How long. - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

How long.

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
phenom_sbbt_1985
Apr 27, 2009 18:03:12 Having never designed anything really beyond an un-cconnected dungeon crawl I was just wondering how long a given adventure should be, and what the structure of it should be? roughly how many encounters should it cover and in the early stages how fast should adventurers level up?

These are all pretty basic things and I could probably learn it all by reading a published adventure but I have no way of getting hold of one so I come to you for help.

Please?
#2
AbdulAlhazred
Apr 27, 2009 20:58:05 Well, to some extent that is determined by the basic XP mechanics of 4e.

You are going to have roughly from 5 to 8 combat encounters in a level. Then there would generally be several skill challenges and major and minor quest rewards. Some adventures or phases of adventures might feature more skill challenges.

I'll basically think of an adventure as being 3 parts, each spanning a level or possibly 2 levels. In a shorter adventure or one part of a larger adventure there is also likely to be 3 sets of encounters with each set being roughly equivalent to 3 encounters.

That should give you a large adventure lasting something like a couple of months, with a smaller one lasting 2-3 gaming sessions.

Of course you can speed things up by giving out more XP. And there is certainly nothing saying that my guidelines are anything but personal preference. I think players like to have some change of pace and different types of monsters and whatnot every now and then. After a couple months of zombie bashing and some nice boss fights it gets to be nice to go on to fighting orcs instead. I say a couple of months is usually good for one single story line.
#3
gregt_314
Apr 27, 2009 22:49:36 A 4E game session is generally three encounters. The published adventures (H1, H2, etc) run for about six to seven sessions if you're playing at this speed.

However, an adventure can be as long as you like. What's more important is how you pace it. The simple version is to say that in each session, each player should get to do one totally awesome thing, and at the end of the session players should feel like they're tangibly closer to their goal than they were when they started.

The less simple version is:

Generally, you should have players working on one overarching quest (defeat the BBEG at the end of your campaign), one major adventure quest (defeat the specific villain of this adventure), three landmark quests (eg find a captured friend, recover a lost magical sword, defeat the villain's lieutenant), and two or three minor quests (take an item from one NPC to another, decipher a scroll, find a hidden room).

In each session, players should complete one landmark quest and gain another that they will complete in about three session's time. They should also complete one minor quest and gain another that they'll complete within one or two sessions. Roughly every six or seven sessions they'll complete an adventure, and they should have had a good idea what their next adventure is going to be a couple of sessions before they complete their current one.

On top of all that, each character should complete a goal related to their character background once an adventure; that usually involves two small character scenes in two separate sessions and then a large scene where that character is the hero and does something that significantly advances their individual plot.

You can make all this questing explicit by giving the quests names and encouraging players to keep a log a la World of Warcraft (which works better than you might think) or you can do it all through DM narration and trust players to follow it all from the flow of the story.
#4
yellowdingo
Apr 28, 2009 22:32:59 The Campaign time for an Adventure I wrote was about 48 hours but it had to be broken into four intense Play sessions.
1. MEET & GREET: The Players got a job to look into what was going on in a village. They traveled the ten miles by Cart and arrive (if they left for it early) just in time to find the villagers buring one of their own alive at the steak. So the PCs get some prep time and the beginnings of the story where they subjugate the lawless locals and learn what the problem appears to be.
2. SPELUNKING: They Get to penetrate caves to enter the Keep (including some intense under water swimming in the dark and narrow tunnels) - exiting in the Lair of a green Dragon - like Aliens Ressurection - swimming into the Egg nest.
3. JURASSIC PARK: Temporal Artefact has opened fissures into the Past. Can you template up a Dinosaur Kobold? It makes the exploration and clearing of the Keep difficult.
4. THE SIEGE: An army of Regular Kobolds arrive to Attack the Village and Tower. And if the PCs have survived, they get to fight a regular castle siege.
#5
space_dragon
Apr 28, 2009 22:35:16 Depends on how many sessions you want to keep the players busy with before having to write another adventure.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 phenom_sbbt_1985 Apr 27, 2009 18:03:12	Having never designed anything really beyond an un-cconnected dungeon crawl I was just wondering how long a given adventure should be, and what the structure of it should be? roughly how many encounters should it cover and in the early stages how fast should adventurers level up? These are all pretty basic things and I could probably learn it all by reading a published adventure but I have no way of getting hold of one so I come to you for help. Please?
#2 AbdulAlhazred Apr 27, 2009 20:58:05	Well, to some extent that is determined by the basic XP mechanics of 4e. You are going to have roughly from 5 to 8 combat encounters in a level. Then there would generally be several skill challenges and major and minor quest rewards. Some adventures or phases of adventures might feature more skill challenges. I'll basically think of an adventure as being 3 parts, each spanning a level or possibly 2 levels. In a shorter adventure or one part of a larger adventure there is also likely to be 3 sets of encounters with each set being roughly equivalent to 3 encounters. That should give you a large adventure lasting something like a couple of months, with a smaller one lasting 2-3 gaming sessions. Of course you can speed things up by giving out more XP. And there is certainly nothing saying that my guidelines are anything but personal preference. I think players like to have some change of pace and different types of monsters and whatnot every now and then. After a couple months of zombie bashing and some nice boss fights it gets to be nice to go on to fighting orcs instead. I say a couple of months is usually good for one single story line.
#3 gregt_314 Apr 27, 2009 22:49:36	A 4E game session is generally three encounters. The published adventures (H1, H2, etc) run for about six to seven sessions if you're playing at this speed. However, an adventure can be as long as you like. What's more important is how you pace it. The simple version is to say that in each session, each player should get to do one totally awesome thing, and at the end of the session players should feel like they're tangibly closer to their goal than they were when they started. The less simple version is: Generally, you should have players working on one overarching quest (defeat the BBEG at the end of your campaign), one major adventure quest (defeat the specific villain of this adventure), three landmark quests (eg find a captured friend, recover a lost magical sword, defeat the villain's lieutenant), and two or three minor quests (take an item from one NPC to another, decipher a scroll, find a hidden room). In each session, players should complete one landmark quest and gain another that they will complete in about three session's time. They should also complete one minor quest and gain another that they'll complete within one or two sessions. Roughly every six or seven sessions they'll complete an adventure, and they should have had a good idea what their next adventure is going to be a couple of sessions before they complete their current one. On top of all that, each character should complete a goal related to their character background once an adventure; that usually involves two small character scenes in two separate sessions and then a large scene where that character is the hero and does something that significantly advances their individual plot. You can make all this questing explicit by giving the quests names and encouraging players to keep a log a la World of Warcraft (which works better than you might think) or you can do it all through DM narration and trust players to follow it all from the flow of the story.
#4 yellowdingo Apr 28, 2009 22:32:59	The Campaign time for an Adventure I wrote was about 48 hours but it had to be broken into four intense Play sessions. 1. MEET & GREET: The Players got a job to look into what was going on in a village. They traveled the ten miles by Cart and arrive (if they left for it early) just in time to find the villagers buring one of their own alive at the steak. So the PCs get some prep time and the beginnings of the story where they subjugate the lawless locals and learn what the problem appears to be. 2. SPELUNKING: They Get to penetrate caves to enter the Keep (including some intense under water swimming in the dark and narrow tunnels) - exiting in the Lair of a green Dragon - like Aliens Ressurection - swimming into the Egg nest. 3. JURASSIC PARK: Temporal Artefact has opened fissures into the Past. Can you template up a Dinosaur Kobold? It makes the exploration and clearing of the Keep difficult. 4. THE SIEGE: An army of Regular Kobolds arrive to Attack the Village and Tower. And if the PCs have survived, they get to fight a regular castle siege.
#5 space_dragon Apr 28, 2009 22:35:16	Depends on how many sessions you want to keep the players busy with before having to write another adventure.