Plots in RPGs

[Pippa the Pixie]

I'm still struggling with, as a newer GM, turning a scenario idea or a goal of the PCs' into a proper adventure. A proper adventure has challenging, multiple steps — I'm failing to get the “multiple steps” part.

For example, if the initial idea/goal is “Rescue the people kidnapped from the tavern by Orcs”, all I can think of for how to turn this into activity in the game is “follow the Orcs' trail, then deal with them to get the hostages”, which isn't even two scenes of play!

I guess I can do ok with the crunch mechanics, but my main thing is how to make a plot?

This is a problem for me regardless of whether the goal/activity is generated by me or the players, and regardless of whether I'm pre-planning the session or improvising a situation during play. This is a both a problem for me and for my players. We all find this unsatisfying.

What do you start with? What do you focus on early and hold off until later? Did you create a story beforehand or just jumping right in? Map building or party/enemy creation first? I'd like to hear what has been effective for people thus far, and maybe pick up a few strats and tips for smooth designing.

[Koo Rehtorb]

Well, from the given example.

Party has to find the starting point of the trail. Maybe involves interviewing a bunch of locals to get pointed in the general direction of the place the orcs left town from. Do the PCs have the ability to track well? If not, they probably have to find and hire a tracker to do so who may need some convincing. Is the party especially good at moving quickly in overland travel? Orcs are hardy creatures. If the party can't keep up with them on foot they may need to find some way to move faster, possibly involving horses. They may need to get some horses from somewhere, maybe people with horses aren't eager to lend them out to a group of orc hunters. Even if they can follow the trail, the orcs probably have a big head start on them, enough to lead them on a long chase through dangerous terrain. Getting through the Dank Woods and the Swamps of Meme may be adventures in and of themselves with all sorts of perils involved. Then you bring in hard choices. Maybe other people need their help along the way, and stopping to help them would slow them down, what do they do? That nice old lady's gingerbread house is getting eaten by swarms of ravenous goblin children. And then you actually get to the orc's lair. Good luck on sneaking into Isengard. Now you're gonna have to go find a bunch of angry trees to smash the place up before you can storm it and rescue those people, or something.

GMing goal based games is really easy, I find. The players have already told you what they want to do. All you have to do is put obstacles between them and what they want and then sit back and watch what they do.

[Cespenar]

What do you start with? What do you focus on early and hold off until later? Did you create a story beforehand or just jumping right in? Map building or party/enemy creation first? I'd like to hear what has been effective for people thus far, and maybe pick up a few strats and tips for smooth designing.

For this part, if it's not obvious, you should start with the setting. At least the general stuff. After the setting, the main plot. Even if it's a sandbox game, you should ask the players their goals and whatnot, and create some plot lines for them.

Then along that line, you place the big/small players (NPCs) in the setting which will be relevant to the plots. Figure out their goals/methods/powers. What actions and reactions can they make pertaining to the plot.

Then the specific quests. If the main plot lines are ready, the specific quests shouldn't be a big problem.

[caden_varn]

I often find the same issue myself. It depends a bit if you are trying to do this on the fly, or are planing in downtime.
On the fly is difficult for me, but the players can sometimes help. Encourage the group to discuss amongst themselves, and keep quiet and listen. They'll probably do some speculating on why the orcs are doing this, and this will hopefully spark some ideas. Really, shutting up & just listening to my players for a while without contributing was a valuable DMing lesson it took me far longer than it should have to really appreciate.

If you are doing it in downtime, remember you can add to end as well as in the middle. For example, you can leave the 'rescue people from the orcs' as a 2 scene scenario, and have extra plot points come up afterwards. WHy did the orcs want the people? Maybe they were selling to slavers, or they had orders from the BBEG to capture them to use as sacrifices in a dark ritual. When the group free the prisoners they get some clues to this - one of the villagers overheard something, or there is a letter in the chief's chambers laying out the exchange details, or there is a non-orc in the caverns from the other group with information/letters etc.

The main thing I find helpful here is to think why is something happening.

[SuperFerret]

Ideally, plot should come through the actions of the PCs. Lately, I've been setting up scenarios and focusing on building the opening scene, while making sure there are threads for the PCs to follow and unravel. You can play into the PCs goals, or give them a goal, as needed.

In your scenario, I'd echo what's stated above and have ideas of why the orcs are doing this, who or what they're working for, and what endgame they have. I've been trying to be more open to improvisation behind the screen, so my plans tend to be freeform. Alternatively, you can use the dungeon set up, and either have the orcs lead the PCs to an actual dungeon, or turn the chase into a sort of "dungeon" with multiple encounters/scenes on the road (e.g. the PCs catch some stragglers; the orcs set up an ambush; some large beast is curious about the groups tramping through the wilderness and investigates; etc.).

[Lacco]

This is a problem for me regardless of whether the goal/activity is generated by me or the players, and regardless of whether I'm pre-planning the session or improvising a situation during play. This is a both a problem for me and for my players. We all find this unsatisfying.

First of all: it's great to hear that you are trying to improve based on player feedback. Caring GMs are my favourite kind.

Now you posted several interesting questions, so let's handle them separately.


I guess I can do ok with the crunch mechanics, but my main thing is how to make a plot?

Normally my advice would be: "as barebones as possible". But let's delve a bit more into the depths.

Let's say you or players set the goal. I fully agree with Koo Rehtorb that the worst part (setting a goal which players buy in) is behind you.

What you can do now is:

Think about (and write down) which individuals, groups and entities could be interested/may influence the party in relation to the goal.
Find conflicing motivations, goals, desires and opposing sides.
Map the relationships.
Think about (and write down) geographical aspects ("what stands between the party and the goal physically?").
Prepare at least two paths (or diverge the path at one point). RPGs are partially about choices - give them some.
Draw a small map for you - or a flowchart. Or flowmap :smallwink:.
Think about (and write down) environmental aspects ("what part of environment may help/hinder them?").
At this point you may want to start combining the individual aspects - at least in your head.
Think about landmarks, points of interest and interesting things they can see, smell, touch...get killed by.
Write down one or two things you might want them to explore in addition to the "plot".

For this, I usually do a small mind map, few notes, a drawing... and a flowchart/flowmap.

Still with me? Now here comes the interesting part.

Take the goal and expand it. For me, the flowcharts work best at this point. Add in "in between" steps from the things you wrote down. The geographical aspects, relationships, environment...

"Rescue hostages from the Orcs" => Follow Orcs + Deal With Orcs => Follow Orcs through Dark Forest and Marsh to their Fort + Deal With Orcs

Add Choices/Diverging Paths

Let's assume the Orcs split at one point. A larger party went through the infamous Plains of Blood to nearest slave market and part went through Blackmoss March to their Fort. And you can ride around the forest or go on foot through it.

Ride around the Forest or Follow Orcs through Dark Forest* and Marsh to their Fort + Deal With Orcs
*OR and Plains of Blood to slave market + rescue hostages.

Add Complications
Complications are things that slow down/stop the PCs - and generally make their lives harder - and usually complications represent "encounters".
1st complication: (already implemented) not all hostages are in the Fort. They took only the men and able workers. Women and children went to slave market.
2nd complication: Plains of Blood are barren and hostile bands of slavers roam them - the risk is inherently high there. Also: blood rain (corrosive) may occur.
3rd complication: Blackmoss March is covered in mist. You may lose easily if you don't follow the steps. Also: see Princess Bride.
4th complication: Dark Forest is full of spiders and hates you and will try to kill you.
5th complication: if you ride around the forest, you may lose the track and will get slowed down to find it.
Feel free to add complications later.

Sprinkle Distractions
Distractions are things that the party can engage - best example are side quests. But you can also give them other stuff they can spend time on - sometimes rewarding, sometimes costing them. Be careful to provide both, sometimes at the same time to ensure they don't ignore further distractions.
A rule of thumb is not to provide more than 1 per player per game - and even less sometimes. Some can cover more than one player.
Distraction A: Side quest. If they go through Dark Forest, they may come upon two lost children - they were chased by spiders and separated from their parents. They tried marking their way with breadcrumbs. Will the players bring them home? Or will they leave them to their demise? Or will they take the kids and trade them at the slaver camp? You don't know yet - but prepare an encounter with their parents (pair of rangers that are trying to track them) or slavers. Also notice: they inform the players about presence of spiders.
Distraction B: Landmark. On Plains of Blood there is a "Bladefield" - a cementery/location of ancient battlefield. Thousands and thousands of swords stick out from the ground - and some may be even valuable. It is said that a legendary blade "Righteous Fury" is somewhere among them, marking the grave of fallen knight.

The distractions may themselves serve as...

Hard Choices
Hard choices represent roleplaying opportunities - a choice without obviously right solution. We already have one - the splitting of orcish party and hostages - but we may include other ones. Be prepared that players may take any of the proposed choices - even the "wrong" one according to you - so you should be prepared for the consequences.
Again, the important thing: no obviously right solution.

Hard choice 1: Which orcish party to follow?
Hard choice 2: Let's add complication and use it as hard choice. Let's say they encounter a slaver party that is fighting against group of pilgrims. The battle seems inconclusive at this point (the slavers are well-equipped and organized, but the refugees fight furiously). Will they aid the slavers (who will gladly offer them some compensation) or the pilgrims (even though they follow god who is in direct opposition to their cleric's)? This hard choice presumes there is a cleric, opposing god, and the cleric or a party member has strong motivation to fight the slavers...
Hard choice 3: Once they deal with the orcs, the leader of the orcs will let them know he knows about a secret passage below the fort, which should lead them to a rare and valuable magic item. However, to get any information from him, they have to let him and his lieutnants go - and he tells it to them in front of the people they should be saving. The people are horrified about the prospect of the orc leader surviving and being free.

As stated, distraction may represent a hard choice - especially if it comes with a price tag (e.g. searching for the legendary blade on the Bladefield may take weeks) and there is a potential...

Rewards

Rewards (and negative rewards!) are part of the GM's toolkit. Using the correct rewards at correct times may significantly increase player satisfaction, but there is also the potential tool for encouraging the players to take certain paths/choices. If you give a player a choice (when we disregard the "roleplaying" aspect - and we assume that no internal motivation stops the player/PC from taking certain action) where one option is rewarding and the other not, they will take the one which rewards them.

Also nice is the possibility to create hard choices using rewards.

So, to sum up:
Map motivations. Find conflicts. Create choices/paths. Add diverging routes. Add complications. Sprinkle distractions. Consider hard choices. Prepare rewards. Repeat until you reach the point you like.

Remember: RPGs are also about choices they make. Don't make it a linear story - make branches. Also, don't make it a tree at first - a shrubbery will suffice. The more experience you gain, the more branches you will be able to manage, but bear in mind that the players will choose one branch. And don't think you need to finish each branch at the moment - if you are able to improvise, it may be better for you.

Now comes the harder part.

Consider framing and pacing and cut the content into scenes/individual sessions. This is very much about players and the group - what they like and what they don't care about at all (can we skip travel completely? should we let them skip some of the content via rolls?).


What do you start with?

Depends. Normally I get the characters and base the game on them and their goals.

But scenario-wise: an adventure is there to represent way to reach a goal. So I start with clear idea of the goal and work backwards. Or forwards. Or from the middle. It depends on the ideas I get when I first think of the goal.

Yes, I am not very systematic.


What do you focus on early and hold off until later?

I focus on "fluff" first, mechanics come later.


Did you create a story beforehand or just jumping right in?

I create the "plot point" - an event, a location, or whatever was my original idea. And let the players do what they think with it. Sometimes they come up with even better ideas than I could ever have...


Map building or party/enemy creation first?

If the goal is to defeat the enemy, then enemy is first.

If the goal is a journey and exploration, map first.

If I get a group of PCs - newly created - that have different goals and ideas, then I try to build the game around them and their goals/ideas.


I'd like to hear what has been effective for people thus far, and maybe pick up a few strats and tips for smooth designing.

Hope it helps a bit :smallsmile: No idea if it's smooth - it's just what I sometimes do. And also: don't feel like going through a checklist. Revise, retrace, rework.

[Mordaedil]

I'm still struggling with, as a newer GM, turning a scenario idea or a goal of the PCs' into a proper adventure. A proper adventure has challenging, multiple steps — I'm failing to get the “multiple steps” part.

For example, if the initial idea/goal is “Rescue the people kidnapped from the tavern by Orcs”, all I can think of for how to turn this into activity in the game is “follow the Orcs' trail, then deal with them to get the hostages”, which isn't even two scenes of play!

I guess I can do ok with the crunch mechanics, but my main thing is how to make a plot?

This is a problem for me regardless of whether the goal/activity is generated by me or the players, and regardless of whether I'm pre-planning the session or improvising a situation during play. This is a both a problem for me and for my players. We all find this unsatisfying.

What do you start with? What do you focus on early and hold off until later? Did you create a story beforehand or just jumping right in? Map building or party/enemy creation first? I'd like to hear what has been effective for people thus far, and maybe pick up a few strats and tips for smooth designing.
I am a fan of breaking things down instead of trying to build things up.

Establish an end-goal for your campaign first, as well as the villain for that goal. Break it down into 3-4, which will be your arcs. One will build up unto the next one, but figure out that these arcs are what the villain needs to work on to accomplish his goal. Make sure you give him the resources necessary to accomplish each of these goals, except the very last one. Break each of the arcs into 2-3 smaller beats. Create small assistants to the main villain for these beats and arcs. They will serve as bosses and mini-bosses. They should not have obvious ties to the final villain. Preferably the final villain should have the last arc all to himself and the ones working directly under him.

Now expand this. What are the cogs that your villain needs to overcome, what consequences has his will forced on the realm? Why are the orcs attacking? Because your main villain's patsy general took their primary food source of a dragon to feed his army, driving the dragon to hunt the orcs, which has driven the orcs to be as desparate to attack the human settlement.

Create enough villains to be willing to throw them away. Maybe they work for your final villain even, if he appears altruistic enough. Give your villains sympathy, goals and means to accomplish these things.

[martixy]

A plot implies the desire of someone to get something. Hence the plotting.

This leads to 2 simple questions: Who? Why?
The "What" is usually less relevant to the immediate proceedings, but can serve as a jumping off a jumping off point for further adventure.

Let's start with your proposed plot, given the exact wording:
“Rescue the people kidnapped from the tavern by Orcs”

Who are the orcs?
An advance scouting party for an incoming invasion gathering intelligence.
A disgruntled group of workers from a nearby mine.
A hitsquad sent to retrieve its quarry.

Who are the people?
The foreman of a nearby mine and his lackeys.
Archaeologists that have been digging around for forgotten things.
A prince's entourage (and maybe the prince, in hiding or not).
A racist tavern owner.

Why?
The mine's management hasn't been paying their dues.
The orcs have a new leader that looks for glory and new lands to appease his supporters and keep his station.
The archaeologists have despoiled ancient sites, stolen/graverobbed sacred artifacts.
The tavern owner has refused to allow orcs to use his establishment, so the orcs have decided to drive him out of business.
The neighbouring duke has been playing everyone, hiring mercenaries, unscrupulous thugs and wanna-be heroes from both sides to cause mayhem and escalate existing tensions so he can undermine the current governor of this province and his political rival and seize his station, lands and everything else.

...and so on and so forth.

You can keep asking the same questions about an ever expanding set of subjects.

Literally take any word that's not a conjunction and start asking yourself, What part does that play in the whole plot?

[Narmoth]

I think a lot has been covered at this point, and there are many good suggestions. While it has already been mentioned, I want to put some more emphasis on the adventure and plot not ending by finding the orcs in your example.
Some suggestions:
The orcs are to strong for the adventurers to fight, but are willing to trade the prisoners for something that sends the party on a new quest.
The group needs to sneak out the prisoners, and can't go the same way back as you came. this gives a new plot of getting a group of non-combatants through hostile terrain
The orcs are innocent, someone else took the people, sending the group dungeon door to dungeon door to figure out who

[Florian]

@Pippa:

Have you conserved switching from a plot-based structure to a site-based structure, when you have trouble coming up with scenario design? For an easily comprehensible example, google "Shadow Tactics Walkthru".

[1of3]

For example, if the initial idea/goal is “Rescue the people kidnapped from the tavern by Orcs”, all I can think of for how to turn this into activity in the game is “follow the Orcs' trail, then deal with them to get the hostages”, which isn't even two scenes of play!

That's quite alright. Really. The question is: What happens next?

Why did the orcs kidnap the hostages? Who else benefits? What else is happening in the region? How do the hostages react to being rescued? Who are they? What is the place like that the hostages where taken to? Why did the orcs choose that place? What else is in the region?

And that's all before the players have given you anything.

[Jay R]

Complications along the way:


Robbers who are friends with the orcs but attack you.
You must find a way through a maze of tunnels through otherwise unpassable mountains (which the orcs already know well).
You must stop the ravenous trolls and wolves you find stalking them for dinner.

Complications at the end:


You capture or kill the orcs on the shore, and find no captives. Out at sea, you see a slaver ship sailing away.
You finally rescue the captives, but a war has broken out behind you and getting them home is dangerous.

[Chad Hooper]

Pippa,

You didn't say what system/edition you use? Whatever it is, I'd suggest finding some free or reasonably priced published scenarios to read through. For any edition of D&D, I'd suggest buying some PDFs of a few editions of Dungeon magazine from DM's Guild as a good starting point. Read through some of these to get ideas. Kind of "reverse engineer" the scenarios as you go along and try to label different plot components in a way so you can think of related ideas as modular pieces of a "kit" to draw on later.

Another thing you can do is, take a novel or short story you read and liked (or a movie) and break it down to component parts. Now, re-write it as a game scenario, just for practice. Change character and place names and you may have something playable at the end.

Hope some of that helps.

[Lorsa]

I'm still struggling with, as a newer GM, turning a scenario idea or a goal of the PCs' into a proper adventure. A proper adventure has challenging, multiple steps — I'm failing to get the “multiple steps” part.

For example, if the initial idea/goal is “Rescue the people kidnapped from the tavern by Orcs”, all I can think of for how to turn this into activity in the game is “follow the Orcs' trail, then deal with them to get the hostages”, which isn't even two scenes of play!

I guess I can do ok with the crunch mechanics, but my main thing is how to make a plot?

This is a problem for me regardless of whether the goal/activity is generated by me or the players, and regardless of whether I'm pre-planning the session or improvising a situation during play. This is a both a problem for me and for my players. We all find this unsatisfying.

What do you start with? What do you focus on early and hold off until later? Did you create a story beforehand or just jumping right in? Map building or party/enemy creation first? I'd like to hear what has been effective for people thus far, and maybe pick up a few strats and tips for smooth designing.

One thing I would like to say is that not every adventure has to be complicated or feature many scenes. Sometimes "follow the orc trail and then kill them" is perfectly fine! Especially if the orc camp is interesting in itself. So don't get wrapped up in a writer's block just because you think something has to have a long and complicated plot.

Anyway, I don't know where I start. Probably I start with thinking about what happened, the reasons for it happening and the motivations of the antagonists (this is the orcs). Why did they kidnap people? What are they planning on using them for? Are they clever enough to make a "fake trail" or perhaps walk past a dangerous troll cave on their way? Would they post sentries or guards waiting to ambush anyone that follows? Does any of the hostages suffer from Stockholm syndrome?

Basically, following the trail could involve one or two encounters in itself. Getting into the orc camp would be a massive undertaking or a big fight or whatever the players want. Then, depending on what campaign you have, perhaps this was part of some "greater plan" that is revealed after defeating them. Sometimes it is resolved by rescuing the hostages, not everything has to be complicated, but maybe sometimes you want it to lead further. Then perhaps the players have to deal with any mental trauma inflicted on the hostages themselves (depending on the type of game).

Also, don't forget "the inside man". If the orcs made a very targeted strike, where did they get the information from? Was someone actively helping them in the village? There are lots of different spins you can take on an orc attack.

Anyway, don't make the mistake of assuming you have to make a big plot. Sometimes small is enough. But if you do, take your current idea and break it down step-by-step. "What can following the trail involve?", "What does the camp look like?", "Does this lead anywhere afterwards" etc etc.

[Florian]

One thing I would like to say is that not every adventure has to be complicated or feature many scenes.

It´s also not bad to gain a bit distance from the "writer syndrome", when it comes to adventure design.

Not everything has to follow a narrative plot structure where you progress from A to B to C with a start, middle, climax and end.

Some times, such simple things like "orcs kidnapped some villages" can also simply lead to great fun with an exploration-based campaign, when it´s just the initial plot hook to get things going. You don't really need to fully fleshed-out narrative, when you have a greater situation prepared and have trained your players to be pro-active in engaging with stuff. Now, say, we have a "hollow earth" setup with noble but savage orc barbarian tribes duke it out with civilized but depraved society of once-human necromancers. Get going from there.

[Maelynn]

The simplest advice I can give you, that usually helps me a lot to flesh out scenes or get ideas when I'm stuck, is to look at what you have so far and start asking questions. Then, try to answer those questions. The more you ask (and keep asking) yourself, the more you'll get out of it.

Who are these Orcs? Where are they from?
Why were specifically these people kidnapped?
How did the kidnapping take place?
How would these Orcs react to a rescue party? Would they be open to negotiations or are they prone to attack on sight?

The more complete the picture you have of the events, the people involved, the motivations behind everything, the better you will be able to anticipate the player's actions.

[Calthropstu]

Ok.

You have "Orcs" and you have "kidnap victims."

Good starting point, and people have already told you to ask yourself questions.

Asking questions means coming up with answers.

Another trick is establishing a timeline. Figuring out what happened and when will allow you to answer your players questions and maybe your own.

But the biggest question is "Why."

Why were they kidnapped? Are they being ransomed? If ransom, what's the money for? Is there a ritual requiring sacrifices? Are they being sold to slavers?

This allows you to create a background to build upon. Maybe the Orcs are being extorted by something much stronger. Or maybe they are desperate and want adventurers to help them.

Edit: but it all starts with a simple why.

[AceOfFools]

A proper adventure has challenging, multiple steps — I'm failing to get the “multiple steps” part.

Your three best friends here are "What complications?", "Why?", and "What are the consequences?"

Every goal can be stretched a little with intermittent obstacles: a complex bit of geography to cross, a rear guard that holds up at a good ambush spot, before the main force. The traditional random encounter fits here.

You can also turn every goal into a hook: why did these orcs target this village? Why now, when not earlier? What about these villagers makes them worth taking them as hostages? Could this be asign of a greater conflict to come?

And finally every action has consequences, often strange and unintended ones. Do the PCs now have to worry about being pressed into the duke's army? Do villagers biased against monstrous humanoids start withholding services from the teifling PC even though she helped the hostages? Is orcish disruption of outlying farmland causing distress in the cities as food prices rise?

Let today's goals tell you what tomorrow's challenges will be.

[DMThac0]

There's a ton of useful information here, so a lot of what I'm going to say may seem like summary but here's my approach to turning an idea into a quest/story/plot.

The first thing to remember is every story is about conflict between two opposing sides.

Your idea: “Rescue the people kidnapped from the tavern by Orcs”. Now comes the breakdown so we can build something playable.

Hook: Orcs kidnapped people from a tavern.
-Why did they kidnap them?
--The orcs are sacrificing them to Gruumsh to gain a boon so their hunts will be successful for the coming winter.
-What happens if the Orcs succeed in their goal?
--The people are killed, the Orcs go along their way and start to hunt for the coming winter.

Conflict: Players are asked to rescue the kidnapped people, Orcs don't want to give them up.
-Why would the players want to risk their lives for strangers?
--They are offered a reward
--They are bound by duty or honor to save the people.
--They have a hatred of Orcs
-Why can't the local authorities handle the situation?
--They aren't equipped to handle the Orcs
--There have been other threats to deal with
--It's harvest time, they can't spare the man power

Just from outlining those two points you can see that it lends itself to asking more questions, adding more detail. So now we ask a couple new questions:

Travel: What does the terrain between the town and the Orcs look like?
-Is the terrain dangerous?
--Add in weather, environment and other natural hazards while the players travel
-Are there dangerous creatures between the town and the Orcs' location?
--Make a random encounter table.
--Make a few scripted encounters.
-Do the Orcs send out regular hunting or scouting parties?
--Script a few encounters with small bands of Orcs.
--Random encounter table

Location: Where are the Orcs holding the people?
-Is it a stronghold, a village, or a camp?
--Stronghold: Create a defended, difficult to penetrate location
--Village: Create a defended, easier to penetrate location
--Camp: Create a defended, easy to penetrate location
-How many Orcs are there?
--Populate the area with Orcs, figure out how well they are geared and organized.

Now you have the scene set for travel and final combat.

Resolution: How does it all end?
-Create a few ideas on how the story may end and be ready for the players to do anything.
--They bargain with the Orcs and save the prisoners
--They bargain with the orcs and lose the prisoners
--They kill everything that moves and save the prisoners
--They kill everything that moves and lose the prisoners
--They side with the Orcs and massacre the town

Now we have the story, answered a number of questions to help make it feel rounded out, left enough stuff open to make up things as the players get involved, and as you come up with ideas you can add them to the existing script.

[HidesHisEyes]

You’re not alone Pippa! I’ve been figuring this stuff out since I started GMing four years ago and it’s still a work in progress. Every GM is left to find their own structure since the game’s rules, if we’re talking about D&D, don’t provide one.

I’ve got two pieces of advice for you. One is to structure your adventures/sessions around combat encounters. Prep maybe two to four combat encounters for a session and view those as the spine of the session. Organise your plans around them. This is a controversial opinion among some people but the fact is that D&D (at least from 3rd edition onwards) is mostly about combat, in that that’s what most of the rules and mechanics deal with. It is fine to view the bits in between combat as connective tissue that exists to string combats together (in terms of gameplay at least - of course, the non-combat parts may be crucial to the story and role playing aspects of the game).

Secondly, read this excellent series of articles if you haven’t already:

http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7949/roleplaying-games/node-based-scenario-design-part-1-the-plotted-approach

[GentlemanVoodoo]

I'm still struggling with, as a newer GM, turning a scenario idea or a goal of the PCs' into a proper adventure. A proper adventure has challenging, multiple steps — I'm failing to get the “multiple steps” part.

For example, if the initial idea/goal is “Rescue the people kidnapped from the tavern by Orcs”, all I can think of for how to turn this into activity in the game is “follow the Orcs' trail, then deal with them to get the hostages”, which isn't even two scenes of play!

I guess I can do ok with the crunch mechanics, but my main thing is how to make a plot?

This is a problem for me regardless of whether the goal/activity is generated by me or the players, and regardless of whether I'm pre-planning the session or improvising a situation during play. This is a both a problem for me and for my players. We all find this unsatisfying.

What do you start with? What do you focus on early and hold off until later? Did you create a story beforehand or just jumping right in? Map building or party/enemy creation first? I'd like to hear what has been effective for people thus far, and maybe pick up a few strats and tips for smooth designing.

As a GM you should first have a grasp of what you players consist of. Regarding things like plot there are two main camps for most games; those that want deep plot and those who care less about it. Once you have that figured out then you can start worrying about maps, plot outlines, etc.

One thing I have learned in my years of playing is there is no sense putting an exorbitant amount of time into story if no one in the group is going to appreciate it.

[Misereor]

Now we have the story, answered a number of questions to help make it feel rounded out, left enough stuff open to make up things as the players get involved, and as you come up with ideas you can add them to the existing script.

*thumbs up*

And that's a big part of how any prospective DM develops their campaign setting.

For instance, if the local Orcs kidnap villagers for ransom or servitude, but don't kill them unless they are too much of a threat, that will likely color the relationship between them and the local Humans. The penalty for the Orcs, should the Humans catch them, might not be death, but a visit to the stocks, followed by a steep ransom fine, assuming no one was killed or badly injured. In turn, encounters between local Humans and Orcs may vary between kill on sight, to wary avoidance, to a chance for trading various trinkets or precious furs (which may be a chance for more plot hooks, as oblivious adventurers blunder onto the scene and act adventureish).

[Florian]

Let me try to explain it this way:

A lot of people are so accustomed to how regular storytelling works, they can only think about it in this context. So a story is a linear thing that starts at A and progresses to Z and possible needs a short background explanation A- of the how and why of A. Then they want to try and replicate this, by building up from A- .....

Most of the time, that doesn't work, especially not in an TT-RPG, because they players are unable to read your mind and will come to their own conclusion how to proceed, which will simply kill that kind of storytelling, unless you go into using railroading and illusionism techniques. (Which is fine, nothing against that)

Personally, I think it is more effective and easier to start out with a "main conflict" for the type of game you want to run, something that exemplifies the intended theme and mood of the campaign and then, based on that, start to break things down into "Setting", "Region", "Campaign" and "Plot Arc".

An example: A larger, mediterran island, two cultures at war, one side more urban but cruel necromancers, the other wild but civilized horse barbarians. Not overly brilliant, but still a simple main conflict that provides enough substance to work with. Now, let's go for one of the classics and rip the core out of Romeo and Juliette to create a story arc that is based on the theme of forbidden love and so on.

So, to close the circle to the OP: It´s not necessarily helpful to just know where you want to start (orcs have kidnapped....), it is absolutely helpful to know where you want to end up with (The blonde waitress is actually tribal nobility, what looks like a kidnapping is actually a rescue attempt by her orc lover, so on and so on....)

[Narmoth]

So, how did the session turn out?

[LibraryOgre]

"I'm sorry, Mario, but the princess is in another castle!"

If you want multiple steps, what if you arrive and some of the goals have been moved? To use the orc example, you follow the orcs... and they apparently stopped at the crossroads for a while, and some of the captured people were taken in wagons, but others continued with the orcs? You now have a dilemma and multiple steps. Or you freed most of the hostages but the chief took off with the pretty barmaid that Ragnar has been flirting with.

You might also muddy the waters a bit... the orcs go back, and now you're looking at a Caves of Chaos situation, and there are all sorts of monsters nearby, with politics between them. The orcs have slaves, but the gnolls hate them, and the goblins resent them, and the minotaur is a free agent, while the ogre is allied to the goblins and the bugbears are kind of above it all while the kobolds are on the bottom and the priests push everyone in one direction or another and EVERYONE avoids the owlbear.

You can also create less obvious chains. The orcs took over the farmstead, but they were originally out of Neverwinter Woods. Why did they come down to the farmstead, which is too far away for a raid? Well, it looks like the hobgoblins are kicking them out of the Woods for their own purposes, which means that, while things were dealt with immediately, what's going on with the Hobgoblins might need some intervention.

What I find useful for things like this is building the local political web... what's going on that's story-worthy, and what will happen if no one intervenes? If the players leave this situation alone, what's it going to look like in a month? A year? Two years? Ten? Because that lets me improvise within the greater story that's going on. If the players chase down plot A, then what happens with plots B and C that they are necessarily ignoring? That larger web lets me improvise when the players throw me a curveball. Knowing what the important NPCs are likely to do also helps me improvise.

Basically, the best way to improvise, for me, is to never have to improvise. ;-)

[kyoryu]

The most important thing is an antagonist. Another character that moves in ways opposed to the PCs and wants something that is not compatible with what the PCs want. This could be the orc chieftain, but it could be lots of other things. Ideally, it's someone that it is reasonable for the PCs to be dealing with on a regular basis.

Once you've got that in place, you can have them change what they're doing in response to what the PCs are doing, etc.