Campaign challenge ideas. Opinion thread.

[Midnight_v]

I'm sitting here thinking of running several new campaigns, and I really want to get better at essentially writing adventure paths that I can share with other dms. So... how do you, create challenges that are memorable, and that matter.
Say were level 1, life can brutal and short, so I see myself using traps and non-lethal ones, at that. Falling in a 1d6 pit trap might kill a player.
So a few questions:

1. Whats you're breakdown, for Combat, Traps, other Non-combat minigames. Social etc. . .
2. If you have the "boss monster" each adventure arc. How do you prefer to construct the encounter. Higher CR? More creatures? Terrain difficulty. Surprise? Some combination thereof? I'm just looking to hear what peoples insight are about this.
3. Book monster? Or Uniques w/class levels.
4. A.Do you try to create an ecology of monsters in an area?
B.Do you think to do so is important, as some monsters just show up anywhere?
C. Do you practice run the encounters?

5. Do you do things to make the world unpredicatable or different from the base world, if in an established setting, or do you pretty much stick to cannon as best as possible. (note: if your answer is "I homebrew" this doesn't apply to you obviously)

Thats it for now. I'll edit and work through this list more if the conversation grows.

[Cole10000]

while i dont take credit to really being a dm i can offer my opinion as a player.

at early levels it sometimes helps to get into the feel of things with a new character, for me at least, is an adventure that involves all of the characters background helping the players get a feel for each other's characters and making the group work together better or flush out morality issues quickly.

as for combat if the traps that deal damage may be lethal there are ways to get around that, an examle is when i was doing an early quest the group opened a chest but there was no loot in it, it triggered a thick fog that obscured our vision and alerted the inhabitants of the building to our presence.

that makes the trap effective but at the same time not neccesicarily directly lethal, i say not neccesicarily lethal because the inhabitants were some larger than average bats that were unaffected by the fog but we couldnt see them barely at all. one of the best ways i've found is to always include something for all of the characters to gain throughout or at the end of the quest or else the ones that got nothing feel neglected

that in my opinion is how to set up an effective early quest without being overpowering and at the same time fulfilling

[Remmirath]

I've never written anything for someone else to use, so I don't have any advice about that. I'll see what I can do about answering the questions, though.
I have found that in my campaigns the things the players remember most always have to do with the general atmosphere of the campaign, and that the fights most tied in to the plot have the most impact. That's probably pretty obvious, but ever since I've worked on making key fights more atmospheric the players seem to like 'em more. Descriptions do certainly help make things memorable.


1. Whats you're breakdown, for Combat, Traps, other Non-combat minigames. Social etc. . .

A fair amount of combat, some traps if appropriate - usually only if it takes place in a dungeon setting or involves breaking in to something or such - and the occasional puzzle.
There's usually a fair amount of social, although I tend to assume that people are going to be socialising/roleplaying throughout the whole thing so I don't worry too much about leaving specific times for it. For long campaigns, I do make sure to include a few stretches of downtime where they can go about roleplaying and purchasing supplies and such.


2. If you have the "boss monster" each adventure arc. How do you prefer to construct the encounter. Higher CR? More creatures? Terrain difficulty. Surprise? Some combination thereof? I'm just looking to hear what peoples insight are about this.

I consider the CR system hopelessly screwed up so I ignore it. Usually, one very tough creature with appropriate backup (armies, cronies, similar monsters). The terrain ends up being whatever presents itself as making sense, although I'll usually tweak it one of two ways - towards the open arena-like area, or towards being very difficult with a fair amount of cover for both sides.
I don't usually go for surprise, because that in my experience tends to lessen the drama. The boss monster is typically something that they know is coming and can have some build-up to.

My aim for the boss monster of a sub-arc is 'will cause a few casualties unless the characters fight smart and get lucky', and my aim for the boss monster of a whole campaign is 'will cause the deaths of half the party unless the characters fight smart and get lucky'... but I DM for a small group where each player has many characters, and those would probably not be very good targets for a different kind of group. :smallwink:

Above all I try for boss monster fights to be memorable and dramatic, but how I go about that varies wildly depending on the campaign. I'm not very consistent, I fear.


3. Book monster? Or Uniques w/class levels.

Always with class levels at the levels I usually play at, and usually at lower levels as well. Stock book monsters are rarely particularly challenging in my experience.


4. A.Do you try to create an ecology of monsters in an area?

Yeah, if it makes sense. I won't sweat the ecology in a dungeon, since a mash-up of monsters in a dungeon is just how things are done. If the group is travelling through a forest or some such, then I will certainly worry about it.


B. Do you think to do so is important, as some monsters just show up anywhere?

Depends on your players, really. Some of them would get a kick out of the monsters making sense, and some just wouldn't care. If they wouldn't care, I don't think it's important (well, unless you think it is - and then it is).


C. Do you practice run the encounters?

No. I adjust things on the fly in the middle of them if they're going wrong, though.


5. Do you do things to make the world unpredicatable or different from the base world, if in an established setting, or do you pretty much stick to cannon as best as possible. (note: if your answer is "I homebrew" this doesn't apply to you obviously)

I homebrew. :smalltongue: When running from an established setting, however - which I usually do only with MERP and not with D&D - I stick to canon as best as possible. I also have a habit of avoiding any well-known NPCs inherent to a setting like the plague.