The 3 Stages to Creating an Awesome D&D Adventure
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- čas přidán 1. 06. 2024
- So you've been watching the videos on this channel and, feeling inspired, you are ready to create your first roleplaying adventure. But with so much information, it can feel confusing with where to even start when planning an adventure for your RPG session. In today's video, I break down planning an adventure into 3 digestible parts that you can take and use to start creating your own DnD or Pathfinder, (or whichever roleplaying system that you use) adventure immediately. This is a slightly longer video than usual, but I promise that you as the Game Master as well as your roleplaying game will be better for it if you stick around to the end!
Timestamps:
00:00 Creating an adventure
03:00 Part 1: There are no plots, only plans.
13:02 Part 2: Plan versus game.
21:50 Part 3: Nuts & bolts.
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*Thanks for watching!* Let us know in the comments below what methods or steps that you use to plan your awesome RPG adventures.
The Kickstarter for The Practical Guide to Becoming a Great GM is in its final few days - check it out and back it before it ends, or if you can't back right now - just share it with some friends who may be interested in the project!
Find it here: bit.ly/3jBl6Fb
Find each chapter/phase of the video easily by clicking on the timestamps in the description. For the GM notes on this video - head over to our website: www.greatgamemaster.com/dm/
£s are tight, but having enjoyed your CZcams posts SO much for… Flippin' 'eck you've been at this a while!… emotion loosened the double-knotted strings of my coinpurse, - no small feat with a Yorkshireman!
The book looks awesome, Guy!
I prefer the longer videos. They make great listening material while driving, working, or just working around the house.
Same here! I listen to these while driving a forklift at work :)
@@Proximax9 yes, I do the exact same. The only issue is my warehouse often has spotty service. 😢
Same
I also prefer the longer videos.
Agreed! I love the rants and the speculative, stream of consciousness, conversational exploration of rpg ideas
The most fun for me as a DM is that I have no idea where the story is going either!
I have my town fleshed out, with things happening within the town and around it, then let my players get immersed within the world.
When they pick a direction or interest, I plan the next session accordingly. Creating new NPC's, things they might come across along the way, etc...
For example, they decided to rescue the daughter of the town ruler. On the way they encountered a traveling gypsy type trader.
They bought several random weird items I just made up on the spot.
Most of the time I don't know what's going to happen. It's what makes it an adventure for me as well.
As the game progresses some things they came across randomly worked its way into a future adventure. 😁
In my GMing I substitute the word "plot" for "framework." Keeps things in perspective.
How?
I'm genuinely interested to know.
If the "Thing" is the same, what is the difference by giving it another name?
@@andrewtomlinson5237 because plot is outcome and framework is world building
😂 the exceedingly more desperate cries of „plan! Plan!“ - pure perfection 👌
I want to have that tee-shirt! Secondly I can't wait for the kickstarter and thirdly, great video as always. This style is fitting in with my style of GM so well.
Yes, where can we get that shirt!?
Where do we get it!!
Following cause I want it too
26:45 WHAT!? Playing the video faster? No way! I want the whole experience of a properly sized video!
OGAS
Occupation
Goal
Attitude
Stakes
I, for one, miss your longer videos. I feel like I get a lot more information. And, I don't even watch it at the faster speed.
Every time you thank us for watching all the way through to the end, I just think: man what a polite dude.
Like, your content is always so interesting it's tough for me to imagine anyone not listening intently for the entire time. Thanks always for the interesting takes and advice Guy!
It's so cool how you bring to the table such easy to follow ideas, giving clear examples of organized chaotic improvisation.
Thanks for sharing with us!
YEEEESSS!! Old time videos!! Gods below I have missed these videos, both the length, but also this is the first in a long time (possibly this year!) that I found really helpful!
Thank you Guy!
Since 1978, when I got my first computer, I have designed with the concept of flow charts using if / then statements. This allows me to quickly adapt to what the players do. If the players go in a different direction I just add that as a new pathway giving me a visual representation as how the plan has been affected,
Sinclair zx80?
@@davidmc8478 Trash 80 (TRS80), With the max off the shelf memory of 16k, had to learn Basic to program it.
First step speaks volumes. It's like story. It simply doesn't exist in the context of role-playing games. Sure there's stories that can be derived from the games, but they aren't an integral part of the game.
What a good way to start this video, and exactly the confirmation I needed. I was looking for a prewritten adventure for my group a couple weeks ago and found one that had some really inspiring ideas, but the more I read it the worst it felt, because it kept making assumptions about the player's actions:
- A shady individual is willing to pay a hefty sum to those who will retreive an item from a sorcerer's tower. The quest assumes the players will do exactly that, as if this was a video game quest that ends when that box is checked, but what if the players decide to investigate without the intention of doing it?
- A group of dryads under the sorcerer's influence surprise the players and try to get them to leave. But what if the players have pass without a trace active and high perception? Or are druids who would never want to hurt a dryad?
- The door to the tower is locked, but there's also a window one can climb. Ok, but what if the players fail all their skill checks and can't find a way in?
- The sorcerer arrives when the players steal his item and chases after them on the way out... but what if they decide not to intrude upon the tower and to just camp outside and wait for the sorcerer to come and have a talk?
I had to come up with a completely different plot, and by plot I mean "past" for the characters of the adventure, to have them fit in my world. And in the process, I gave those characters resources and motivations and realized following the script was no longer necessary. The only plot already written is the past, not the adventure itself, because that story is for the players to write.
Your videos have improved my gm workflow so much. Thank you for all this stuff you do
Watching your videos is always fun, thanks for entertaining and interessting videos.
I am new as DM, so I practice writing adventures, creating npc and plans following your ideas. The first one really didn't provided space for improvising, it had a plot 😃
Using plans instead is a huge improvement.
Love the style of this video! Your dialogue is more colorful and freeform than other videos I've seen, makes it much easier to stay engaged! 😁
Also - HOW did you know I was wanting to run another game soon? There cannot be coincidence that everything in this video applies to my current DMing situation, so the only logical solution is you're a shapeshifting spy, or an omnipotent deity gathering a following by creating useful content online
I'm onto you...
I love to listen to your content while creation DnD Miniatures for 3D-printing. Thanks for your awesome work. Currently I'm working on some last minis for Halloween and can't wait for our sunday DnD session. Happy Halloween everybody!
I missed your long videos! Great as always!
I see plans within plans - Third Stage Guild Navigator
This has been very inspirational! I always struggled how to push the bbeg's plans and build it and this just helped a lot!
I love your videos and use this tips you provide!! Many thanks for your time and giving these videos...and I love that tee you are wearing!!
Great video. Even from an entertaining perspective, it is interesting to see with your scenario example with many possibilities. It almost feels like an interactive audio adventure. Where the listener hearing all the versions of what could happen, picks one in their minds afterwards. You could do more of these videos just for the sake of examples of thinking outside of the box/on the fly and it would still be entertaining as much educational. I guess a GM could practice doing this on their own, and after thinking about the plan, put on the hat of a PC and try and think of what they might think about or decide to do that is contrary to your plan. Then put back on the GM hat and improvise accordingly etc. Having some scenario prompts to get the creative juices going. Maybe doing often this will help train the brain to think about plan and not plot. Oh and what does OGAS mean?
OGAS means Occupation, Goal, Attitude, and Stake
I cannot wait to come home and watch this!
This is so helpful. Thank you, thank you for making this video.
Thanks for this video. OGAS is very helpful. I would appreciate a video that goes into more detail about breaking down a campaign into a series of adventures
Love your content! You're the best! This is my obligatory comment to enhance your CZcams algorithm performance.
I love your videos, following your for couple years now. As a french Mother language speaker, i can understand speaked english, but i'd love to see your books translated !
Great video thanks!
Great ideas, thanks.
I loved this video, I've been struggling to manage my railroading tendencies and this will absolutely help. Can't wait to get your two books!
Hair's looking on point my man!
Can you do a one shot where we can see how you DM and what resources you use?
"Plot is dead"
Oh no! My scheming garden!
Great video!
Looking good bro.
The problem I've ran into with this: ping ponging. In the "home city" for my group, there is an NPC who's been scheming. I left VERY clear references to who this NPC was and left evidence brought fourth from the sewers by one of the PCs who was switching characters. Nope, the party wanted to "head north". They've been north for awhile now, things have been ramping up locally and they're headed into a deep part of the story that has been building for a long, long time. HOWEVER...
After a Sending where they HAD to talk to people back home, they realized, stuff is going down. They don't have the full details (cuz...sending and 25 words). Now, a couple of people (I have 8 at the table) want to go BACK home...and leave this place behind where AGAIN "the world will keep moving".
I don't mind it, but I also get the "How come the story seems to be going in circles?" I kinda wanna throttle them physically when they say that because they've made roots in the city and left four times now. Right as they get settled, they decide to rush off on some other tangent.
Frustrated.
Sounds like you should tell them about your frustration and also hear why they feel it's going in circles. They might recognize how they created the circle and you might find what would help them stay in one area instead of "going north".
I got good bad advice for this. Go meta, and have a npc comment on it-better yet, have an antagonist mock them for it!
Since I don't watch these discussions regularly it took a while to figure out OGAS (cool concept BTW)... Might want to explain the acronym if you are using it so newbies can suss it out. Sorry if I missed it early in the video...
I like the Guy getting more mature and manly with age. No flirting, just a detail notice ) It's about the manner of reading and adressing the audience. Lovely )
"I'm confused, help me!"
Great video.
I like the longer videos better :)
Oh, I have the same shirt!
At 13 minutes.....you said "unlink your plot points" lol. You called yourself on it so many times. Great entertainment and appreciate trying to get yourself to use a different word, I know its not easy. Love the videos you make, please continue making them.
Thanks for this, Guy! Great overview. One question on your statement that a campaign is the same thing on a grander scale, with a series of sub-plans. I agree, but I wonder about the interaction of PCs with the grander plans. PCs have a tendency of foiling plans, which is absolutely great for an adventure, but could really undermine a BBEGs grand plan if each early step is foiled and they're just jumped from Plan B to Plan C to Plan D until giving up? Most stories have would have each step an almost-success for PCs where BBEG does still get away, but that also feels a lot like plotting rather than planning? What do you think?
Guy, I know that kickstarter is on your OGAS, but don't stress out too much because of this. Or you'll multiclass into a barbarian with that rage.
Party goes to this village with caravan, as guards. Statue was stolen and players rushed to stop the thieve coz villagers promise substantial reward and caravan departure only in couple of days. Two rewards for one travel! And caravan would be in safety of this fortified walls - easy job! They find and captured orc scout and she was pale, trembling and in pure terror. Are you going to eat me? she asked. You don't? But why? Your friends from the village do it to every visitor!..
Me:
Guy: I suggest watching at 1.5x speed
Me: Way ahead of you, Guy!
Liked, commented, and shared :)
How about that Orc early in the video (I'm not even half-way yet) offers to trade something for a Disguise Self potion, maybe even trading with one of the PCs. Giving the excuse that he wants to meet his half-orc child that lives within the village, but they keep shooting arrows at him before he gets close enough to tell them why he is there.
Where can we get that T-shirt lol ? So good.
Ikr
I once ran a game were the plan was that my players would get involved into a war. They'd first overhear about it and slowly get involved... theeen they kinda immediately antagonized the ones that were supposed to introduce them to this cause...
So I took the plans from the bad guy of one of the players back story, since there was someone already directly connected to it it was easier for them to follow those plans.
Only at the very end of the campaign after I basically dealt with their backstories one by one, They got involved with the war.
Me: working on a world map while listening.
Guy at 20:05: brings up beavers.
Me: puts "Beaver Basin (A Problematic Number of Beavers)" in my region key.
I watched it at 2.25 speed. Extensions for Chromium you got to love those.
PLAN!! 🤣
I like this approach but I struggle with it because my players are playing dnd like an mmo. They come into town and they look for a quest. and if they don't have someone outright giving them a quest, the entire session often comes to a halt because they don't know what to do...
PlotPLAN!!
I want that shirt. Take my money.
Cool shirt
plan, Plan, PLANNNNNN!
If we played a "Plot" drinking game for this video we'd be drunk. Awesome
Is it still available as a Hard Cover? I love something tangible. Only seeing the PDF.
I've had an idea for a Christmas one shot
The players are "employees" Santa's sweat shop and they have to escape by teaming up with the rest of the resistance and killing Santa's generals the reindeer and finally Santa himself as the final boss battle to escape
If any one happens to find this comment please give a review and any pointers as I am a newer gm/dm
Since you'll be working in a sweatshop maybe your players can plan to build a weapon from toy parts, or a toy robot or golem they can use to attack their captors and escape. 🤔
So you don't go by the plots in the books? Or is this for full custom worlds?
You can easily apply the ideas here, and should, to any premade adventure. A lot of DMs fall apart and get frustrated because the party figure out a way of bypassing certain plot points or sections of the adventure entirely.
By breaking down the steps that logically lead to events and actions in a premade adventure, you should be able to understand the motivation and stakes behind them. Once you've done that it is easier to think of contingencies and/or consequences to those events.
Miss a month, miss out on a kickstarter. Sad
What map is that in the background?
Braxxia. It's his home brew setting.
I love you.
Take a shot every time he uses the word "plot" without realizing hahaha
We need a plot counter
How is the Ork in this scenario different from a DMPC? (Genuine question not sarcastic).
Well, for one, a DMPC is built as an ally with similar objectives/ideals as the overall party, and are created with the intent of joining and aiding the party for any number of reasons.
What the guy above me said. Moreover the Ork/Ogre etc is working independently of the party, and is creating the conflict in the adventure rather than solving it.
Can anyone please point me to where I can get that cool shirt! Thanks!
One & a half times speed, why so slow? I typically run at 3 & a quarter speed using an browser extension to make it so. Though today I am running 2 & three-quarters speed, because work is requiring more brain power than typical.
Why dont you have 2 mil subs
You deserve it
I fear clips of you shouting "plan, PlAn, PLAN...!" are going to be memed.
What is this o ghast thing that he references?
I am sorry but is there a play list about all of this AI stuff, I have been working but not finding anything, can some one please link a play list. :D
Plot is dead?
as much as I like "the sentence", it seems to leave out all adventures/campaigns in which instead of "someone" or a "group" representing the threat or conflict there's a neutral, natural force, event or catclysm, without specific wants or methods.
My players joke that they'll just not go and stop the war going on and just make a drug cartel. I tell them that they could do that but that the war will still continue on and there's a chance that it will affect their business. Maybe they'll try and do that after the war is over or it will just be a running joke.
Using this method will prevent you from experiencing the horrible pain of spending 4 years working on an elaborate campaign world and having literally none of it ever get finished or played. Or having the PCs ruin it on the first day because they decided to burn down the town instead of doing what you wanted them to. LOL
Trust me.. no DM's plan has ever survived interaction with a PC.
I just don;t let them burn down the town 8>D
What is OGAS? Sorry!
Watched at 2x speed.
Don’t google beaver hunt tho 😊
I'm sorry, but I've watched this through twice now, and still don't see what difference it makes changing the word "Plot" to "Plan"?
The fact that even the fellah' advocating for it can't do it consistently suggests there is no genuine difference.
It doesn't matter what you call it.
Don't worry about what it's called. Focus on coming up with exciting ideas, and doing a good job of conveying your ideas through to your players.
Sounds like another reason for neophyte experts to watch the first minute of a CZcams video, assume they've absorbed the information and use it to explain to me why I've been doing it wrong all these years.