When designing an adventure that you intend to DM, how much designing do you do before starting with a group? The group I play with is currently doing Curse of Strahd and I'd like to start running a new adventure I'm working on when we're done, but it's very unlikely I'll have it finished by then. I'm trying to decide how much really needs to be done before we can begin. Do you generally get most/all of an adventure designed first, or get the meat of it down and keep designing while you play? At this point I have a pretty good outline of what I want to do, but a lot of details need to be filled in.
I have a full adventure currently designed and ready to go whenever we start playing in person again. But after that I am changing my methods of adventure creation. I’m going to bullet point outline an entire adventure but not create the entire thing so I can remain flexible in changing things based on players actions, cuz you never know when your players are just going to flip your plans upside down or maybe do something cooler than you could have imagined. Just make it session by session maybe projecting a little bit, like a session or 2 ahead.
I put very little effort into designing the plot - at least up front. I put most of my design efforts into designing the central conflict(s) of the adventure, the possible ending conditions for the adventure, and a lot of effort into designing the NPCs and Factions involved in the conflict.
If you know what the goals are for all the parties involved in the conflict, along with their knowledge, attitudes, resources, and personalities - you can role-play out their actions and reactions to the current situation as you go. This allows you to pretty much keep running indefinitely - or at least until you hit an ending condition for the central conflict of the Adventure.
You could run with just that ( and if you're crunching for prep time you're good, so long as you have that much ) - but I think it's useful to brainstorm out the various ways that the plot could unfold. Encounters and locations which keep cropping up in your various possible Adventure scenarios are good candidates for some up-front design. Pre-designed encounters and locations are usually more detailed and polished than something we make up on the fly. If you use them, great. If you don't, then file them away for re-use in some other Adventure design. Don't plan out too far ahead on this, as the further you plan out, the more likely you'll guess wrong, as the Players wreak havoc with the Adventure.
I also think it's useful to have a pocket full of Events and Complications. These are things that you can throw into the Adventure to either speed up the pace, slow things down, or add interest to the plot. Managing the Pace of your game is important: too fast and your Players get lost and/or burned out; too slow and they get bored. If you have the tools to dynamically juggle the pace, you can always keep things flowing at an enjoyable rate.
Ultimately, you'll find the level and kind of game prep that works best for you & your Players.
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The adventures I've designed for my campaigns don't have a ton of details. It's important for me to have the state of the world, the motivations of the main NPCs, and the key items/locations that are needed throughout the adventure. But even an adventure I'll run for months might be boiled down to a page or two of bullet points. The details I can fill in as I go, especially as they might change depending on what the players do.
If you've got the outline of the overall plot, the important NPCs and locations, and the first few games of STUFF....GO for it!
Thanks. I'm not a very experienced DM so I worry a little about winging it, but perhaps it will be sufficient just to continually have enough planned out for the next few sessions.
I've known a couple DMs that have moved from using adventure sourcebooks (like CoS) and then moved to a homebrew campaign. Both thought they had to have their adventure fully written out like the sourcebooks. You definitely do not need to go into that much detail. The only reason you would need to do that is if you were designing an adventure you were thinking of trying to publish at some point, and were using your group for a playtest.
As to how much to have ready in advance, think of how you use CoS currently. You probably read through it (knowing the plot, as has been said above), but session to session you probably only really need to know a chapter at most. Probably more like part of a chapter. Use that as the basis for how much you need to prep in advance for your own campaign.
When designing an adventure that you intend to DM, how much designing do you do before starting with a group? The group I play with is currently doing Curse of Strahd and I'd like to start running a new adventure I'm working on when we're done, but it's very unlikely I'll have it finished by then. I'm trying to decide how much really needs to be done before we can begin. Do you generally get most/all of an adventure designed first, or get the meat of it down and keep designing while you play? At this point I have a pretty good outline of what I want to do, but a lot of details need to be filled in.
I have a full adventure currently designed and ready to go whenever we start playing in person again. But after that I am changing my methods of adventure creation. I’m going to bullet point outline an entire adventure but not create the entire thing so I can remain flexible in changing things based on players actions, cuz you never know when your players are just going to flip your plans upside down or maybe do something cooler than you could have imagined. Just make it session by session maybe projecting a little bit, like a session or 2 ahead.
I put very little effort into designing the plot - at least up front. I put most of my design efforts into designing the central conflict(s) of the adventure, the possible ending conditions for the adventure, and a lot of effort into designing the NPCs and Factions involved in the conflict.
If you know what the goals are for all the parties involved in the conflict, along with their knowledge, attitudes, resources, and personalities - you can role-play out their actions and reactions to the current situation as you go. This allows you to pretty much keep running indefinitely - or at least until you hit an ending condition for the central conflict of the Adventure.
You could run with just that ( and if you're crunching for prep time you're good, so long as you have that much ) - but I think it's useful to brainstorm out the various ways that the plot could unfold. Encounters and locations which keep cropping up in your various possible Adventure scenarios are good candidates for some up-front design. Pre-designed encounters and locations are usually more detailed and polished than something we make up on the fly. If you use them, great. If you don't, then file them away for re-use in some other Adventure design. Don't plan out too far ahead on this, as the further you plan out, the more likely you'll guess wrong, as the Players wreak havoc with the Adventure.
I also think it's useful to have a pocket full of Events and Complications. These are things that you can throw into the Adventure to either speed up the pace, slow things down, or add interest to the plot. Managing the Pace of your game is important: too fast and your Players get lost and/or burned out; too slow and they get bored. If you have the tools to dynamically juggle the pace, you can always keep things flowing at an enjoyable rate.
Ultimately, you'll find the level and kind of game prep that works best for you & your Players.
Good luck :)
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.
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InsiderThe adventures I've designed for my campaigns don't have a ton of details. It's important for me to have the state of the world, the motivations of the main NPCs, and the key items/locations that are needed throughout the adventure. But even an adventure I'll run for months might be boiled down to a page or two of bullet points. The details I can fill in as I go, especially as they might change depending on what the players do.
If you've got the outline of the overall plot, the important NPCs and locations, and the first few games of STUFF....GO for it!
Find me on Twitter: @OboeLauren
Thanks. I'm not a very experienced DM so I worry a little about winging it, but perhaps it will be sufficient just to continually have enough planned out for the next few sessions.
I've known a couple DMs that have moved from using adventure sourcebooks (like CoS) and then moved to a homebrew campaign. Both thought they had to have their adventure fully written out like the sourcebooks. You definitely do not need to go into that much detail. The only reason you would need to do that is if you were designing an adventure you were thinking of trying to publish at some point, and were using your group for a playtest.
As to how much to have ready in advance, think of how you use CoS currently. You probably read through it (knowing the plot, as has been said above), but session to session you probably only really need to know a chapter at most. Probably more like part of a chapter. Use that as the basis for how much you need to prep in advance for your own campaign.
All very good feedback, thank you everyone!