What follows is a second attempt to briefly encapsulate the tips and principles for designing adventures presented by the inestimable Bryce Lynch in his singularly fantastic adventure review blog, Ten Foot Pole. This is basically the same as my previous post summarizing the principles from Bryce's reviews of The Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat, but with some minor edits to improve the felicity of expression (ahem).
Summarized and Explained
1. General Tips: The 5 C’s
1.
Color: The referee should give brief
but evocative descriptions of locations, monsters, NPCs, and treasures. Avoid
the vague or generic.
2.
Context: In order for their actions
to be significant and purposeful, players must generally have some information
about the likely consequences of their actions, such as likely reactions of
monsters or NPCs.
3.
Choice: There should be more than one
course of action available to players in order for the adventure to continue.
Avoid choke points—both literal choke points in the physical layouts of
dungeons and other locations, and figurative choke points which require a
unique decision or solution in order for the adventure to proceed.
4.
Consequences: Player actions should
be allowed to make a real difference in the adventure and in the campaign.
Avoid a set storyline or sequence of events immune to player interference.
5.
Creativity: Related to (3) and (4),
reward player creativity by allowing them to pursue unanticipated courses of
action or to produce unanticipated consequences, rather than restricting player
action and player creativity by setting up arbitrary constraints in the
location layout or course of events.
2. Hooks
6.
Don’t rely on a single hook; use multiple kinds (treasure; reward; magic;
glory; political power).
7.
Create a rumor table with hooks and color.
8.
Hooks should appeal to the players, not
just to their characters.
9.
Hooks can and should be complex or nuanced, such as working for an evil NPC or
working for rival factions.
10.
To support sandbox play, dungeon, town, and wilderness locations, monsters, and
NPCs should all have hooks.
3. Locations (Dungeons,
Towns, Wilderness, etc.)
11.
Location descriptions should be terse (not verbose) but evocative (not boring,
obvious, or generic).
12.
Only include background info that affects gameplay; avoid long descriptions of
irrelevant info.
13.
Rooms should have features that players can interact with to produce meaningful
consequences. Give concrete descriptions of secret doors, traps, etc.
14.
Floor plan tips:
a. Multiple routes (vs. choke
points or linear, one-way paths).
b. Multiple entrances and exits.
c. Multiple stairs per floor.
d. Open spaces with balconies, galleries,
and ledges at various elevations.
e. Pools and rivers that connect
different rooms or levels.
f. Bridges and ladders.
4. Monsters and NPCs
15.
Create interesting, believable motivations for monsters and NPCs.
16.
Create factions of monsters and NPCs, which leads to a dynamic, interconnected
strategic situation.
17.
Give players the choice of allying with, attacking, trading with, or having
other relationships with monsters and NPCs.
18.
Create schedules, routines, tactics, or orders of battle for monsters and NPCs.
19.
Wandering monsters too should be given motives, goals, hooks, and tactics.
20.
Avoid standard monsters. Failing that, describe standard monsters in a
non-standard way (e.g., don’t just name the species).
21.
Give evocative descriptions of monsters. Give concrete descriptions of their
appearance and activities. Go for the telltale sensory detail, rather than the
generic abstract trait. Show, don’t tell.
Example:
Instead of stating “One of the guards in the camp is a cruel bully,” say “The
burly Manfred takes a leak on Tobias’s bedroll, and then snatches Tobias’s
roasted chicken from his hand and quickly gobbles it down.”
22.
Use truly evil monsters to evoke a Sense of Terror.
5. Treasure
23.
Treasure should be valuable enough to motivate players and to make the
challenges worthwhile.
24.
Non-magical treasure should relate to the setting and give clues or information
about monsters, NPCs, locations, etc.
25.
Avoid standard magic items.
26.
Give evocative descriptions of magic items. Give concrete descriptions of their
appearance and how they must be manipulated to produce their magical effects.
27.
Use magic items to evoke a Sense of Wonder.
6. Format and Functionality
28.
Include reference tables:
a. Rumor/hook table.
b. Monster/NPC table that lists their main
traits, motivations, location, etc.
c. Room/building table that lists the
rooms in a dungeon or other keyed location.
29.
In published modules, put maps and monster stats on separate sheets so they are
easy to refer to in play.
30.
On maps, use keyed symbols to indicate standard features (e.g., lit/unlit,
locked/unlocked, secret, trapped, etc.), rather than a verbal description in
the location key.
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ReplyDeleteOne term which he uses that I found absent in this list is “specific.” Things should be specific not abstract. Try for specificity not simply detail, etc.
ReplyDeleteI find this idea particularly helpful because people (myself certainly included) often conflate “evocative” with “more details,” when we should be thinking “specific details.”
“Specific” encapsulates being evocative, but not verbose, while remaining focused and relevant to the game.
Good point! Bryce talks a lot about this. "Specific but not verbose." There should probably be a whole separate section of tips on "Style" (maybe part 7).
DeleteThis is great! Thanks for compiling this. I'm definitely going to refer to this as I attempt Dungeon23. Here are 3 pieces of Bryce Advice that you may not have covered yet:
ReplyDeleteDon't give conclusions, just describe and let the players come to their own conclusions. Example: "it smells icky" is a conclusion, "it smells like burning dog hair" is a description. You cover this indirectly with evocative writing, but "don't give conclusions" is a powerful way to think about it.
Don't use "if/then" constructs. I think this is mainly because it tends to be filler, but I'm not sure if Bryce has other objections. (To me, in some cases it'd be efficient?) Essentially, "if/then" phrasing could be used to pad almost anything, but shouldn't. Example: "If the party enters the room the monsters attack."
Don't address the party directly in read-aloud, this typically takes decision making away from the players. (Trick advice! Why were you including read-alouds at all?!)
I'm glad the summary was useful, and thanks for the suggested additions!
DeleteI had the same idea to use this for Dungeon23, as Bryce's advice has always made a ton of sense to me. I started a few days early because I was excited to start making stuff (which I've never done before). It would be great to have a friendly critiquing group. I always find I think better with people to bounce stuff off of.
DeleteJust dropping by to say thanks for this; still very useful and I'm grateful someone compiled it!!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found it useful!
DeleteVery cool list that I will 100% try to apply in the next dungeon I design, I have 1 disagreement that jumped out at me immediately: I dont get why chokepoints would be inherently bad. It makes sense to me that monsters would set themselves up in locations they can defend (esp if its their lair). As long as there are multiple other paths and it does not halt progression to the next floor, chokepoints seem totally fine to me.
ReplyDeleteIf you think about it: every door is a chokepoint in a fight, and there are doors everywhere in a dungeon.
You make good points. I think Bryce Lynch is using the word 'chokepoint' in a different sense: in the sense of the overall layout or map of the dungeon, or in the sence of the structure of an adventure (if it doesn't take place in a literal dungeon). In this sense, a chokepoint is a particular path that the PCs *must* travel through in order to complete the adventure. A dungeon that has looping paths can avoid chokepoints in this sense. I believe this advice is similar to Gabor Lux's principles for dungeon design, and is analogous to Justin Alexander's advice for designing open-ended mystery and other node-based scenarios.
DeleteOne more thing that I learned the hard way running HotDQ/RoT, NORTH IS UP!!! The maps are oriented every which way in the book. Try following the text as written when Arauthor's Iceberg is oriented correctly, North points upwards, but the next map, Tomb of Diderius the letter N is at the top, a tiny arrow points to the right, and the text descriptions "left hand colossus", relative to North~upwards? The printed map? Which would make it up, not left.
ReplyDeleteConsistency is key, and consistent keys in maps is key!