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Zilant
2012-08-04, 08:10 PM
I haven't really been DMing long (or playing D&D for that matter) so I don't have a great deal of experience.

I have been trying to make my own adventures and for the past few weeks my method has been the same.
Spend a the whole week trying to make encounters and adventures then at the last minute (either the night before or the morning of) have to scramble and throw something together quickly.

I feel like I'm approaching this whole thing the wrong way.

I'm pretty much stuck at a wall and want to know what others do if they can't think of what to do for their games.

Silus
2012-08-04, 08:25 PM
I haven't really been DMing long (or playing D&D for that matter) so I don't have a great deal of experience.

I have been trying to make my own adventures and for the past few weeks my method has been the same.
Spend a the whole week trying to make encounters and adventures then at the last minute (either the night before or the morning of) have to scramble and throw something together quickly.

I feel like I'm approaching this whole thing the wrong way.

I'm pretty much stuck at a wall and want to know what others do if they can't think of what to do for their games.

Well, based off of my very first D&D game, I pretty much improv'ed the whole thing. Sure, I had some monsters set aside, but everything that happened was more or less off the top of my head and either sketched out in my head beforehand (In a "This is kinda neat, let's try this" kinda way) or done in response to the party's actions.

If you do go with the improv method though, you need to be good at improv to begin with. Bad improv DMing can make very, very bad things happen. Like worse than Twilight bad.

Grinner
2012-08-04, 08:36 PM
Do you have a full campaign in mind? Or is each adventure basically self-contained?

Zilant
2012-08-04, 08:50 PM
Each adventure I have had the party go on could be taken and run in any other generic game, with minor changes to things such as quests givers and minor NPC's.

I have tried to be fairly consistant with the world in which things have been taking place.

Gettles
2012-08-05, 12:39 AM
Steal. Steal any workable idea from other storys that you can fit in and than run with whatever seems to stick.

Rorrik
2012-08-05, 01:03 AM
Like worse than Twilight bad.

That bad! :smalleek:

Honestly, there's nothing wrong with improv if you're alright at it(and it sounds like you must be) and you have a good idea of what the world your players are in is like. You're not writing this up for someone else to use, so your only goal is to make it fun, and improv is usually more fun than something thoroughly planned, when done well.

Zilant
2012-08-05, 02:13 AM
I suppose if no one is complaining than it isn't that big of a deal.

I mean, if everyone is having fun then I shouldn't really be worrying.
I still can't help but feel as though I can do better insofar as adventures go.


I suppose using pre made adventures or using other peoples ideas wouldn't be that bad. I'll just use the templates and find a way to fit it in.

Is there a particular place I could look where I would be able to find a collection of such ideas?

Silus
2012-08-05, 02:14 AM
That bad! :smalleek:

Honestly, there's nothing wrong with improv if you're alright at it(and it sounds like you must be) and you have a good idea of what the world your players are in is like. You're not writing this up for someone else to use, so your only goal is to make it fun, and improv is usually more fun than something thoroughly planned, when done well.

Also, if you plan something, you can almost guarantee that the PCs will find some way to mess it up.

Outlines = good
Concrete game breaking plans = bad



I suppose if no one is complaining than it isn't that big of a deal.

Pretty much. Have a basic plan and an outline of how to get the PCs there, and if they go off track, improv as needed. PCs need to get to Skullcrusher Mountain, but they get distracted by ale and whores? Have them get kidnapped and hauled off there when they pass out drunk or something. Or have one of the aforementioned whores take a PC's stuff and head off in that direction. Or the village gets attacked by baddies from said mountain. or something =3

Kelb_Panthera
2012-08-05, 02:48 AM
The way I like to handle it is this.

First put together a campaign world by arranging some terrain features and political boundaries, an ocean here, some mountains there, and a couple of nation/city-states.

Then fluff it out a bit by making some major NPC's; lords, crime-bosses, revolutionaries, that sort of thing.

Then I create a rough outline of how those things are going to interact with each other if the players don't interfere with any of it. (fat chance that :smalltongue:)

Once I have a good idea of what's going on, I can just react to the players actions in ways that make sense. I also roll up a few random encounters in-case they go in a completely unexpected direction, or simply abandon the path they've been on.

You can of course short-cut this by using pieces of published campaigns or other works, but I'm a world-builder.

Having a general idea of what's going on, and contingencies for the occasional surprise has served me pretty well, but YMMV.

falloutimperial
2012-08-05, 01:18 PM
I agree with kelb in the idea that creating a gameworld will give you ideas.

To elaborate, any encounter can be improved when it is in an interesting location: on a giant staircase, in a dark pit, on the rooftops in the gnoll district, etc.

Any encounter can be improved when it involves an interesting group: masked satyrs prolonging their diseases, a carnival of militant devas, a coven of blind wyrm cultists.

Any encounter can be improved when it is tied to other encounters with themes: recurring motifs, echoes with a thousand sources, callbacks and callforwards.

RandomNPC
2012-08-05, 06:36 PM
Get some grid paper, draw an opening (top view) and decide if it's going to be a cave (rough shapes, rounded corners, odd hallways) or a building (squared off rooms, straight hallways, 90 degree turns.) From there decide what makes sense.

My caves generally have a few chambers up front (living quarters and storage of commonly used items) a path that may or may not split any number of times into side rooms (More quarters, maybe a forge or other craft type room) then at the end of the tunnels are either mines or a treasury.

Buildings always have a reason for every room, so decide what the building does, and then make the building. Warehouses are easy, a few offices, and some open space with big doors. Houses? Easy. A headquarters is rough, needs a kitchen, training areas, and enough beds for 1/3 of the population to sleep at a time if they hot bunk it. 1/4 of the population if they go with 6 hours rest.

Is this some form of military? lots of weapons and gear. Theives? lockpicks, climbing gear, a few potions of invisibility. Casters trying something they shouldn't? Lots of spell components that actually cost money, a few summoning circles, and don't forget the books!

When the party likes something, well it turns out that particular dungeon raid was a raid on a small group working for the just invented BBEG. Look at that raid as a raid on the least prepared group working for BBEG.


Edit: Looking at what everyone else said, I build my worlds completely backwards compared to most the people here, from the first adventure outward. Message me or something if you've got questions, I don't mind answering questions at all.

Shpadoinkle
2012-08-05, 08:45 PM
Try brainstorming with your group. Ask them what kind of game they'd like to play in. Take. Freaking. Notes. You don't have to (and shouldn't) use their ideas ver batim, of course- give them your own twist- but knowing what your players like and are expecting should help give you ideas and help them enjoy the game more.

Hylas
2012-08-05, 09:22 PM
Take two ideas and combine them together!

For example: Bandits are cool. And orc cultists worshipping a dragon is also cool. What about bandits that work for orc cultists? Bandits that are orc cultists? Orcs that worship dragon bandits?

So then expand on the idea. Why do these dragon bandits practice banditry? Maybe they're looking for something and have information that it's being transportted. Bam, got a MacGuffin. Why are the orcs worshipping them? Maybe because the dragons grant magic powers? Maybe they're being mind-controlled to pad the dragons' egos.

Then expand on the expansion. How are the dragons getting information? Do they have divination? Do they need the orcs for divination? Do they use the orcs for mundane spying?

You can expand on the expansion of the expansions, but by then you should have a pretty good idea for something cool happening.

If you're plum out of ideas, then go to this website: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b&page=1

Exediron
2012-08-05, 09:35 PM
The most important element of planning a campaign is knowing the overall story and direction; without that, you won't know what to improvise. And a good DM always has to improvise sooner or later - the only alternative is to railroad your players if they do something unexpected.

Personally, I write my campaign plans more as stories than anything else, then develop the actual floorplans and statistics much later, often only the day before the session. An example paragraph, lifted nearly word-for-word from one of my campaign plans would read:

After fighting their way through the narrow turn (and Terrorsworn) filled passages of the tomb for some time - large parts of it partially submerged - the characters arrive at a large circular door, which has spiraled outwards and is currently open. The characters will possibly have lost at least a few people to the hit and run tactics of the Terrorsworn by this point, but ideally not many. Past the doorway is a staircase, which spirals upwards out of sight. A strange thrumming sound can be heard coming from the top of the stairs.
The exact details are typically improvised as I go along, although I have a floorplan with basic room descriptions, treasure and some of the monsters. Not being tied to a rigid plan allows one to react to events and the mood more easily.

I never have the problem of lacking material for a session, because my campaign plans are written months in advance, and the super-arc was written years ago. I haven't DM'd a game outside my usual group in years, but I have one or two finished adventures I've written floating around that I would use if I had no ideas (one of them, the Hall of the Screaming King, I've almost ran three times now) on the day.

As far as brainstorming tips go, I would recommend using a technique I sometimes apply to character creation. Think of a specific moment or scene - a thief climbing a treacherous ruined staircase set into a cliff high above a blasted valley miles below, orcs suddenly attacking by firing off buried charges under the path, a lovely elf turning up dead in a character's bed with no explanation - and work backwards to that moment, creating an adventure that will lead to it, or at least through it. It often helps me to plan a series of events if I know the ending, because the ending is often what inspires me. It may not work for everyone, however.

Of course, Know Your Group is always good advice, right after Know Your Self :smallsmile:

LoneStarNorth
2012-08-05, 09:42 PM
Try flipping through the Monster Manual, find creatures that are close to the party's level, and read through their descriptions. Usually that's enough to give me at least a basic idea for an encounter.

For dungeons, try to think of all the creatures that would logically be living in the area and pick out several of the appropriate level. For instance, a cave system might have oozes, dire animals near the surface, grimlocks, drow, duergar, minotaurs, and so on and so forth.

valadil
2012-08-05, 09:42 PM
Steal. Steal any workable idea from other storys that you can fit in and than run with whatever seems to stick.

You know what the best place is to steal from? The players. Get background information on their characters. If they write it up for you, awesome. If not, you can probably wheedle it out of them in conversation and take notes yourself.

Then go through the notes and highlight everything that can be stolen. That's pretty much every noun. If they have a sister, kidnap her. Brother? Put his face on wanted posters. Parents? Slaughter them. Okay, it doesn't all have to be mean, but the mean stuff is the easiest to work with because the players will want revenge.

Anyway, I suggest this method because it gives you free ideas, but if they players care about their characters at all, they're already going to care. You don't have to convince them to follow the plot that they wrote. They're already sold on the idea. You just have to take their background and turn it into plot.

JetThomasBoat
2012-08-06, 04:02 AM
As someone else who's pretty much in the exact same boat, this is a pretty neat thread. Keep them coming, guys. I've been playing for ten years and I have been a DM for maybe twelve sessions? I need all the help I can get, as well.

Knaight
2012-08-06, 06:58 AM
Something that hasn't been suggested yet is preparation for the purpose of emergent adventures. Basically, what you do is you stay small at first, and you have a few major characters that things hinge on (4-6). See that they are all working at cross purposes, and that the PCs will fit in with them as their own faction. You should have 5-7 notable groups at this point, all of which want something different, and all of which have some connection to most of the others. Then, whenever you introduce another character, tie them into this character net. One of those original 4-6 might send a courier to blackmail one of the PCs to try and force the PCs to manipulate one of the other 4-6 who is a friend of the PCs. The significant other of that one might actually be in love with the other original one, and perceive the courier as some sort of competitor and hate them. This creates a character based intrigue centered game very neatly and organically, with the weave of characters getting ever more complex and the PCs getting ever more tied into them.

Now, I assume you are in a game which tends towards violence. This also encourages it - eventually the PCs are going to be asked by a friend or cajoled by an enemy into violence against somebody, if somebody doesn't try to kill one of them first. Then the repercussions of that spread around the character web, with the potential of begetting yet more of it. If you instead favor a simpler structure for contained short adventures, then you can have something come up where what they want is threatened and they have to go adventuring to save it. Maybe someone poisons someone else, and the obvious repercussions of that put the PCs interests somewhere in the line of toppling dominoes. Incidentally, the antidote is deep within monster/bandit/whatever infested territory. Presto, adventuring!

Jay R
2012-08-06, 03:14 PM
Go re-read your favorite adventure book and re-watch your favorite adventure movie. The ideas are already there. Just change the ending enough that if the party recognizes your source it will get them in even more trouble. (Make Richelieu the good guy, or the wookie a villain.)

BRC
2012-08-06, 03:44 PM
You know what the best place is to steal from? The players. Get background information on their characters. If they write it up for you, awesome. If not, you can probably wheedle it out of them in conversation and take notes yourself.

Then go through the notes and highlight everything that can be stolen. That's pretty much every noun. If they have a sister, kidnap her. Brother? Put his face on wanted posters. Parents? Slaughter them. Okay, it doesn't all have to be mean, but the mean stuff is the easiest to work with because the players will want revenge.

Anyway, I suggest this method because it gives you free ideas, but if they players care about their characters at all, they're already going to care. You don't have to convince them to follow the plot that they wrote. They're already sold on the idea. You just have to take their background and turn it into plot.

This is great advice. Using PC backstories in adventures makes the players feel like they have a real influence on the game world.

That said, See what your PC's like. Everytime they take a shine to a particular NPC or plot element, make a note and bring that back. I have had random NPC's I made up on the spot as a joke turn into major characters.

Embrace the Gimmick! If you have a unique idea for spicing up a particular encounter or adventure, USE IT. Gimmicks can get old if you stretch them out for too long, but for a single adventurer they remain fun an novel. A favorite trick of mine is to give each player an NPC companion (Under their control) or a special power for a single adventure. You don't really have to worry about it breaking the game, since these are only sticking around for one adventure anyway.

Embrace the Refluff!: This can save a lot of time. Rather than trying to find a monster to fit your setting, you can find a monster that has the stats you want and simply refluff it.

Really, every adventure has four important components.

1: The Hook Why are the PC's going on this adventure. It should be noted that with most groups, the players will be working with you on this one. They WANT to find the adventure you've made, so if you have a crazy old man mention strange happenings in the old crypt, they will put on their best crypt-stomping boots and go check it out.

2: The Goal What are the PC's trying to do? This can change, it can go from "Investigate the old crypt" to "Stop the mysterious cult from completing their ritual" to "Apologize to the cult for interrupting the ritual they must do to keep the Tyrant of Bones from rising " to "Kill the Tyrant of Bones".
3: The Challenge What makes the goal difficult? usually, this is monsters and traps, but it can be any number of things.

4: The Tone How do you want the adventure to feel. Do you want it to be a heroic charge against evil, a tense mystery, a desperate battle? Are there any cool images you want to evoke (A battle against a dragon while on a bridge spanning a deep canyon, for example).

The best part of this system is that you can start at any one of these, and build the adventure from there.

inexorabletruth
2012-08-07, 01:08 PM
IRL DM'ing is 90% preparation, 85% throwing all those plans away, then 95% improving.

The only way to avoid improv gaming is to plan like you've never planned before. One of my earliest campaigns had almost 300 pages of campaign notes... not counting maps, and page references and web links. Since most of us have lives, it's probably going to be better for you if you just improve your ad-libbing skills.

The internet can be a great resource at the gaming table in a pinch.

Find a monster with this. (http://monsterfinder.dndrunde.de/)
Build an important NPC with this. (http://www.pathguy.com/cg35.htm)
Map out a tavern with this. (http://www.inkwellideas.com/roleplaying_tools/random_inn/)

Now go, you elegant, graceful, world building DM, you!

Urslingen
2012-08-07, 03:53 PM
I haven't really been DMing long (or playing D&D for that matter) so I don't have a great deal of experience.

I have been trying to make my own adventures and for the past few weeks my method has been the same.
Spend a the whole week trying to make encounters and adventures then at the last minute (either the night before or the morning of) have to scramble and throw something together quickly.

I feel like I'm approaching this whole thing the wrong way.

I'm pretty much stuck at a wall and want to know what others do if they can't think of what to do for their games.

Planning, planning and yet more planning - that is the most straight forward answer. Make sure to be about 2-3 sessions ahead if you haven't a campaign in mind, that way you can change your plans to suit the players but still follow some kind of plot and/or theme.

Peace Out.

- Urslingen

Jack of Spades
2012-08-07, 09:37 PM
TvTropes. Dear God, TvTropes.

Seriously, it's a wiki for plot ideas. They even have a random story generator to get the idea-ball rolling. Afraid of making something too cliched? Find two or three tropes and roll them together. There are story tropes, character tropes, nation/state/region tropes, and the simple fact is that anything anyone has ever come up with will fit some kind of trope. Tropes are tools, and TvTropes is essentially a hardware store. Look around the site, find a dozen things that look interesting, and find a way to tie them together.

And then, once all of that is planned out and your ideas are all on paper, be prepared to have to shuffle your ideas around when the players inevitably throw you a curve ball.

Kelb_Panthera
2012-08-07, 09:51 PM
TvTropes. Dear God, TvTropes.

Seriously, it's a wiki for plot ideas. They even have a random story generator to get the idea-ball rolling. Afraid of making something too cliched? Find two or three tropes and roll them together. There are story tropes, character tropes, nation/state/region tropes, and the simple fact is that anything anyone has ever come up with will fit some kind of trope. Tropes are tools, and TvTropes is essentially a hardware store. Look around the site, find a dozen things that look interesting, and find a way to tie them together.

And then, once all of that is planned out and your ideas are all on paper, be prepared to have to shuffle your ideas around when the players inevitably throw you a curve ball.

Be aware that if you're the same kind of bibliophile that I am, that site, TvTropes.org (http://www.tvtropes.org), will suck you in for several hours at a time, if you're not careful.

Zilant
2012-08-08, 01:05 AM
Wow. I'm gone for a day and a half at work and this thread has oodles of awesome information! Thanks Guys!

There was a post about someone making the dungeons first and then writing up the encounters and adventures afterwards. This is something I did very often when I was DMing with my last group. I actually used this method to great effect previously and have decided to try and apply it once more.

There was another that mentioned planning ahead. I did this as well. I would often have a few adventures at different levels that the PC's could go on that also fit fairly well into the story. So if they went off the beaten path or I just had a really busy week or two in between I had something at the very least. I think I will try and get something like this done again.

I don't know why I didn't think of it before but I did take notes the last time my group had a session. I took notes on their character's backround and goals. They just aren't very developed becuase we are all still fairly uneasy with the condcept of "role playing". We are not so much uncomfortable with it, it's just that we don['t really know how to do it or if what we are doing is right.

I think part of my problem was that I felt like a was just reusing the same things over and over again. Part of this is because I would always start campaigns with a group at lvl 1 and the sessions would fall apart over time. Often times, when I come out of a D&D depression and decide to find people to play with, there is a new player. This causes me to reuse the same kinds of adventures and plots. So basically, it was old for me so I don't want to use it.
After searching on a few sites that you guys have provided I have to come to terms with the fact that it is the small variations that matter even if the big picture seems generic or rehashed. (Nothing new under the sun and all that.)

I cannot help but fee that the above and a combination of being busy with work/lack of time (or maybe even just the feeling that I do not have the time) to prepare a "proper" session is what caused this thread.

Now that I have read through many insightful bits of information I feel a little more motivated. The fires of creativity are lit and I feel a bit more up to the challenge of DMing. So thank you all :smallsmile:

Now I have until this saturday to get something together. I have absolutely nothing planned and had no direction for what I wanted to do after the party's last adventure. I suppose I have some work ahead of me :smallbiggrin:

P.S. I am also glad to hear that this thread has helped out another person!

Kelb_Panthera
2012-08-08, 03:11 AM
The most important tip in gaming:

If everyone's having fun....... you're doing it right.


Doesn't matter what the details are, you're doing great as long as everybody's having a good time.

JetThomasBoat
2012-08-11, 12:15 AM
Be aware that if you're the same kind of bibliophile that I am, that site, TvTropes.org (http://www.tvtropes.org), will suck you in for several hours at a time, if you're not careful.

This happened to me last night :smallbiggrin:

Hylas
2012-08-11, 01:08 AM
I told a friend about this and then one thing led to another and we made a d100 table for random idea generation!

Roll as many d100s as you want (start with 2 and roll more to add complexity to an idea.)
If you roll a ____ your next roll! (Adjective ______) that means roll again and add that modifier to the next roll.


Rats
Sewers
Bandits
Orcs
Cultists
Animal cruelty
Unrest in the slums
Spiders
Strange Dreams
Underground Lake
Other species are invading/invasive
Time Anomaly
Forests
Role Reversal of next roll - (fire breathing princess with a dragon hostage) (Reversed ____)
Treacherous King’s advisor
Wizard’s pocket dimension
Earthquakes?!?
Tavern
Explode the next roll! (Exploding ______)
Haunted House
Unfaithful Servant
Necromancer
Swamps
Chef
Sealed away in Crystals your next roll! (Crystalized _____)
Merchant Caravan
Confidence game
Espionage
Guild of Thieves
Assassination Attempt
Kidnapping
Townsfolk acting strange
Gypsies
Military Invasion
Ancient plots
Dragons
Desert
Alchemists
Long lost power source
Out of control weather
Slave traders
The astral plane
Meteorites
Vampires
Cursed your next roll! (Cursed ____)
Werewolves
Buried treasure
Ghosts
Blustery mountains
Maps
Religious Conflict
Tunnels
Ancient ruins
Racism
Evil Twin
Blacksmith
Illegal shipment
Corrupt bureaucracy
Woman seeking help
Venerated weapons
Angry Dwarves
Paladins
Poachers
In need of rescue your next roll! (captured ______)
Undead (Undead _____)
Very heavy rain
“Deserted” island
Brain leeches
Lich
Blackmail
The Grim Reaper
Missing livestock/shop stock
Your next roll is being supplied with weapons! (Armed ____)
Ogres
Unholy half-breed not meant to exist
Exciting new show in town
A wandering bard
No one can remember your next roll! (Amnesia _____)
Fight Club
At the Capitol
A Prostitute
Snakes
Trapped Catacombs
Flooded your next roll! (they probably need your help!)
Martial Law
A noble
Famine
Corrupted by wild magic
People are missing
A budding religion
Revolt / Rebellion
Trusting innkeeper
Shadow creatures
Rural town
Marriage (alt. Marriage between ______ and ______) if you’re feeling saucy
An exciting invention
Owls
A construction site
An avalanche
A volcano



By Hylas and Tiffy

I'll demonstrate its use:
Dice rolls - 65, 57, 6
Undead Illegal Shipment
Animal Cruelty

A necromancer is trying to sell reanimated animals on the black market, but...

roll - 18 Tavern
roll - 74 Ogres

... There's too much activity on the trade roads. Being a lazy necromancer he has mind controlled ogres to destroy the trade route and scare off people. However on their warpath lies a tavern, where our alcoholic sociopathic hobos masquerading as adventurers are staying. What will happen next?

Zilant
2012-08-11, 01:39 AM
Wow, that table is pretty nifty. I like going on the Wiki or looking at the chart in the players handbook for ideas but They are usually pretty clear cut wheras these give much more wiggle room.

JetThomasBoat
2012-08-11, 03:59 PM
Wow, that table is pretty nifty. I like going on the Wiki or looking at the chart in the players handbook for ideas but They are usually pretty clear cut wheras these give much more wiggle room.

Plus, it can be quite funny or surprisingly serious, as in the example.

Hylas
2012-08-11, 08:37 PM
The goal is was to plant the seeds of ideas not to give a finished product. I posted it here so that future generations might Google search it and be inspired.