A Butterfly Dreaming » Adventure Design 101

Adventure Design 101: Dungeons That Live

Scott — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:20:00 +0000

It’s a little delayed thanks to the self-destruction of my network card a few days ago, but now that I’m back online, it’s time to wrap up my thoughts on dungeon design. My previous article covered some important questions that I like to ask when stocking my dungeons. There are other questions you can ask [...]

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Adventure Design 101: Dungeons That Live

Adventure Design 101: Dungeons That Make Sense

Scott — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:09:14 +0000

I recently wrote about making your setting work for you. Today’s topic is related: How do you make all of these dungeons feel like a realistic part of your game world? Say you’ve got a dungeon with goblins in one complex of rooms, a dwarf necromancer and his ghouls down the hall, and a colony [...]

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Adventure Design 101: Dungeons That Make Sense

Adventure Design 101: The Setting

Scott — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:05:33 +0000

With a plot and a villain in mind, it’s time to consider the other elements that make the adventure. Setting can be a vital element, yet in my experience it’s often given short shrift — and not just by novice gamemasters. I used to fall into the same trap. I would spend a great deal [...]

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Adventure Design 101: The Setting

Adventure Design 101: The Plot – Story

Scott — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:08:46 +0000

My last post discussed a method of setting up a plot by creating a web of characters’ actions, motives, and goals. That design begins with simple building blocks and interconnects them to create a more complex structure. I’ve had great success with it, and I design many of my adventures in that way. It is, [...]

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Adventure Design 101: The Plot – Story

Adventure Design 101: The Plot – Problems

Scott — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:38:21 +0000

Now that I’ve talked about the villain, the next step in designing your adventure is the most fundamental: the plot. As an English major, allow me to distill the plot of 99% or so of English fiction (everything aside from the avant garde stuff): There’s a problem, and someone does something about it. This is [...]

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Adventure Design 101: The Plot – Problems

The Making of a Villain

Scott — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:50:08 +0000

Since I promised to share some stories about adapting and running with players’ ideas along the way, here’s a topical one. It’s about a superhero campaign I ran almost ten years ago, and how through sheer serendipity I ended up with a villain who became a recurring antagonist through much of its run. The Enigma [...]

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The Making of a Villain

Adventure Design 101: The Villain

Scott — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:45:45 +0000

The villain is possibly the most important aspect of adventure design. There’s a school of thought that says that a strong villain is what makes a piece of fiction most memorable. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but there’s no question in my mind that a strong villain goes a good way toward that. [...]

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Adventure Design 101: The Villain

Adventure Design 101

Scott — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:51:47 +0000

One of the most rewarding parts of gamemastering is seeing the ideas you had for your adventures take shape as the players play them out in game. One of the most intimidating parts can be designing those adventures in the first place, especially when you’re new to GMing. In this series of articles, I’m going [...]

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Adventure Design 101