How do you plan your adventures?

[weby]

I plan my campaigns in way too much detail.

The current campaign was in planning for about 3 years before starting with 366754 words of material before start and it has now been running for slightly more than 200 sessions and is about halfway.

I tend to first build a basic outline of the campaign idea and then split it to smaller parts. The second pass is designing the broad outlines of the separate adventures and then I will place the events in the locations and similar. But I do not write the actual encounters and such until close to running that part. I also tend to "steal" a lot of things like enemy names, motivations and special ability ideas from other published adventures, occasionally lifting full encounters from such but adapting as needed to fit my world.

I mostly railroad on the big picture, as in there are things happening in the background that create events that the PCs will have to respond to. Many of the actual adventures are more free form and quite often the PCs will also get to pick what of the possible adventures to pursue.

Then the long part as example of the current adventure:

Broad idea phase: Adventure run in an earlier era of my fantasy world than previously, where the PCs will become gods that have been met previously in earlier adventures.

More detail: This contains the idea that they will start from really low power and adventure until gaining minor godhod, when in the chronology of the world and such.

Basic presentation of the outline:
"There is a persistent legend that a entity known as “Seer of other-realm” or “Reader of other-realm” is in possession of 13 books of Fate, also know the as 13 books of shadow.

The legend claims that at some point in the future the seer will start reading them, as she reads them the events they foretell will start to happen and once she has read the 13th book to end, the world ends."

(in reality at the end of the 13th book the world goes though cataclysmic magic world war that destroys most civilizations)

Thus the whole campaign is divided into 13 "books" and each is further divided into 4-6 "chapters" (=adventures).

Before starting the campaign I then put in a few paragraphs about each adventure and designed the first adventure to great detail(including all encounters and such) and a bit more than the basic outline of the next few. I have since continued to try to have the next adventure fully mapped out before the previous one ends.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Quest intro (usually but not always featuring a quest giver)
Some X number of challenges
Boss fight
Wrap up

That is my basic plan for an adventure

Not all that many of my sessions are "adventures." Of those that are, many involve immediate encounter with the big adversary and testing of the ground; others involve a series of investigative moves to figure out who the big adversary actually IS.

[Rasputin]

I threw out "plot" as a four-letter word two years ago, and haven't looked back. Instead, I prep a number of places where characters can go, and plant hooks to them elsewhere. The closest thing I come to plotting is that if I have a foe, I plan out what he tries to do. Players are free to get into his plans if they so choose, but I have enough other stuff that I can wing it if they choose to go elsewhere. In the end, if the players choose to do something other than what I thought they'd do, they're saying that they prefer whatever else it is they chose to what I prepped, and I'm being a jerk if I force what I prepped down their throats.

[ericthered]

With most my games, particularly my Play by Posts, I try to just have lots and lots of players in motion and let the players chart the course they will. Preparation is about understanding and thinking through what the NPC's are doing.

My roll20 is probably closer to being on rails, but that's because its features some NPC's that make high level decisions for the players, and features attacks on hostile and somewhat prepared targets. Preparation here is more oriented around planning interesting challenges, both from a scenic and a tactical point of view. And settling on exactly what the foes have in terms of resources. Though I still end up putting a decent amount of thought into why the foes are in place.

[joshualevy]

I recommend this book:
http://www.enginepublishing.com/neve...o-session-prep

I've only created one adventure after reading this book, but I thought it was better than my previous adventures. I'm expecting even more improvements as I gain experience using the ideas in the book.

Joshua

[GodBeastX]

Alright, I'm going to pipe in on this since many of my blog posts have to do with this subject, but hasn't quite gotten towards a "How to plan an adventure".

I wrote on my about high level thoughts on GMing here. I'll try not to echo anything from that post.

First decide if you're running an adventure or a campaign. Often people use the two words interchangeably but for the sake of this post, an adventure would be a boxed in story that has a short term objective and a campaign ends up a series of adventures, usually with an overall arc (But not necessarily).

Adventure

For writing an adventure you basically follow the same concept as writing any story. What I mean is you got a Hook, some plot points, a Climax and a Resolution.

The difference between writing a story and an adventure is the adventure has much of the story filled in by the players. So you basically are writing an outline, not a complete tale.

I like to get a hook in my head first. This is generally a few sentences that describe WHY a player is interested in doing what they are doing. I add questions that players might ask about the hook.

An example hook would look something like (Pulled from one of my current fantasy campaigns):

The players awaken to find gloomy weather and the village ushered into a local inn to ride out the storm. No one thought anything about the storm until someone breaks up the cheer of warm drinks with grim news, the tree which represented a pact with a particular spirit had withered. This pact brought blessings of safety and stability in harvests and nature itself. Suddenly everyone is worried this storm might be an omen or brought on by the spirit.

Is the spirit angered? Was the pact dissolved? If so, Why? Is there anything the players can do about it?

From there I start answering the questions myself.

Is the spirit angered?

Yes, someone committed a theft on it's holy ground.

Was the pact dissolved?

Yes, the spirit feels offended by the action.

Is there anything the players can do about it?

They need to discover who committed the theft and bring them to justice.

From there you fill out the How and possibilities. More questions will be raised as you write. Who committed the theft? How are they brought to justice? How can the players discover this?

You can't assume players are going to follow your plan to the letter, so much of the adventure is more hooks and more threads leading to the climax and resolution.

If you are planning a campaign, the resolution might lead to more hooks!

You can get as detailed as you want once you got your outline. Figure out useful skill rolls, NPCs, objectives, rewards and more.

A note of advice on NPCs. You DO NOT need to stat them fully. I often watch GMs spend LOTS of time writing character sheets for NPC cameos. Really, you can just do stat blocks or even less if it's irrelevant.

If players are going to interact with a beggar, do I really need the entire skillset the beggar has? Can't I just make up a typical stat/roll for something like this?

"Well, he's sort of dull witted, so 9 IQ, and he probably has seen things, maybe a streetwise 10 or a current events if it comes up."

That's it! Don't let stats bog you down or detract from role play!

Campaign

Writing a campaign is a bit more involved but not insurmountable. You follow the same premise but assume the players are going to have many (mis)adventures along the way.

I usually get an broad idea of what I want to do with campaigns, because players tend to shift the scope during weeks and weeks of play. Having something I can rewrite and flex as needed is important to me.

The next thing I do (and this is personally crucial to me as a GM) is write a list of plot hooks. Not even as detailed as what I listed above. Usually 2 sentences in short form. I try to go for 101 of them just to be complete.

This list I can draw from at ANY TIME during play and plan next excursions with.

...
2. PCs find a jewel that seems to whisper to them. What's it saying and where did it come from?
3. Mayor swears his home is haunted! Is it really?
4. Undead are seen in the woods by a hunter. They seem to just be standing there!
...

I do a list like that. If I can't come up with 101 simple plot hooks, then I probably don't know my genre enough or I probably don't feel comfortable running the campaign so I will not try to start it, or I'll do more research until ideas hit me. I may not use all the ideas, I may add on to them, but I try to do the exercise anyway.

I also feel an important part of a campaign is sub-arcs, much like seasons in a TV show. They tie the first episode to the last episode of the season. And a campaign ties your first episodes with the last episodes.

For example, Star Trek TNG began with Q putting Humanity on trial, and ended the series with the same trial. It tends to be good writing to tie the first moments into the whole story.

You might even write a few sentence goals you can refer to whenever you question if a story fits in with your plot.

* Seeking immortality is evil!

Tolkien may have referred to that message again and again when writing Lord of the Rings, trying to reaffirm that point in various arcs and messages.

[Lucian]

Well the first thing I did was create a world.
A fantasy world a gritty mix of game of thrones and lord of the rings.
Then I created the main in races, created their cultures. Created a map of the world using auto realm.
Based on their cultural ideals and traits I placed them in a geographically logical position to fulfill those ideals.

For example, a free city state ruled by merchant lords at a huge port city strategically placed to control trade.

Or A culture of horse riders like the rohirrim or dothraki, in a region of great plains.

Then I created their ruling bodies, noble families, great houses and banner man and finally independent organizations, cults, and savage races such as orcs, trolls, centaur etc.

I gave all these groups, nations, races, w/e goals, and from their the quests roll out of my head.

For example a group of raiders called the mountain men wish to retake their land from the horsemen, but they are few in number and poorly equipped.

So I said how can they do this,....well they compromise their purity and ally with orcs, even breeding half orcs to create armies and so a long term scheme is in effect that my Players are just starting to get a sniff of.

I also will use random quest generators for side quests, or let players create their own quests to obtain advantages or pay off certain disadvantages.

I find that the more solid the foundation of your world is the easier the content comes.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Quest intro (usually but not always featuring a quest giver)
Some X number of challenges
Boss fight
Wrap up

I don't plan adventures. As such I don't have much to contribute to this thread...

But when making my Ärth historical fantasy setting, very much a sandbox, I did - early on - make sure to create some NPCs who can and often will function as potential quest givers.

That is, they have agendas, and they have quests to give - the only uncertainty is whether they'll try to give those quests to characters who are played by players, or to characters not played by players.

Wotan, a slightly eccentric old man, living in the town of Aros in Jutland, is the primary quest giver (apart from specific quests, one of his raven Familiars has been missing for quite some time - substantial gratitude will occur if anyone can provide valuable information), but there are several others (such as Solomon ben Melchior, the historical Gerbert of Aurillac, Kolku of Ulster, and another so-far unnamed Druid in a wheelchair who might or might not be faking his disability; Kolku's sister Dalny the Herb-Wise is also very keen on exotic plants and foodstuffs, especially from Vinland if you were already going to go there, but she's not a traditional quest-giver. Usually).

[gruundehn]

I probably plan too much. I set the campaign out in outline form with each step a series of choices and where in the outline to go as a result. This way I can herd the players to do what I want and they can do what they want. I don't need to have a lot of choices at each step, there is always the "otherwise go to X" option. Regardless of the choices the players make there are rarely more than three results and I can get the players to a specific point while presenting them with what appears total freedom of action. I rarely have to hit the players over the head and forbid a choice that they made and I can edge them away from the great unknown that I haven't built yet by presenting obstacles that drive them toward the main plot.

Needless to say this takes a long time to set up, so I do not run campaigns as often as some.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by gruundehn

I probably plan too much. I set the campaign out in outline form with each step a series of choices and where in the outline to go as a result. This way I can herd the players to do what I want and they can do what they want. I don't need to have a lot of choices at each step, there is always the "otherwise go to X" option. Regardless of the choices the players make there are rarely more than three results and I can get the players to a specific point while presenting them with what appears total freedom of action. I rarely have to hit the players over the head and forbid a choice that they made and I can edge them away from the great unknown that I haven't built yet by presenting obstacles that drive them toward the main plot.

I never do any of that stuff. My sessions are more like the classic Wallace and Gromit where Gromit is riding the toy train, and frantically laying down track in front of the engine—with the PCs as the engine. I rely on my ability to improvise. That's not to say I don't do pre-planning, but what I aim at is to have a situation filled with resources for improvising.