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Chainsaw Hobbit
2014-01-07, 07:19 PM
These are the rules I try to live by when designing adventures for D&D and other games.

Start with a flow chart. Use a flowchart to determine how all of the options connect with each other before drawing a map and fleshing out the text. Tweak the chart until you are completely happy with it. This is the most important step.

The chart can change as you play. If a play comes up with something you hadn't thought of, add it to the chart!

Provide multiple ways to achieve any goal. There should be multiple obvious paths through the dungeon. If there are guards, there should be multiple ways to get past them. The chosen methods for overcoming obstacles should have genuine consequence.

Reward accomplishments, rather than means. Don’t give experience points for successfully picking a lock, but rather for finding the treasure behind the locked door.

Pace the adventure deliberately. Try not to clump too many instances of a specific type of challenge together on the map.

Make sure nasty surprises are avoidable. It’s okay to have a deadly poison dart trap, but be sure the characters have some reliable way of anticipating it. Don’t be afraid to punish characters, but always be fair about it.

Provide roleplaying hooks. Be sure to note down the personalities of the characters the players encounter. How does the evil sorcerer treat her minions? How does the innkeeper address his staff? Does the demon have any scars or broken horns? A couple of quick notes can make an NPC much more memorable.

Make sure the environment has personality, too. Is the dungeon kept clean, or is it strewn with trash and rubble? How is it lit? Where do the minions sleep? How high are the ceilings? How does the necromancer organize his books?

Any thoughts? I plan on turning this into a longer blog post with crude illustrations, but first, I'm hoping to collect some feedback.

inexorabletruth
2014-01-07, 07:54 PM
These are the rules I try to live by when designing adventures for D&D and other games.

Start with a flow chart. Use a flowchart to determine how all of the options connect with each other before drawing a map and fleshing out the text. Tweak the chart until you are completely happy with it. This is the most important step.

I disagree with this step, because it funnels the campaign too much. Examining cause and effect is crucial to good DM, but this should happen more often after the first session and between each session, so that the game doesn't get railroaded.


Provide multiple ways to achieve any goal. There should be multiple obvious paths through the dungeon. If there are guards, there should be multiple ways to get past them. The chosen methods for overcoming obstacles should have genuine consequence.

I agree 100%. Players can succeed or fail in a myriad of ways, causing many different possible outcomes, many of which are subtle but completely unforeseeable, just as they can be when resolving real life issues. Adding this kind of depth to decision making opens the world up and makes it feel more real.


Reward accomplishments, rather than means. Don’t give experience points for successfully picking a lock, but rather for finding the treasure behind the locked door.

I 50% agree with this. We learn by doing. That's what experience points attempts to emulate: learning. The reward is the treasure on the other side of the door. However, accomplishing goals also teaches us something. So this depends more largely on the gaming philosophy of the group.


Pace the adventure deliberately. Try not to clump too many instances of a specific type of challenge together on the map.

I 80% agree with this. An elaborate and detailed map can be quite helpful if terrain is an obstacle/aid in combat. In areas where a group is battling in an open field of low grass, I keep the map fairly bare. But in battles in banquet halls, or tropical rain forests, where everything is a potential improvised weapon, snare, hiding place, or trip hazard, I like to clutter the map with representations of these objects, and players seem to enjoy it, once they figure out that hiding in trees can give them combat advantage, or that flinging a spoonful of mashed potatoes at an orc's face in a banquet hall with cause him to be temporarily blinded.


Make sure nasty surprises are avoidable. It’s okay to have a deadly poison dart trap, but be sure the characters have some reliable way of anticipating it. Don’t be afraid to punish characters, but always be fair about it.

I 100% agree with this, but I'm pretty sure that's in most game rules. Even if you don't have a rogue equivalent in the party, you still have Save rolls.


Provide roleplaying hooks. Be sure to note down the personalities of the characters the players encounter. How does the evil sorcerer treat her minions? How does the innkeeper address his staff? Does the demon have any scars or broken horns? A couple of quick notes can make an NPC much more memorable.

BOO-yah! Thank you! I've been saying this for years. I 110% agree, and I don't care about the math on that. Please be my DM.


Make sure the environment has personality, too. Is the dungeon kept clean, or is it strewn with trash and rubble? How is it lit? Where do the minions sleep? How high are the ceilings? How does the necromancer organize his books?

Again, please be my DM. :smallcool:


Any thoughts? I plan on turning this into a longer blog post with crude illustrations, but first, I'm hoping to collect some feedback.

Great stuff! Nothing really stands out as bad advice, though some of it is conditional.

Sallera
2014-01-07, 07:56 PM
On the topic of fair punishment, I'd suggest a small revision - if an obstacle makes sense, don't be afraid to include it as long as the players could have had some way of dealing with it (better preparation, a different approach, even a different party member), even if it blindsides them when they get there. And on the flipside, include the occasional obstacle that you're reasonably sure won't so much as annoy them, assuming once again that it makes sense in context. If you tailor every aspect of an adventure to the characters, you have to do all the more work not to break immersion.

Other than that, seems pretty logical.

Knaight
2014-01-07, 08:30 PM
These are the rules I try to live by when designing adventures for D&D and other games.
I suspect they work best for D&D and games close to it. As someone who prefers those a moderate distance away, here's my feedback.


Start with a flow chart. Use a flowchart to determine how all of the options connect with each other before drawing a map and fleshing out the text. Tweak the chart until you are completely happy with it. This is the most important step.
I'm not big on flow charts. I usually go with a relationship map between important NPCs, factions, etc. Said map needs to include several ways to make action happen, which includes things like mutually exclusive goals, personal animosity, etc. Then, I give it a kick, let the players get involved, and see what unfolds.


Provide multiple ways to achieve any goal. There should be multiple obvious paths through the dungeon. If there are guards, there should be multiple ways to get past them. The chosen methods for overcoming obstacles should have genuine consequence.
I'd agree half way. I don't really use dungeons, but I do think that having just one right answer tends to not work. That said, I don't think I need to provide multiple ways to achieve a goal - the players will figure them out. I need to not shut them down simply because I haven't thought of them.


Reward accomplishments, rather than means. Don’t give experience points for successfully picking a lock, but rather for finding the treasure behind the locked door.
This is really system dependent. Sometimes it really is about the doing, sometimes mechanical growth isn't tied to character actions at all but merely the sessions plodding around, sometimes it isn't even a thing. However, within the setting accomplishments are much more likely to get things done. In your example, that would be the actual treasure.


Pace the adventure deliberately. Try not to clump too many instances of a specific type of challenge together on the map.
This seems solid, for a map based game. Outside of that, I'd posit something similar - when you have multiple ways something can go that are all reasonable sensible, one of your metrics for choosing which to go with is what has happened before. Deliberately creating variety is good by me.


Make sure nasty surprises are avoidable. It’s okay to have a deadly poison dart trap, but be sure the characters have some reliable way of anticipating it. Don’t be afraid to punish characters, but always be fair about it.
Pretty much. Though nasty surprises are fine if they aren't the sort of thing that just end characters, and they aren't used too frequently, particularly if there are ways to avoid them that aren't particularly likely to be used. A death trap is one thing, characters getting bigger enemies than anticipated because someone has a cousin who happens to be a bigger player in intrigue with some force to throw around is another, particularly when there are other examples of this clearly present.


Provide roleplaying hooks. Be sure to note down the personalities of the characters the players encounter. How does the evil sorcerer treat her minions? How does the innkeeper address his staff? Does the demon have any scars or broken horns? A couple of quick notes can make an NPC much more memorable.
Absolutely this.


Make sure the environment has personality, too. Is the dungeon kept clean, or is it strewn with trash and rubble? How is it lit? Where do the minions sleep? How high are the ceilings? How does the necromancer organize his books?
Absolutely this. I'd also emphasize that it's hardly just dungeons that need this. Outdoor environments, cities, individual houses, all of it can use it. However, it often works best to manage this sort of thing succinctly. Describing someone as wearing fancy clothes that are showing signs of wear conveys quite a bit. Spending a paragraph on every individual item probably doesn't get much more across, and is downright irritating.

Jay R
2014-01-07, 10:12 PM
Provide multiple ways to achieve any goal.[/QUOTE]

I'm pretty sure I agree with your intent - don't insist on a single way to achieve the goal. But I disagree with this formulation.

Don't provide any ways to achieve the goal. Your job is to provide the problem. The players' job is to provide the solution.


Make sure nasty surprises are avoidable. It’s okay to have a deadly poison dart trap, but be sure the characters have some reliable way of anticipating it. Don’t be afraid to punish characters, but always be fair about it.

This sounds way too close to "Make sure nasty surpises are either not nasty, or not surprises." I would rephrase it to "Make sure unavoidable nasty surprises add as much fun as frustration." Don't cut off the fighters' hands, but making his face look like an orc for awhile can be exciting.

veti
2014-01-07, 10:12 PM
I'm not big on flow charts. I usually go with a relationship map between important NPCs, factions, etc. Said map needs to include several ways to make action happen, which includes things like mutually exclusive goals, personal animosity, etc. Then, I give it a kick, let the players get involved, and see what unfolds.

This looks much more promising to me than a "flowchart", which sort of presupposes that you can predict what the players will do. For me, one of the biggest turn-offs is DMs who want to "tell a story" and already have "roles" in mind for the PCs. Repeat after me: a game session is NOT a storytelling medium.


I'd agree half way. I don't really use dungeons, but I do think that having just one right answer tends to not work. That said, I don't think I need to provide multiple ways to achieve a goal - the players will figure them out. I need to not shut them down simply because I haven't thought of them.

This. Give the players challenges, but if they ever (out of character) ask you "how the heck are we supposed to get past that?", the honest and appropriate answer is: "You're not". You're not supposed to get past it. The person who put that guard there, did so with the specific purpose of stopping you. There's no earthly reason she would have deliberately put in some sort of shortcut - let alone multiple "solutions" - that allows you to just waltz right past. If you can't either overpower or outwit that guard, then you're not getting past that point, period. Do something else now, and come back when you're better prepared.




Reward accomplishments, rather than means. Don’t give experience points for successfully picking a lock, but rather for finding the treasure behind the locked door.

This is really system dependent. Sometimes it really is about the doing, sometimes mechanical growth isn't tied to character actions at all but merely the sessions plodding around, sometimes it isn't even a thing. However, within the setting accomplishments are much more likely to get things done. In your example, that would be the actual treasure.

Agreed. Some systems explicitly reward you for using skills, regardless of what the outcome is. Picking a lock to a door behind which lurks a rabid dire half-dragon weretiger will - assuming you survive the experience - teach you just as much about lockpicking as picking one to a door that conceals the Eternally Chilled Cocktail Shaker of Dionysus, or whatever you're looking for this session.

Arguably, finding treasure is its own reward. What earns experience is work.


Pace the adventure deliberately. Try not to clump too many instances of a specific type of challenge together on the map.

Umm. If you're thinking in terms of "pacing the adventure", again, you're in danger of railroading. What's going to constitute a "challenge" for your players is heavily dependent on what they decide to do, and what order they decide to do it in. They are the ones who will determine what shape the adventure takes.


Make sure nasty surprises are avoidable. It’s okay to have a deadly poison dart trap, but be sure the characters have some reliable way of anticipating it. Don’t be afraid to punish characters, but always be fair about it.

This I can agree with... but what's "avoidable" or "anticipatable"? The first time I ventured into Tomb of Horrors, my entire party was wiped out by Acererak, because when we (finally, after many bruising setbacks) reached him, we had absolutely no idea how to damage him. Now, you of course know that anyone going into a module titled "Tomb of Horrors" can and should reasonably anticipate a TPK - but we didn't know that, this was around 1980 and its infamy had not yet reached us. Of course, ToH is hardly a model of a player-friendly dungeon...


Provide roleplaying hooks. Be sure to note down the personalities of the characters the players encounter. How does the evil sorcerer treat her minions? How does the innkeeper address his staff? Does the demon have any scars or broken horns? A couple of quick notes can make an NPC much more memorable.

Yep. This goes just as much for minor NPCs as major villains. If the barmaid is a simpleminded yokel when the players first encounter her, and she's wised up three sessions later, you'd better have a damn' good explanation ready.


Absolutely this. I'd also emphasize that it's hardly just dungeons that need this. Outdoor environments, cities, individual houses, all of it can use it. However, it often works best to manage this sort of thing succinctly. Describing someone as wearing fancy clothes that are showing signs of wear conveys quite a bit. Spending a paragraph on every individual item probably doesn't get much more across, and is downright irritating.

Here, I do fully agree. Every setting needs its own personality, if the players are supposed to remember it. Of course, it's possible you may not actually want them to remember it. There are lots of "nondescript" places in the real world, and it's OK to have those in-game as well.

Axinian
2014-01-08, 12:00 AM
Repeat after me: a game session is NOT a storytelling medium.


On the contrary, I think I'm not only speaking for myself when I say that I think it most certainly is a storytelling medium. However, it is not the medium for telling stories with one author. Even after a freeform, sandboxy campaign a story (or even stories) has been told, just not in the same way as a book or movie. The audience writes the story too.

GungHo
2014-01-10, 09:22 AM
Reward accomplishments, rather than means. Don’t give experience points for successfully picking a lock, but rather for finding the treasure behind the locked door.
I reward on accomplishments but punish on means. You need to get on the other side of the door. That's fine. But if you kick it in or blow it up like Baby Huey, then I'm going to throw in a complication if you get anywhere near the failure threshold.

Mastikator
2014-01-10, 09:47 AM
That's basically the opposite of what I do, which makes it very fascinating.

It seems like it plays along the gamist form of roleplaying.

Knaight
2014-01-10, 02:19 PM
I reward on accomplishments but punish on means. You need to get on the other side of the door. That's fine. But if you kick it in or blow it up like Baby Huey, then I'm going to throw in a complication if you get anywhere near the failure threshold.

I figure this basically takes care of itself. After all, blowing up the door is all sorts of loud. Kicking in the door is quieter, but still far louder than picking a lock. If stealth is needed at all (and with locked doors, it probably is), just accounting for what the noise would do will probably handle the "punishment".

I generally find that thinking in terms of "rewards" and "punishments" doesn't work*. I prefer thinking in terms of results, both intended an unintended. Then, it's about extrapolating into the setting, and seeing what other elements should do.

*Unless I'm working on the actions of an NPC, as they might think that way and I need to get in their head to pick their actions.

GungHo
2014-01-13, 10:29 AM
I figure this basically takes care of itself. After all, blowing up the door is all sorts of loud. Kicking in the door is quieter, but still far louder than picking a lock. If stealth is needed at all (and with locked doors, it probably is), just accounting for what the noise would do will probably handle the "punishment".
That's really what I meant. Or winding up destroying what ever was on the other side of the door (in the case of fireballing it). Sorry for being vague. Basically, act stupid, get stupid.

Drakeburn
2014-01-13, 10:53 PM
I'd have to disagree with the whole "flow chart" part of it.

What I'm trying for my adventure is listing all the possibilities of how to do this or that.

Example: Getting out of the prison cell.

> Pry/Rip off the hinges

> Tamper/Tinker with the lock

Etc......

And for every possibility, I'll have an appropriate DC check or some other stat that make sense.

As the ol' scout motto says "Be Prepared".
Of course, you cannot prepare for everything.