How to Write the Best D&D Adventures Ever!

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HOW TO WRITE THE BEST D&D ADVENTURES EVER!

POSTED BY JAMES HAECK ON APRIL 10, 2016 SHARE:

GAMES

We just gushed about how important players and their characters are to telling stories in RPGs, but lets look at the most
ubiquitous tool in a Dungeon Masters toolbox: the adventure. To be clear, this isnt a guide to writing adventures that you
would publish on DMs Guild or DriveThruRPG, this is a guide to organizing your thoughts and creating ideas that you can
use to run an adventure of your own making.

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How to Write the Best D&D Adventures Ever! | Geek and Sundry

STEAL RUTHLESSLY FROM THINGS YOU LOVE

Generally, a good D&D session boils down to to two things: As a DM, did I have fun? and Did my players have fun?
When making an adventure, start with things that you know you like. Did you love Dune? What about it? The giant worm
monsters? The vast desert? The weird, vector-graphics shields? Throw it in there, originality be damned!

We totally didnt make this comic, we stole it from Nedroid because we love them.

From there, think of what your players love. This can be a genre of gameplay; 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 skullduggery and Assassins Creed-inspired gameplay.

That said, dont blatantly plagiarizeif youre going to publish.Thats illegal.

CHOOSE A PILLAR
With this in mind, choose a genre of gameplay to center your adventure around. The Players Handbook says that D&D
has three major pillars of gameplay: Exploration, Interaction, and Combat. Every adventure has a little bit of each, but it
helps to choose one pillar to focus on. When in doubt, what do the players want to do? Search the room, talk with
someone, or pick a fight?

Each pillar 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. The typical wilderness adventure is strongly focused on exploring a
large swath of land, often in search of a specific person, place, or thing. Its 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 roleplay and not roll-
play. Combat often takes place when negotiations get too hot or assassins arrive in the night, but exploration is very rare.

MAKE A SKELETON
You have two big ideas floating in your head: where the fun is and the
angle of approach. Now its time to draft this baby. Lets 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 doesnt 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 weeks adventure and the NPCs theyll meet early on. For tips on

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How to Write the Best D&D Adventures Ever! | Geek and Sundry

making quick, low-effort NPCs, check out Chapter 4 of the Dungeon

Masters Guideit has fantastic advice! 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 proper. 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, its 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, lets 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:

1. Entrance and Guardian. The PCs have to figure out how to get inside.
2. Puzzle or Roleplaying Challenge. After fighting or sneaking their way in, the PCs now have to change gears and
use their smarts or charm to progress.
3. Trick or Setback. Whether its a spiked pit trap or a Legend of Zelda-like monster with a specific weakness,
something happens that catches the PCs off-guard or otherwise makes them re-evaluate their strategy.
4. Climax, Big Battle, or Conflict. The grand finale! If the PCs have been hunting a dragon, this is its lair. If theyre
negotiating a prisoners release, this is the courtroom scene.
5. Reward, Revelation, Plot Twist. This is the denouement 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. The Gnome Stew article linked above goes into greater detail, describing different ways to order the
rooms of your adventure. Hint: dont make them all a linear progressionif you create branching paths between points
of interest, your players will have choices that let them meaningfully interact with the game world.

Notice also that this skeleton doesnt have an Act 0, or backstory. A little bit of history is fine, even useful,but if your
players cant interact with the backstory then your time would be better spent elsewhere. Adventures withlots of
gameable content are cleaner and more exciting than those with lots of backstory.

FILL YOUR DUNGEON

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How to Write the Best D&D Adventures Ever! | Geek and Sundry

This is the home stretch. Youve already molded your high concept into a working skeleton, 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 XP budgets and encounter balance (though those are important). Think about how the terrain can create a
more interesting scenario than three ghouls in a large, open room. 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.

Theres a lot of great advice for stocking your dungeon in Appendix A of the Dungeon Masters Guide. Some of its a little
overkill for a Five Room Dungeon, but a little overkill never hurt anyone.

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 dont
get too attached. Remember that you can change anything on the fly if the PCs havent seen it; none of it exists to your
players until you say it does!

Now get out there and start making the best D&D adventure youve ever made! Spill the beans about your favorite
adventure ideasin the comments, or tweetthemto us at@geekandsundry.

Featured Image Credit: Wizards of the Coast

Image Credit: Nedroid Comics,Wizards of the Coast,Mike Schley/Wizards of the Coast

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KatInTheCanals 5 hours ago

I had a sinking elven palace. One of the party was the daughter of an elven imperial scholar and was asked
to help save ancient tomes and research and imperial relics within. I had it timed, in my head, so that the
party could do 1 of 3 things: save the tomes, save the relics, or, for the more ambitious party members,
save the citadel by finding out why it was sinking. I was using 5e but I liked the 3.5 flaw system, and one of
the party just so happened to be very charismatic with the Stubborn flaw and he wanted to save just the
relics. the party had to do a check against his charisma and everyone failed except the thief, who
disappeared when the party wasn't paying attention to find out why the palace was sinking. Turns out there
was an interdimensional rift beneath from ill-practiced magic and the thief, on her own saved the entire
palace.

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