Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
The challenges of high level adventure design.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="LordEntrails" data-source="post: 8930262" data-attributes="member: 6804070"><p>Making a high level adventure for D&D 5e that is suitable for publishing...</p><p>To me the biggest challenges are:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">potential diversity of the party (class, features, optimization, magic, etc)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">diversity of the player's problem solving skills and tactical competence</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">DM expectations and abilities</li> </ul><p></p><p>So how do/would I approach these?</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Understanding that the adventure is going to need a section to educate the DM on expectations and how to run the adventure.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Flexibility in challenges</li> </ul><p></p><p>The first is fairly easy, about all you can do is write a few well written paragraphs on explaining how flexibility is important, that the solutions (even those presented in the adventure) are only examples and guidelines. That the DM may be able to run the adventure as written, BUT that the players may well go in directions not foreseen and therefore adaptability is important.</p><p></p><p>Now, how do you write an adventure that is flexible? Factions that have motivations is the first step.</p><p></p><p>This can be several competing factions that the party has to overcome (i.e. Dragon Heist Remix) or a single BBEG that has various resources that they can draw upon as needed. And then the DM needs to adjust what the NPCs do based upon what the players do. (The players scry the location of the BBEG and skip everything? Well it was a well-prepared trap, or...). But, don't punish players for creative solutions and only give the illusion of player agency.</p><p></p><p>Encounters are often planned with pools of re-usable resources (NPCs) to call upon. i..e pre-create ~10 different groups of (re-usable) adversaries (a set of guards, of scouts, of shock troops, of casters, of...) and then mix and match and pull them into encounters either alone or to supplement the major opponent of some obstacle. This makes the design easy, and flexible, while maintaining a "theme" (i.e. all 10 groups are creature types related to the adventure, cult, BBEG.) Another key feature of this approach is that each encounter can vary in difficulty by letting the DM call in waves; i.e. the location has a set of guards, but they call for help and are soon joined by a party of caster and/or shock troops. Whatever the DM needs to do to provide the appropriate challenge for that encounter.</p><p></p><p>Which means you have to indicate how challenging each encounter should be in your design and how to adjust it. (i.e. this encounter should be a significant challenge for the party, try to insure they use half of their daily resources here.) You can still do 6-8 encounters/day if that makes sense. Or go with daily nova fights. It all depends on your adventure type and style.</p><p></p><p>And then remember that a high-level adventure probably should not be about defeating a dracolich in combat. Or just about the combat. But perhaps there are political, social, or strategic objectives that have to be solved before you can actually kill the dracolich. (i.e. maybe the dracolich has a phylactery, and not only do you have to find it, and steal it out from the vaults of the High Captain of Luskan. But then you have to make your way to a source of primordial fire to destroy it. Then you have to pin down the dracolich so it actually stands and fights. Then you get to kill it in combat, all before it raises an army of undead to swarm your beloved city.</p><p></p><p>Now you have a high level adventure that is flexible. Flexible because the party can solve each step in numerous ways. Flexible because combats can be adjusted based upon the abilities of the players and characters. And it has the content and outline that makes it publishable.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="LordEntrails, post: 8930262, member: 6804070"] Making a high level adventure for D&D 5e that is suitable for publishing... To me the biggest challenges are: [LIST] [*]potential diversity of the party (class, features, optimization, magic, etc) [*]diversity of the player's problem solving skills and tactical competence [*]DM expectations and abilities [/LIST] So how do/would I approach these? [LIST] [*]Understanding that the adventure is going to need a section to educate the DM on expectations and how to run the adventure. [*]Flexibility in challenges [/LIST] The first is fairly easy, about all you can do is write a few well written paragraphs on explaining how flexibility is important, that the solutions (even those presented in the adventure) are only examples and guidelines. That the DM may be able to run the adventure as written, BUT that the players may well go in directions not foreseen and therefore adaptability is important. Now, how do you write an adventure that is flexible? Factions that have motivations is the first step. This can be several competing factions that the party has to overcome (i.e. Dragon Heist Remix) or a single BBEG that has various resources that they can draw upon as needed. And then the DM needs to adjust what the NPCs do based upon what the players do. (The players scry the location of the BBEG and skip everything? Well it was a well-prepared trap, or...). But, don't punish players for creative solutions and only give the illusion of player agency. Encounters are often planned with pools of re-usable resources (NPCs) to call upon. i..e pre-create ~10 different groups of (re-usable) adversaries (a set of guards, of scouts, of shock troops, of casters, of...) and then mix and match and pull them into encounters either alone or to supplement the major opponent of some obstacle. This makes the design easy, and flexible, while maintaining a "theme" (i.e. all 10 groups are creature types related to the adventure, cult, BBEG.) Another key feature of this approach is that each encounter can vary in difficulty by letting the DM call in waves; i.e. the location has a set of guards, but they call for help and are soon joined by a party of caster and/or shock troops. Whatever the DM needs to do to provide the appropriate challenge for that encounter. Which means you have to indicate how challenging each encounter should be in your design and how to adjust it. (i.e. this encounter should be a significant challenge for the party, try to insure they use half of their daily resources here.) You can still do 6-8 encounters/day if that makes sense. Or go with daily nova fights. It all depends on your adventure type and style. And then remember that a high-level adventure probably should not be about defeating a dracolich in combat. Or just about the combat. But perhaps there are political, social, or strategic objectives that have to be solved before you can actually kill the dracolich. (i.e. maybe the dracolich has a phylactery, and not only do you have to find it, and steal it out from the vaults of the High Captain of Luskan. But then you have to make your way to a source of primordial fire to destroy it. Then you have to pin down the dracolich so it actually stands and fights. Then you get to kill it in combat, all before it raises an army of undead to swarm your beloved city. Now you have a high level adventure that is flexible. Flexible because the party can solve each step in numerous ways. Flexible because combats can be adjusted based upon the abilities of the players and characters. And it has the content and outline that makes it publishable. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
The challenges of high level adventure design.
Top