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Message: <blockquote data-quote="exile" data-source="post: 3649085" data-attributes="member: 20068">I'm not sure exactly what the original poster is looking for. If it's advice on how to write an adventure on a professional level, I've got nothing. If it's advice on how to write an adventure for his players, then I may or may not have something, depending on his players.When preparing adventures for my players, I try to take stock of what the players themselves enjoy: role-playing, combat, problem-solving, storytelling. If I am uncertain what they want, for example with a new group, I err toward storytelling (because that's what I like most). Given that, interesting characters, secrets/surprise twists, tough decisions, and intra-party conflict are some of the elements (along with a strong plot of course) that make for good storytelling in my mind. I'm not great at coming up with overall strong plots, so these I usually steal wholesale from others- comic books, movies, novels, published adventures, games run by other DMs, etc. I don't really care because the devil is in the details.Before the game even starts, I like to work with the players to generate fairly detailed backgrounds for their characters. I let them do the bulk of the work, but I make a point of tying each of them to an NPC (villain or ally) that will show up in the game, another PC, or both, or more than one of both. This goes along way toward laying the grounds for intra-party conflict- which if not taken too far does as much to drive the game (or more) than it does to slow it down. I also like to throw tough decisions (with real repercussions) at the party early on in most adventures. For example, I once had the party tracking a collection of dangerous books which had been stolen from a caravan by a mixed lot of orcs and goblinoids. The orcs had gone one direction with the books. The goblinoids had gone yet another direction with prisoners from the caravan. Here the party was faced with the decision of which to pursue first. They went after the prisoners first, allowing the books to slip farther from their grasp and be put to nefarious use. In return, they gained a number of allies and one of the PCs rescued a lost love who unknowingly had been traveling with the caravan in search of the PC. Had they gone after the books first, they would have gained a nemesis in the form of the lost love or one of her family members. I try to plot the consequences of major decisions like this in advance.Alright, I'm rambling now. I hope what I have had to say is helpful to the OP and maybe some others. It may run slightly contrary to what others have posted, but there is clearly room for both approaches, and they may perhaps best used in conjuction with one another. Heck, I may even break my monster books out as the first step in putting together my next adventure.Chad</blockquote>

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