The 4 Adventure Types You Should Be Using In Your RPG Campaigns
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- čas přidán 1. 06. 2024
- Using these 4 Adventure types will help you, as the Dungeon Master, increase your creativity and make each RPG campaign feel alive! D&D, Pathfinder 2, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars, no matter the system - all will benefit from adopting this technique and help you become a Great Game Master in the process!
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*Thanks for watching!* Let us know in the comments below how you plan on using any of these adventure types in your next campaign!
I have to admit the first thing that occurred to me while watching this was an adventure where the PCs have to deliver The Cure to a reunion gig, thwarting attempts to prevent their arrival by a mysterious foe.
I am running my first game. I haven't even played because I had to make a group to have one that would work on my work schedule. Your videos have been so incredibly helpful
I don't think I'll use any of those. Maybe it is because my preference is simply more in character driven stories and not in plot driven games. Thus I apply more narrative tools that focus on internal struggle and not on external ones, the players are then the ones who can apply one of those types, like trying to thwart the plans of a deity when they want to change their destiny, or they go and fetch something in the hope to prevent them from changing into a monster, or they decide to do research to find out more of what the change they experience will bring with it. Hence it feels wrong if I as a GM would decide what approach they take to deal with the change they are facing.
I plan on mixing up the styles in a larger scope campaign.
Some great GM tips sir, inspiring thank you,
More experienced GM who might be set in their ways could struggle with a structure however I believe this is a great example of imagination and creativity where with one sentence we witness a great GM sharing alternative direction a story type can take and all the unique experiences available when playing TRPG.
Merci again
This is excellent stuff! I've long gone by Tolstoy's Three Stories -
1. Man goes on a journey
2. Stranger comes to town
3. Godzilla vs Megashark
Ah, I see you are a man of culture as well.
"We're revisiting the four adventure types that I speak about on this channel."
*Holds up eight fingers*
2:29 Thwarting
4:42 Delivering
7:30 Collecting
9:31 Discovery
Worth remembering: czcams.com/video/nQx4uKR3-UE/video.html
EDIT added:
12:58 Task (Next game: Change type!)
14:48 Downtime manager
You are a worthy hero.
Thanks for the timestamps 👍
@Ian Birdsall Added.
Are we entirely sure we want the to help the King... what if she’s a good witch?
You tell me a witch is trying to poison the king, my first thought is she’s a good witch, he’s an evil king, poisoning prevents the most loss of life, most humanitarian course of action.
And thus the witch wins... :) But that's totally fine too - the witch needs to help of the PCs then. Sneak in and poison the king (delivery), kill the kings food taster (thwart), get the poison components (collecting) or escort the witch to the sacred mountain to finish the rite to create the poison (delivery).
@@HowtobeaGreatGM You were hoping someone would say that weren't you? xD
Full disclosure, after 4 years of living in the USA with Trump in the White House, I fo-damn sure ponder, what if Stormy was a good witch.
@@erokvanrocksalot7545 Only one way to find out: Drop a house on her and watch what happens to her shoes...
I learned how to GM with the help of your channel a couple years ago and I am always amazed by how much I still learn with every new one that you post. Keep up the great work, it makes the structure of my games so much easier !
Interesting video
I'm running a 5e game where the party has been hired to clear out a neighboring Goblin camp. When they arrive, everything isn't as it should be. The Goblins are all covered with a noxious looking black coating (like a moving tattoo).
They end up using lesser restoration on the leader (an orc) and after some decent rolls, the Orc agrees to lead then to his village where his final memory was assisting his chieftain with the same "illness".
All this on a basic "Thwart" quest. I wasn't planning on having a secondary side quest with the orc, but that's the way of DnD.
Some of the best GM content I’ve found! I’ve been a writer for a while, and I’m a high school teacher (which shares an insane amount of skills with GMing) but I’m a brand new game master. Between you and Matt Colville, I feel like I should have a degree in creating stories for TTRPG!
This actually helps out a lot with what I'm planning for a workplace dnd game, instead of thinking of it as 1 adventure now I can think of it as 3 seperate adventures
I have been watching your videos for years now and i just recently noticed that you have changed how I look at tv shows and movies completely. Before, I was just watching whatever was being shown and just going along in the current. I now have found myself identifying parts of a production, types of stories and how they are told. I never even realized The change-it just happened. Thank you for another great video!
Great video! I am currently in the process of taking Rise of Tiamat and using it as a vague skeleton.
I'm an improv heavy DM and lack the time to read through all the intricacies of the module, so i'll use these 4 adventure types to mix and match it up!
Great help and as usual just at the right time.
Guy, this video was phenomenal! My adventures all feel the same. I feel like this is the advice I needed to change things up in a focused and structured way.
I've recently been going through a ton of your videos to try out some new ways of running a ttrpg adventure with a friend of mine. I searched through all your playlists and videos i could find that suggested at perhaps going in-depth further on these 4 adventure types and could not find what I was hoping for. This video was exactly what I was looking for! Awesome!
In the game I am currently running, the player has thwarted a plot, but there were casualties. She is being being sent on a Collect mission, lumber for the funeral pyre, where an ankheg might get stirred up. If so, I will plant the hook of a discovery mission, descending into the ankheg's tunnels. Maybe there are eggs, maybe there is treasure from victims, maybe there are some secrets? If she doesn't bite on the discovery mission, then I think I might have a delivery mission. Taking word to the neighbouring kingdom of the plot attempt and the death of one of their diplomats.
This came at an ideal time. Back to the basics, but I was getting writers/gming block and looking at basics is exactly what I needed to push past it. Thanks!
So, if I understand it correctly, you discovered something has thwarted your progress, but now you can collect yourself and deliver!
Hey Guy, saw the low comments & thought id just say this, dont worry about them with how many likes you received! Ppl probably absorbed your knowledge & while being absorbed in their own life probably just went on to the next. Swear i always learn or get an idea when i watch a vid. Oh can dig the new hairdo too
I'm stealing the poisoned king idea. That can be tweaked to fit almost anywhere
In medieval periods it was a rule that basically everyone was invited to balls and galas and the like, even people you would despise or hate, even your enemies, for if you would not invite them it would be a breach of hospitality. It is why the "evil" witch in sleeping beauty says "of course I'm invited, everyone is invited" (paraphrased), but when the "good" witches say "You're not invited" and the king sides with the "good" witches it is one of the, if not the highest insults of honour, it is why she turns "evil", because in medieval period your standing meant a lot, a whole lot more than we nowadays think!
I find that when I create campaigns that I weave separate adventures with each being one of the four types ending as a complete adventure. With the ending of the adventure the next part of the campaign is introduced for the players to accept or pass on to others. These adventures tie together much as the books or movies of a series. My last campaign started with troubles with a new dangerous clan of steppe nomads, when the problem in the steps was handled by the players they found that someone was for some reason backing the new clan. The second adventure was answering the reason why this was being done (to bring in large amounts of a "drug" (to weaken the stability of a kingdom, the third adventure was tracking the drug to the source (follow the money to where it comes from). The third part was a race to the source They knew the what and the where, and the general why (to weaken the kingdom), and were headed for an individual that has information on the who... Then they came to the endgame where the find that the individual they were going to speak with to find out the who the who (of course) was the individual conducting the investigation into the drug smuggling in the first place. Each section was in itself built as separate adventure types rolled into a campaign that itself was an adventure type.
Wonderful video! I personally find that my best "stories" occur when I just drop some plot hooks (I recently used blue fish in a mysterious magical pond) and let it grow from there. I find that my players and I have enough imagination that these plot hooks grow legs and form themselves. However, with that being said I love your clinical approach to this. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you this is so insightful and helpful!
I really like this channel. I've gotten the most out of it in a fantasy related way.
Good to see this topic get another go through
You’re the best, Guy!
Yeah, seems like a great Guy
@@CooperAATE yes, maybe one of the best Guys.
I like your take on the Babylon myth with Tiamat thank you
I feel like many times in my Call of Cthulhu rps it's either an Investigation type adventure, or a "try to survive" one, or one that slowly transitions into another.
I've heard about the Adventure Types for so long on this channel that I got very excited when I realised this was a video about it
i'm soon to be running a dark heresy campaign, where unknown the the players a tyranid invasion is looming. though i did not want to use genestealer cults as the antagonist. so inspired by hive fleet gorgon i decided that vanguard nids have started contaminating the food on this vital agri world, and the goal will be to figure out what is going on.
so the general plan is to have a whole bunch of different factions reacting in different ways, some of which being red herrings like those who have turned to worship chaos for salvation.
a discovery sort of adventure type could apply to the campaign as a whole i think and thats made it far less daunting to plan! of course different investigations will use the different types though.
AND... There's als the Court Intrigue (Shakespeare, GOT, Arcana, several parties and who do we help to win, or double cross?) , the Rivalry or Psychological Thriller. Here the tension lies within the travellers. Meetings along the way slowly reveal real interests of the party members. And there's the Mystery which could be a separate thing within discovery. It's not about new places, but about solving crimes, finding the one pulling the ropes in the dark.
It’s never the witch. We all know it’s really the jealous prince who can’t wait for his father to die, so he sends:
Thwarting: the PCs after a witch he framed for the crime, but when the PCs find her she tells them how he tried to hire her to kill the king, but she refused, so they have to go back and stop him.
Delivering: a group of evil adventurers to ambush the PCs as they return with the antidote because he knows when to expect them.
Collecting: a monster he has an arrangement with to steal the antidote before the PCs can get it.
Discovering: the PCs into a deadly maze claiming there is an antidote in it, but he really just hired an assassin to shoot the king during the big feast, so they have to fight their way out and get back in time to stop him.
What about mediation/negotiation? Some non zero number of entities are at odds and the players have to help resolve their dispute? You could just pick a side and "thwart" one or the other faction. You could "collect" something the resolves the dispute potentially. "discovering" the underlying issue through dialog or intrigue? I'm not sure if a quest like that falls into any category specifically. There are actually 5 types lol.
Another great video, but I don't understand how that Downtime App works with the TTRPG. They don't seem to correlate well, especially if it takes IRL days to craft something. It also does not appear to be system agnostic. I'm guessing it's for DnD 5e, or am I mistaken.
Is there a summary video for these story modes you mention? Not understanding 5-step or 1-2-2 references.
I feel like I've just walked into the middle of an amazing movie. I really need to find the beginning
Remember bois: Situationalize the situation
Does it ever make sense! For example, the one I'm doing now is a haunted house discovery mission, because the party has to solve the mystery of the nature of its haunt! 😅
Would a mega-dungeon be mostly Discovery? Assuming mixing it up per dungeon level or biome would be a nice change of pace to prevent combat burnout.
These can be done with one shots or it can help you to have an episodic styled adventures with the larger story being within each adventure.
The collecting can be collecting various ingredients.
What about a challenge where you need to collect 5 items to perform some task (collect the infinity stones to power the Gauntlet). This seems like a combination of Thwarting/Collection (either collect them to perform the task or collect to thwart the bad guy from completing the task.
I love this type of thinking - but it could be because I’m an engineer…. I have some detailed notes on this somewhere around here
AKA Kill, Escort, Fetch, and Puzzle Quest.
What about the "solve a conflict" type of adventure?
When he said the witch that wants to poison the king, I thought. Ok, step 1, identify entry point, step 2, learn the kings schedule, step 3 infiltrate staff or confidante, step 4 poison his cup.
Witches are cooler and better people than kings, full stop
There is the fifth save the village , place and sixth become the best or develope yourself.
My mind apparently seeks to combine these types immediately.
"We have word that the witch is going to be at the big gala this weekend with intention to poison the king. We need you to [Discover] either the witch or whoever might be working for her and [Deliver] that message to the head of the guard. Do not try to stop her on your own."
"Oh you are headed through the woods? Could you [Deliver] this medicine to my grandmother? It's actually not legal in this part of the country, but I have seen it work miracles. Please, it is a matter of life and death. She has saved up quite the inheritance, if it's money you're after." But through various clues, the PCs [Discover] that they are actually delivering a poison to the witch.
The last one is more a Discovery quest disguised as a Delivery quest. But once they figure it out, the quest might become Deliver the poison and the information to the king, or Thwart the witch in the woods, or try to see things from the witch's side and complete the original quest. But it seems that the twist in a good story is a great place to reconsider the The adventure type.
Every building has scaffolding. No building has to look alike.
Just want to point out that a collection adventure can easily blend together with all other types with a premise that's something like:
"Go there, point B - get Mcguffin - deliver it over there, point C - to thwart dude A - however point B and C is somewhat unknown so have to discover them before dude A...."
Chaining them together is ideal. However, what a lot of folk don't realize is that each point in the chain can be an adventure in it's own right. So people tend to miss an opportunity to tell epic adventure by rushing.
@@HowtobeaGreatGM true 👍
Or a hybrid collection/delivery adventure where you have a physical macguffin that needs to be delivered from place to place to collect a bunch of non-physical macguffins.
Counter idea to the Delivering Adventure type: The PCs have to get the poison to the witch so she can use it on the king
Anyone know the title for the 5 Step Method? I can’t seem to find it.
It's sad that the downtime manager app no longer exists. What happened to it?
good to listen to this very famous lecture / essay; I just wish you had avoided using stills from the movies lord of the rings and hobbit, there are plenty of alternative imges, ( which you also demonstrate ).
Always narrator not seen how your refreshers spawn better and better ideas from (me) viewers
Dont know if there is a video about handeling a (beginner) group where everybody is seeking to get magical powers. I told them its an easyer start to be a regular knight/thief/drawf etc. But now they asked me if its possible to get magical powers and become a wizzard. I have no problem when the PCs get stronger but i want to have a group with different abillitys so everyone can have the personal spotlight + i think it will be harder to build a mystical world when everybody knows things about magic and is able to analyse the shit out of every magical item by just rolling some dice.
Sry for bad spelling...
I dont write a lot in english.
How do you "start" an adventure? I mean specifically the introduction and the Questgiver npc. Yes there is a missing boy and there is a dark castle onmthe hills... why would the heroes get involved?
?.. given they are not simply mercenaries who are out for the money they'll get paid!
These templates are very useful. Legit my entire campaign is thwart evil dragon from taking over the world
My big problem as a dm is having tons of lore and reason why things are happening and failing to communicate motives and reasons to the players and it usually just devolves to combat and they learn nothing
what you have to realize is that players are the stupidest people on the goddamn planet, much like customers are. you could have einstein on the other side of that screen and he would start eating crayons.
you also have to realize that they are also the laziest people on the planet- you need to light a fire under their ass and chase them up a tree. have a threat that is specific to them and what they care about, make it real, and then give them an out of your choosing. from there, it gets much easier.
@@stpastabeard I do think it is the original problem: Failure to communicate. (To focus at.)
"Failure to communicate" is a common cause for stupid people.
Be it teachers failing to communicate knowledge to pupils, or...
... GMs failing to communicate properly to players.
No... Sorry... Teachers beating their students do not help them to learn.
To facilitate better learning, it is far better to remove distractions!
It makes it easier for the students to focus on what is important.
In this case:
To facilitate better communication in the game, remove combat!
It makes it easier for the players to focus on what is important.
@@larsdahl5528 well that's more or less exactly what i meant, i was quoting coville actually
remove options icly, preserve choices
less distractions
I think I have accidentally seeded all four of these types of adventures into my sandbox campaign!
spiderman = werespider. confirmed.
So sad that app is rather 5e/PF specific. I guess one could get it to work for other stuff too but seems to be quite a bit of extra work.
Anyway, it’s always nice if this topic is revisited
My last game was ultimately a thwarting adventure. My next game is a discovery, with an empty, grided, map.
Are you the GM?
And is the map empty to you too?
Discovering that the entire map is empty, do not sound particularly exciting to me.
If I am to give advice, then it will be something like:
Remove the grid.
Instead, fill in something to discover!
I am the DM, @@larsdahl5528. The map will be randomly generated as the players traverse it, allowing them to see out a day in advance. I have story, and locations planned, but no idea when they will kick in. I did draw in the outermost shoreline, though, so I don't need to create a separate mechanism for that.
Collect. We video gamers call those fetch quests. The only thing worse is escort duty.
You forgot point defense missions.
Then the pc want to work for the witch 🧙♀️
So what about when you set up a thwarting adventure when the party decides they want to change teams? Join the witch and thwart the…. GM.
I will revisit this comment when I have done the challenge. However, I have done the act of building skeletons around which can develop into great adventures.
*// SENTENCE: //* An erudite sorceress tells the PCs that a Giant Spider is assailing her tower, preventing her from using her most powerful magics.
[1] Thwarting: The PCs decide to headlong rush the Giant Spider, facing the myriad magical defenses of the tower, ascending layer after layer, to exterminate it. At the top of the tower, they’ve found that the tower has given the spider magical abilities to teleport, sending them throughout the building.
[2] Delivery: The PCs are escorting the sorceress throughout the forest, so she can concoct a potion to flush the Giant Spider out. The sorceress is extremely beautiful and all manner of fey creatures wish to marry her, including her betrothed, centaur, bride!
[3] Collecting: The PCs are responsible for traveling up the spire to the halfway point. The activation of the Wizard Wards will allow her to freely interface with the Spire, forcing the Giant Spider out, via magical trap activation.
[4] Discovery: The PCs learn of a local legend of a crippled man, seeking out the help of a mage to heal his lack of legs. They discover The Giant Spider to be a young man who was waylaid and experimented on by her, due to his desperation and need. As they climb the tower, they notice many messages basically begging them not to trust her, in both web and written, seeking freedom from his curse.
One to one method? 5 step method?
I don't how much control you have over this, but there are wayyyy too many ads on your channel's videos. They are popping up every two minutes or so for me. That's too much for me to handle which is a shame because I like the content.
"A witch wants to kill a king" - I'm onboard, how do I help? It's a lot easier for me to imagine scenarios where the correct thing to do is support the outcast of diminished status in taking down a powerful monarch than it is to imagine that protecting the tyrant is actually good. Kings are evil. Fantasy needs work on that trope.
Oh, that's very much become the standard. Much like the hardworking wealthy man, the conscientious scientist, the honest politician, the non-dirty cop, or the priest/ minister/ nun/ rabbi/ etc. who isn't just _unbeFUCKINGlievably_ messed in the head, the benevolent ruler is more often than not either the exception/ the one good guy trying to make their way in a sea of assholes, or itself a subversion of expectation set by the modern trope of subverting all those old pre-Victorian "virtue" cliches.
For better or for worse the first thought to come into someone's head when they hear the word 'graveyard' is a _lo-ong_ way away from the peaceful, serene space in which to happily remember your loved ones it was just over a dozen or so decades ago.
I think your work is fantastic but the distillation into four types is just too simplistic. Essentially “Discovery” was turned into a “none of the above” category.