(Homebrew DMing) How do you plan your adventures?


Homebrew and House Rules


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I have the "core" of my campain done, but it feels empty to me.
There are some twists, but Im afraid the twists will be cheap and blindsided the players.. I can't find an organic way to forshadow the twists before they happen...

I also need a way to weave in some side quests, depending on whether the pcs find them or not.

Im not really asking for help with the AP, just wondering how other dms plan them..

Web diagrams?
If/then statements? (like a choose your own adventure book)
Dossiers of npcs with lists of their quests and how they interact with a pc, and a "random encounter chart"?
(like Grogg the barbarian/monk orc, starts 'shard discovery' sub-path. Can be found in a tavern(30% chance)a random house (5% chance) or the arcane weapon shop eyeing the wares(10% chance) works part time as a city guard (10% chance any guard they interact with is him)

Any other ideas for keeping track of npcs? I run my homebrews very sandbox-like, so Id rather avoid Grogg approaching the party directly at X time with the cliche "I hear you are brave adventurers, want a job?" intros...


A good twist should leave the characters feeling blindsided! If the twist has no real clues given to them before the event takes place, the players may feel like it was cheap if they're especially critical, but typically I've found players fond of intrigue. I agree it does work when there are especially vague clues that could not have ultimately determined the twist but portent some danger in the way.

With foreshadowing, it's more a literary device than a clue. Let's say a main characters brother is about to betray him. A night before some tavern wench could be complaining about how her brother in-law stole her inheritance and that you can't trust anyone - not even family. You should be prepping the player to encounter the common theme in an uncanny way, but it's not an outright clue.

I'd say use a bit of both, an indeterminable clue and good thematic foreshadowing, if this is to be a true twist with the intention of blindsiding the players. And I will say that's ok if you setup a twist with no means of avoidance.

As for your sandbox NPC - I would say chunk the %'s altogether and determine if the story would be better driven with the mysterious stranger there are not. %'s are nice when you're drawing adventures for others to be used, or if you're trying trying to determine which PC's ultimately find and interact with this NPC, but you should value your planning time enough such that if you draft a sidequest you're not bound by random numbers which determine it's inclusion. The final test of a sidequest's inclusion should be the opinion of the players upon finding its hook.

How I plan - I usually use two notebooks. One book I keep in my brainstorming sessions, metaplot notes, important events, etc, and I use the other notebook (graph book) to design dungeons, encounters, etc. The best thing you can do as a DM relating to planning is just take good notes during the session to ensure you're creating a plot that follows the players intentions. If they're not clear - just ask them at the end of the session: what is your character's motivation, what's his sense of adventure, what's he yearning for, what does he plan to do with his time, etc.


Thats a good idea about two notebooks..

On the orc quest, if it triggers, the pcs have a chance at finding out the alignmemt of the oracle. The quest has another variant, later, at X time, that is given by the oracle. (the orc would be asking the players things to poke their brain because he's quite stupid... Things like "What does that mean?" "Do you know anyone like that?" and asking prodding them for knowledge checks) The oracle, if they get it through her, would explain things in high detail, but twisting the truth slightly at times. (not purposefully malicious, only telling details from her perspective.)


I do a few things. Of course I like running free style/sandbox campaigns.

1. Create/document a storyline arc, much like you learn to do when writing stories.
2. Create bubble diagrams detailing NPC relationships and roles.
3. Bullet lists can be helpful in planning a storyline for a game session.
4. Keep a journal of adventures focusing on player and NPC actions in addition to unexpectedly introduced NPC.

Basically if you set up an arc, you can foreshadow since you should have ideas of where your campaign is going. It also allows you to build out NPC's who are key to your campaign. The journal allows you to create NPC's on the fly and incorporate them back into the storyline long term if needed, which gives you the flexibility to keep the main arc on track.

As for magic items and encounters that go into the campaign. Once again I look towards the arc and general storyline. I for one despise random rewards. To me magic items should be part of the storyline and not randomly handed out. This helps drive intrigue, plot, and feeling of reward.

Encounters should be driven by one of two things, the DM or player action. Battles take up a lot of time, but should be used to liven things up when needed. Same with role-playing, give to much slack in it and your players may go directions you would never expect... this is a good or bad thing. ;) So balancing it all is important, thus random encounters often don't fit, unless it is just the nature of the environment the players are in.

Those are my two cents, take'm and spend'm as you wish. Other DM's just use wiki's. ;)


Well one of the players is also a dm, so I have to limit my "random encounters" to a list of 4-5 possibilities (reskinned and edited monsters, npcs, etc) but they might only stumble across 2-3 in a session (that they're meant to fight, compared to the occasional bbeg they know to run from)


I think one of the best things you can do (especially if it a sandbox style game) is NOT design a campaign arc, outside of a very rough sketch.

I just wrapped up a 10 month campaign that was all made by me (with inspiration from other sources) and I can tell you what I thought would happen at the start is not how it finished.

What I would do is have a list of NPC names that I could draw on to make an NPC on the spot. I would then note that I had used the name and what they did and added that to a Word Doc on my computer. You can use a notebook too, but I found the word doc more friendly.

The other thing to consider is that this is not a novel. I think that twists can be good, if they make sense contextually. But often times leave the players feeling like "how could I have ever known that" which is fun when you are watching a movie or are reading a book, but can be aggravating when you it felt like there was not enough information to figure it out on your own.

As far as "side quests" go I would let the players develop that stuff on their own. Find out what the player wants. Figure out what they are interested in and what drives some of your characters and then make a little arch based off of that stuff. Its a more dynamic way to make a campaign, and it lets you slide by with not having everything detailed out.

I think that the fewer details you have the less bound you are to stick to those details. Keep track of what you have done, and just let the campaign happen.

I am about to start a new campaign in 2 weeks, I have not even begun to think about the 1st adventure yet because I don't know what the characters will be. Once I know that then I will build a hook based off the characters. Once that has happened everyone at the table will begin to write the story of that campaign with me based off their actions and decisions. It can be a really fun way to play.


(As an infrequent and relatively new GM) I plan my adventures based on the soundtrack. No joke. I get in the Pathfinder headspace and click through my mp3 library, looking for adventures. Then I twist the ideas until they make sense with my PC's motivations, and add some spit and duct tape to make them fit together. If the players or the clock interfere with my shiny packaging, cliffhanger. ("We have to fight an inter-dimensional what? Oh, s!*t.")

I use a meta-notebook, similar to Liegence, along side an Evernote notebook for past adventures and future ideas.

From a gameplay standpoint, I try to balance PC freedom of choice with its illusion. If they get way off track or lost (freedom), a second plot hook will provide opportunities for me to give them clues that they missed (illusion). When the paladin wanted to smite evil instead of investigating, I made up something about missing orphans to hook him by the LG (illusion). When they snuck around a mansion in the middle of the night (freedom), the BBEG killed his own minions before they could.

I'm still a heavy-handed GM. In my next adventure, a PC is going to have his soul ripped out whether he makes the save or not. I need that to happen for the story's sake. He'll get it back, but not before they've accepted the quest to go find it again.

Shadow Lodge

Er....'plan'?


Ubercroz wrote:
I think one of the best things you can do (especially if it a sandbox style game) is NOT design a campaign arc, outside of a very rough sketch.

There is truth to this, maybe the term arc is a little to strong. Though from my perspective you should set a path and a vision on where you want your campaign to go. But be ready for the PC's to break everything around it and go a different direction. Then quickly adapt and modify as necessary... in a sandbox type campaign that is. Nothing like directing your PC's to go north for a big plot event and then have them go south, it makes for interesting game (and often fun) game sessions.

Grand Lodge

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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Don't Prep Plots.


I make a few key points beforehand, but 90% is improvised during play.
And that seems to work for me ;p


Don't plan anything until you get the character's classes, races, and backstories. Built an adventure around that. There an Inquisitor in your group? Have some aspect of the adventure include tracking down evil creatures. A Rogue? Having the party go through an ancient, trap-riddled temple is a good way to go.

Once I get all that info, I try to think of what would get the players to go on the SAME adventure. There needs to be a goal for each of them. Wizards want to chase after sources of arcane power, Paladins want to find and defeat evil foes, or maybe this particular character is trying to track down and kill his evil brother? The hardest time I ever had with this was when one player was essentially playing Bilbo Baggins and I had convince his character to go on an adventure/drag him onto a pirate ship.

When I get this info, I plan sessions 2-3 weeks ahead at most. Beyond that, I only have very general goals like "They're going to encounter the final boss in this specific place", how long and in what way they get there is completely up in the air.

It's not easy at first, but it will come with practice. In my first GM'd adventure, I got my players to this monastic temple and they all decided to go off an explore different areas of it. What followed was completely made up on the spot and it was glorious. I created 3 NPCs that day that ended up becoming important allies later on (one of them even married a PC in the adventure's epilogue).

Shadow Lodge

I have to disagree with the idiom "Don't Prep Plots."

If you are running a sandbox game, then don't prep plots. If you are running a railroad game, then prep plot. The important thing is being on the same page as your players. Some players like railroad game. Others don't.

If you have players who want a sandbox, don't prep plots.

If you have players who want a railroad, prep plots.

Somewhere in between, prep some plot, but be ready to do other things on the fly.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Plots are for scripts. Players don't go by scripts.


You tell them TOZ!


I have a dwarven monk (adventures for the sake of aadventuring, like quest for knowledge kind of thing.)

The other pc is a sorcerer with the protean/chaotic bloodline. They all decided to track down a seer for their own reasons, and get tangled up in a web of intrigue. (They're both good, and can't ignore the pleas of a damsel in distress, especially a chaotic evil one with +22 bluff, but the bluff usually doesnt matter because she believes she's preventing the visions shes having. (shes actually causing them)

Right now they're not used to sandboxes, but they seem to like it. I occasionally have to stress important clues they get from npcs. (not to keep them on "track", but to keep them from dying)


I think we're making a jump from "establish a basic plot" to "run everything by a script".

Having a basic layout for you plot is a good idea, especially since it's pretty easy to make your players want to achieve the important plot goals, like going to X location to find Y McGuffin to defeat Z evil overlord, but trying to plan everything out as a script is a bad idea.

Perfect Example of this: My first time trying to GM anything was 3.5 DnD. I focused all of my time planning out this haunted house they were going to go to from the town they started in, but the PCs wanted to hang around the town, which was hard to come up with on the spot at that point because I'd never done it before.

The point is, the more in-depth you prepare, the more disappointed and unready you will be when your players decide to do something off the track.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

And that was the entire point of the article I linked. You don't prepare 'what will happen', you prepare 'what is'. And when your PCs get to 'what is', you use it to figure out 'what happens'.


When I write (and I seldom do anymore), I begin with at least a few key elements. An element can be an important villain, location, quest, item etc. I begin fleshing them out to discover how the elements might tie together. Having character backgrounds is handy during this part. They can inspire campaign ideas, or serve to tie the character's better to the world they will be in. Some elements don't tie in, and become side quests. I sometimes go overboard with locations and NPCs. Most of it never sees light, because there's way the party will go everywhere and talk to everyone.

I try to plan out the beginning of an adventure pretty thoroughly. I run the party through and begin to loose my grip on the reigns as they progress. In effect, the world map grows as they do. They are free after a time to explore and follow whatever trail they like. I plan out what i consider important turning points in the campaign. How the party gets to the turning point is a matter of their choices, but I make sure they get there eventually. It usually includes a big battle, or a revelation of some kind.

In a longer game I usually include a few custom magic items for the party to find that will aid them at some point in the future. Perhaps cliche, but I get to make cool stuff and thats fun.

The number of players who enjoy puzzles varies from group to group, so I usually only include one. In a campaign a couple years back I created a simple cipher and wrote out two translated letters. The players didn't require the information they contained to get to the end, but they would help make sense of some things going on. Since one player enjoyed ciphers (something he worked on in the army), they were able to better decide where they were headed next.

I want to keep going but I just got off work and need to veg out for a while.

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