GENERAL
As odd as it may sound, crafting an adventure is much like crafting effective PPT slide decks. We’ve likely all suffered through a school/college class or professional development seminar that had ‘walls of text’ that the presenter simply read verbatim. One of the most frustrating dynamics, and it also limits the immersion and interaction opportunities for the audience. To make the link, this kind of PPT is akin to the GM railroading the adventure to fit a strictly defined narrative. There is no room for the Players to inject into the setting, or limited option space. Leveraging several decades of instruction technique and operational level planning theory, I’d like to present how I go about adventure design and setting things up to make the GM experience much easier, as well as account for Players that might want to run off on a tangent.
THEME AND SETTING
The backbone of the adventure, this provides the parameters that you as the GM use to define certain characteristics for the adventure and provide the Players the assumptions they bring into their role-playing; from actual interactions with NPCs to combat encounters. Certain themes come with certain restrictions or expectations from both the GM and Players, not all of which you or your Players may be terribly interested in. So, this makes the theme of the adventure a pretty impactful decision.
Dungeon Dive. Unapologetically the most common type in fantasy games. The concept is fairly simple: Player Characters enter a dungeon, explore the confines and fight their way through whatever monsters are found therein. Don’t think this is limited to the PFRPG realm. You can have PCs dive into an underground research facility, discover an ancient/WW2-era series of ruins in a mountain. In Rifts, they could uncover a shopping center or discover a metropolitan “underground city” for which there are myriad examples and maps to draw from.
Action/Adventure. Wide open adventures that can take form in myriad of ways. Rescue, all-out-war, pursuing bounties, fighting against the horde of monsters threatening the city, you name it! This one is can basically adapt any source material or Palladium Hook-Line-Sinkers into whatever format you are using. Leveraging such great resources as the Rifts Adventure Guide, or the Rifts Indices, very little conversion is required to apply any of the HLS and apply it to your preferred setting.
Exploration/Sand-Box Adventure. Perhaps you don’t want to tie the Players to a specific locale or meta-plot event. No worries! Give them a dynamic to play within and let them figure it out. This begs the GM to have a bit more of an open approach to the adventure design but can lead to some great free-form adventuring. The flexibility offered the Players means the most work for the GM to ensure the adventures are adequately immersive for all Player Characters and gives them each something to contribute.
Investigative/Mystery. This often includes a lot of paranormal activity/Cthulu mythos, investigative techniques and a "who-dun-it" approach to the game. Not the first port of call for GMs and Players, and in my estimation, the one that requires the most effort from the GM to plan and execute. Most times these kind of adventures require collection of clues through interaction with NPCs, making this element of the game all the more important to plan and execute well. The role-playing element is much more impactful, something some Players really shine at, while others are not as comfortable doing. With some careful planning and tight execution, with the right Player framework, it can make for a great game.
PLOT DESIGN
“Goose Eggs.” An odd term for most, but an easy concept to grasp. In terms of designing the adventure, this is about wrapping the major muscle movements of an adventure or a scene in a “goose egg,” or a Node. This allows you to compartmentalize the actions, interactions, NPCs, and details of a scene.
Point Form Notes. At the beginning, the “Goose Egg” or Node only has to include a title, or the major event (e.g. car chase, mine entrance, village ‘A’). Details are fleshed out from there, but largely left at little more than point form notes. Just like an effective Power Point presentation, you provide a series of phrases for the audience to visually key on, while the speaker keeps on topic; there is no reason to read what is on the screen, the audience will do that already. What you as the GM/Speaker need to do is fill in the gaps. You can do this by describing something from memory, cued from a movie or television series, a local reference, or something else you’ve got as inspiration. I would strongly eschew the current dynamic found in adventure modules for d20 systems (copious details in text boxes). They break immersion, as the ‘voice’ is typically never close to the GM’s. Point form allows you to describe and express in your own terms.
Topography and Tactics. Link to an older article I produced. Discusses considerations for the GM in terms of managing the topography of the Node and how you plan to interact with the Player Characters, and how they visualize the space. This is a mico-level discussion on the impacts of tight quarters (dungeon, shopping mall), versus one that provides cover and places to avoid fire (forest/jungle, industrial site with storage containers), or wide-open spaces (orbit/space, the plains).
Prepare to Ad-Lib. One of the great skills a GM needs to have: the ability to improvise and make things up on the fly. By that, I mean expanding on the previous bullet point. By containing your notes to a limited, key set of facts and injects to provide, it gives you the freedom to concoct a number of alternatives based on some of your Players questions or (sometimes zany) actions. Don’t forget to scribble down some notes for yourself to refer back to, because your PCs are very likely (tempted to say invariably) going to bring it back up. Example: I had a party moving into position to raid a warehouse, where the enemy gang was hiding out and protecting their stash and Chop-Shop supplies. When the Player Characters moved in, they swept through the guards with surprising efficiency (lucky rolls for them, junk rolls for me). At the last minute, I added a small extension to the warehouse (not in the blueprints) and allowed one of the injured guards to fall back inside. I threw an additional final boss-level antagonist (full conversion ‘Borg) to extend the combat sequence and build tension. I also gave them a boatload of loot as compensation.
Prepare the NPC and/or Encounters. Don’t do random tables without having an idea of what to use beforehand. I typically prepare my tables ahead of time, and have the data on a separate file/sheet of paper. Once I roll it, I’ve already done the prep work to review the possibility and have all the appropriate data written out in short-form. Example: A squad of CS Grunts will have a line for each soldier, with weapon damage, range and capacity combat bonuses, as well as M.D.C. for armour. I also list the O.C.C. Skills with percentages and adjust on the fly (plus/minus 5 to 25% as applicable)
Create “Option Space.” Players have a crazy knack for finding ways of going on complete tangents, LOL. Option Space is simply s little preparation ahead of time for these kinds of eventualities. By leveraging points from NPCs and/or Encounters and Point Form Notes above, you can more easily handle these tangential adventures. Try to place something within the Option Space that diverts Players back into the core aspects of the adventure. Example: I had Players spending WAY to much time trying to gain information from NPCs in a bar, instead of chasing after the villainous gang members. So, I ‘optioned’ for a few of the low-level gangers to hit the bar and try to rob the place/chase after the PCs. The PCs took care of things, and the clues gave them the kick they needed to get into the streets and track down the other nodes of the adventure.
Connecting the Nodes. Once you have the details fleshed out a little for the Nodes, you need to look at how they are then connected. This allows you as a GM to define how the connections work from Point A to Point B. If this involves a possible encounter based on distance or the style of transportation, it gives you a planning consideration.
Geography and Distance. Link to an older article I produced. Discusses Macro-Level implications that geography provides to a GM in adventure design. Ostensibly the map that you use to define the space you start layering your Nodes into. Perhaps this is limited to a dungeon-space you design as a primary Node, perhaps you expand it to include villages and points of interest that leads the Party to the entrance of the dungeon. Modern travel options also make this a planning factor; a Party of foot trudging through the Dino-Swamps isn’t comparable to the hover truck across the New West vista.
Prepare the NPC and/or Encounters. Don’t do random tables without having an idea of what to use beforehand. If you’re going to have the transportation between Nodes as an active part of the adventure, I’d strongly recommend you treat this as another Node. Again, I typically prepare my antagonists and have the data on a separate file/sheet of paper. I’d try to make sure the encounter is something that fits the overall theme of the adventure. Don’t pass up the option of using something like this or another ‘minor Node’ as the setting to introduce another antagonist or something that would dovetail into a follow-on adventure. Example: One of my adventures have the PCs chasing after a monster that has ravaged through a mining operation and caused the village to flee. One of the connections between two nodes includes an encounter where they overwatch a battle already occurring. This allows the PCs to decide which side to support/just watch and leads to a follow-on adventure that includes both sides of the battle scene. Player decisions feed into the second adventure and how certain encounters play out (hostile, friendly, or neutral).
EXAMPLE SCENARIO
The following is an example of one of my introductory adventures. It brings several elements of the discussion above into focus, and demonstrates the "goose egg" or Node approach. This is just a quick overview of the adventure. Each Node has its own file, with supporting images, maps, and text to describe the locations. In each case, a Point Form summary is followed by detailed text boxes and supporting information; NPC sheet, monster stats, conversation key points.
Douglastown. The following is a quick overview of the Douglastown Node.
Background. A few notations on how the city was formed, and plot hooks for why the Player Characters are there in the first place.
Sheriff's Compound. Includes the Sheriff NPC sheet and schematics for the compound.
Operator Repair Facility. Includes Operator NPC and TW sibling NPC sheets and plot hooks.
Medical Clinic. Includes Body Fixer NPC sheet and plot hooks.
Reid's Saloon. Includes schematic and plot hooks.
CONCLUSION
This isn't meant to be a "Caramilk Secret" kind of post for adventure design. Like any kind of military operation, business, task management design architecture, some will click with you as a GM, others won't. This is one I've developed and refined over the years, and is loosely based on Operational Design architecture. It works, because I'm intimately familiar with it; I think it is intuitive and allows the GM to take major pieces and put them "on the board" without getting bogged down with details before getting the start and the end of the adventure sorted out. Once you have the flowchart (so to speak), you can flesh it out from there. Heck, this adventure has had two major revisions to it since the first version based on more recent releases to better provide plot hooks and Option Space for me to exploit.
I'm also in the process of finalizing the formatting for this adventure, to make it a turn-key option for any GM looking for a new adventure, or something to start brand new Player Characters with. I'll be releasing it here on the blog in the near future, for anyone who wishes to use it, and as an example of how this process can develop a full-fledge adventure module. Hopefully you find it as useful and enjoyable as I have.
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