How the hell do you write a good adventure for D&D? I feel as though I have most of the DM essentials down: challenging combats, well thought out npcs my players want to get to know, unique treasure, an authentic medieval fantasy setting BUT when it comes to sitting down and writing actual material for the session and asking myself "What are the adventurers going to do in the town?"
All I can come up with is something along the lines of: goblins attack caravan outside of town -> party investigates, tracks them down to their lair in a nearby cave -> hack n slack their way to the end and defeat the goblin leader....hurrah... now what?
I am tempted to do something like Ieave a letter on the goblin leader's corpse saying the mayor paid them to do it cause he hates the merchant who owns caravan. But what the hell can my players do with that? If they start telling people in the village what he is up to he will logically send thugs to kill or scare away the players. Should I scrap this idea entirely and do something different?
This is the hardest part about DMing, it's writing interesting and engaging adventures and tying them together with an overarching plot which is satisfyingly concluded in abiyt ten or twenty sessions. Just how hard it is explains to me why almost all DMs I meet nearly always use published adventure paths or just play a bunch of modules back to back.
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You don't, because D&D is trash.
Any good books/websites recommendaitons are also appreciated.
What a delightful first response can you elaborate on that please?
>You don't, because D&D is trash.
This. All the problems you're having with thinking up character motivation, etc are exclusive to d&d.
Now that's the dumbest thing I've read today.
While I agree dnd sucks and most encounters are trivialized by magic past the first levels, OP's question is general and applies to every RPG system.
>Now that's the dumbest thing I've read today.
Even dumber than the sincere reply to an obvious joke post?
Anon, he's being facetious. I'm ge uinely autistic and even I can recognize that.
>implying most people on /tg/ do not genuinely think so
>DnDogshit
Step 1 is picking a better system, one actually conducive to adventuring and stories beyond the Wizard shitting on everything with magic after level 5.
I've found this pretty helpful in making adventures with a little more variety in how they're structured.
Fricking saved
Soulless
I want to write Sword and Planet OSR adventures
I dont, I Just create dungeons and the areas around them in vague detail and expand them on demand as my players Discover them.
Gygax 75' Challenge is the way to go on how to do It, and honestly its much better than trying to write a super creative plot for DnD and having to railroad your players through It.
A adventure in which not even you, the DM, knows what happens is the most interesting one.
First off, give them NPC interactions that evoke emotion.
>goblins attack the caravan outside of town
This has little emotion, they may go do it, may not. Not going to excite them. How do we change that?
>method 1, introduce lovable npc
We give them a cute wizard girl who they briefly meet, she's the town wizard but she's insecure and looking for admiration from skilled peers. She loves to make potions for people and entertain the children. Everyone likes her. Now have the goblin caravan attack also kidnap her.
>Method 2, introduce butthole
We give them someone to hate and strive to beat. Have a local power that is a total asshat (knight, merchant lord, etc) that comes upon them and just shits on the town folk and them, impressing upon them how they are better than the others, insult the players, drink their ale, and have the players do nothing or get their ass beat by the goons if they try. Now, make this guy behind the goblin attack, either by telling them through NPCs, or implying. They'll want to beat them.
>Method 3, intrigue
Give different factions of interesting npcs in town, now have them at odds, now have one faction using goblins to attack the others caravan/mcguffin/people. This method can obviously get quite complicated and it scales up, where you can include much larger plots or factions into the framework.
Most plots also have a RISE, OVERCOME FIRST CHALLENGE ARC, FALL, THINGS LOOK BLEAK, OVERCOME THESE THINGS AND ACHIEVE VICTORY because it's very satisfying, so I'd suggest using it if you have no set plan.
Start simple
Pick a premade campaign and change the things you don't like
D&D does suck, but not in a way that it would actively hamper your narrative (unless you require rules for land vehicles). You should start with your ultimate confrontation, then ask yourself how you intend to get the players there, then ask yourself how you intend to get the players there if they don't do X, or decide to team up with Y, and so on, and so on. As well, have your NPCs be undertaking their own plans for better or for worse even if they aren't being actively observed by the players, make those plans have plenty of potential for overlap with the players' so they can be thrown into the mix, respond to those plans with counter-operations from other NPCs/factions, and make the shockwaves of these events affect the players at variable levels of intensity.
Using your example scenario, you have a goblin attack. The party wants to investigate, but surely they won't be the only ones. Perhaps a mercenary troupe is also trying to make a quick buck off the ordeal, if they agree to work together now you have an ally and sponsor for them but one that is subject to all sorts of influences. Their leadership could be inclined to try and push them into fulfilling a secret agenda under the guise of honest work against dark forces, or you can have them piss off a far greater enemy force with their work and be by slaughtered to be made an example of, now you have a mission of revenge. Or, you can elaborate on the intentions of even something as rudimentary as goblins and use that to branch into the wider plot, perhaps the party finds them cooperating with an emissary of a greater evil's faction, or they were driven to the town after their home was taken over by a bigger, badder group. No module should exist in a vacuum entirely separate from the plot no matter how minor it seems from a glance, at the very least it should serve to spur reactionary NPCs.
You don’t ”write” an adventure unless you intend to publish it for other people to use.
>overarching plot with conclusion
Just don’t. You’re making life hard for yourself. Critical role is not real and you shouldn’t copy it. Create interesting adventure locations instead and stop ”writing” plots.
Define interesting adventure locations.
Don't be so fricking obtuse. Think about what your players like and put those things in the game. No one is going to spoonfeed you to help you understand what makes a good story.
That's such a shallow advice, especially for new DMs such as OP.
Understanding your players' needs comes with time and at the start you need to create pre-made adventures with a sort of initial structure to make your life easier and let them figure out what part they enjoy the most. Which doesn't mean that the whole plot has been decided from the start, like some here are assuming.
OP's problem is that their quests are often scripted by design, akin to fetch quests in MMO, hence their request.
Creating locations is good only if the DM is good at making up things on the fly, something that no one should ever suggest to a beginner.
>you have to start out doing the hobby wrong so you can learn to do it right
No.
I would pay to say how shitty you used to be, and probably still are.
There's a reason beginners buy starter packs or premade expansions.
Creating entwined comes with time, but at the same time everyone can tell that a structure such as
>goblins attack caravan outside of town -> party investigates, tracks them down to their lair in a nearby cave -> hack n slack their way to the end and defeat the goblin leader
is barebone and doesn't offer lots of agency to players.
attack caravan outside of town -> party investigates, tracks them down to their lair in a nearby cave -> hack n slack their way to the end and defeat the goblin leader
Yep.
Starting with something different, even if it's as simple as a serial murder investigation (culprit is a skulk for spook value) is a good start.
Serial murder investigation is one of the worst suggestion you could give to a new DM, they will just make a huge mess with clues and either make the case trivially easy, or impossible to solve without a deus ex machina.
Quests where there are multiple factions looking for the same mcguffin are probably the easiest to create at that level, and I'm fairly sure that's what OP asked about (and most failed to notice)
New masters do need guidance for this kind of things, after all.
This post
gave a good example as to how to create a involved plot by adding another party of NPC, but I don't think there are decent official sources to help OP create similar things... most books are quite dull and waste time stating useless facts.
Just because people improve over time doesn't mean you have to deliberately choose to do things wrong to begin with.
Except that such an approach is not wrong, stop being moronic.
Planning excessively linear plots or (worse) running modules you haven't broken apart and rewritten teaches bad habits.
Teach new GMs to prep situations and stock folders with useful bits and parts.
No one told OP to plan that much, but having a rough structure is still advisable for beginners.
Also, planning obvious outcomes is totally reasonable, as long as that doesn't mean pushing players towards that direction.
Running modules is equally correct, stop being stupid.
I'm not trying to be rude but I am trying to get into your headspace and understand what your problem is. It's almost imcomprehensible to me.
When you start playing, don't things just happen in an emergent fashion that you can grab and run with? Like for example, goblins attack caravan. Maybe the players go check it out, maybe not. If not, why not? What are they more interested in? If they do go look at it, what catches their eye? Maybe it doesn't lead to goblins at all, maybe they think one of the survivors is fishy and set it up (which means you handbrake and immediately make this the case).
>This is the hardest part about DMing, it's writing interesting and engaging adventures and tying them together with an overarching plot which is satisfyingly concluded in abiyt ten or twenty sessions.
Stop doing this and spend more time playing games. Don't think more than ten minutes ahead and don't get wrapped up in an 'authentic medieval fantasy setting'. Picrel are my notes from my most recent game. Just play the game and go where it leads you. I know it sounds stupid, I wish there was a better way to put it. If you aren't great at improvisation I concede this isn't useful. But having less 'preparation' means you're likely more willing to be flexible and pursue leads that were unexpected.
I think a lot of GMs should benefit from playing solo RPGs, which mostly force you to learn to work with random input/output from the oracle and try to make something coherent instead of "here is the story". Maybe try that? You will either learn how to respond to things on the fly, or hate doing it, in which case go back to struggling I guess.
>asking myself "What are the adventurers going to do in the town"
For starters, you're asking the wrong questions. It isn't your job to predict what they're gonna do and plan for every eventuality. It's your job to set up places and scenarios and see how the players interact with it.
>All I can come up with is something along the lines of: goblins attack caravan outside of town ->
Stop right there. That's your prep for next session. Goblins attack a caravan outside of town. Design the lair for a nearby cave and stock it. Done. There's a letter on the leader from the mayor saying that he paid them to do it.
Okay, why? Why would the mayor pay goblins to endanger the trade routes of his own town?
That's next sessions prep.
You don’t decide what the adventurers do. You sprinkle around a few possible conflicts, then let them decide which to pursue. Make sure that you end sessions at a point at which they’ve made some decision or resolution about their future actions, and use that as your basis for planning the next session.
>satisfyingly concluded in abiyt ten or twenty sessions
Why the frick are you running such short campaigns?
>"What are the adventurers going to do in the town?"
Literally just ask your players.
Write something you think you wanna do or a storyline you wanna go through with. If the players don't tell you what they wanna do next session or say they don't care what happens, feel free to railroad them into doing whatever you think is cool.
If they do answer your question, write appropriately. One guy says he wants to slay a demon lord? Write up a cult for that demon lord somewhere in the region and have the PCs come to hear about it, leading to a whole investigation and so on. Maybe one of them wants to slay a dragon. Write up a dragon, his lair, and his minions, and give the PCs an area to explore which has the dragon in it, hex-crawl style. Maybe one wishes to become lord of a city, so explain to him the potential ways he can do that.
Maybe he can earn lordship by slaying a dragon, which plays into the other character's idea perfectly, and now they both have a common goal. Or maybe it's as simple as killing the lord and saying that his stuff is yours now, and if this lord is involved with that aforementioned cult, it shouldn't be too hard to justify killing him.
TLDR literally just ask your players what they wanna do and write an adventure according to that
>If they start telling people in the village what he is up to he will logically send thugs to kill or scare away the players
Why is this a problem? Set up the scenario, then just keep asking what would logically happen. That's basically your entire job.
If you're already set on playing D&D, at least read the DM's guide, my Black person. It's got a fairly good set of guides, tables, and suggestions for putting together an adventure.
Zoomers can't fricking read. I've lost count of the threads I've seen recently that pose questions answered in the core rules of the game.
I don't like 5e, but I'll freely admit that it has a decent DMG and if homosexuals actually read it, they might have a slightly better idea of how they're meant to play and run the damned game that they refuse to give up.
Emergent gameplay. Set up a series of events/plots that are going to unfold in a region/city etc. Generate them randomly if you re completely devoid of creativity. Create a rumors table for some of the events. Add simple plot hooks and a method for players to find about rumors as they are traveling the countryside/moving about in town. Players will engage with a rumor/plot hook that appeals to them. Then if you want you can tie the end of the plot to another event, or do any kind of shenanigans to make the campaign connect
Drop the D&D™ baggage. Drop the storytelling baggage, too. What cool and dangerous things are happening around that town? What power struggles impact it? What loot remains free to take in ancient catacombs? D&D™ is banned for now. The situations you prep are exciting, not fair. Storytelling is also banned because once the players make their first decision they're already off the rails and in control of the story.
Once you're done with this, go back to D&D™ and make sure the PCs have a fair chance... to survive. Some approaches are doomed to fail, but they should be able to turn and run nonetheless. Then play. That's the story. After the session, write more situations as consequences for what happened.
In summary: situations -> D&D™ balance -> play = story -> repeat
Player agency is the name of the game, so you want players to have a say in what they do, and you want to communicate this. Let's say they're offered the job, but they say no. They should be able to do that. But if they do, maybe they are attacked by Goblins themselves when they leave town. Sprinkle some options into the encounter. Maybe the Goblins have taken a hostage that they can free, and if they act poorly maybe they have to make a choice. Maybe the Goblins have stolen something valuable from the caravan and they can choose to keep it. No-one will know. At least, not yet. And where do you even sell a stolen relic of St. Whotsit?
Give the locale some personality, too. Maybe there's a few NPC's that can point the players in the right direction. Maybe there's an NPC that doesn't trust the players to get the job done. if the mayor hired the Goblins don't communicate it through a letter left on the Goblin leader. Says the Goblin leader's hovel is decorated in finery, and let the players connect the dots that this stuff is new and wasn't on the caravan. Instead, place the damning evidence in the mayor's home. If they figure it out, they'll have to break in and risk getting caught. If they don't figure this out by themselves, you can force the situation with NPC's. Maybe that grizzled ranger who helped them earlier publicly accuses the mayor just when the party returns to town and they're dragged into the discussion.
And if they still don't figure it out, the mayor now needs someone else to take care of that merchant, and maybe he thinks that this dumb as rocks party is just the thing. So he accuses the merchant of hiring the Goblins and plants evidence, and asks the party to arrest him because "he has the guard on the take" or whatever, which the players can of course disprove through investigation. Now you also have an option for when they figure it out, but want to go along with the mayor for money.
for D&D, you don't write adventures, but you design a dungeon, and then weave the adventure around that solid foundation.
If you're a 5e gay, you cannot be helped
>Any good books/websites recommendaitons are also appreciated.
Go back to old-school modules for good implementation, B series comes to mind.
Go back to pulp fantasy for inspiration, Conan, Zothique etc. comes to mind.
D&Dgays, for frick's sake, PLEASE READ YOUR OWN BOOKS.
Did you know the DMG breaks down how to plot an adventure and a dungeon? That it has tables for random NPC generation? The first 200 pages has everything you need to slap together a full fricking campaign. And you know what's beyond that? Another hundred fricking pages of optional rules, how to make your own classes and spells and monster. You want guns? D&D 5e has had rules for guns and grenades and alien laser rifles SINCE DAY ONE. And you know what's after that? RANDOM DUNGEON GENERATION AND RANDOM MONSTER ENCOUNTER TABLES.
READ THE FRICKING MANUAL
Protip: the biggest strength of homebrewing your sessions is that your overarching story can easily incorporate your PC's own personal plotline(s). Do that and the pathos will flow and your players will actually help you to keep the story on the rails simply by roleplaying their characters. To give a simple example, your goblin raid defense will have a lot more stakes if one of your PC's is a goblin-hunting ranger and another one is a disgraced merchant who's trying to get back into the graces of the local guild. If one of your characters is looking for their long-list sibling and they find their possessions amongst the goblin's treasure, then they'll obviously be paying a visit to the corrupt mayor in short order.
You can treat your homebrew campaigns like you're someone writing source material for thousands of randos but don't be surprised when that feels a bit lackluster.