ADVENTURE BUILDING

Start building an adventure with the end.

Resolution of the adventure comes first (the what,
why and how of your adventure). Writing the
resolution begins by answering the questions:

How is the adventure resolved?

Why do characters want the resolution?

Why do players want to play the adventure?

Do not plan for a specific resolution of your
adventure; figure out the various ways an
adventure can end.
Do not forget to plan for failure.
An adventure is a framework of scenes and
encounters (and encounters are also scenes).
An adventure has a beginning (motivation), an
ending (resolution) and a way to put all scenes
together (structure)

ENCOUNTERS
An encounter is a sequence of actions that answer a
dramatic question by resolving one or more conflicts.
1.

ADVENTURE STRUCTURE

Map the adventure as a flowchart leading from

motivation to resolution through the different
scenes.
Scenes are connected with transitions.
Multiple transitions between scenes are possible.

Structural hierarchy of an adventure:

Action - Encounter - (Act) - Adventure - (Arc) Campaign

SCENES

2.

A scene is a continuous sequence of related actions

that have a specific purpose.

TYPES OF SCENES
Exposition scenes: to impart information to the
players.
Recap scenes, planning scenes, and character
scenes: scenes where the party isolates itself from the
events around them to talk amongst themselves, free
of interruptions.

3.

Exploration scenes: the players are free to interact

with the world in order to learn interesting or useful
information.
Decision scene: the players have to decide what to do
next. These scenes are often built into other scenes.
Discovery scene: to give the players something of
value.
Preparation (montage) scene: the players get
something done by performing actions and making
decisions.
Encounter scenes: a scene with one or more sources
of conflict and uncertainty.

HOW TO BUILD A SCENE

A scene has a purpose (why) and when the

purpose is fulfilled, the scene is over.
Determine the setting for the scene based on what
you are trying to accomplish (where).
Determine the length of a scene based on what you
are trying to accomplish (when).

Add just enough NPCs and things (scenery) to the

scene so that the scene is inviting for your players
to accomplish the purpose of the scene (who and
what).
Connect the purpose of the scene to the things and
NPCs in the scene to determine how the PCs can
get at the purpose (how).

4.

Every encounter begins by posing a dramatic

question

A dramatic question is a statement of the

heroes' current objective rephrased as a yesor-no question

Dramatic questions give your encounters

meaning and tell you why the encounter is
important.

Dramatic questions also help the DM to

determine the intention that goes along with
every action.

Dramatic questions also tell you when an

encounter isn't exciting or interesting enough
to bother with.

Dramatic questions tell you when the

encounter is over and what that ending has to
look like.

The players must always be uncertain about

the answer to the dramatic question.
Every encounter needs one or more conflicts

A conflict occurs when the heroes are

prevented from achieving their objectives.

Understanding the difference between a thing,

a source of conflict and the conflict itself is
crucial.

Conflicts occur when the desires of some other

force and the objectives of players clash.

A conflict ends as soon as the desires, motives

and goals of heroes and other forces are no
longer in opposition.

Internal conflicts happen entirely inside of

some force in the game and leads to a choice.
Without decision points there are no actions,
without actions, there is no RPG

A decision point is a spot where the players are

asked to choose how to resolve (part of) the
encounter.

Every decision point needs several practical,

useful options.

A decision point only occurs when something

changes in response to the chosen player
action.

Every encounter has a time limit created by

the availability of decision points.
Use structure as a tool to help you track progress
in an encounter

Structure elements are ways to keep score so

you know the progress of an encounter.

Structure is not necessary for every encounter.

Try to structure an encounter by thinking

about how to measure things in the encounter.

Keep your structure elements as simple as

possible.

Expose as few of your structure elements as

possible to your players.

When the dramatic question is resolved, end the

encounter

When the majority of the heroes have run out of decision

points, you have three turns to end the encounter before
it sucks!

COMBAT ENCOUNTERS
MONSTERS

Choose multiple monster encounters over single

monster encounters.
Multiple monsters allow for better pacing between
player and monsters.
An ideal fight has as many monsters as it has PCs.
Include multiple different types of monsters in an
encounter.
Define the monster goals, based on the purpose of
the encounter and the monster's lore.
Decide on monster tactics, the moment-bymoment decisions a monster will make (mostly
based on the monster's stat block)
Based on the monster tactics, decide how the
monsters are going to accomplish their monster
goals (monster strategies).

TAKEAWAY RULES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Build an encounter, and then build a combat.

Add more monsters and more variety whenever
possible.
Encounter budgets are an okay start, but futz and
fiddle.
Think in terms of goals, strategy, and tactics.
Everything feeds everything else.
The best advice and the best raincoats are
reversible.

CAVEATS
1.
2.
3.

Building combat encounters is hard work.

Know your game.
Choose for exciting, challenging, deadly combat.

THE ABCS OF COMBAT DESIGN

A bunch of creatures - pick monsters with goals,
strategies and tactics.
A Battlefield around the combatants - choose terrain
and battlefield
A battle's Character - pick the flavour, type or kind of
battle

BATTLEFIELD
Battlefield is the place where the fight takes place, the
terrain. It isnt the map.

Terrain shapes the battlefield.

Terrain also creates choices.
Terrain interacts with combatants.

TERRAIN FEATURES
Walls and other obstructions These block line of
sight, force creatures to walk around. Corners can be
used as cover. This is the hardest terrain element to
deal with.
Chokepoints and Funnels Force all movement and
lines of view to pass through a very small area. Great

for outnumbered parties and strong melee combatants

love to control them.
Fogs, Shrouds, Darkness, Gossamer Curtains, and
obscurement Impede line of sight, but dont block
movement. They make life more difficult for ranged
attackers and less difficult for targets of ranged
attacks.
Statues, Pillars, Trees, Boulders, and other Cover
Block line of sight and you cannot move through them.
Basically, these are just obstructions.
Pits,
Ravines,
Rivers,
Chasms,
Barricades,
Portcullises, Arrow Slits, and Other Ground
Obstacles Impede or prevent movement, but do not
block line of sight. Ranged combatants love them, but
melee combatants hate them.
Fire, Lava, Boiling Mud, Acid, Stinging Vines,
Swinging Axe Blades, and Hazards Punish anyone
who walks into the wrong spot. Functions mostly as
wall or floor obstructions, but creatures can walk
through them for a cost.
Booby Traps The best traps are those that keep on
affecting the battlefield after the trap goes off. Try to
avoid traps that have a one-turn-effect and then do
nothing.
Rubble, Broken Floors, Waist Deep Water,
Underbrush, and Other Impeding Terrain Slow
down creatures. Melee combatants hate it, ranged
combatants love it.
Tables, Chairs, Crates, Barrels, Chandeliers,
Amphorae, Altars, and Other Props These give
flavour to the battlefield and allow players and
creatures to be creative and do interesting things in
battle.
Distance: the forgotten terrain feature Distance
buys everyone time before the melee fighters get into
the fight. Distance works in all three dimensions.
Remember that you can create distance without
increasing the distance (e.g. with hazards).
Open Space: the other forgotten terrain feature
Tight, constrained spaces favour groups of fewer
combatants; large, open spaces favour larger groups of
combatants.
Vectors of approach: the terrain feature no one has
ever heard of - Vectors of approach refer to all the
different directions from which the party can expect
trouble OR all the different directions from which the
party can visit trouble on someone else.
If you want to know how terrain is going to affect your
game, you have to know your game and your players!

AMBIANCE
Ambiance is how the combat feels.

The flavour, feel of an encounter is different every

time.
Most of the ambiance of a battle is established by
the way the battle starts.
Ambiance is influenced by starting positions,
relative numbers and power levels.

BUILDING COMBAT ENCOUNTERS

1. The

seed: start with something (dramatic

question, specific monster, particular battlefield,
particular ambiance ...).

2. The platonic reality of a creature: take a

creature and look at its strategies.
3. Whatever else you've got, put it aside: leave all
other ideas in reserve until you need them.
4. Create the concept of battle: imagine the terrain.
5. Platonic realities collide: imagine how things
play out between terrain and creature.
6. Now make life harder for the players: force the
players to abandon their "go to" options, so that
the party has to think of a new strategy.
7. Platonic realities collide 2: Electric Boogaloo:
rerun the encounter in your head and keep an eye
out for glaring issues.
8. Run the numbers: add up your XP budget and
finalize your encounter.
9. Finalize the map
10. Figure out how the fight starts

Not all skill rolls are equal (even though the

game-mechanic is the same)!
Corollary to rule 5: approaches are actions,
not skills. Skills are just tools to resolve
actions!

HOW TO LOOK AT ACTIONS AS A DM

What is the player trying to accomplish

(intention)?
How is the character trying to accomplish it
(approach)?

INTENTION

Intention is the thing the player is trying to

accomplish or make progress toward.
Intention tells you what success (and failure) looks
like.
Be careful about assumed and unstated
intentions.

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BLOCK A

SECOND-ORDER STRATEGY

ACTIONS

APPROACH

RULES

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Players can only declare actions or ask questions

Actions are about what the PC is actually

doing in the world and what the PC hopes to
accomplish.

Declaring an action IS NOT choosing a skill or

ability to test against!

It does not matter what skill or ability score

the player thinks his PC should roll.
Only roll when there is a chance of success, a
chance of failure, and a risk or cost of failure

If the action is impossible, or so difficult the

player can't succeed, don't roll.

If the players cannot truly fail at an action,

don't roll.

When there is no risk or cost of failure, the

party will keep trying until they succeed.

If the party can freely keep rolling until they

succeed, don't roll.

"Missing out on something" is not a risk or

cost of failure.
One roll is usually enough (unless something
changes)

Corollary to rule 3: re-evaluate the action for

rule 2 before every roll. - After a roll, ask
yourself whether a next attempt at the same
roll needs a roll according to rule 2.

Rule 3a: Rule 3 doesn't count if the PCs can

see the ticking clock. - If an attempt represents
a resource (time, fatigue, hit points, materials
...) that can be wasted, multiple die rolls are
allowed.
Don't make the PCs ask questions

When a player has to double check whether or

not something is in the PC's head to make the
decision, they have an extra step between
situation and decision.

As soon as a PC is exposed to a thing they

might recognize or know something about,
they should recognize or know it.

Knowledge skills are no skills at all, treat them

as passive scores.
Differentiate approaches, because success needs
consequences.

Treat different actions differently.

Actions have consequences, regardless of

success or failure.

Approach tells you how the character is trying to

accomplish the intention.
Approach helps you determine if the action is
possible.
Approach helps you determine what mechanical
rules to use.
Approach helps defining a character. This is where
role-playing lives!

HOW TO PLAY A RPG

1.
2.
3.

The DM presents a situation.

The players imagine their characters in that
situation and decide how the character acts in
response.
The DM determines the outcome and describes the
results, creating a new situation.
3.1. The DM determines whether or not the action
is even possible.
3.2. The DM determines whether the outcome
needs to be randomly determined.
3.2.1. The DM determines how to randomly
determine the outcome.
3.2.2. The DM makes a die roll or instructs
the player to make a die roll.
3.2.3. The DM determines the outcome of the
die roll.
3.3. The DM decides an outcome of the action.
3.4. The DM describes the results of the action of
the players.