Need advice on 'adventure' direction...


Beginner Box


Hello... We are a group that just get the beginner box and we are very excited with it. We went through the Black Fang adventure already and then, we went through the Fallen Fortress adventure... During this adventure (Fallen Fortress), we were intrigued with Nethys sacred symbols found in the sealed chamber ... I would like to continue with this theme and create an adventure or campaign from here, but ... as we are new ... need some suggestion to start up... any advice???... please help!!


My suggestion is to put your foot out into the unknown, and don't be afraid to stumble. You'll learn by doing, and so long as people are having fun then you're succeeding.

You have two options. One is to purchase a premade adventure path and run that, the other is to run something to your own tastes. The former has the advantage of professional-quality work and greatly simplified prep on your part, the latter has the advantage of letting you customize the experience to your own and your player's preference.

If you want to develop your own adventure from scratch:

1) Start with a premise; what is the threat or situation that will confront the party? Don't develop a story, instead figure out the situation.

2) Develop the antagonists. Who are they, what are their goals, where do they operate from, what's their modus operandi, and last of all don't forget to stat them out.

3) Write up some rough notes. Don't put too much detail into them, because things won't play out the way you think they will. Don't get too attached to anything; you present the world, the actions of the players determine its fate.

4) Have some backup material if things turn weird. I always keep some extra map sketches, NPC stat blocks, treasure, and random stuff in my notebook. If I'm caught by surprise there's a good chance I'll have something servicable to the situation.

5) Take a "second sober look" at what you've prepared. Try to pay attention to points of failure, where if the players fail to notice something or figure something out they may not be able to proceed. Try to think up three or four different ways for the players to proceed in such cases, and have contingencies if the players simply aren't making progress.

Right now I'm writing up an adventure to take my players from level 6 to level 9. I've got maps of a town, several buildings within the town, the surrounding wilderness, an ogre camp, and a four-level dungeon hidden away in a secret locale. I've got about two-dozen NPC's statted out (along with descriptions of their character and backstory), and many different possible encounters the players could experience. I have contingencies if the players do something unexpected or fail to do things I'd expect them to do. I've got treasure for when they hit certain milestones, I've got several different ways they can approach victory. I've got sequences worked out to ensure the party can't just stumble into unwinnable situations and is directed towards engaging the main threat rather than chasing red herrings. A lot of the material I've prepared may never be used, but what I don't use will stay in my binder to be pulled out in future games. Enemies, encounters, maps, treasures, it's all there. And I never stop learning, I always look back in hindsight and wonder how I could have overlooked such obvious things.

Point is, have fun with it, build a scenario that you think is cool, and then let your players loose. You will screw up, and your players will do things you never anticipated. That's part of what makes it so much fun for everyone involved.


If you are looking for more stuff there was a release for the beginner box bash or something that had some other ideas/ short adventures. They are free to download and are located click here . Not saying you have to use them however, they are free and they provide ideas which you can build off of, add into your own adventure as side missions, or just completely change them. Up to you, just thought I would try to lend a hand.

I too am new to gm'ing and find it difficult to come up with ideas that make sense and come together. I had an idea about a npc that worked as a hired hand for the local farmer. One day he accidentally cast acid splash and killed one of the farmers pigs. He was scared and ran away into the (hills, forest, swamp, etc. take your pick). Later that day farmer Jon comes across the melted/burned pig corpse and goes looking for the hired hand. He proceeds to the local (inn, market, town square) and asks around about the boy.

This is where the player characters (PC) come in. They agree to help find the boy. Of course they may want to check out the pig's remains and look for clues at the pig pens. Here is where I need to add some DC to determine it was acid that did the pig in, see if they can track the boy, and anything else the PCs may want to do.

Basically the boy is scared and runs off. He gets injured and then depending on what environment you choose (I choose hills) you have something happen to him. In my adventure I have some goblins find him and take him to camp.

The PCs find him locked in a cage where the goblins made camp. I have it so that most of the goblins are out hunting, unless it is night, so only 3 or 4 are in the camp. PCs defeat the goblins and rescue the boy.

Of course the adventure can continue because the hunting party of goblins, along with their leader, want to get back at the boy/town/PCs so you can follow up with goblin raids on the town.

Well that is all for now, hope that helps.


That's a clever story, Jay. Reminds me of the X-men going to rescue some newly-awakened young mutant. Nicely done.


Actually, agentJay's solution would make an excellent tie in to Rise of the Runelords.


Thanks for your comments.... are very helpful!

My plan is to adapt one of the Bash Demos using those symbols of nethys that the players found.
I would like to keep them interested and with some grade of intrigue about those object, but with less complexity as possible.

DAZRAK, thank you for your comments... I will use them, believe me!
AGENTJAY, thank you for the example of how to develop an idea...

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