If this is the first post you’ve seen in the adventure planning series, you should start here.
So now that you have your opening scene, what happens next? Your players need a goal or something to do. It’s easy enough to plant quest hooks, somewhat guiding your players to what you want them to do or encounter next. Plan on providing and being ready for a couple of choices. Sometimes players will absolutely latch on to the silliest little throw away NPC you created. It’s totally acceptable to give a reason why Sally the Salty can’t adventure with them, or wants nothing more to do with them. Or if you feel comfortable, have ol’ Sally lead them on a merry quest, totally improvised, but leading them to where you wanted them to go in the first place. Yes, I am suggesting you rail-road your players a bit. You and they are new, or rusty, at running and playing a RPG. Improvising with no experience doesn’t come easily for everyone, so it is totally acceptable to make an outline and stick to it.
Back to those quest hooks. They can be anything you think your players and yourself would have fun encountering. You can have a jobs board placed somewhere in the town, of people asking for aid of some sort, with a promised reward. You could have a bandit drop a mysterious key or map fragment during a combat encounter, or as loot from their dead bodies. Where this quest leads is up to you. I find that simple, straightforward quests to start out with are a good way for you as the DM, to get a feel for running the game, and it helps your players get familiar with how the game works as well.
Having a hard time thinking of a fun first quest? Think about books you’ve read, movies and shows you’ve watched, historical events you always thought were cool. You can also purchase pre-written adventures, places like Drive-Thru RPG and Dungeon Masters Guild have a lot to choose from, and you’re more likely to be paying an actual person for their work. Shamelessly copy familiar tropes, do a few changes, and BAM! a quest appears.
But How?!? The D&D basic rule set does not give us a lot of advice in how to set up a quest or build an adventure. Here is an outline example of how I like to build quests:
- Idea for quest: Rumors over heard at Inn. Livestock has been disappearing at night. At first it was eggs and chickens, but it has escalated to include sheep, goats, pigs, and cows. There are no footprints, or clues of any kind to indicate who or what is stealing the livestock. Tools and equipment of various kinds are also missing. People have set watch, but to no avail. The more suspicious residents suspect foul magic or witchcraft. Others think it could be some stealthy creature, or clever bandits.
- Let players speculate as to who is behind it while they plan how to go about figuring it out. Listen carefully to your players, they may just give you the reason behind the quest. Have a back-up just in case they don’t give you anything. Maybe a young dragon has taken up residence nearby, a fae creature having a little fun, or a group of clever goblin bandits. It’s all up to you.
- Think of the locations for the quest. How are the thieves getting in unnoticed to steal livestock? What are they doing with the livestock? Where are they taking it? These questions can inform your where. A dragon would favor somewhere far enough away that it can fly the distance, but the party would need to travel for a while. Bandits might be holed up in a nearby cave in the foothills. Maybe someone in the village is helping the thieves? Once you have your idea, think of how far away the location is. Do you want the party to experience travel and camping? Do you want them sneaking through a dark and mysterious tunnel? Or do you want them to stay within the confines of the village and farms?
- Sketch out what’s at the location(s). If it’s someone eating all the livestock, bones and filth, a cook fire, crude butcher block, hanging carcasses could be part of the ‘decor.’ Let your imagination fill in the rough details. Consider size of location based on what is there and what is going on. No dragon would fit in a tiny shack, neither would all those carcasses. If you are putting an item to be discovered or found, consider how your villain would hide it, if they bother. I find that leaving a little mysterious item, or at least something to be sold, loot in other words, is encouraging to the players.
- Combat? The basic rules provide a way to more or less balance combat by experience level of the party, the number of party members, and the monsters they are fighting. You should be able to balance the encounter to either be easy, challenging, or nigh impossible, as you see fit. Most young players understand combat and playing games through the lens of video games. While this can be rather frustrating for you as the DM, it is to your advantage to understand this. Perhaps you and they, can baby step your way to more exciting, three-dimensional combat encounters. Most intelligent monsters won’t just stand still and let them party hack them to bits, most will also be thinking of how to protect themselves with traps and subterfuge. Monsters with animal intelligence, will do their best to survive, but might be more willing to fight to the death. Put yourself in the monsters shoes, look at their stat blocks, and imagine what they might do if being attacked, or to evade detection. You’re not going to be great at running combat at first, neither are your players. Do simple things, like a goblin is hiding around a corner waiting to ambush the party, or the dragon retreats to the high mountain peaks, where the party cannot reach them by normal means. Place a simple trap, like a net holding animal bones, that will drop on the party if they don’t look for traps.
- Conclusion or Continuation of Quest. Did you players succeed in stopping the threat or did the villains escape? Do you allow your players to search around for loot or clues? Maybe something even more sinister is going on. Your players could find a ledger that indicates the bandits were selling the livestock to a witches coven or cult. Or they could find a note saying that one of the townspeople was in on it. Or it was simply theft and now it’s over and on to the next town, or quest.
- XP or Story Beat? After your players have concluded the quest, it is time to either reward experience points, tied to monsters killed, or award a character level up, assigned to certain points during your game. Story beats are the favored official way to reward experience. They are easy and rather arbitrary. Do you feel that what the players did is worth them gaining an entire level? Unless they beat exceptional odds, I would advise, no. They need to get some adventuring under their belts, meaning gaining a lot of experience being an adventurer, before I would level them up. Also, keep in mind the further adventures you have planned, maybe you’d like them to reach a certain level before they deal with your BBEG (BIG BAD EVIL GUY). You really control the party’s level with story beat. XP or experience points are provided in the monster stat block. You divide these points equally among the party members and they record that number on their sheet. There is a table for leveling thresholds provided. Once the players have enough experience, they level up. This is a somewhat more organic approach. You as DM, can also reward experience when you feel appropriate for exceptional feats or role playing. You can also award an inspiration point to a player for the same.
- What next? This is a great opportunity to farm your players for content. Let them sit around a campfire, or fireplace back at the Inn, recounting their adventures with each other or any captivated patrons. Maybe prompt them a little with a question like, “Hey, Jagur, did you have anything like this happen when you worked as a town guard?” Use their classes and backstories to prompt them into talking about their characters lives and memories before they became adventurers. They just might give you an idea for something or someone down the road! Ask them directly what their characters want to do next. Use an NPC (non-player character) to ask questions, provide another adventure hook, or to recount a harrowing tall tale.
- Lather, rinse, repeat. Keep building quests for a while, as you and your players acclimate to each other and the game. Once you have your collective sea legs, you can add those larger adventure and campaign details. For now, just have fun with your players, make mistakes, learn and grow. Don’t make it complicated, don’t put in a ton of effort and time. Do keep trying. You’re likely doing better than you think!
I would love to hear how your game is going! Leave a comment below! Thanks for being here!