In fact, I can come up with an outline for an adventure that will provide material for 2-4 game sessions in about 4-6 hours of work. This includes maps, encounter notes, NPCs, hooks etc.

I usually create site-based adventures because those are the kind I enjoy the most both as a DM and a player, but I've found the same process works for event-based adventures as well...

Here's what I do:

I usually start with an image of or an idea about a cool encounter, NPC, event, item or place.

From there I come up with enough detail for the location of the adventure to suit my needs (a roughed out map for a site-based adventure or notes about the setting and small maps of generic locations for an event based one).

Next I think of the main encounter(s) and place them. This will usually be from 1-3 encounters. Hopefully at least one will be non-combat (either a puzzle, role-playing or something to encourage PCs who are not designed to be power-gamed hack 'n slashers).

Then I flesh things out by populating the adventure with 2-6 minor encounters (depending on how long I want the adventure to be). Some of these will be necessary to success or give the PCs clues or ways around the main encounters or other things that can help them. Others will be completely unrelated to the adventure but will give the players the feeling that there is more to the world than just this adventure (think Tom Bombadil). Still others might be red herrings or give the players hooks into unrelated adventures. Again, hopefully some of these encounters will be non-combat (or at least offer the chance to avoid combat).

For each encounter, I ask myself questions like "Why are these guys here?" "What are they doing?" "What are their plans for the future?" "What is their relationship to the other encounters?" etc.

Now I go back through and detail everything more completely. I make the map(s) more detailed, create a "flow chart" with more detailed ways for the PCs to get from one encounter to the next, detail the NPCs and monsters in an interesting way, add some treasure, write up interesting area descriptions, find some pictures or create hand outs etc. At this point, I have a playable adventure. Done.

So here is an example...

My players and I are trying on-line D&D. So I recently created an adventure for our trial run that could be played out in 3-4 hours. I started with a site: an abandoned keep. I thought it would be cool if this involved ghouls, murder and dangerous magic.

So I made a map of a small keep. Then I decided it would be populated by ghouls and other minor undead. Why? How'd they get there?

I decided the ghouls were the former owner of the keep and his familly. They were murdered...by whom? For what? I didn't know yet...I gave the main ghoul (ghast actually) an Amulet of Charisma +4 (with some negative side effects that are yet to be determined).

So I place an encounter with the ghast under the keeps tower and with two other ghouls in the upper chamber of the tower. To flesh things out, I placed an encounter with zombies and skeletons in the main hall and some giant bees in the base of the tower (just so not every encounter is with undead).

So...how did all this stuff get here? Well...the zombies and skeletons are other servants of the keep's owners. The ghast is a merchant and the ghouls are his wife and daughter.

Why were they murdered and turned to ghouls? The ghast (Kinris Feldsmoor) was a merchant in life. He recently hit it big and used the money from a recent big sale to build his home. His customer was an evil cleric who bought a large amount of onyx and was...unhappy with the quality of the goods. Why? Ahh...the amulet! Kinris had a brother and partner, Thurgis who covetted the amulet and secretly hated his brother. So he framed his brother by providing bogus onyx to the cleric and making it look like it was his brothers fault. So one night, the cleric showed up and murdered Kinris and his familly and turned them into undead. The amulet was hidden so the cleric never found it, but Kinris's ghoul found it later (probably residual memories of where he hid it).

Now the hook...Thurgis hires the party to "investigate" what happened to his brother and clear out any evil in the house. Failing that, retrieve any valuables (especially the amulet) and return it to him.

Detail the map and the encounters and I'm done....

I ran this adventure and it worked pretty well.

A word on CRs...I use the CR system pretty heavily as a guidline for balancing the encounters. Of course, this is only a (very rough) estimate. I still think about the capabilities of the party and such to make sure things aren't too easy or too hard. So far, my final estimations have been pretty dead on accurate.

For instance...In an upcoming adventure, I'm using bugbears. Bugbears are CR 2 creatures...So are ogres. Now...you can't seriously make the case that bugbears and ogres are an equal challenge to the party. So I increased the number of bugbears by 33%-50% in order to compensate. So instead of 8 bugbears in an EL 8 encounter(yeah right) I figure it would be more like 12. That seems like at least a bit more of a challenge...

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I think, I do it very similar, just only for 2 years now, not 20 , and I am not as fast as you are (On the other hand, we might play longer adventures and have longer sessions than you).

Let`s see a more unusual example... :
We had a campaign where the DM was not good in storytelling (even with prewritten adventures) or gamemastering.
We had just an adventure, where we fought a very nasty Dragon, that was far above our abilities (we are level 16, his CR was 24+), but we managed (due to "incompetence of the master") to survive.
Well, I thougt what could have been done with the adventure, and I figure out: Much more. So, I am not considering developing it further, combine some older adventures, and make a greater plot about major artifacts, a lost Dragon Species, and the great plans of a Dragon...

In the more usual adventures, I have some basic ideas - a villain, a plot hook for the forthcoming of the campaign, and similar things. As an example, I plan an invasion in my campaign world, and one of the first spot that will be seen of this, is the infiltration of an important communication stations by some of the invaders - probably nobody will get the clue, that this will be more important in the long run, but later, they might remind it.

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[Uller]

In the more usual adventures, I have some basic ideas - a villain, a plot hook for the forthcoming of the campaign, and similar things. As an example, I plan an invasion in my campaign world, and one of the first spot that will be seen of this, is the infiltration of an important communication stations by some of the invaders - probably nobody will get the clue, that this will be more important in the long run, but later, they might remind it.

That's a pretty cool way of handling things. It should give the PCs a notion that life is happening around them.

One thing that I didn't mention in my original post: When I create an adventure, I try to avoid reliance on the outcome of events or the sequence of them. In other words, I try not to think..."okay...first X will happen, then Y and that will lead to Z." I just try to set everything up sort of like dominoes. The various NPCs are in place and probably coming and going and living their lives and carrying out their own plans. The PCs sort of walk into that. I have an idea how things might fall out, but if the PCs make decisions that lead to that changing, then great. The PCs feel like they can make a difference because they do...

 

[mmadsen]

One idea I may start using came up in the Iron DM "Home Game": get a list of random ingredients, and figure out a way to make them work. Oddly enough, for any six ingredients, you'll see a way to make five of them fit. If you're not actually competing in an Iron DM competition, hey, you're fine.

 

[willpax]

Many of my adventures deal with humans and other intelligent NPCs in urban areas, so I usually pursue a different tack.

I usually start with the institutions that are dominant in the area, and think about their goals and agendas. Usually, that will suggest a few NPCs, who I then stat out minimally. The NPCs need places to live and shop, friends and enemies, and some sort of supporting framework (generic grunts).

At this point I might make a kind of abstract map showing where important places and people are in relation to each other. It will suggest other NPCs and possible plots.

I usually try to position the overlapping plots of the various groups already present so that the PCs are coming in at a point that approaches a crisis (for the easy dramatic effect). I will sometimes plot out what will happen in the PCs don't intervene, but that becomes useless to pursue for any significant length of time.

I then write out: the groups, noting important resources, agendas and goals, allies and enemies, and give a few characterizing traits to the important NPCs. I will occasionally skethc out a crude layout if there is an important site, trying to keep the place within the resources of the group in question. Often, I make up whatever areas I need on the spot.

I then decide what the first hook will be--who will the PCs meet first, and what will they learn. Sometimes, I give several, forcing them to choose what leads to pursue. The overall effect is that this is a busy world with many things going on that don't depend on the players.

I also take a moment to think about previous encounters that might come back to haunt them--who is hunting the players, who is starting to notice the players and think of them as a potential threat, and so on.

Currently, the players are in a large city, facing the following threats: a group of northern semi-civilized tribes seem to be involved in a local political spat between the chief religious figure and a small but powerful magical academy located just outside the city; a small group of Dwarven smiths have learned through merchant contacts that the local gladiatorial games might be rigged, inspiring two of the PCs to attempt to infiltrate some gladiator guilds; the bard PC has heard of a performer's competition, and is plotting to use magic to give himself an advantage to win the large cash prize; the players have uncovered a mercenary who seems to be attempting to frame the wizard's guild, although this involvement with local politics gets the mercenary in trouble with his own band; unbeknownst to the players, an investiogator from another land has finally tracked the players here, and is trying to round up enough muscle to capture them.

All of this is condensed into one sketchy city map and about eight pages of notes and NPCs. It should be enough material for several sessions.

I realize I may be a bit excessive. One of my players joked in an email: "plot threads started: 28. plot threads finished: 0." But they're having fun.

 

[Ranes]

I usually start an adventure design by creating a primary adversary, in the form of an npc or intelligent monster. I decide what it is, what its goals are, why its goals are what they are and how it is going to try to achieve them. Once I have some idea of these elements, I try to flesh them out and complement them with what the adversary has done so far. This helps inspire encounters of all kinds, as well as the rest of the adventure cast. From there, I work out locations and events that tie in to the ideas I've got so far and develop potential pc hooks. When I have all of those, I try to think through the consequences of the pc disengagement from the hooks and possible variations of conflict resolution. I consider degrees of failure in dealing with the adversary and the consequences of success for either side, both of which are often the seeds of future adventures in a campaign.

If I'm using any published adventure or campaign material, I'll look for something deep in the background that will inspire a rounded adversary and give him, her or it a raison d'etre. For instance, I don't actually run an FR campaign but the idea of a svirfneblin city being overrun by the drow and their allies (ie Blingdenstone), has got me working on Snervith, a power-crazed svirfneblin wizard who escaped the invasion but who now wishes to mount an expedition to return there, in order to retrieve certain possessions he hid prior to making his escape. I'd tell you more but you never know who might be reading.

 

[KnowTheToe]

I also start with a vision of a particular scene or villian and work outword, creating a simple outline and then filling in the details.

The problem I have is I try to encompass too large of a storyline and become bogged down. Most of that work goes to waste because PCs will follow different facets of the story than you predict. I try to plan too far in advance, but can not help myself. I love the stories as much as the game.

 

[mmadsen]

Let's be honest; another great way to "create" an adventure is to take an existing adventure -- one you bought, or one you got free off the net -- and to go through it "fixing" everything you don't like.

 

[Rune]

I take a list of six seemingly unrelated ingredients (or nine, in certain circumstances), jot down a few ideas and hash out the core of the adventure, staying up until the later early hours of the morning, in order to type up the adventure in its entirety within twenty-four hours, after which time, my adventure would be disqualified...

Or, er...

Something like that...