Which do you do first: Make the "dungeon" or the story?

[dreaded_beast]

I'm still in the process of making my first adventure and have been getting great feedback from the boards.

The way I did it was pick some "easy" CR 1 or lower monsters: easy for me to run and for my single player to fight. Basically minor undead, like zombies and skeletons.

With that in mind I just made a small map of 3 or 4 rooms and placed the monsters in the rooms accordingly.

I had an inkling of a story in mind and once I was done fleshing out the dungeon (I still need to finalize the room descriptions and finalize the treasure, etc.), the story was fleshed out as well.

However, I am somewhat unsatisfied with the story I created. I want the first adventure to memorable as well as relating to the PC's character history. I figure if I can make the first adventure relate to the PC's character history instead of the cliche "you feeling like looking for adventure and go to the nearest dungeon", it will be that much more enjoyable.

(I don't really mind random-adventuring or dungeon-crawl, I just want the first adventure for my player to memorable.)

Anyways, I was wondering if I might have had better results by thinking of the story first and the building the "dungeon" around the story.

What do you think?

 

[Ferox4]

Shape out the story first. It will dictate what kind of encounters the PCs should be having.

 

[Stalker0]

For me it depends... usually my dungeon is based on my story, but sometimes I get a really cool idea for an encounter and I shape story around it.

My advise on making a memorable adventure... make a player feel cool and he will remember your adventure. If your player's characters get to do something cool or out of the ordinary or special they will remember.

 

[Desdichado]

I'd recommend being a little careful about "story" -- you don't want to have a story in mind that the PC(s) must follow. Then again, I don't want to have anything like a random dungeoncrawl experience. You need both, but you don't want either approach to swamp the other.

 

[Storminator]

I don't really go for preplanned stories, but I always start with reasons.

Why is the dungeon there?
This sets the encounters and makes the whole seem plausible.

Why would the PCs go there?
This determines why it belongs in your game.

What will the inhabitants do once the PCs arrive?
This covers your opening moves as a DM, with a possible contingiency or two.

If I've got good answers to all three of those questions, the game usually runs itself.

PS

 

[Ferox4]

I don't really go for preplanned stories, but I always start with reasons.

Why is the dungeon there?
This sets the encounters and makes the whole seem plausible.

Why would the PCs go there?
This determines why it belongs in your game.

What will the inhabitants do once the PCs arrive?
This covers your opening moves as a DM, with a possible contingiency or two.

If I've got good answers to all three of those questions, the game usually runs itself.

PS

Which is essentially the outline for a story.

 

[Hjorimir]

The way I've always stated it: DMs write plots; Players write stories.

 

[Enkhidu]

The way I've always stated it: DMs write plots; Players write stories.

I'd go one farther - the DM provides plot elements; plot is simply how the players use them.

 

[Henry]

I do BOTH ways - but which comes first depends on the particular adventure.

Sometimes, I have a great story idea in my head, and the setting (the dungeon or whatnot) flows naturally from that. Sometimes, I have the story concept strongly, and just pull a map from WotC's "map of the week" pile to set it in. I then come up with logical explanations for each room within the confines of the story and delete the parts I can't fit or don't use. My FR Players are currently investigating an old mine that I did this very thing with.

The other way, I come up with a great "hook" - a scene, a particularly nasty trap idea, a devious scene concept that a bad guy might use. Then, I work up a story around it. Imagine working with Piratecat's famous "Dwarven Dance" trap - a deadly meatgrinder... that you could easily get through with a high enough Perform(Dance) roll. Why would it be there? Why would the Dwarf who designed it (if it WAS even a Dwarf) have done it? Maybe it was just a demented Bard with a nasty sense of humor.

-----

In answer to "how to make it memorable?" Most games are memorable by one of three things: (1) A situation that demands powerful role-play, (2) A conceptually "mind's eye"-catching scene, or (3) A memorable action taken by a good player. All three of these things are manufacturable by you.

1) Coming up with a situation that is emotionally powerful - a marriage of someone close to the PC's, a Bandit who is easier to barter with than slay, trying to convince someone out of a self-destructive action, etc.

2) Think of a visually cool or exciting scene - a bridge by a waterfall, an underwater castle, a room with a geyser showering everything with steaming water, a brothel, a mine with a tremendous bilge pump, etc. Then set the adventure in the locale, and find some way to involve the adventurers in that locale (a group of creatures accosts them on the bridge, they have to chase someone through the brothel, the bilge pump is about to explode as the enemy traps them there, etc.)

3) Create a dramatic situation in which the PC's have more than one or two ways to escape or resolve it. Chances are the players will come up with a third or a fourth way, but the point is to give them the chance to think and come up with a resolution. The more options there SEEM to be, in my experience the freer the players are to come up with their OWN options.

Good luck, and I hope some of this was useful!

 

[Storminator]

Which is essentially the outline for a story.

I'd say its more like the first chapter of a story, with maybe an idea for chapter 2.

PS