“A good adventure means a menagerie of monsters, a rewarding quest, and ideally coming home alive.” Malafin, ranger.
Creating a TTRPG adventure is, at the same time, both easier and more difficult than it sounds. It’s one thing to have a good idea for a story, but another to make it able to fit the genre that it’s in. 5e is unfortunately not a very narrative-driven game. The GM could have an idea of where they want the story to go, but at the end of the day, the players are going to decide what they want to do. That’s why when you’re creating a game, you have to always keep that in mind as you build it.
Rather than railroad players, make an environment where the decisions they make will align with how you want the story to progress. In our upcoming Goodberry Adventure Zine, The Encroaching Wood, the setting of a magical forest spreading from ancient ruins is the center of the story. That’s why the characters are in the area, and that’s the clear thing there is to do. It’s not a broad world in which they arrive in town and the NPCs keep mentioning an encroaching wood (A.K.A the GM desperately trying to get the players on track), and the characters aren’t being forced into it, either.
They arrived in town because they heard rumors of the wood, and the baron can reward them if they go and stop it. The goal is for the characters to play your game not because they feel like it’s what the GM would want, but rather because they actually want to play it.
Another key to making an adventure is combat. The combat needs to be exciting. It’s one thing to put a guy who does a lot of damage in an empty room, but another to make that fight engaging. If the description mentions the environment, and what kind of natural terrain and potential weaponry the characters can utilize, then one of them will probably use it, and have more fun fighting the BBEG.
The villain’s job isn’t necessarily to hit hard, either. Take into account its range, vulnerabilities, and unique attacks. There’s a million bite attacks out there, so it doesn’t hurt to go one step further and give the villain a unique trait that enables it to have a more interesting way of dealing damage.
The key to writing a TTRPG adventure is primarily an engaging setting, and engaging combat. All you need is one idea to blend those two attributes into an awesome encounter for everyone at the table.
By Inti Navia
Leave a Reply