2007-01-12 GM Advice – Writing Adventures

These days, when writing up adventures, I try to keep some things in mind:

• Few locations, intelligent enemies (see 2007-01-10 DM Advice – Pacing Matters)
• More than two interest groups, such as to avoid simple choices between “good” and “evil”
• Making sure that the greatest possible reward will be impossible to gain for the party on its own. Help from third parties and the making of friends and enemies will be required.
• Reusing friend, enemies and interest groups

2007-01-10 DM Advice – Pacing Matters

My first adventure in the current campaign (2006-12-08 Die Suche nach dem Tengu, 2006-12-19 Tod eines Tengu) had two intelligent enemy brothers, and a dangerous sword-wielding tengu, every single one of them too powerful for the party to overcome. The primary objective called for a diversion in order to steal back a child the tengu had kidnapped. One of the two brothers was required to this end.

2006-12-08 Die Suche nach dem Tengu

2006-12-19 Tod eines Tengu

The one brother was “good”, the other “evil”. The evil brother commanded four koji (something between an ogre and a hill giants) and was more likely to help against the tengu, but would try to take advantage of the party against his brother at the same time. The good brother had lost a powerful magic bow to his evil brother and wanted to recover it. Stealing the bow and returning it to the good brother would have secured his help but would have made sure that the party could not keep the bow. Keeping the bow would in fact have meant that both brothers would make up to each other and start chasing the party. Difficult choices in all directions.

In the end, the party told the tengu that they would lure the evil brother to a bridge on a pretense, then went to the evil brother telling him about the trap. The evil brother then hid his giants behind the surrounding rocks, trapped the tengu and killed it. The party was able to free the child and proceeded with a secondary objective. On the way back, the evil brother promptly used his four giants to rob the party.

As the good brother had not been betrayed, I keep him around should the party be in need at some point in the future.

This kind of system is easy to adjust. In this first adventure, for example, the players did not even dream of trying to steal the bow from a fox demon who rules over four giants. The next time around, the treasure will therefore be easier to get, but the (social) consequences of doing so will be more obvious, too.

And yes, I’m currently writing the third adventure in this series, and I’m planning on eating my own dog food. 😉

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