What Does An Adventure With Vanilla Elements Need To Sell?

[Kaodi]

From time to time I think I should try to write an adventure in a publishable format, though more than likely, having no experience, the first effort (or several), if it was finished, would probably be more something to give away to see what people thought and to get the ball rolling.

The system I would go with at this point would be Pathfinder. Pathfinder, however, has a fair amount of material out for it at this point in their Pathfinder Reference Document. But since this would be a first effort, I was thinking that it might be wise to try and keep thing simple, i.e. stick to the Core Rulebook, Bestiary, and GameMastery Guide.

The question then is: do you need anything more than these basic elements to write a good adventure that people would want to play? If staying vanilla would make things more difficult, what sort of things could you emphasize to compensate? Good characterization? Engaging sets? A really unique plot?

Not that any of this is going to happen. I have made a lot of pronouncements in my life that I have failed to back up. But I think the question might be useful even just so far as home games are concerned.

 

[Argyle King]

chocolate sprinkles

 

[Nellisir]

The elements a good adventure needs are: plot, good writing, strong editing, interesting but logical consequences, and well-conceived monsters/opponents/sites/NPCs. You don't need those things to compensate for a lack of "exciting" game mechanics; you need those for a good adventure, period.

Worrying about "vanilla" game mechanics is like worrying about your uniform before a football game. It doesn't matter what the uniform is like if your playing sucks.

 

[Stormonu]

A compelling or otherwise interesting villain can turn a mediocre adventure into a great adventure. Count Strahd von Zoravich, Lord Soth the Death Knight, Lord Verminaard, Acerek the Demilich, Lolth, Lareth the Beautiful. A cool villain is one whose danger is matched with motive and personality. A weak villain with a deep background will be forgotten. But a villain whose background drives him into deadly opposition with the party of adventurers - who dogs their every step, plans for the party's defeat and has the power to carry that defeat out if not stopped - he or she will be remembered for some time to come.

Also, unusual settings can help raise an otherwise straight-forward adventure into an interesting foray. The trap-tomb of Acerek, the puzzling corridors of White Plume Mountain, the haunted castle of Ravenloft.

Start your adventure with a sentence - what is it about? Think up four encounters (puzzles, traps, monsters, bosses, whatever) to go with your adventure and then build from there. Link and expand it as needed.

For example: "A fiendish kobold has driven local miners out just shortly after a silver vein was struck.

Encounter 1 - The Trapped Entrance: The kobold has rigged the main entrance to deter intruders. Concealed bear traps, deadfalls and pits litter the entryway with a kobold guard nearby to finish off anyone caught in the traps. Characters can take one of two passages that lead to encounter 2 or encounter 3.

Encounter 2 - Warrens: kobold warriors relax in here, believing themselves to be safe from outside attack. If the party uses stealth, they can off the guards in the absconded miner's barracks one or two at a time. If they raise the alarm, the party faces a massed assault by kobolds who use their environment to their advantage to impede the party's progress. Navigating the gauntlet leads to Encounter 4.

Encounter 3 - The Silverlode: most of the silver has been mined with the aid of an enslaved Xorn. If the characters can kill its kobold captors and free it, it will in turn lead the characters through side passages to avoid the kobold king's bodyguards and take them directly to the kobold king himself. If the xorn flees, the party will have to backtrack to Encounter 2. If they befriend the xorn, they are led to Encounter 4.

Encounter 4 - The Horned King: Waiting here is a spellcasting psuedodragon who has taken on the mantle of the kobold king. Thoroughly corrupted by greed, the horned king uses illusions to disguise himself as a kobold to lead the others. If the party can catch him unaware, they have a chance to convince the kobold king to abandon the mine and search for greener pastures. If the kobold king is allowed to prepare, he can give the characters a hard fight.

 

[Quickleaf]

Wolfgang Baur wrote a 6 part article about adventure writing that strikes me as some of the better advice out there: Adventure Builder Archive.

Also keep in mind your adventure's "scope", that is don't throw in needless filler, go exactly as global or as local as the story demands, plan for the PCs' capabilities at whatever level the adventure calls for, think about ways the players could shortcut thru the adventure (in general putting yourself in their shoes is a good practice), and don't be afraid to end the adventure when the story calls for it.

 

[phoamslinger]

if you can put your adventurers in a position where none of their choices are good ones and all of them have consequences of lasting import, it will be far more memorable than a straight vanilla adventure.

 

[LostSoul]

I don't know what sells, but here are my ideas on what makes a good adventure:

Player agency + challenge + setting exploration + moral meaning.

You need the first one. It's the most important. If you can provide the players with meaningful choices to make - not too complex; you don't want players to get overwhelmed - then they will be engaged in the game.

Which of the other elements you focus on depend heavily on the group who's going to play. The best way would be to provide ways for different groups to prioritize different aspects.

Challenge: Give players a challenge that they must overcome. It needs to be difficult enough to require player agency. It's better if the challenge interfaces with information the players gather from the setting: learn the secrets, reduce the challenge; and moral meaning: this choice could make the challenge much easier, but do we really want to go there?

Setting Exploration: Give players a way to interact with the setting. Secrets, details, etc. This is covered in a lot of places. The difficult thing is to integrate it into challenge and moral meaning. The setting needs to highlight moral meaning and contain challenges. Through exploration you gain an understanding of the moral issues and the challenges they present.

Moral Meaning: Give players choices to make on a moral or ethical level. This is simply achieved by treating all NPCs as rational actors, though some monsters may epitomize a moral or ethical stance.

"So we've learned that the snake-people murdering, sacrificing, devouring the towns-people are only doing so because the sages have been collecting the skins of snakes. The skin can be read as books, and the sages know this. (Thanks, Vornheim.) The snakes view this as abomination; a fate worse than death. Like having every detail of your life picked over and over and over again with nothing you can do about it. The information the sages have gleaned have brought their people out of grinding poverty, especially deaths from childbirth. Both the sages and the snake-people are very powerful and we would be hard-pressed to defeat one or the other. Through interpretation of the runes on the Black Ziggurat, we think that the snake people want an obscure "book" badly; we could steal that more easily (though still difficult) and hopefully bring an end to the conflict. But do we want to?"

 

[howandwhy99]

Vanilla is a loaded jargon term better off not used in the current state of the hobby. It can mean anything from boring to commonplace to familiar. Technically speaking, Middle Earth is a vanilla fantasy setting and the adventures therein vanilla too. Because it's a loaded loaded and imprecise term, I'd suggest just asking your question with specific terminology.

What I would aim for in adventure design is meaning. Does any of it mean anything? In reference to things outside of it, in reference to elements of itself, and even hidden meaning that is never quite revealed until later.

The great fun abut RPGs is they are defined by players attempting to comprehend what is being expressed over and above their personal expressing, not to mention anticipation built up from doing so. Having recognizable elements within your adventures is essential for their enjoyment.

First and foremost they need a way in before they can be surprised by what you juxtapose with it. They need something to care about before they can care for the uniqueness of your particular work. Being unique without being open to comprehensibility will just gain you an audience of those who like to bang their heads against walls or glorify what they don't understand.

 

[lin_fusan]

A writing instructor and mentor taught me the technique of paring down your idea, be it movie, book, rpg adventure, down to a 30-second elevator pitch. That's something akin to three to four sentences, a paragraph, that conveys the plot/conflict, villain, setting, and consequences. If you can make that paragraph sound exciting, then you are one step closer to an interesting story.

 

[NN]

Focus on what the specific challenge of the adventure really is and help the DM referee that.

Make the party 'failing' fun


Eg, taking Stormunu's adventure one should

- really go to town on what the xorn is like and what it will take to befriend him.

- structure the plot so that getting halfway through the dungeon but then having to flee would feel meaningful and enjoyable.