SubDude
Explorer
The first post is so helpful, could you please post the overall outline too? Thanks for such a great idea!
D&D 5E New Session Prep Method
The first post is so helpful, could you please post the overall outline too? Thanks for such a great idea!
Jeff Carlsen
Adventurer
Sure, I can do that when I get home. Though don't expect too much.
Jeff Carlsen
Adventurer
Here are the general adventure notes. Most of the actual work came from reading books and thinking about what I wanted. The notes just list the major locations or events, with a few guiding notes. For the most part, each numbered section represents a session, but only because I only tend to have time for one thing per session.
Here are my notes [brackets indicate commentary added for this post]
Shadowfell Adventure
1. Burning Forest
- Beat the crap out of the PCs. I want them to feel like they're in constant danger.
- Den of Hunters, Neverwinter Campaign Setting p.211 (Shadowhounds).
2. Evernight
- They need to stop and rest.
- They also need to locate a way back.
- An abberation that feeds on fear finds them here.
- Needs something more.
Aside: People here know that there is a world where a ball of flame burns the sky for half the day. Some creatures can travel there so long as they remain hidden from the sky sentinal. [I ended up calling this the Scorched World]
3. Trip to shadow-Phandalin
- The players know they are being hunted.
- Endless Alleys [from the Neverwinter Campaign Setting]
- Suicide cliff (cave opens into material plane, but the only way out is in the face of a cliff too trecherous to clib. Belongings and suicide notes are left behind)
- The sense of being hunted. (could be a dracolich) [The previous adventure was to stop the raising of a dracolich, which blew up in their face and trapped them in the Shadowfell.]
4. Shadow-Phandalin
- A fortified town that is centuries old.
- A safe haven with friends and food.
- People eager to hear tales of the savage world.
- The PCs literal colorfulness gives them away as outsiders.
- They recieve directions to a a known portal, but the hunter alters their memories. [The hunter ends up with many names throughout my notes. I haven't settled on one.]
5. The Hunter's Den
- Here is where they discover that they weren't being stalked. They were being led.
6. The Portal
- Where the underground lake at Wave Echo Cave sits in the Material Plane, a massive crater lake with a portal in the center is here.
- Protected by a shadow dragon (formally a copper dragon, glad for some company)
- The shallow lake is littered with metal objects from the dragon's hoard. It sparkles under light
ENCOUNTER IDEAS
Shadow Hounds
Skeletal Wolves
Phantasmal Slayer (Heroes of Horror, p.152)
Bullete
Cloaker
Darkmantles
Ghosts
Ghouls/Ghasts
Gorgon
Mind Flayer
Bond Naga
Roper
Wight
Wraith
Beholder Zombie
Will-o-wisp
Bargest (Pathfinder Bestiary)
Bodek (Pathfinder Bestiary 2)
Dhampir (Pathfinder Bestiary 2)
Gray Render (Pathfinder Bestiary 2)
Nightshades (Pathfinder Bestiary 2)
Here are my notes [brackets indicate commentary added for this post]
Shadowfell Adventure
1. Burning Forest
- Beat the crap out of the PCs. I want them to feel like they're in constant danger.
- Den of Hunters, Neverwinter Campaign Setting p.211 (Shadowhounds).
2. Evernight
- They need to stop and rest.
- They also need to locate a way back.
- An abberation that feeds on fear finds them here.
- Needs something more.
Aside: People here know that there is a world where a ball of flame burns the sky for half the day. Some creatures can travel there so long as they remain hidden from the sky sentinal. [I ended up calling this the Scorched World]
3. Trip to shadow-Phandalin
- The players know they are being hunted.
- Endless Alleys [from the Neverwinter Campaign Setting]
- Suicide cliff (cave opens into material plane, but the only way out is in the face of a cliff too trecherous to clib. Belongings and suicide notes are left behind)
- The sense of being hunted. (could be a dracolich) [The previous adventure was to stop the raising of a dracolich, which blew up in their face and trapped them in the Shadowfell.]
4. Shadow-Phandalin
- A fortified town that is centuries old.
- A safe haven with friends and food.
- People eager to hear tales of the savage world.
- The PCs literal colorfulness gives them away as outsiders.
- They recieve directions to a a known portal, but the hunter alters their memories. [The hunter ends up with many names throughout my notes. I haven't settled on one.]
5. The Hunter's Den
- Here is where they discover that they weren't being stalked. They were being led.
6. The Portal
- Where the underground lake at Wave Echo Cave sits in the Material Plane, a massive crater lake with a portal in the center is here.
- Protected by a shadow dragon (formally a copper dragon, glad for some company)
- The shallow lake is littered with metal objects from the dragon's hoard. It sparkles under light
ENCOUNTER IDEAS
Shadow Hounds
Skeletal Wolves
Phantasmal Slayer (Heroes of Horror, p.152)
Bullete
Cloaker
Darkmantles
Ghosts
Ghouls/Ghasts
Gorgon
Mind Flayer
Bond Naga
Roper
Wight
Wraith
Beholder Zombie
Will-o-wisp
Bargest (Pathfinder Bestiary)
Bodek (Pathfinder Bestiary 2)
Dhampir (Pathfinder Bestiary 2)
Gray Render (Pathfinder Bestiary 2)
Nightshades (Pathfinder Bestiary 2)
ExploderWizard
Hero
I rekon we ought to do this a couple times per session to keep 'em from getting too uppity.
After the PCs win a great victory you needs to give 'em a good whoopin' to teach 'em their place.
SubDude
Explorer
Thank you very much; this is a good breakdown of your whole adventure and while I'm sure each note brings different things to my mind than you intended, the utility of such a high-level overview makes it a great idea.
Jeff Carlsen
Adventurer
As I sit here prepping today, I had some additional thoughts on the the possible differences between encounters, scenes, and interludes.
A lot of the differences are about what stage of prep I'm in. When writing my list of Encounters, I'm mostly just picking out monsters. I have just enough space per line for the monster name, the CR, and a small note about possible usage.
My scenes, then, are the important parts of the adventure. Because I have a lot of players, and I can't guarantee that any particular player will be able to make the session, scenes tend not to focus on a particular PC.
Interludes, then, are small moments, and these I really do like to tie to specific PCs where possible. Here's where I'll include traps, magical mysteries, and just things that will be interesting to a given player. Also, by the time I'm working on interludes, I've already chosen all the major scenes and encounters, so I have a better vision in my head of the whole adventure.
A lot of the differences are about what stage of prep I'm in. When writing my list of Encounters, I'm mostly just picking out monsters. I have just enough space per line for the monster name, the CR, and a small note about possible usage.
My scenes, then, are the important parts of the adventure. Because I have a lot of players, and I can't guarantee that any particular player will be able to make the session, scenes tend not to focus on a particular PC.
Interludes, then, are small moments, and these I really do like to tie to specific PCs where possible. Here's where I'll include traps, magical mysteries, and just things that will be interesting to a given player. Also, by the time I'm working on interludes, I've already chosen all the major scenes and encounters, so I have a better vision in my head of the whole adventure.
B. Chaos
First Post
I think player's should have session prep, too, and read How to Piss Off Your Dungeon Master.
GMMichael
Guide of Modos
This is my favorite part. Write up them NPCs to be interesting, but don't waste time with a bunch of stats/numbers. What I couldn't do is just have a list of locations. I'd need at least one overland map, and one tactical map. And if the PCs say "hey let's travel to" wherever, woe to them if they pick a place I haven't mapped out yet. All they'll get is a handful of wilderness encounters until the session ends, so I can draw the map up for next session!
Personally, I spend most critical prep time just writing up three encounters. The PCs have a habit of entertaining themselves, so I just use the planned encounters to keep the game session moving if it slows down.
Wednesday Boy
The Nerd WhoFell to Earth
That's a great point. Sometimes our group will do an ad hoc party session prep when the GM ask us what we plan to do that session. Or I'll consider some things my character might want to do. But I never go through a formalized player session prep process. I'm not in a campaign at the moment but next time I am, I'm going to give it a try!
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