Dungeon Master's Guide

USEFUL MAPS
A good adventure needs thoughtfully constructed
maps. Wilderness areas sprinkled with interesting
landmarks and other features are better than vast
expanses of unchanging terrain. Dungeons that have
branching corridors and similar decision points give
players the opportunity to choose which direction their
characters should go. Presenting the characters with
options allows the players to make choices that keep the
adventure unpredictable.
If drawing maps isn't your strong suit, the Internet is
a great place to look for adventure maps that have been
made freely available for use, as well as floor plans of
real-world buildings and images that can inspire your
mapmaking. You can also use software to help put your
maps together.
PUBLISHED ADVENTURES
Published adventures are available for purchase if you
have neither the time nor the inclination to write an
adventure of your own, or if you want a change of pace.
A published adventure includes a pregenerated scenario
with the maps, NPCs, monsters, and treasures you need
to run it. An example of a published adventure appears
in the D&D Starter Set.
You can make adjustments to a published adventure
so that it better suits your campaign and appeals to
your players. For example, you can replace the villain
of an adventure with one the players have already
encountered in your campaign, or add something to
the background of the adventure so that it involves your
players' characters in ways that the adventure's designer
never could have imagined.
A published adventure can't account for every
action the characters might take. The nice thing
about published adventures is that they allow you to
focus your game preparation time on highlighting plot
developments in your campaign that the adventure
can't address.
Published adventures also provide inspiration. You
might not use an adventure as written, but it might spur
ideas, or you can pull out one part of it and repurpose
that part for your needs. For example, you might use a
map of a temple but repopulate it with monsters of your
choice, or you might use a chase sequence as a model
for a pursuit scene in your campaign.
ADVENTURE STRUCTURE
Like every story, a typical adventure has a beginning, a
middle, and an end.
BEGINNING
An adventure starts with a hook to get the players
interested. A good adventure hook piques the interest
of the players and provides a compelling reason for
their characters to become involved in the adventure.
Maybe the adventurers stumble onto something they're
not meant to see, monsters attack them on the road, an
assassin makes an attempt on their lives, or a dragon
shows up at the city gates. Adventure hooks such as
these can instantly draw players into your story.
The beginning of a good adventure should be exciting
and focused. You want the players to go home looking
forward to the next session, so give them a clear sense
of where the story is headed, as well as something to
look forward to.
MIDDLE
The middle of an adventure is where the bulk of the
story unfolds. With each new challenge, the adventurers
make important choices that have a clear effect on the
conclusion of the adventure.
Over the course of the adventure, the characters might
discover secrets that reveal new goals or change their
original goal. Their understanding of what's going on
around them might change. Maybe rumors of treasure
were a trick to lure them into a death trap. Perhaps
the so-called spy in the queen's court is actually a
scheme concocted by the monarch herself to seize even
more power.
At the same time the adventurers are working to
thwart their adversaries, those adversaries are trying
to carry out their nefarious plans. Such enemies
might also work to hide their deeds, mislead potential
adversaries, or confront problems directly, perhaps by
trying to kill meddlers.
Remember that the characters are the heroes of the
story. Never let them become mere spectators, watching
as events unfold around them that they can't influence.
ENDING
The ending encompasses the climax- the scene or
encounter in which the tension building throughout the
adventure reaches its peak. A strong climax should have
the players on edge, with the fate of the characters and
much more hanging in the balance. The outcome, which
hinges on the characters' actions and decisions, should
never be a forgone conclusion.
An ending needn't tie everything up in a neat bow.
Story threads can be left hanging, waiting to be resolved
in a later adventure. A little bit of unfinished business is
an easy way to transition from one adventure to the next.
ADVENTURE TYPES
An adventure can be location-based or event-based, as
discussed in the sections that follow.
LOCATION-BASED ADVENTURES
Adventures set in crumbling dungeons and remote
wilderness locations are the cornerstone of countless
campaigns. Many of the greatest D&D adventures of all
time are location-based.
Creating a location-based adventure can be broken
down into a number of steps. Each step provides tables
from which you can select the basic elements of your
adventure. Alternatively, roll on the tables and see how
the random results inspire you. You can mix up the
order of the steps.
1. IDENTIFY THE PARTY'S GOALS
The Dungeon Goals table provides common goals
that drive or lure adventurers into dungeons. The
CHAPTER 3 I CREATJNG ADVENTURES