My first time here, 5 seconds in "This guy looks sharp and has a strong intro." 10 seconds in "Yeah, it's pretty good." 20 seconds in "Well, I don't know if I want to subscribe yet, I just got here." 24 seconds in "Yes deathbringer, of course I already subscribed."
I would add a fifth thing at least: a reason for the PCs to be involved. Rather than "You all feel the need to get involved" or "We'll do it! - because it is obviously the scenario that the GM wrote for us", it is much better for the PCs to have a very strong reason to be involved. Perhaps they are the only people in the world capable of getting the thing from the place. Perhaps (but don't over-use this) they are forced to go to get the thing from the place. Perhaps getting the thing from the place is central to their personal character motivations for some reason. Just putting up a signpost saying "Danger and treasure this way" isn't enough. The King's daughter is captured? Well, he's got an army, so he'll probably send that to get her. A valuable statue is in a place? Well, it is probably dangerous to try to steal it, and we're already rich. No one has returned from The Place of Danger (TM)? Well, why should we think that we'll be an exception? Besides - trading in salt is more profitable. Why are we doing this, again? Oh - it's just so that the scenario can happen.
For that matter, why hasn't the King's army already cleaned out all the monster dens and looted their treasure years ago? Why are there even opportunities for small bands of adventurers? Perhaps the King's army is otherwise occupied with wars, guarding the borders, or else isn't interested in high reward but also very high risk ventures.
Thank you for this! In the campaign I'm playing in my DM just gave us a quest to go to the plane of fire to retrieve the corpse of a demon separated from his body. My whole party immediately agreed just because it was the scenario intended by the DM but my character decided to dig a bit deeper for a promise of a greater reward or at least something more motivating. This is the plane of fire for goodness sake, that sounds like imminent death to me. As the odd man out, my party started yelling and complaining at me and started smacking my PC in-game for d4 bludgeoning damage. Eventually I agreed on the promise of getting valuable magic weapons/armor. But it sucked to be in that position. I think I'm just looking for a very different style of play than my fellow players.
Underneath his gruff exterior, Deathbringer is just a simple man who just wants to be loved. And to crush his enemies, see them driven before him, and hear the lamentations of their women.
If you are considering patronage, the professor has an awesome set of masterclass videos only on patreon that go into depth on gaming and mechanics. Totally awesome and game changing.
I love 5e and I hate it. The rest mechanic is terrible. Even playing a warlock i give the side eye to other players wanting to take a short rest in the middle of a dungeon. Of course, the time mechanic is what's missing. We never feel under the gun.
Sound advice. To add on to this (and in the theme of the title), I would suggest: Goodman Games How to Write Adventure Modules That Don't Suck. It is a great compilation of essays by various authors. There is a sample encounter that follows each essay to illustrate the author's point.
I always say a good adventure and EVERY session needs a strong S.H.I.P! STORY (a basic idea of what the adventure is about) HOOK (a strong intro that grabs the player's attention at the very start) INTERACTION (interesting NPC's and encounters) and PACING! (keep things moving). It's pretty much the same four as the Professor describes.
This is great! I’m currently running a campaign where the main villain has the ability to reach into the PC’s dreams once they have a tuft of the PC’s hair. Convening eerie messages and cryptic breadcrumbs. It’s working well, I only have to remind myself to do it while the players rest. Thanks for all you do PDM, appreciate all your wisdom.
WOW, the advice in this short clear clip is just so good. It also clearly identifies an error in most of my adventures. No time limit. Thanks much for the info!
Very nice... So it's the W questions. Objective being what, location being where, time limit being when, and Villain being who. Given that adding a Why would not be a bad idea. :) I think Lindybeige mentioned that too.
In the interest of feeding the algorithm, allow me to offer a counterargument, or at least an alternate point of view, that will hopefully inspire people to pile on and call me a dummy. Warning: long post. I think your four elements can be used to produce a successful adventure of a certain style of play. However, I take issue with the idea that all of these four are critical (i.e. necessary) to creating a satisfying adventure, and that adventures with these four will always be more satisfying or more successful than those missing one or more. It all depends on what you consider to be successful and satisfying. Forcing all four of these elements into every adventure encourages an adventure style that is linear and plot-driven. It’s a valid way to create an adventure and play the game. In fact, it’s probably the most popular kind of adventure style since the Hickmans’ wrote I6. The problem I have is that people think it’s the only way to create an adventure, or at least the best. I disagree. And I realize my opinion puts me in the minority and goes against the common wisdom of the entire RPG industry for the last 35 years. I prefer a slower, more player-motivated, exploratory, campaign-centric (rather than adventure-centric) open world game. To my mind, adventurers are not heroes by default, they are treasure hunters and explorers of the strange and unusual just for the sake of experiencing the strange and unusual. Time-based plots with objectives assigned by the DM tend to discourage adventures of pure exploration for its own sake (including hexcrawls) or dinking around interacting with interesting things that don’t have anything to do with the Main Objective. I like this dinking around. That’s the game to me. That’s what I find satisfying. Hmm, what does this lever do? Why is there a weird glow coming from the caverns to the left? Can I get the treasure without interacting with the villain at all? Can I play what this faction wants against the other faction to my advantage? I can have a good time playing in a plot-driven adventure, but it’s not my preference. I don’t have a problem picking up an obvious adventure hook and playing ball with what the DM has prepared. But I do start to feel a bit resentful if I sense I’m being pulled in a direction or that there is a correct sequence of scenes that need to be played out in order. It makes me feel like I’m playing against a script. As a DM, I try to resist pushing players one way or the other even if it means they don’t encounter the really cool thing I placed in the west tower. And I really don’t like the 5-room dungeon concept. I want a dungeon that PCs can get lost in. There is very little wonder to five rooms. I don’t care if they miss certain encounters entirely. I’m also not concerned with creating a nicely-paced story graph of narrative exposition with an intro, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. I like that in the fiction I read and movies I watch, but I don’t want it in my role-playing games. I understand most people probably do. Yes, I’m saying I think 50,000,000 Dragonlance fans can be wrong. For me, creating more exploratory, open campaign adventures requires a little bit more work up front, but I think it pays off for what I (and some others) want out of the game. You don’t have to map and populate an entire planet with hundreds of pages of lore. In fact, I’d advocate that new DMs don’t. They should start small and let it develop organically. Start with a small regional map with at least one town with access to trade. Include some (not all) surrounding geographic areas: woods, swamps, plains, cliffs, hills and mountains, etc. Create maybe three different adventuring sites, maybe a multi-level dungeon under some old castle or temple ruins, an “abandoned” tower, a series of tombs. Populate each of these with monsters, traps, puzzles, hazards, mysteries, and treasure. Create random encounter tables both for the locations and the wilderness around them. Create at least three factions in the area all with distinct motivations. These don’t need to be monsters; they could be cults or political forces inside the town. Instead of The Objective, create a rumors table with multiple hooks, some of which might bring them to one of your locations or contact one of the factions. I think your bulletin board idea in your KotB videos is an excellent example of this. Finally, build in a couple external events which will happen within a certain time unless the PCs do something about it. They don’t need to do anything about any of these things, in fact, it’s more interesting if multiple deadlines are occurring simultaneously to make them have to choose which to engage with. With this kind of setup, you can campaign for years, expanding the map as you play. I’ll take this kind of game play over a linear, adventure path any day. Even GDQ.
I agree with you 110%, Chris! This is the type of game I personally prefer to build *and* to play in. (Not to say that the other style isn’t enjoyable or valid, simply not my preference.)
I read every word of your response. Thank you for taking the time to write it. Would it surprise you if I said I agreed? Moreover, the line of 50,000,000 Dragonlance fans gave me a real chuckle. Everyone should read the second to last paragraph. Solid advice there. There are, of course, innumerable play styles and whatever you and your friends enjoy is what you should be doing. If I didn't include clear hooks, my players would wait around, wondering where the adventure is! This is the style that works at my table and--I believe-- reaches the widest audience. So thanks, Chris! Best wishes to you and your players in 2021.
While I think that style can work potentially, it's definitely not the norm, and the rules generally work against you. The problem with not pacing time in D&D is that if players control long rests, it's extremely hard to build any kind of encounters. 5E (and most other editions) are balanced around the idea of resource depletion and efficiency. If time no longer becomes a factor, then the players essentially can reload their spells and hit points whenever they want and the DM loses control over resource management. Now I'm not saying that your idea for a campaign is bad. In fact, it sounds like it could be be fun to play. But I do think the 5E rules are a poor choice for that particular style. 5E is largely designed for the kind of adventures PDM is advocating for. The megadungeon sadly does not translate well to it.
So well explained and argued! Ever since I came back to this hobby I've felt like a specific playstyle and campaign style has been push everywhere I look. What really got to me with the plot-driven approach was usually pushed as the one-true-way with anything else be incorrect and just bad (or at best "casual"). At first my reaction was shock and to be a bit of a jerk about it since many (I'm sure well meaning) presentations on designing adventures and/or campaigns seemed to say the kind of open-ended campaigns was just wrong. I don't have a huge problem with it in adventures (as long as its not presented as the only way to design an adventure); it gets to me more when its present as how to design a whole campaign as one big mega-adventure stringing together sub-adventures and ending when the "BBEG" is defeated.
@@taragnor The kind of adventures described were more typical early on and in "old school" gaming, and I think that is a key difference. A lot of old school adventures were actually designed with the assumption the party would fully rest multiple times, even returning to town to recooperate (or find some other place to lie low if a long wilderness treck is available). I'm sure you could still do this, though returning to town or some other safe area would no longer be required.
The way I had my BBEG be involved with the party before the climax is to reveal that most of their magic items and spells were made/written by him and he'd been able to scry on them ever since they were level one.
This is awesome. Love how you made it into simple steps and gave great examples. Of all the D&D advice channels yours is one of the few I have stuck with because you actually provide interesting and useful tips.
My four elements for an improv TTRPG session are: premise, destination, consequence, and opposition. It neat to see how those words overlap so cleanly with: objective, location, time limit, and villain.
Very sound advice, Professor. Like you, I believe that Player investment is key to my stories. I like use a reoccurring NPC that in the end is the final Antagonist. While tailoring AD&D, Dungeon Magazine, and other adventures to each scenario. Of course converting them over to 5E when necessary. One that I have used several times is what I refer to as the Familiar Face. Example: You enter the final room in the abandoned castle, it appears to have been converted into a makeshift alter. There's a young woman with long blonde hair dressed in priests robes kneeling at the foot of a coffin. As the party approaches she states, "I'm sorry for all of your losses, I prey that you can have closure." Than she leaves. Player "X" notices the body as their father, who was missing for "?" number of years and thought to be dead. Held firmly in both hands resting upon his chest is object from player "W's" past (Family Heirloom missing during a raid on childhood village). The flowers in the room are from Player "Y's" mothers garden. The Coffin was handcrafted by player "V's" father the day you set out to find adventure. Lastly the candles and sconces are from the church where player "Z" studied before setting out. Through out the adventure the woman shows up in different lactations in simple disguises offering some kind of help, advice, or giving a quest. Big finish. As PC's come to final conflict location everyone is stunned to find out that BBG NPC is someone from all of their past who felt wronged by each of them and has put together a mirror image party for them to fight before they engage her.
Great advice, and well boiled down. Switching to an all one-shot format and this has helped focus the scenario writing. Of the 4 elements, villain has been the most difficult, which I didn't anticipate.
Absolutely fantastic! My friend and I recently started a DND group, whenever I watch your videos like these, it inspired me and makes me want to homebrew my own campaign.
Great video. I made a short adventure where the final boss was really a ghost asking to be freed, and the first contact the players had with him was on a cliff, where he jumped into the ocean. But the players did not know it was a vision, so they thought someone killed himself
I have no nitpicks, which makes it really hard to say something constructive or engaging. Great advice for any adventure-writer. In fact, rather than write this essay to get into grad school, I'll write this adventure for my wife instead. :)
I click on the notification, I slap the Like button, then proceed to watch the episode. Glorious as always, top notch video; thank you, Professor. Content like this is both why I want to produce something and why I feel like I can simply refer my people this way. Heck, if ol' Lindy Bones is a fan, then I might as well just sit quietly and take notes. LOL
Also, if you roll the comment by @lindybeige into this, it's the 5 Ws of a proper mission statement. Who, What, When, Where, and Why. Beat the villain to accomplish the thing at the following location no later than this time to facilitate an outcome. Nice.
I DM'd my first game of DnD yesterday for my siblings who visited for christmas, and it went great! I used the simplified rules from your very first dungeoncraft videos to get going fast, and it was a really good idea. They all want more now. The great thing about your videos is that you bring everything down to the basics, and those basics are really incredibly valuable when you are in the field as a new DM. You also taught me not to respect the rules too much, and that really lifts a huge weight off both my shoulders, and my player's shoulders as well, because we don't have to get through hours of tedious rule-studying before getting to the fun stuff.
Last night I ran Unhallowed Ground, one of the scenarios that the Prof. Got published Dungeon Magazine. Great scenario, players loved it. It deserves a re-vamping and republishing to get it out there like Jigsaw, Professor!
Great information and inspiration! Perfect since I'm in the middle of planning a session for my players. Looks like the big bad will need to make an appearance and there might be some flooding dungeons.
By far one of your best videos! Once again, you’re making DMing accessible to everyone! Great job. PS, still waiting for your video on managing romances in a campaign ;)
Good cornerstones for making great adventures. You can always add more points, like ccol rewards for the players, memorable NPCs, varied scenery and battle scenes and so on. My favorite is when I manage to include some kind of extra challenge during combat. Like, it takes place on a sinking ship, on a very high bridge and so on. The alchemist lab of the villain might have some mechanical or magical machinery that needs to be stopped as well as fighting the villain - so that the PCs have to make choices when taking their actions and so that "their usual battle plan" don't just go off without a hitch.
"But it doesn't have to be" is the best advice you can give someone in any creative endevor when they say "I don't know how to create the best thing". Great advice. It just became my new template for session planning!
How about: "Get the ham and cheese sandwich on rye from the delicatessen before it closes. Watch out for the 'waitress'." 🥪⏰🙍♀️ That has all four elements. 😊 I reckon I could run that as a great adventure!!! 👍😎 So, thanks for another great video, Professor and HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! 🎆✨🎆🍗🍻😃
my players in a GI Joe style modern SWAT game. Just slapped this together from the subject of the video. Characters are deployed to rescue hostages from a yacht. The time limit is that there is a transport on the way for the bad guys to get away with the hostages. The Villain is the Evil S.P.I.R.E. As for Lindybeige's suggestion, they're doing it because "The Chief" calls for them to be involved in the hostage rescue. Simplistic and maybe ham-fisted? sure, but that's the feel of the game. Red lasers are baddies, blue lasers are the good guys!
Hey! You wrote Unhallowed Ground! I have maybe three issues of Dungeon, and I always thought that one was very cool and unique. And it made the cover, so good job!
Right on. Element 3... Time Limit. This is huge for keeping the players on track and not devising their own quest in the middle of the session you planned for weeks.. or months.
Thanks for sharing today. Short rests are killing my game, so you’ve inspired me to make things a little more intense. Bye bye unnecessary short rests!
Keeping it sharp Deathbringer. Perfect advice, random tables are a low prep GM's greatest tools. See you next year, here is a new years cookie for the metric
Thanks for your tips to help me in DM’ing. I have a host of players that want to play but no one wants to manage the game. So I’m doing my best to get better at not just storytelling but handling situations and reactions of players
TLDR: 1: Objective: Make sure your players know exactly what they're doing no more than 10 minutes into a session. Confusion and vague goals lead to slog and chaos! Keep it simple. Give them a place to go and a thing to get. Table for inspo at: 2: Location: Any location is a closed matrix. Give the players the illusion of choice: left or right? Either way, it's a closed system. All roads lead to plot development. Know your location, and keep it small. fewer rooms in a dungeon= shorter session, more= longer. 3: Time limit: A clock means easy tension. When the players feel the pressure they are going to act, and feel like what they're doing has consequences. Punish them for stopping to rest/ don't let them rest, to begin with. Less time means more tension and a more difficult task. More time means the opposite. 4: Villian: A good villain has the same goal as a hero. Thanos and the avengers both want the infinity gauntlet, they just want it for different reasons. Same objective, alternative (and opposing) motives. Introduce this villain early on. This can be in foreshadowing of some sort, or you have them fuck over the players at some point before the final showdown so they really hate him. They should want to not only stop the villain but enjoy shutting him down. Their inevitable demise should create catharsis in the heroes!
Admittedly, your bonus credit material is basically the point of my games. I love making cool reoccurring villains that my players love to hate: it's the best. Right now, my PCs have an evil party of adventurers they are pursuing/being chased by/competing with (not quite "evil-mirror-squad" but similar enough to act as great foils). The lines between which group actually the antagonists in a given situation get blurry often, but the game is all the better for it!
i just had a thought about the location chart. i was thinking of adding an adjective chart, so instead of just rolling for the lost tomb, lost city, or the evil castle, you can end up with things like the haunted city, the loathsome tomb, or the underground castle. this would expand the creativity and there would be no two sessions that would sound the same using that chart above
I've watched every DC that PDM has put out for us and I think this one probably ranks as my favorite. It's pithy, excellent advice that you can start applying right away. Well done!
I don't know if this is a German thing, but I had several times players, who were perfectly fine with "pacifistic" adventures where you don't have villains or fights. For example, you try to prevent an ancient fey to steal a child, but the fey is not malicious, so we made a deal with her by helping her solving an old riddle and paying her off. There was tension, but it could not be resolved with violence. When again, it was a Christmas adventure...
I actually like short rests and wish my players would use them more. It is the long rests that kill the tension. That is why I make them take 3 days instead of 8 hours. That way the players have to be on a break from adventuring to get the long rest stuff, which, thanks to the time limit, they can't always do. Short rests are fine though since it is just a quick breather, some extra hit points, and then continuing on with the quest.
Yeah the 5 minute short rest in 4E was one thing I thought that edition really got right. I liked the idea of just assuming people get a post-combat recovery and that takes place while everyone is recovering dropped/thrown weapons, looting bodies, generally securing the area, etc. Long rests on the other hand are game killers. Honestly wish they made them take a week or something, because they totally break any kind of encounter pacing, especially on wilderness journeys.
Thanks for the mental floss. I dm for my son's , daughter , and anywhere from 4 to 7 of thier friends. I feel bad cutting the party down , can't leave kids out. You have it right... I have kids that bring Hero click figures for thier pcs. Last week l had wonder woman black widow and juggernaut, in my last crawl.
I use a Thor hero click as my default D&D Hero mini. Paladin, Cleric, Fighter, super handy to keep on hand, and it doesn't get beat up or paint chipped!
My first time here, 5 seconds in "This guy looks sharp and has a strong intro."
10 seconds in "Yeah, it's pretty good."
20 seconds in "Well, I don't know if I want to subscribe yet, I just got here."
24 seconds in "Yes deathbringer, of course I already subscribed."
I would add a fifth thing at least: a reason for the PCs to be involved. Rather than "You all feel the need to get involved" or "We'll do it! - because it is obviously the scenario that the GM wrote for us", it is much better for the PCs to have a very strong reason to be involved. Perhaps they are the only people in the world capable of getting the thing from the place. Perhaps (but don't over-use this) they are forced to go to get the thing from the place. Perhaps getting the thing from the place is central to their personal character motivations for some reason. Just putting up a signpost saying "Danger and treasure this way" isn't enough.
The King's daughter is captured? Well, he's got an army, so he'll probably send that to get her.
A valuable statue is in a place? Well, it is probably dangerous to try to steal it, and we're already rich.
No one has returned from The Place of Danger (TM)? Well, why should we think that we'll be an exception? Besides - trading in salt is more profitable.
Why are we doing this, again? Oh - it's just so that the scenario can happen.
For that matter, why hasn't the King's army already cleaned out all the monster dens and looted their treasure years ago? Why are there even opportunities for small bands of adventurers?
Perhaps the King's army is otherwise occupied with wars, guarding the borders, or else isn't interested in high reward but also very high risk ventures.
You're doing it because you signed up for a 4 year stint in Lord Allgood's Adventure Corps, and it's either crawl into that hole or face the lash. :-)
Did anyone else read this in Lindy's voice?
Thank you for this! In the campaign I'm playing in my DM just gave us a quest to go to the plane of fire to retrieve the corpse of a demon separated from his body. My whole party immediately agreed just because it was the scenario intended by the DM but my character decided to dig a bit deeper for a promise of a greater reward or at least something more motivating. This is the plane of fire for goodness sake, that sounds like imminent death to me. As the odd man out, my party started yelling and complaining at me and started smacking my PC in-game for d4 bludgeoning damage. Eventually I agreed on the promise of getting valuable magic weapons/armor. But it sucked to be in that position. I think I'm just looking for a very different style of play than my fellow players.
Yes, the best sessions I've ran were in some sense about one of my players or all of them
Underneath his gruff exterior, Deathbringer is just a simple man who just wants to be loved.
And to crush his enemies, see them driven before him, and hear the lamentations of their women.
Ah that is good!
Lol, nice Conan reference!
Don’t forget salt their fields either!
Ah, the poor man's Tome of Adventure Design summed up in four high-concept points. Thanks Prof, great vid!
Thanks!
Second.
Many probably don't know, but Tome of Adventure Design is actually a great book. Used it to great effect.
Commenting for profile pic
I see you too are a man of culture
"What are you filthy, armed vagrants doing in my wondrous lair?!"
"Dying Guy told us to get the Thing."
Villian: *shrugs* "Fair enough." *Rolls initiatve*
No initiative! Didn’t you watch the dungeon craft video on that?
@@johnscotto5045 - Just Draw Cards, ideally. Solves two problems in one if you're not stuck with a d20 noose.
"Fools ! The thing is mine"
Yes
If you are considering patronage, the professor has an awesome set of masterclass videos only on patreon that go into depth on gaming and mechanics. Totally awesome and game changing.
Thanks, Scott. I just uploaded next week's video and it will air on Saturday, BTW. Extended version is 23 minutes. May all your rolls in 2021 be 20s!
I love how you made a super useful concise video that some other channels would have dragged out for an hour.
Much appreciated, and very helpful.
Dungeon Craft and Seth Skorkowsky videos drop back-to-back? Merry Middlemas, everyone!
Seth posted a video?!
Did he? I have to watch it. Seth's the best!
@@METALGEARMATRIX yep, C-o-C adventure review.
Who’s Seth sakorsky?
@@jeffbaril4047 A really great creator who makes videos about modules/adventures from various systems. I highly recommend him!
“....AFTER a short rest”😂😂😂
You’re killin’ me over here Danny!
I love 5e and I hate it. The rest mechanic is terrible. Even playing a warlock i give the side eye to other players wanting to take a short rest in the middle of a dungeon.
Of course, the time mechanic is what's missing. We never feel under the gun.
Professor Dungeon Master, your acting wasn't over; it was exactly need!
My kids are embarrassed, but I don't care. Cheers!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 If you embarrassed your kids, that's a bonus! :)
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 This is the Way.
He went to the Shattner school of acting... Lol
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 If you're embarrassing your kids... you're doing it right.
The Conan 2d20 GM kit has an awesome booklet with a ton of randomizer charts for adventure locations, npcs, macguffins, and more.
Sound advice. To add on to this (and in the theme of the title), I would suggest: Goodman Games How to Write Adventure Modules That Don't Suck. It is a great compilation of essays by various authors. There is a sample encounter that follows each essay to illustrate the author's point.
I love the way you sneak in the 5th ingredient- "no short rests!"
I totally agree!
Remember Willie Walsh writing for Dungeon Magazine? That guy wrote some amazing Adventures in the late 80's and 90's!
Yes!!
I always say a good adventure and EVERY session needs a strong S.H.I.P! STORY (a basic idea of what the adventure is about) HOOK (a strong intro that grabs the player's attention at the very start) INTERACTION (interesting NPC's and encounters) and PACING! (keep things moving). It's pretty much the same four as the Professor describes.
This is great! I’m currently running a campaign where the main villain has the ability to reach into the PC’s dreams once they have a tuft of the PC’s hair. Convening eerie messages and cryptic breadcrumbs. It’s working well, I only have to remind myself to do it while the players rest.
Thanks for all you do PDM, appreciate all your wisdom.
4:14
As Elyse Myers once said, "There is nothing less motivating than having enough time."
Incorporating time limits (#3) is something that is great advice, but is tricky to do naturally.
Professor!
This is great advice, instruction or refresher. Combine this with "3 NPCs your D&D game needs" and a campaign can write itself. On point.
WOW, the advice in this short clear clip is just so good. It also clearly identifies an error in most of my adventures. No time limit. Thanks much for the info!
Very nice... So it's the W questions. Objective being what, location being where, time limit being when, and Villain being who. Given that adding a Why would not be a bad idea. :)
I think Lindybeige mentioned that too.
In the interest of feeding the algorithm, allow me to offer a counterargument, or at least an alternate point of view, that will hopefully inspire people to pile on and call me a dummy. Warning: long post.
I think your four elements can be used to produce a successful adventure of a certain style of play. However, I take issue with the idea that all of these four are critical (i.e. necessary) to creating a satisfying adventure, and that adventures with these four will always be more satisfying or more successful than those missing one or more. It all depends on what you consider to be successful and satisfying.
Forcing all four of these elements into every adventure encourages an adventure style that is linear and plot-driven. It’s a valid way to create an adventure and play the game. In fact, it’s probably the most popular kind of adventure style since the Hickmans’ wrote I6. The problem I have is that people think it’s the only way to create an adventure, or at least the best. I disagree. And I realize my opinion puts me in the minority and goes against the common wisdom of the entire RPG industry for the last 35 years.
I prefer a slower, more player-motivated, exploratory, campaign-centric (rather than adventure-centric) open world game. To my mind, adventurers are not heroes by default, they are treasure hunters and explorers of the strange and unusual just for the sake of experiencing the strange and unusual. Time-based plots with objectives assigned by the DM tend to discourage adventures of pure exploration for its own sake (including hexcrawls) or dinking around interacting with interesting things that don’t have anything to do with the Main Objective. I like this dinking around. That’s the game to me. That’s what I find satisfying. Hmm, what does this lever do? Why is there a weird glow coming from the caverns to the left? Can I get the treasure without interacting with the villain at all? Can I play what this faction wants against the other faction to my advantage?
I can have a good time playing in a plot-driven adventure, but it’s not my preference. I don’t have a problem picking up an obvious adventure hook and playing ball with what the DM has prepared. But I do start to feel a bit resentful if I sense I’m being pulled in a direction or that there is a correct sequence of scenes that need to be played out in order. It makes me feel like I’m playing against a script. As a DM, I try to resist pushing players one way or the other even if it means they don’t encounter the really cool thing I placed in the west tower. And I really don’t like the 5-room dungeon concept. I want a dungeon that PCs can get lost in. There is very little wonder to five rooms. I don’t care if they miss certain encounters entirely. I’m also not concerned with creating a nicely-paced story graph of narrative exposition with an intro, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. I like that in the fiction I read and movies I watch, but I don’t want it in my role-playing games. I understand most people probably do. Yes, I’m saying I think 50,000,000 Dragonlance fans can be wrong.
For me, creating more exploratory, open campaign adventures requires a little bit more work up front, but I think it pays off for what I (and some others) want out of the game. You don’t have to map and populate an entire planet with hundreds of pages of lore. In fact, I’d advocate that new DMs don’t. They should start small and let it develop organically. Start with a small regional map with at least one town with access to trade. Include some (not all) surrounding geographic areas: woods, swamps, plains, cliffs, hills and mountains, etc. Create maybe three different adventuring sites, maybe a multi-level dungeon under some old castle or temple ruins, an “abandoned” tower, a series of tombs. Populate each of these with monsters, traps, puzzles, hazards, mysteries, and treasure. Create random encounter tables both for the locations and the wilderness around them. Create at least three factions in the area all with distinct motivations. These don’t need to be monsters; they could be cults or political forces inside the town. Instead of The Objective, create a rumors table with multiple hooks, some of which might bring them to one of your locations or contact one of the factions. I think your bulletin board idea in your KotB videos is an excellent example of this. Finally, build in a couple external events which will happen within a certain time unless the PCs do something about it. They don’t need to do anything about any of these things, in fact, it’s more interesting if multiple deadlines are occurring simultaneously to make them have to choose which to engage with.
With this kind of setup, you can campaign for years, expanding the map as you play. I’ll take this kind of game play over a linear, adventure path any day. Even GDQ.
I agree with you 110%, Chris! This is the type of game I personally prefer to build *and* to play in. (Not to say that the other style isn’t enjoyable or valid, simply not my preference.)
I read every word of your response. Thank you for taking the time to write it. Would it surprise you if I said I agreed? Moreover, the line of 50,000,000 Dragonlance fans gave me a real chuckle. Everyone should read the second to last paragraph. Solid advice there. There are, of course, innumerable play styles and whatever you and your friends enjoy is what you should be doing. If I didn't include clear hooks, my players would wait around, wondering where the adventure is! This is the style that works at my table and--I believe-- reaches the widest audience. So thanks, Chris! Best wishes to you and your players in 2021.
While I think that style can work potentially, it's definitely not the norm, and the rules generally work against you. The problem with not pacing time in D&D is that if players control long rests, it's extremely hard to build any kind of encounters. 5E (and most other editions) are balanced around the idea of resource depletion and efficiency. If time no longer becomes a factor, then the players essentially can reload their spells and hit points whenever they want and the DM loses control over resource management.
Now I'm not saying that your idea for a campaign is bad. In fact, it sounds like it could be be fun to play. But I do think the 5E rules are a poor choice for that particular style. 5E is largely designed for the kind of adventures PDM is advocating for. The megadungeon sadly does not translate well to it.
So well explained and argued! Ever since I came back to this hobby I've felt like a specific playstyle and campaign style has been push everywhere I look. What really got to me with the plot-driven approach was usually pushed as the one-true-way with anything else be incorrect and just bad (or at best "casual"). At first my reaction was shock and to be a bit of a jerk about it since many (I'm sure well meaning) presentations on designing adventures and/or campaigns seemed to say the kind of open-ended campaigns was just wrong. I don't have a huge problem with it in adventures (as long as its not presented as the only way to design an adventure); it gets to me more when its present as how to design a whole campaign as one big mega-adventure stringing together sub-adventures and ending when the "BBEG" is defeated.
@@taragnor The kind of adventures described were more typical early on and in "old school" gaming, and I think that is a key difference. A lot of old school adventures were actually designed with the assumption the party would fully rest multiple times, even returning to town to recooperate (or find some other place to lie low if a long wilderness treck is available). I'm sure you could still do this, though returning to town or some other safe area would no longer be required.
Dungeon Craft video in purgatory xmas week? A surprise to be sure but a welcome one!
As always, quick ,concise , highly relevant and entertaining
Thanks. Working on a review of the new basics sad right now. Trying to get it down to 15 minutes.
One of the best examples of a short rest working in sync with building suspense is the elevator scene before the final fight in the movie Dredd
It's funny how painfully obvious and simple it is once it's presented. Thanks for another helpful video. Now, back to the work I was putting off.
I Love ALL Dungeon Craft videos! Especially his back catalog.
The way I had my BBEG be involved with the party before the climax is to reveal that most of their magic items and spells were made/written by him and he'd been able to scry on them ever since they were level one.
Well put - i always appreciate your ability to wrap up complex gaming concepts so succinctly!
Awesome miniatures and setting terrain in this video!!! I absolutely love how they are always integrated into the videos!!!
Now that's a video! Totally encapsulated what went wrong with my last session!
Mah-Gophan was a famous artificer from ages past who created many powerful artifacts.
This is awesome. Love how you made it into simple steps and gave great examples. Of all the D&D advice channels yours is one of the few I have stuck with because you actually provide interesting and useful tips.
Another master class from the professor!
Thanks, Sir Guy!
My four elements for an improv TTRPG session are: premise, destination, consequence, and opposition. It neat to see how those words overlap so cleanly with: objective, location, time limit, and villain.
I've been binge watching your videos for two days in a row now. Awesome content and really fun-centric!
Very sound advice, Professor. Like you, I believe that Player investment is key to my stories. I like use a reoccurring NPC that in the end is the final Antagonist. While tailoring AD&D, Dungeon Magazine, and other adventures to each scenario. Of course converting them over to 5E when necessary.
One that I have used several times is what I refer to as the Familiar Face. Example: You enter the final room in the abandoned castle, it appears to have been converted into a makeshift alter. There's a young woman with long blonde hair dressed in priests robes kneeling at the foot of a coffin. As the party approaches she states, "I'm sorry for all of your losses, I prey that you can have closure." Than she leaves. Player "X" notices the body as their father, who was missing for "?" number of years and thought to be dead. Held firmly in both hands resting upon his chest is object from player "W's" past (Family Heirloom missing during a raid on childhood village). The flowers in the room are from Player "Y's" mothers garden. The Coffin was handcrafted by player "V's" father the day you set out to find adventure. Lastly the candles and sconces are from the church where player "Z" studied before setting out.
Through out the adventure the woman shows up in different lactations in simple disguises offering some kind of help, advice, or giving a quest.
Big finish. As PC's come to final conflict location everyone is stunned to find out that BBG NPC is someone from all of their past who felt wronged by each of them and has put together a mirror image party for them to fight before they engage her.
Great advice, and well boiled down.
Switching to an all one-shot format and this has helped focus the scenario writing. Of the 4 elements, villain has been the most difficult, which I didn't anticipate.
Absolutely fantastic! My friend and I recently started a DND group, whenever I watch your videos like these, it inspired me and makes me want to homebrew my own campaign.
Great video. I made a short adventure where the final boss was really a ghost asking to be freed, and the first contact the players had with him was on a cliff, where he jumped into the ocean. But the players did not know it was a vision, so they thought someone killed himself
Saved. Content from Professor DM, DM Lair, and Seth Skorkowsky in one day. It is a good day for tabletop content.
You never disappoint prof.
I have no nitpicks, which makes it really hard to say something constructive or engaging. Great advice for any adventure-writer. In fact, rather than write this essay to get into grad school, I'll write this adventure for my wife instead. :)
I click on the notification, I slap the Like button, then proceed to watch the episode. Glorious as always, top notch video; thank you, Professor.
Content like this is both why I want to produce something and why I feel like I can simply refer my people this way.
Heck, if ol' Lindy Bones is a fan, then I might as well just sit quietly and take notes. LOL
Also, if you roll the comment by @lindybeige into this, it's the 5 Ws of a proper mission statement.
Who, What, When, Where, and Why.
Beat the villain to accomplish the thing at the following location no later than this time to facilitate an outcome.
Nice.
Hail Deathbringer!
He sends his regards.
We shall build a labyrinth to house the regards!
Brevity is the soul of wit. Keep it up man
I DM'd my first game of DnD yesterday for my siblings who visited for christmas, and it went great! I used the simplified rules from your very first dungeoncraft videos to get going fast, and it was a really good idea. They all want more now.
The great thing about your videos is that you bring everything down to the basics, and those basics are really incredibly valuable when you are in the field as a new DM. You also taught me not to respect the rules too much, and that really lifts a huge weight off both my shoulders, and my player's shoulders as well, because we don't have to get through hours of tedious rule-studying before getting to the fun stuff.
I'm putting off my weekly discussion post to watch this video right now!
Last night I ran Unhallowed Ground, one of the scenarios that the Prof. Got published Dungeon Magazine. Great scenario, players loved it. It deserves a re-vamping and republishing to get it out there like Jigsaw, Professor!
Thank you.
this is such an excellent video, I really love the section on the time limit! I would say that's the one thing missing from my own game!
Great information and inspiration! Perfect since I'm in the middle of planning a session for my players. Looks like the big bad will need to make an appearance and there might be some flooding dungeons.
Really excited to tie these 4 elements with Runehammer's LOG method for planning out sessions. Thanks Prof DM!
By far one of your best videos! Once again, you’re making DMing accessible to everyone! Great job. PS, still waiting for your video on managing romances in a campaign ;)
Good cornerstones for making great adventures. You can always add more points, like ccol rewards for the players, memorable NPCs, varied scenery and battle scenes and so on.
My favorite is when I manage to include some kind of extra challenge during combat. Like, it takes place on a sinking ship, on a very high bridge and so on. The alchemist lab of the villain might have some mechanical or magical machinery that needs to be stopped as well as fighting the villain - so that the PCs have to make choices when taking their actions and so that "their usual battle plan" don't just go off without a hitch.
"But it doesn't have to be" is the best advice you can give someone in any creative endevor when they say "I don't know how to create the best thing".
Great advice. It just became my new template for session planning!
its official...you are the only big DM youtuber who should actually be a GM.
Terrific advice. Through the four filter your adventure shall be viewed. +1 Vest of Perception
How about: "Get the ham and cheese sandwich on rye from the delicatessen before it closes. Watch out for the 'waitress'." 🥪⏰🙍♀️
That has all four elements. 😊 I reckon I could run that as a great adventure!!! 👍😎 So, thanks for another great video, Professor and HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! 🎆✨🎆🍗🍻😃
Great vid Prof. A great simple core to build on. I've been GM'in years but always great to refresh on the grass roots.
Your videos' acted-out examples are excellent and chuckle-worthy :)
As a noob DND convert and aspiring dungeon/game master this channel is amazing. Thanks prof
Definitely using this for planning and retrospectives. Time is a problem in most of our games.
I really appreciate these structural, concrete aid videos. Thanks Prof!
Great advice! Keeping this in mind will help me considerably.
Glad it was helpful!
Did the Professor just call me out to get back to my math homework?!
my players in a GI Joe style modern SWAT game. Just slapped this together from the subject of the video.
Characters are deployed to rescue hostages from a yacht. The time limit is that there is a transport on the way for the bad guys to get away with the hostages. The Villain is the Evil S.P.I.R.E. As for Lindybeige's suggestion, they're doing it because "The Chief" calls for them to be involved in the hostage rescue.
Simplistic and maybe ham-fisted? sure, but that's the feel of the game. Red lasers are baddies, blue lasers are the good guys!
Hey! You wrote Unhallowed Ground! I have maybe three issues of Dungeon, and I always thought that one was very cool and unique. And it made the cover, so good job!
Shatner's Vest of Acting +1
Great video, PDM. Thank you. Shared on my campaign page.
This is the video title we were looking for.
Well done, Prof!
Right on. Element 3... Time Limit. This is huge for keeping the players on track and not devising their own quest in the middle of the session you planned for weeks.. or months.
Excellent video! I’ve been craving info like this
Thanks for sharing today. Short rests are killing my game, so you’ve inspired me to make things a little more intense. Bye bye unnecessary short rests!
Having as an objective "getting Liam Neeson's daughter" is creepy in every scenario where Liam Neeson is not directly involved.
It's videos like this one that prompted me to become a patron.
me as well
Keeping it sharp Deathbringer. Perfect advice, random tables are a low prep GM's greatest tools. See you next year, here is a new years cookie for the metric
Thanks for your tips to help me in DM’ing. I have a host of players that want to play but no one wants to manage the game.
So I’m doing my best to get better at not just storytelling but handling situations and reactions of players
TLDR:
1: Objective: Make sure your players know exactly what they're doing no more than 10 minutes into a session. Confusion and vague goals lead to slog and chaos! Keep it simple. Give them a place to go and a thing to get. Table for inspo at:
2: Location: Any location is a closed matrix. Give the players the illusion of choice: left or right? Either way, it's a closed system. All roads lead to plot development. Know your location, and keep it small. fewer rooms in a dungeon= shorter session, more= longer.
3: Time limit: A clock means easy tension. When the players feel the pressure they are going to act, and feel like what they're doing has consequences. Punish them for stopping to rest/ don't let them rest, to begin with. Less time means more tension and a more difficult task. More time means the opposite.
4: Villian: A good villain has the same goal as a hero. Thanos and the avengers both want the infinity gauntlet, they just want it for different reasons. Same objective, alternative (and opposing) motives. Introduce this villain early on. This can be in foreshadowing of some sort, or you have them fuck over the players at some point before the final showdown so they really hate him. They should want to not only stop the villain but enjoy shutting him down. Their inevitable demise should create catharsis in the heroes!
Excellent video, chucked full of very useful information. Much better than similar videos by others.
Admittedly, your bonus credit material is basically the point of my games. I love making cool reoccurring villains that my players love to hate: it's the best. Right now, my PCs have an evil party of adventurers they are pursuing/being chased by/competing with (not quite "evil-mirror-squad" but similar enough to act as great foils). The lines between which group actually the antagonists in a given situation get blurry often, but the game is all the better for it!
Excellent as usual Prof. Thank you!
Timeless advice, well stated. Thank you, sir.
Thank you for simply existing in 2020. Much needed.
i just had a thought about the location chart. i was thinking of adding an adjective chart, so instead of just rolling for the lost tomb, lost city, or the evil castle, you can end up with things like the haunted city, the loathsome tomb, or the underground castle. this would expand the creativity and there would be no two sessions that would sound the same using that chart above
Great advice! I appreciate your expertise!
Love this thanks for the reminder of what makes an adventure grate.
I've watched every DC that PDM has put out for us and I think this one probably ranks as my favorite. It's pithy, excellent advice that you can start applying right away. Well done!
I don't know if this is a German thing, but I had several times players, who were perfectly fine with "pacifistic" adventures where you don't have villains or fights. For example, you try to prevent an ancient fey to steal a child, but the fey is not malicious, so we made a deal with her by helping her solving an old riddle and paying her off. There was tension, but it could not be resolved with violence. When again, it was a Christmas adventure...
Just filled up another page of my DM notebook. Thanks again!
Doing my part Professor, disabled adblocker and commenting
I actually like short rests and wish my players would use them more. It is the long rests that kill the tension. That is why I make them take 3 days instead of 8 hours. That way the players have to be on a break from adventuring to get the long rest stuff, which, thanks to the time limit, they can't always do. Short rests are fine though since it is just a quick breather, some extra hit points, and then continuing on with the quest.
I allow short rests (in 5e anyway) to be just a few moments. 15 minutes of in game time or so.
Yeah the 5 minute short rest in 4E was one thing I thought that edition really got right. I liked the idea of just assuming people get a post-combat recovery and that takes place while everyone is recovering dropped/thrown weapons, looting bodies, generally securing the area, etc. Long rests on the other hand are game killers. Honestly wish they made them take a week or something, because they totally break any kind of encounter pacing, especially on wilderness journeys.
MI:3 had the best use of a Disguise Kit I have ever seen in D&D filmmaking.
Great content as usual. Thanks PDM
Great stuff as usual. Thanks again.
Thanks for the mental floss. I dm for my son's , daughter , and anywhere from 4 to 7 of thier friends. I feel bad cutting the party down , can't leave kids out. You have it right... I have kids that bring Hero click figures for thier pcs. Last week l had wonder woman black widow and juggernaut, in my last crawl.
I use a Thor hero click as my default D&D Hero mini.
Paladin, Cleric, Fighter, super handy to keep on hand, and it doesn't get beat up or paint chipped!
Thanks for the basics refreshers.
Great stuff as always. Thanks
"Get the thing before the thing happens."
"Oh no! Where is the thing?"
"In the place. Hurry!"
Merry Christmas, and hope you have a fantastic and safe new year
Deception, detailed descriptions, risk, and reward.