Mastering The Game: Making your own adventures

And we're back here at “Mastering The Game.” Today's topic is how to make your own adventures.

So, I've already talked about how to run prepared, or “canned,” adventures, and I mentioned that you can use prepared adventures to make your own. So, we're going to start with that.

Let's take an adventure for an example. Some time ago, a friend discovered a treasure trove of used gaming books for super cheap (we're talking $1 a paperback book) and clued me in. I found two supplements for a game called Dark Conspiracy, but not the core books. That's fine. One was an adventure called “Heart of Darkness.” You can't see my face, but it's currently covered by my palm and my eyes are rolling. That name has been over used. It's done. No more, please. (Note: A full rundown of this book will eventually pop up in Sources Say in the future.)

Ahem. Anyway. So, I don't have the books, but the module itself looks promising. I read the whole thing, cover to cover, twice and looked at how the story goes. It looks good and I like it, so this is a solid choice. Now, first I have to figure out what I'm going to use it for. The game seemed to be about aliens and stuff, but with a strong element of horror. There's psychic powers and magic, maybe? Plus, horrible monsters from other dimensions. Looking at that, I'm going to choose Conspiracy X for this one.

Now that I know what I'm going to use, I start changing the monster stats to the new system. I look at what it's suppose to do in the original game and then try to replicate it in Conspiracy X. Not too hard. And if I can't get close, I just change it to something else I think works. For the background, everything looks pretty good. I might need to make some changes here and there, mostly having to do with the change in setting, and make my notes about what's different. After that, we have to deal with the set up. In the original game, it looks like the characters would have been hired by some corporation to solve the mystery, so that doesn't work for Conspiracy X. Instead, we'll make it a mission from the higher ups and give them roughly the same information. The adventure did give the players a device that would allow them to get more info on things, which I don't have to change. There are some setting issues that I'll have to change (the book was done around the original Gulf War in Iraq and things were different then), so more notes there. The encounters should go the same, but can't forget to make the NPCs in the new system, too. And that's about all I need to do. Recreate the monsters and NPCs in the new system, make sure the setting stuff all matches the new one, and make sure everything is consistent. Not too hard, but I do have some experience. I think this is a good stepping stone to designing your own completely new adventures.

 

 

But, you say you're ready, you want to start completely fresh and make a whole new adventure, without using anything that's been put out. Alright, buckle up, this might take a while.

The first thing you need to do is come up with what's going on. Let's say you're playing D&D and you want to do something involving a haunted forest in the lands of a lord the players like. Maybe the lord is from an adventure you just ran and the players liked him a lot. Okay, great, we'll roll with this.

So we've got an outline of the situation. Local lord has a forest in his domain that's being called “haunted.” That means that people go in, but don't come out. This isn't a bad idea, to be honest, lot's of different ways you can take this. So, it's a solid choice.

The next thing we have to figure out is how long this has been going on. Maybe there's always been legends of a ghost or something in the woods, but it's been safe for a long, long time. Our first question is what's changed? That means we have to come up with the threat. You'll want to dig through your monster books and look at what offers a matched threat that the party can handle. For the sake of this adventure, I'm going to pick Drow. Probably because I'm a fan of dark elves, but also because I'm still wanting to run City of the Spider Queen. Okay, got my threat, but why are they here? We'll say that it's because the Drow were able to break a seal that had been put in place ages ago by some elves, keeping the Drow from getting out. With the seal broken, the Drow have begun to investigate the area. Since they're masters of ambushes and use a sleeping poison, they'd be a serious threat at night. That's why people are disappearing. They're being killed or kidnapped and taken as slaves into the Underdark.

Now, we have to figure out what the lord has been doing. After people vanished, he would probably send out some knights or something to investigate the vanishings. We'll assume he actually gives a damn about his people, so he does the right thing. Of course, the knights are outclassed and vanish as well. So he sends some more. None return. Maybe he sent out some lower level adventurers, who also never returned. Ever since, the people have been avoiding the area as much as they can. But, maybe they still need firewood, so while disappearances have slowed, they haven't stopped completely. We'll also say that some people who have gotten to close to the forest have also vanished. Now, we've got a good idea of the Who and the What, as well as the Why.

Now, we need to tackle the most important part of getting the party involved in the situation, the party's motivation. Most parties, even the more noble, are usually motivated by money. You'll have to figure out how much the lord CAN pay and how much he's WILLING to pay. There's always someone who wants to negotiate for more money, so make a note of how far the lord is willing to shell out. Hopefully, if you reach the cap, the others will force him to accept the offer. Don't be afraid to metagame a little bit. As for how the party hears about the situation, you can have the lord reach out to them directly if they're on good terms. Otherwise, the lord can offer a reward that the part can hear about in the tavern, the church, or other places they hang out. If you have a more... Murderhobo party, maybe they get tossed in jail and only get released if they agree to clear out the woods.

Once we have the motivation and reward done, we have to go back to our threat. First thing is making sure you have some facts and rumors characters can pick up before they leave. Come up with the original legend of the forest, which could be totally unrelated to the current threat. I'm a big fan of throwing out a red herring or two to keep the party off balance. And you don't want to reveal the real threat quite yet. But, give them some hints so they're not caught completely off guard.

Now, we have to come up with what the Drow have been up to. We have a rough idea of what they're doing, but let's dig a bit deeper. Who's in charge of this expedition? Given how Drow society works, there's a strong chance a female cleric in charge of everything. What's she like? Is this a chance for her to gain power and standing back home? Or is this a punishment for something and she's trying to make the best of a bad situation? Is she competent? Or is she an idiot who doesn't really care about this mission? Once you have your Big Bad Evil Girl (BBEG) worked out, you can work on the underlings, the trusted mages, scouts, and the like. You'll want to know how strong the force is wandering around the woods. What their main goal is. Based on what we have, I'm going to assume that the Priestess is competent and looking to make this into her little kingdom, controlling the flow of surface race slaves and goods. She's not stupid, but doesn't know too much about the surface world. Thanks to the element of surprise, and a fair amount of luck, no one has survived to tell everyone what's going on. As for her forces, she's got a few wizards to give her some power and a lot of rangers and fighters to do the dirty work. Of course, one of the wizards belongs to a rival house and might be willing to do something to cause the priestess to fall out of favor back home. This is what I call “leaving an out” should the party be captured. The wizard will free them, on the condition that they mess up the priestess.

The major threats will be the groups of Drow wandering the woods, who will stalk the party until they're ready to ambush them. But, that's not all there should be. In addition to the increase in spiders that should be stumbled across (damn those spider kissers), you'll want to come up with a few other threats that make sense for the area. Not only to throw the party off the trail of what's really going on, but it's really important to have a variety of threats, so the party doesn't get bored. Or something to throw at them so they don't get overconfident. Maybe some undead created by the Drow, or just by their acts of murder. A few wild beasts, like dire animals. Maybe they have some druids or rangers that can prevent a fight or maybe not. Remember, variety is the spice of life.

We've got the basics worked out. The hook, the background, and probably a lot of encounters ready to go. So, what else do we need? Of course we're going to need some maps. Those are important. I'd also suggest rolling for the treasure and rewards now, while you'll putting together the encounters, so things don't slow down after the fights. You'll want to work on tactics for the enemies, make notes so you know how they're going to fight. Drow aren't stupid and will probably start to withdraw as they start to lose. After we've got all that, make sure to work on that priestess and who's usually in her camp. I strongly suggest making notes on the camp being Prepared and Unprepared for a fight. Trust me, it'll save you time when the dice start rolling.

It's time for a final part you need to plan for: What to do after the players win. Does the priestess seal the opening, so the party can't invade the Underdark? Or is she unable to do so, leaving it open? You'll want some idea of that could happen next. Of course, even if you leave it open, the players might decide that they'd rather just seal it again and stay the hell out of the Underdark. If they do this, give them a cookie, because only fools go down there. If they do decide to go down into the land of dark and murder, you'll want to have a few notes ready to get started. After you know you're going down there, best to break out those books and look up what sorts of threats you can throw at them. I strongly suggest Mind Flayers. Those give people nightmares. And, besides, they did ask for it...

Now, let's say you're playing something else, maybe something modern or futuristic, where you can't just do a dungeon crawl. So, what do you do? There's a few options. You can do investigations, which is what a lot of horror games do. I could probably write up a whole other article about running those kind of adventures, but the best thing is to make sure there's multiple ways to figure out the answer.

That's the most important thing you have to keep in mind when designing your own adventures: Make sure you have multiple paths to find the end. While you want to plan for every possibility, don't. That way leads to madness. And the adventure never getting finished. What I do is figure out what my players are most likely to do, having played with them in a few adventures first, and then make some notes about some other things they could do. Since you can't plan for everything, look at the most likely and go from there. They not to prevent the players from doing anything, just know what they might do and give them some clues or hints based on what they do. For example, if you have someone who can read minds, make sure that the killer doesn't get close to them or is able to deflect the mind reading. Don't make it too obvious, like completely blocking it, but instead they get a hint that something is wrong, but they don't find out the truth right away.

Also, outside of dungeons and ruins, you'll really need to figure out the enemy's motivations and plans. And what they'll do to react when those plans go awry. Remember that most villains should be smart and you should play them that way. Have Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, and all the way to Plan O. Don't go all the way to Plan Z, that's going to take too damn long. Make sure you know what they want and what they're willing to do to get it. And what they'll do when they don't get it.

Another option for modern and futuristic games is the social interaction. This is good for letting players roleplay and gives you a break from having to memorize the game's combat rules. While these are usually part of investigations, you can also use them to build a much needed alliance. Or maybe you need to get that information that you've gathered into the right ears. Most games also have rules for social interaction, or even social combat, and it's always fun to try something new. Don't be afraid to throw these in to any sort of settings.

One thing I haven't tried too much is the heist game. But, I do have some adventures that focus on pulling off one of them. I have very mixed feelings about this sort of adventure, because these sorts of things can go sideways fast. When I played video games, I always hated stealth missions, that might have something to do with it... But, I seem to always have a group that seems to think that “subtlety” happens to other people. Running a heist is a lot like running a dungeon, you need detailed maps, a list of threats and where they are, and how the the players could circumvent things. The difference between the two is that when you're pulling a heist, you don't want to fight everything. In fact, if you are fighting everything, you've probably already failed. That's what makes heists so hard, what do you do when the party has fumbled so bad and now they're debating about blowing up the building to cover their tracts? All I can say is good luck!

When you get down to it, making your own adventures is both freeing and daunting. When you run a premade adventure, you can just use it as an outline if you want to. When you're making it up from scratch, you have to think a lot more about how things could go. And don't just make it up as you go along. I've only known one person that can do that. Most of us can't. It's okay if you have an outline and a list of things they could encounter, but don't just make it up. Only if you get seriously off track should you need to do this. I usually keep a note of the average stats for a normal person handy, as well as common weapons and equipment, just in case. The players decide to start a fight in the tavern rather than talk to the bartender? Okay, we can roll with it. It might not be as cool or go as smoothly as if you'd done all the work on everyone inside the tavern, but if you do it right, they'll never know...

 

Okay, this has gone on way longer than I was planning, so I'm just going to end it here. If you want me to talk more about making your own adventures, let me know and I'll come back to this one.