CREATING ADVENTURES

The goal of creating adventures:
Crafting open-ended plots designed for Adventurers to wreck, overcome, and tell tall tales about in taverns for years to come.

How many ways can Adventurers take risks and have fun doing so?

The Dungeon Delve

Fantastic treasure awaits the hand of those brave and strong enough to seize it from deep within trapped ruins full of monstrous inhabitants.

Three Act Drama

Handed down from antiquity, the Three Act Drama introduces a hero and a problem in its beginning, follows the hero's steps to resolve the problem leading to a climax encounter and resolution.

Nine Act Drama

Adding depth to the Three Act Drama, David Siegel's Nine-Act Structure adds a setback and change of goal within the traditional act two, sending the hero first down the wrong path until discovering the crucial clue that sets them on the right path to the climactic encounter and resolution.

0. Someone toils late into the night.
1. Start with an image.
2. Something bad happens.
3. Meet the Hero.
4. Commitment.
5. Go for the wrong goal.
6. The reversal.
7. Go for the new goal.
8. Wrap it up.

Thwart Crimes

Dustin Andrews created the Conspiracies and Capers¹⁾ rules neutral system for investigation gaming for the 2014 One Page Dungeon contest, summarized here.

A villain plans a crime which the Adventurers work to stop before they can perpetrate the deed.

Before choosing the evil plan, be sure to review the Players' preferences and campaign constraints to make sure the evil plan doesn't stray into territory that makes Players uncomfortable.

A crime requires 3 things:

Means
Motive
Opportunity

A Simple Plan?

Mastermind concocts an evil plan (motive)
- vs. people: Murder, Rape, Robbery, Assault
- vs. property: Burglary, Theft, Vehicle Theft
Mastermind recruits lieutenants or ringleaders (means)
Lieutenants or Ringleaders recruit crews (means)
Operation Planned (means)
Target Investigated (opportunity)
Inside contact recruited or placed (means)
Passwords, maps, resources acquired (means)
Operation Rehearsed (means)
Operation executed (opportunity)
Victim / Loot moved to safe house (means)
- Transportation
- Escape Route
- Safe House
Ransom / Fence arranged (means)
- NPC: Fence
- NPC: Receiver of Fenced thing
Trade made (means)
Shares divided (motive)
Mastermind, Ringleaders, and Crews go into hiding / retire (means)

5 Room Dungeons

Johnn Four, and the gamemaster community at Roleplaying Tips distilled the Hero's Journey into a 5-Act Structure called the 5-Room Dungeon (not intended to be only 5 literal rooms).

To help Guides plot adventures quickly but completely, consider these 5 core encounters for your plot “spine”:

An entrance where a guardian must be appeased or defeated.

An encounter where a riddle or puzzle must be solved, possibly through parley or interaction with NPCs.

A trap or setback which costs the Adventurers some of their strength.

The climax or showdown encounter with who or whatever is blocking the Adventurers reaching the goal.

The promised reward and a reveal of further adventure opportunity.

Core Adventure Design

☐ ADVENTURE NAME
What catchy title would the movie made of this adventure have?

☐ ADVENTURE DESCRIPTION
What critical or key challenges may face the Adventurers?

☐ ADVENTURE GOAL
What do the Adventurers work to gain?

Additional Optional Adventure Design

☐ ADVENTURE OPPOSITION
Who, or what, opposes or blocks the Adventurers from reaching the goal?

☐ ADVENTURE NEUTRALS
Who, or what, may complicate the Adventurers path to the goal?

☐ ADVENTURE ALLIES
Who, or what, may provide aid to the Adventurers when needed?

☐ ADVENTURE SCENERY
What wondrous or terrifying places might the Adventurers visit to complete the goal?

☐ ADVENTURE TREASURE
Beyond the goal, what other treasures or rewards might the Adventurers earn?

☐ ADVENTURE RUMORS AND CLUES
What rumors and clues to other adventures might the Adventurers stumble across along the way, especially at the end?

Additional Resources

Salvage Space: Adventures

◢ Salvage Space: Adventures

▲ Chronology :: ◢ References: Plots and Complications

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see References