Adventure writing tips [Archive] - Wizards Community

Adventure writing tips [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Callae
07-31-06, 03:59 PM Hey all,

I'm pretty new to the DMing side of things, and having some issues writing adventures. I play with a group of people as new to being players as I am to DMing, and because no session is either particularly memorable or solid, we tend to restart a new game every couple of weeks. I'm getting pretty sick of making things up on the spot, because I'm dirt for good at it, and I don't find the DMG to be particularly helpful on the subject of writing adventures, but maybe it's just the way I'm reading it, so I was wondering if I could get any tips from fellow DMs on writing adventures, any tricks of the trade, and possibly any other WotC resources you'd recommend.

Thanks in advance,

~C
TheScapegoat
07-31-06, 04:28 PM Nice idea would be to purchase a copy of dungeon magazine or find a free downloadable adventure and follow the formate. Unless you willing to go into 100% detail your going to have to wing some of it cause its impossible to know every thing that the players could do.

Id start small, design a small town with some detailed NPCs. Give your players a mission through someone in the town and map out the location of the adventure, the creatures invovled, and a description of each room/area of the location.
Sarella Starshine
07-31-06, 04:28 PM WotC has started a series on how to put together adventures.
the first one is: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ab/20060728a

i hope that helps.

i am not that great at writing adventures, but good at linking adventures together or creating an overall idea and then populating it with pregen adventures.
VirgilCaine
07-31-06, 04:29 PM Buy some old Dungeon Magazines or take up a new subscription. They have multiple adventures per issue, a great value for the money.
Currently they have an "Adventure Path", a year-long? sequence of adventures for the same level of PCs.

And you'll get adventures in a variety of terrains, levels, campaign worlds (Oriental Adventures, as well as a couple of Ravenloft and Dragonlance, for example) and party makeups (several solo-thief or thief-focused party adventures, as well as adventures for more conventional parties).
At least I did, buying about ~25 issues from the late 80's.

You'll have a source of adventures, and you'll learn about adventure design.
TheScapegoat
07-31-06, 04:29 PM Double post. :weep:

Any way to delete this reply?
Brotha_T
07-31-06, 04:51 PM Check out this thread. It's called Lessons From DMing with my GF, if you've never read it before. It's extremely long, so read it like a book and I highly recommend reading all the way through it. You won't find a comprehensive list of tips or a guide on how to run a campaign, but the author is probably the best DM I've ever heard of and you will learn a lot from his example. During most of the thread he just recounts his own DM'ing experiences (which will open your eyes on how to excel at DMing, I assure you) and he sprinkles in dozens of little tips along the way, so it's well worth it. Good luck.

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=471897
ccerose
07-31-06, 05:24 PM When I'm in a pinch, I'll adapt an adventure from Wizard's site or from Dungeon Magazine. Even when I write my own adventures from scratch, I often use maps from other adventures. You can download the maps and illustrations from Dungeon Magazine for free here (http://paizo.com/dungeon/resources/downloads). Aside from the great adventures, Dungeon Magazine also has several workshops on creating adventures. At $40 a year, its invaluable resource for DMs.

You really need to know your players. Talk to them and ask them what kinds of characters they want to play and the things they would like those characters to do. It will save you the headache of creating what you think is an awesome adventure, only to have it flop because you and your players ideas about the campaign were not in synch.

My players prefer ongoing campaigns where their PCs grow and change with the world around them so I generally start out with an overarching storyline, the big picture. Then I start to break it down into smaller goal, my adventures. When I first start out, these are all just concepts, stuff like plot and setting.

When I actually start to write out the actual adventures, I start small. Its way to easy for grandiose plans to get out of control and become overwhelming, so its a good idea to have some sort of outline to keep you on track.

I also recommend the DMGII. Its got some really great advice for newer DMs.
David_Roben2
07-31-06, 06:24 PM There are lots of resources on these boards to help writing adventures. I'm having a blast with the populate this dungeon thread here http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=672127

There are also a ton of pregens online (here and elsewhere) that can keep you busy for ages. In my opinion, thats not really your problem. Sure, good adventures are needed to stay interested and keep things fun, but just as important is the underlying storyline. You need a campaign, not an adventure.

The best format that I have ever played in (or dm'ed for) would go like this:
one or two one shot adventures to build experience and get you comfortable with your character, then start in on the reoccuring bad guy. Get an idea that will last 4 or 5 adventures. Make sure there are cliffhangers to end on. Your group will beg you to keep the current game going just to see how everything turns out. After you are comfortable getting the adventures tied together, start making your storylines longer. I've found that 8-10 adventures (depending on how frequently you play, more if you play alot) is a good length so you can start a new game after if your group wants to. If they want to go longer, then tie in another set. Nothing gets a group fired up as much as the bad guy getting away. They may save the day, but that guy will always be a loose end hanging over their heads.

They only other suggestion I can give you is be subtle. Don't lead your group around by the nose just because you have everything planned out. Nothing kills the energy faster than a railroading DM. If they don't realise the bad guy is _the_ bad guy until after he's gone, sparks will fly.
olshanski_home
07-31-06, 06:26 PM I suggest buying some pre-published adventures to see how its done.
Necromancer Games and Goodman Games both publish a number of adventures.

The later series in the "Dungeon Crawl Classics" by Goodman Games are especially well done.
Raj
07-31-06, 06:43 PM Something I find handy when writing as a fairly inexperienced DM, is to write your adventure down in as much detail as possible. Preparation is the key, it will help things to run smoothly and mean you are better to deal with unforseen circumstances. You do run the risk of having all your work wasted in some sort of gaming disaster, but its worth the risk to me.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Callae 07-31-06, 03:59 PM	Hey all, I'm pretty new to the DMing side of things, and having some issues writing adventures. I play with a group of people as new to being players as I am to DMing, and because no session is either particularly memorable or solid, we tend to restart a new game every couple of weeks. I'm getting pretty sick of making things up on the spot, because I'm dirt for good at it, and I don't find the DMG to be particularly helpful on the subject of writing adventures, but maybe it's just the way I'm reading it, so I was wondering if I could get any tips from fellow DMs on writing adventures, any tricks of the trade, and possibly any other WotC resources you'd recommend. Thanks in advance, ~C
TheScapegoat 07-31-06, 04:28 PM	Nice idea would be to purchase a copy of dungeon magazine or find a free downloadable adventure and follow the formate. Unless you willing to go into 100% detail your going to have to wing some of it cause its impossible to know every thing that the players could do. Id start small, design a small town with some detailed NPCs. Give your players a mission through someone in the town and map out the location of the adventure, the creatures invovled, and a description of each room/area of the location.
Sarella Starshine 07-31-06, 04:28 PM	WotC has started a series on how to put together adventures. the first one is: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ab/20060728a i hope that helps. i am not that great at writing adventures, but good at linking adventures together or creating an overall idea and then populating it with pregen adventures.
VirgilCaine 07-31-06, 04:29 PM	Buy some old Dungeon Magazines or take up a new subscription. They have multiple adventures per issue, a great value for the money. Currently they have an "Adventure Path", a year-long? sequence of adventures for the same level of PCs. And you'll get adventures in a variety of terrains, levels, campaign worlds (Oriental Adventures, as well as a couple of Ravenloft and Dragonlance, for example) and party makeups (several solo-thief or thief-focused party adventures, as well as adventures for more conventional parties). At least I did, buying about ~25 issues from the late 80's. You'll have a source of adventures, and you'll learn about adventure design.
TheScapegoat 07-31-06, 04:29 PM	Double post. :weep: Any way to delete this reply?
Brotha_T 07-31-06, 04:51 PM	Check out this thread. It's called Lessons From DMing with my GF, if you've never read it before. It's extremely long, so read it like a book and I highly recommend reading all the way through it. You won't find a comprehensive list of tips or a guide on how to run a campaign, but the author is probably the best DM I've ever heard of and you will learn a lot from his example. During most of the thread he just recounts his own DM'ing experiences (which will open your eyes on how to excel at DMing, I assure you) and he sprinkles in dozens of little tips along the way, so it's well worth it. Good luck. http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=471897
ccerose 07-31-06, 05:24 PM	When I'm in a pinch, I'll adapt an adventure from Wizard's site or from Dungeon Magazine. Even when I write my own adventures from scratch, I often use maps from other adventures. You can download the maps and illustrations from Dungeon Magazine for free here (http://paizo.com/dungeon/resources/downloads). Aside from the great adventures, Dungeon Magazine also has several workshops on creating adventures. At $40 a year, its invaluable resource for DMs. You really need to know your players. Talk to them and ask them what kinds of characters they want to play and the things they would like those characters to do. It will save you the headache of creating what you think is an awesome adventure, only to have it flop because you and your players ideas about the campaign were not in synch. My players prefer ongoing campaigns where their PCs grow and change with the world around them so I generally start out with an overarching storyline, the big picture. Then I start to break it down into smaller goal, my adventures. When I first start out, these are all just concepts, stuff like plot and setting. When I actually start to write out the actual adventures, I start small. Its way to easy for grandiose plans to get out of control and become overwhelming, so its a good idea to have some sort of outline to keep you on track. I also recommend the DMGII. Its got some really great advice for newer DMs.
David_Roben2 07-31-06, 06:24 PM	There are lots of resources on these boards to help writing adventures. I'm having a blast with the populate this dungeon thread here http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=672127 There are also a ton of pregens online (here and elsewhere) that can keep you busy for ages. In my opinion, thats not really your problem. Sure, good adventures are needed to stay interested and keep things fun, but just as important is the underlying storyline. You need a campaign, not an adventure. The best format that I have ever played in (or dm'ed for) would go like this: one or two one shot adventures to build experience and get you comfortable with your character, then start in on the reoccuring bad guy. Get an idea that will last 4 or 5 adventures. Make sure there are cliffhangers to end on. Your group will beg you to keep the current game going just to see how everything turns out. After you are comfortable getting the adventures tied together, start making your storylines longer. I've found that 8-10 adventures (depending on how frequently you play, more if you play alot) is a good length so you can start a new game after if your group wants to. If they want to go longer, then tie in another set. Nothing gets a group fired up as much as the bad guy getting away. They may save the day, but that guy will always be a loose end hanging over their heads. They only other suggestion I can give you is be subtle. Don't lead your group around by the nose just because you have everything planned out. Nothing kills the energy faster than a railroading DM. If they don't realise the bad guy is _the_ bad guy until after he's gone, sparks will fly.
olshanski_home 07-31-06, 06:26 PM	I suggest buying some pre-published adventures to see how its done. Necromancer Games and Goodman Games both publish a number of adventures. The later series in the "Dungeon Crawl Classics" by Goodman Games are especially well done.
Raj 07-31-06, 06:43 PM	Something I find handy when writing as a fairly inexperienced DM, is to write your adventure down in as much detail as possible. Preparation is the key, it will help things to run smoothly and mean you are better to deal with unforseen circumstances. You do run the risk of having all your work wasted in some sort of gaming disaster, but its worth the risk to me.