Principles of Adventure Design
These are some design principles behind well-made adventure and world artifacts. This is not a rubric so it’s meant to be read once and then forgotten. Use whichever fit your style of game mastering and ignore the rest.
Villains
Villains are the primary antagonists of your adventure. They create and feed the underlying tension between your players’ characters and the world.
- Start with good motivation.
- Good villains believe that what they are doing is right.
- Expect your villain to die.
- Make them memorable—what would make players do a double-take?
- A villain’s progress should be visible in the world.
- A villain should respond to character interference in their plans.
- Good villains interact with characters directly and indirectly.
Further reading: The Best Villains
Antagonists
Antagonists are secondary to the villain. They can be lesser villains themselves or henchmen to the villain.
- They contribute to the villain’s agenda.
- Often interface with the party instead of the villain.
- Use a variety of antagonists that represent the villain and their themes.
- Provide clear antagonist motivations. - Antagonists should react to the story.
Locations
Locations are the lifeblood of your adventures. Locations range from single dungeon rooms to entire galaxies.
- Emphasize a defining trait to make it memorable.
- Good locations are functional.
- Good locations are familiar.
- Good locations are fantastic.
- Locations should move the story forward.
- Give locations personality.
- Envision locations in three dimensions.
Further reading: How to Build Fantastic Locations for D&D
Encounters
Encounters are the situations which you expect your player characters to encounter.
- Good encounters serve a story purpose—avoid roadblocks.
- Use a variety of encounters—combat, social interaction, physical or intellectual challenges, and puzzles.
- Leave room for creative solutions.
- Vary the difficulty of encounters to aid in story pacing.
- Make encounters easy to run.
- Design encounters to BE PLAYED!
Allies
Allies and NPCs are the beating heart of your adventures. They bring everything else to life.
- Understand what each NPC knows.
- No one NPC knows everything.
- NPCs should act in accordance with their motivations.
- Allies should act and respond to the villains, too.
- Allies should provide clear benefits—items, information, and labor. - Make them memorable.
Rewards
Rewards are the treasure, renown, and other spoils your player characters obtain throughout their adventures.
- Give magic items interesting stories.
- Generously give out potions.
- Give items that are useful only in a certain time or place.
- Grant social rewards that make players feel important—status, property, and titles.
Story
Story is the glue for our adventures. We’re not writing a story for our player characters but we are taking their choices and making them meaningful—often tying them to something larger within the world.
- Start with a clear idea of what the villain wants to accomplish.
- Make interesting parts of the story obvious to the players.
- Actively build towards the reveal.
- Gain inspiration from D&D tropes but avoid clichés.
- Rarely challenge player expectations.
- Only give false information through NPC dialogue.