Creating A Good Adventure

Creating A good Adventure 

Generally, a good Roll-playing session boils down to two things: “As a GM, did I have fun?” and “Did my players have fun?” When making an adventure, start with things that you know you like. Do you enjoy combat more or frustrating you players with puzzles? Maybe you like talk play sessions were plays spend a lot of time talking with each other or NPCs.

From there, think of what your players love. This can be a genre of game play; some players love combat, some love storytelling, and so on. It can be a genre of fantasy, like sword and sorcery, epic fantasy, or science fantasy. The classes your players chose have a lot to say, too; if one player rolled a monk, they may want cinematic action, while a rogue player may prefer a game with lots of passing notes to the GM.

CHOOSE A PATH

With this in mind, choose a genre of game play to center your adventure around. There are four major paths of game play: Travel, Talk, Combat, and Puzzle. Every adventure has a little bit of each, but it helps to choose one path to focus on. When in doubt, what do the players want to do? Get somewhere, Talk with someone, Search the room, or pick a fight?

Each path lends itself to a certain mode of play. A classic dungeon crawl lends itself to exploring ancient ruins and fighting its inhabitants, with minimal diplomacy put a good chance of puzzles. The typical wilderness adventure is strongly focused on traveling from pace to place, often in search of a specific person, place, or thing. It’s about equal on the interaction and combat pillars, since sandbox settings give characters a lot of leeway on whether or not they want to fight or parley. An intrigue adventure puts diplomacy front-and-center, with most of the major conflicts being resolved through role play and not “roll-play.” Combat often takes place when negotiations get too hot or assassins arrive in the night.

MAKE A PLAN

You have two big ideas floating in your head: where the fun is and the angle of approach. Now it’s time to draft this baby. Let’s assume that your adventure can be finished in a single game session. If you want to tell a story with your adventure (as opposed to simulating reality, which doesn’t abide by any rules of storytelling), consider using the classic three-act structure as a framework.

Act I is setup. Jot down any plot hooks that will draw your players into this week’s adventure and the NPCs they’ll meet early on.  Act I establishes the important characters, places, and objects of an adventure and why the PCs should care.

Act II is the beginning of the adventure. In a dungeon crawl, it may be the first half of the dungeon itself, or maybe the journey to the dungeon. In a mystery adventure, it’s investigating the crime, grilling suspects, and gathering clues. If you do anything in the middle of an adventure, make sure you build tension, so that it all can be released in Act III.

Act III is the climax and resolution of the adventure. In order to talk about it better, let’s talk about the Five Room Dungeon. The concept is easy; most dungeons in published adventures are designed to be explored over the course of multiple sessions, but a five-room dungeon can be completed in the course of a single game. The five rooms follow this simple pattern:

Entrance and Guardian. The PCs have to figure out how to get inside.

Puzzle or Role playing Challenge. After fighting or sneaking their way in, the PCs now have to change gears and use their smarts or charm to progress.

Trick or Setback. Whether it’s a spiked pit trap or a monster with a specific weakness, something happens that catches the PCs off-guard or otherwise makes them re-evaluate their strategy.

Climax, Big Battle, or Conflict. The grand finale! If the PCs have been hunting a dragon, this is its lair. If they’re negotiating a prisoner’s release, this is the courtroom scene.

Reward, Revelation, Plot Twist. This is the completion and the sequel hook. Sure, the PCs found the golden idol they were searching for, but the ruby eye that grants wishes is missing! And left behind is the taunting note of the treasure hunter who got there first…

Notice how these five rooms cover both Acts II and III. Rooms 1 through 3 are Act II, building tension and danger, which then reaches a climax in room 4 and is resolved in room 5. This simple framework is so broadly applicable that it can even be used for adventures that have nothing to do with a dungeon, instead becoming a sort of flowchart of locations, events, or even relationships. if you create branching paths between points of interest, your players will have choices that let them meaningfully interact with the game world.

FILL YOUR ADVENTURE

This is the home stretch. You’ve already molded your concept into a working adventure, now you just need to put some meat on those bones by filling your adventure with traps, terrain, and monsters. When creating encounters, think about more than the experience points and encounter balance (though those are important). Think about how the terrain can create a more interesting scenario than two Goblins in a large, open field. Exciting terrain could be as simple as increasing the elevation every few feet, or it could be as fantastical as an upside-down waterfall with bizarre gravity that sucks all nearby creatures into it.

BE PREPARED TO THROW IT ALL AWAY

Our final word: no plan ever survives contact with the PCs. Run your adventure with confidence and excitement, but don’t get too attached. Remember that you can change anything on the fly if the PCs haven’t seen it; none of it exists to your players until you say it does!

Bonus 

here is a random plant from the Mazith Plant Handbook 

 His and hers grass

This grass grows in patches some will be blue some will be pink if a pregnant women that is with in first trimester eats a hand full of this grass depending on the color will change the sex of the unborn children to match, blue for boy and pink for girl.

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