I’m not sure how much value I’m going to put into the world with tonight’s subject. I had plans at the start of the month, which have not come to fruition. I was supposed to have built a home brew adventure for my friends, to surprise them on one of our Wednesday gaming evenings, and I’ve been doing a lot of day job activities instead.

Let’s begin with defining terms, and providing my credentials in this area.

TTRPG is Table Top Roleplaying Game. The most famous (and in the late 80s, infamous) flavor of TTRPG is Dungeons and Dragons, though there are many, many, many other games out there for people to play. They don’t have to be just fantasy, either.

Roleplaying games are inherently social, involving 2 to 6 people sitting around a table playing Let’s Pretend together, with dice and rules to help manage the chaos and provide structure for all involved to lean on. There are exceptions to all of this. Amber, based on Roger Zelazny’s Amber series, had no dice. Also, games can have more than 6 players. There are solo adventures out there, but I’ve never tried one and I find it hard to see how it’s different than a Choose Your Own Adventure story, or simply sitting down to write a story yourself.

In this day and age, roleplaying games are about as popular as they have ever been. You can find Let’s Plays of them on YouTube and Dropout, with the most famous of those being Critical Role and Dimension 20.

You probably didn’t need me to explain roleplaying games to you, but that’s the format of these things. We start with definitions, and then everyone is on the same page.

Also, if my definitions suck, you know that I’m not a good authority on the subject, and you can treat the rest of what I have to say with the appropriate levels of apprehension.

In this case, that may be warranted, as I’m not the most skilled GM/DM (game master/dungeon master). I’ve run a handful of games that I think were okay, but I’ve never had a run I would consider a truly successful game.

I have been a really decent player over the years, and I’ve been in many very successful games. And I’m a writer, which you should already know. So, as far as being an authority on building a good TTRPG adventure, my resume is weak, but I have a substantial amount of “Trust me, bro” going for me.

Enough preface! Get on with it!

So, how do you create a great TTRPG adventure? As usual, it depends.

If this is a stand-alone thing you’re making, with the intention of putting out in the world so other folks can download the PDF and enjoy the adventure with their friends… I don’t have much advice for you. That’s not what I’m setting out to do right now.

I’m setting out to create a homebrew adventure that is tailored towards the personalities of the people I’m playing with, that will hopefully ensure everyone at the table has a good time. In this game, the “table” is Discord, but you get the idea.

So, the beginning is all about asking questions, to make sure you and your players are all on the same page. What genres do they like? Are they more into dungeon crawling or roleplaying? How experienced is everyone at the table when it comes to this kind of gaming?

The truth of the matter is that the system you use mostly doesn’t matter. The group you’re playing with is all that matters, and is the main thing that determines how much fun will be had. There are different gamer types. Some people are explorers, some are achievers, some are socializers, some are loot goblins.

Find the route through gaming that everyone will want to travel. If the players are too disparate in what they enjoy, the game probably won’t be successful.

Once everyone is on the same page as to what a good game looks like, it’s time for next crossroads.

Do you create the characters for your players, or do your players create the characters for your world?

If you have a bunch of people that have never played in a TTRPG before, or if this is supposed to be a one-shot, it may be more appropriate for you to make some premade characters, so that when you get together, you can jump right in with playing. I think this will be the first game for a couple of my players, so this will be the route I take.

However, as a player, it is often much more satisfying to create your own character. This introduces more variables for you as the GM, but that’s okay. Once the game begins, your players will hand you ideas and scenarios that never crossed your mind while you were preparing. It’s best to get used to thinking fast on your feet.

Players are going to struggle to make their own characters if they don’t know what kind of world they inhabit. Here are the things you’ll need to write, in roughly the order they need to be written:

• Basic world details
• The player characters (either written by you or created by your players)
• NPCs based on the backgrounds of the player characters
• NPCs to fill gaps in the party
• Towns and structures
• The Bad Guy(s)
• The Backstory

Basic World Details

This starts with genre, moves down to setting, and then gets into enough details that you or players can create characters that will adventure in this world. Let’s say you wanted to run a game in the Mel Walker universe. You have some information from the books, and because it’s urban fantasy, you pretty much already know the world, so there’s not that much to do. Determine when and where, and making characters that fit in that (our) world should be easy.

If it’s a more traditional fantasy adventure you’re running, determine what that means to you. Is this a Tolkienesque world? Is it gritty, like in Game of Thrones? Maybe it’s something completely different. Here are some decisions to make regarding your fantasy adventure world:

• Is there magic and how prevalent is it?
  • What is the cost of magic?
  • Do you want the players to have access to this magic?
  • How much of the plot depends on magic?
• Do you know what the geography of this world is?
  • You don’t need the entire world
  • You do need enough for where the adventure will be taking place
• What are the different races in this world?
  • Dwarves? Elves? Dragon-kind?
  • Which ones can be player characters?
  • How much of the plot will hinge on the cultures of the different races?
• What aspects of the world do you want to highlight to enhance the story you’re hoping to tell?

The Player Characters

These are the adventurers. The party. The protagonists. Each of the players gets a character to engage with the story that we’re all collaboratively putting together, and from their perspective, it is the main character.

Every player will be experiencing the story from a different perspective, and we want each of these main characters to feel significant and meaningful. It’s a balancing act that can be tricky to pull off, but setting things up at the beginning, during character creation, makes it easier.

Do you have some ideas of what the story is going to be about? Maybe the main plot will be solving a murder. If that’s the case, having the player characters be relevant to that plot will help a ton. Maybe one is a reporter. Maybe one is an investigator. Maybe one is related to the murder victim. Maybe one is related to the murderer, and they’re your mole, and secretly working against the rest of the party.

There are lots of ways to plant hooks that pull the player characters into the larger plots you have in store. At the same time, they should have their own features, wants, and needs that you should work with so that the player feels like they’re getting their own character arc and special moments.

Do all of the player characters know each other? As the characters are being created, consider what you’re going to do at the beginning in order to bring the party together.

NPCs Based on Player Characters

When creating player characters, the rules were fully engaged and character sheets were generated. For player character related NPCs, you may or may not need to be so elaborate. You don’t necessarily need a character sheet for Aunt May if one of your player characters is Peter Parker.

For all of the things you’re writing up, you only need characters sheets and stats when those characters and features engage with the mechanics of the game. The bartender that is never getting into combat doesn’t need a sheet or stats. The bouncer in the bar, on the other hand, should probably have enough stats that when the bar fight happens, you have enough information that you can work with them.

NPCs to fill Player Character Gaps

I’ve played with some GMs that always had a character in the party, so that they could feel like they’re a player at the same time as the GM. NPCs filling party gaps are basically that, and they should have a full character sheet and progress the same way the party progresses.

One of the nice things about having one or more characters like this in the party is that it provides a way for you to have a voice with the party. This can help with both guidance and misdirection, depending on what you need at the moment. Remember that it’s a character, though, and should speak and do things in character, and not just be a tool for you to manipulate the party.

Towns and structures

This is the geography of the game, and it can be important. It’s the stage upon which all of the story will play out. This can be as detailed or as barebones as you need it to be. If you have opportunities to use information from the player to enhance your geography, do it.

If you like drawing maps, you’ll probably really love this part of the world building process. If you don’t love map making, well, do your best.

The Bad Guy(s)

These are the antagonists. Maybe they’re evil incarnate. Maybe they’re misunderstood.

Take a lot of care when constructing your bad guys. These are the characters that instigated the plot. They should be motivated and interesting. I think it’s best when there are reasons for them being the way they are, or making the choices they made. If they’re not interesting, the story will probably fall flat.

Eventually, you will need character sheets for your bad guys. You can hold off on this until later, if you need to, but you should know what your bad guys can and cannot do before they run into the heroes.

The Backstory

From the players’ perspectives, the story begins right where they start. Everything that led up to that moment is backstory.

For you, the GM, the story starts wherever it makes the most sense. You can write whatever you want, making it as detailed and as interesting as you can. For you, the heroes are coming in and finishing the story you began. With your help, of course.

Rich backstory makes it easier for you to have NPCs answer questions that the player characters pose. You don’t have to write a novel of backstory, and if you write a bunch of stuff that the players never get to, you might feel frustrated, or tempted to push the players in directions that aren’t natural to the gameplay.

You should write some history for the area, some one-off details to make the history of the NPCs more interesting, and you should write up the causes and effects that lead to the inciting incident and the problems that the heroes need to solve.

Concluding thoughts

I think I’ve written more than enough, and more than I expected on this topic. However much you write, it will always feel like you wrote too much, and not enough at the same time. You will be forced to think fast on your feet and come up with details on the fly.

When you have to come up with stuff in the moment, be sure and write down enough of the details so that you can weave it into what you’ve already prepared.

Finally, practice makes perfect. I’d be a much more confident GM if I did it more. I’d do it more if I had more time and players willing to play with me.

If you find any of this advice I’ve laid out helpful, let me know!