hi. I’m just starting to get in to been a dm and I’m looking for some advice and tips on how to start planning out a one shot or full adventure. Any tips would be appreciated
Start the world as small as you can get away with for your adventure idea. A local orc encampment outside a village only needs the sketch of a village, the orc lair, and maybe a landmark or forest or two between them. A large sweeping pirate adventure might need a few coastal cities, some islands, some pirate organizations, etc. So you'll need to scale according to what you need to do - but don't make any larger than you need.
Create some "bad guys". They want something. They'll need plans/tactics to get that thing, or accomplish that goal.They have certain abilities. They have certain tactics they'll want to do, certain tactics they'll do if pushed into a corner, and certain tactics they'll never do. Figure out those things ( capabilities, favored tactics, desperate tactics, never-use tactics).
Given what they want, and how they'll act, figure out a plan for the bad guys. Make sure that plan intersects with the players. It needs to collide with something the player characters care about, or somewhere they are, or with someone who is willing to hire the party. Now the player characters have a goal: stop the bad guys for reason X ( they kidnapped my sister, they threaten my home town, the local Duke is willing to give me a crap-ton of gold if I do, etc. ).
Figure out how the central conflict can end. The conflict is over when ... ( the party rescues the Bard's sister, the orcs are driven away or killed so the village is safe, the party fulfills the contract the Duke hired them for, the party are all killed, the bad guys burn down the village, etc.).
Figure out where the party and the bad guys are likely to intersect and interact. Design those places. Figure out who is there - make a few notes about the people there. Those will be your NPCs. Make these as detailed as you need to really make them come alive. Make them interesting to describe, and to imagine being in. Make them challenging.
OK - you have the cast of characters, you have the setting, and you have an overall conflict, and you have and idea how to tell when the conflict is resolved and the adventure is over.
So - bad guys make a move, and circumstances drag player characters into the story. The Players will do something. Look at it, think about how it looks to the Bad Guys. Have the Bad Guys react based on what they think they see, and what they think they know ( and that's what they know, not you - remember a being in the world doesn't have perfect DM-level knowledge ). Show the party what the Bad Guys are doing. Wait for the players to react. Have the Bad Guys react ... continue until one of those conditions occurs where you know the adventure is over.
That's it, in a nutshell. If you follow that pattern, and make the world, the locations, and the people interesting, interactive, realistic - and make them react and change based on what the characters and the bad guys are doing - it should work pretty well :)
Here - watch this guy as well - he's better as this kinda thing than I am ;)
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hi. I’m just starting to get in to been a dm and I’m looking for some advice and tips on how to start planning out a one shot or full adventure. Any tips would be appreciated
Start the world as small as you can get away with for your adventure idea. A local orc encampment outside a village only needs the sketch of a village, the orc lair, and maybe a landmark or forest or two between them. A large sweeping pirate adventure might need a few coastal cities, some islands, some pirate organizations, etc. So you'll need to scale according to what you need to do - but don't make any larger than you need.
Create some "bad guys". They want something. They'll need plans/tactics to get that thing, or accomplish that goal.They have certain abilities. They have certain tactics they'll want to do, certain tactics they'll do if pushed into a corner, and certain tactics they'll never do. Figure out those things ( capabilities, favored tactics, desperate tactics, never-use tactics).
Given what they want, and how they'll act, figure out a plan for the bad guys. Make sure that plan intersects with the players. It needs to collide with something the player characters care about, or somewhere they are, or with someone who is willing to hire the party. Now the player characters have a goal: stop the bad guys for reason X ( they kidnapped my sister, they threaten my home town, the local Duke is willing to give me a crap-ton of gold if I do, etc. ).
Figure out how the central conflict can end. The conflict is over when ... ( the party rescues the Bard's sister, the orcs are driven away or killed so the village is safe, the party fulfills the contract the Duke hired them for, the party are all killed, the bad guys burn down the village, etc.).
Figure out where the party and the bad guys are likely to intersect and interact. Design those places. Figure out who is there - make a few notes about the people there. Those will be your NPCs. Make these as detailed as you need to really make them come alive. Make them interesting to describe, and to imagine being in. Make them challenging.
OK - you have the cast of characters, you have the setting, and you have an overall conflict, and you have and idea how to tell when the conflict is resolved and the adventure is over.
So - bad guys make a move, and circumstances drag player characters into the story. The Players will do something. Look at it, think about how it looks to the Bad Guys. Have the Bad Guys react based on what they think they see, and what they think they know ( and that's what they know, not you - remember a being in the world doesn't have perfect DM-level knowledge ). Show the party what the Bad Guys are doing. Wait for the players to react. Have the Bad Guys react ... continue until one of those conditions occurs where you know the adventure is over.
That's it, in a nutshell. If you follow that pattern, and make the world, the locations, and the people interesting, interactive, realistic - and make them react and change based on what the characters and the bad guys are doing - it should work pretty well :)
Here - watch this guy as well - he's better as this kinda thing than I am ;)
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Thank you very much. That’s gives me some where to start and go from thank you
Don't' forget Captain Cold's 4 rules of planning an adventure!
thank you
Honestly, if you are DMing for the first time and you don't already have an adventure in mind, I highly recommend following a premade adventure.
Tales from the yawning portal has a few one shot adventures. Lost mine of Phandelver and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist are low level campaigns.
(*Disclaimer: I have not run any adventures I've recommended. I have run hoard of the dragon queen though.)
And if you get inspired in the middle or at the end of those adventures, you can take it from there.
Thank you heaps I’ll look in to those
Agreed. I played Lost Mine of Phandelver with a new DM, and it went well.
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is what I'm running as a new DM. It seems reasonably easy to run.
Blood Frenzy. The quipper has advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that doesn't have all its hit points.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 piercing damage.
I’ll be looking in to theses thanks