WAM #1: Writer of Adventure

2020-11-25

Modules

I’m an old-school D&D / OSR enthusiast for the most part. I like parts of 5e, but struggle to accept it wholesale. It’s grown on me, though. Rime of the Frostmaiden has been a step in the right direction. And I particularly find the Dungeon Master’s Guide to be quite good. Let’s bust it out and use it as it was intended.

Master of Adventure

You’ll notice in the ToC, a large chunk — roughly 50% — of the DMG is devoted to creating adventures. We’ll just walk through Part 2, particularly chapters 3 and 5, figuring stuff out and jumping around as needed. We should at least have a rough outline when we’re done.

Elements, Structure, and Type

Chapter 3 starts off describing what makes a good adventure, how to structure it, and two different types. We already have some ideas from the previous post on what we want to include, so those elements mesh with what’s in the book — it boils down to including the 3 pillars and leaving lots of room for player agency. Structure implies your adventure will have a beginning (some hooks), a middle (the meat of it), and an end (climax and wrap-up). Pretty straightforward. Finally, it categorizes adventures as location-based or event-based (which includes Mystery and Intrigue sub-types). We’re going location this time ’round.

Location-Based Adventure

We’re next presented with some tables we can choose or roll against. I’m going totally random here and focusing on our original concept of a 5-room dungeon location. I’ll just run down the list of each table and my result. Once we have the full picture, we can let it stew for a bit.

Dungeon Goal: 10 – Find an NPC who disappeared in the area
NPCs (more on these below using Chapter 4)
1. Villain: 9 – Humanoid cultist
2. Ally: 2 – Inexperienced Adventurer
3. Patron: 4 – Local Ruler
Location: (more on this below using Chapter 5)
Introduction: 4 – The Adventurers find a map on a dead body. In addition to the map setting up the adventure, the adventure’s villain wants the map.
Climax: 5 – The villain and two or three lieutenants perform separate rites in a large room. The adventurers must disrupt all the rites at the same time.
Encounters: (postponed for now – a topic for a future post)
Framing Events: 16 – Artistic performance

There’s that. Ideas begin forming. Connections start to be made. It’s magic. Let’s work out the location details from Chapter 5 now. Then we’ll decide if we want to circle back and add Complications to finish out Chapter 3.

Location Details

Chapter 5 helps to flesh out the specifics of your location, whether it be dungeon, wilderness, city, or more unusual fare. Again, we’re in dungeon mode, so we’re sticking to the first section of this chapter.

Location: 21 – Beneath a ruined castle
Creator: 6 – Dwarves
Purpose: 7 – Mine
History: 5 – Conquered by invaders

The remainder of the chapter focuses on the current state of the place: who lives there and why, the map and features, and potential hazards. There’s no random tables here, but more an overview of considerations. When we’re ready, we might use the tables in Appendix A which are specifically for generating such elements.

But for now, let’s switch gears and focus on our three NPCs using Chapter 4: Creating NPCs.

Villains, Allies, and Patrons

We have one of each from our list above, so let’s flesh them out with the tables in Chapter 4. These results will help better define our cast and hint at why they do the things they do, which will contribute to tying all of this back together in an interesting way.

Villain
1. Occupation & History: Humanoid cultist
2. Appearance: 7 – Missing teeth
3. Abilities:
  1. High: 1 – Strength
  2. Low: 3 – Constitution
4. Talents: 15 – Expert cook
5. Mannerisms: 12 – Prone to predictions of doom
6. Interactions: 9 – Irritable
7. Useful Knowledge: tbd
8. Ideal: 4, 2 – Chaotic, Creativity
9. Bond: 10 – roll twice; 5, 3 – Captivated by a romantic interest, Protective of colleagues or compatriots
10. Flaw or Secret: 2 – Enjoys decadent pleasures
11. Extra villain stuff:
  1. Scheme: 5, 4 – Passion, Destroy rivals for another person’s affection
  2. Methods: 20, 1 – Warfare, Ambush
  3. Weakness: 7 – The villain falls when an ancient enemy forgives its past actions.
Ally
1. Occupation & History: Inexperienced adventurer
2. Appearance: 8 – Missing fingers
3. Abilities:
  1. High: 3 – Constitution
  2. Low: 6 – Charisma
4. Talents: 8 – Great at one game
5. Mannerisms: 12 – Prone to predictions of doom
6. Interactions: 7 – Honest
7. Useful Knowledge: tbd
8. Ideal: 5, 2 – Neutral, Knowledge
9. Bond: 9 – Out for revenge
10. Flaw or Secret: 5 – Overpowering greed
Patron
1. Occupation & History: Local Ruler
2. Appearance: 13 – Bald
3. Abilities:
  1. High: 1 – Strength
  2. Low: 6 – Charisma
4. Talents: 4 – Perfect memory
5. Mannerisms: 20 – twirls hair or tugs beard
6. Interactions: 8 – hot tempered
7. Useful Knowledge: tbd
8. Ideal: 5, 6 – Neutral, People
9. Bond: 3 – Protective of colleagues or compatriots
10. Flaw or Secret: 12 – Foolhardy bravery

Some interesting results. Completely workable, I think. What we’ll do now is review all of the above, let the subconscious chew on it for a bit, then review it again with the intent of tying it all together into a rough outline of the adventure before we dive into creating the map and encounters.

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