D&D Adventures SUCK. This is why.

[Music] the problem with most of these pre-written tabletop Adventures is that they're not meant to be played at the table and this is why I just realized I glitter bombed myself nothing a little editing magic can't fix how'd that look I'm still practicing my transitions I mean have you actually had one of these open in the middle of your game look at this coffee table to taking up all my space what am I going to put my three cans of Mountain Dew and all my dice okay you and I both know I have way more dice than and don't even get me started on what to inside oh the Avenger itself is fine but it's full of this words I can't [Music] [Music] read ah nailed it look at all this text how am I supposed to know what to tell my players at a moment's notice when they decide to go room k37 instead of room k73 why are we labeling rooms like it's Battleship wait something's missing about this box oh oh anyway my turn uh k78 did I hit uh the room is 30 ft Square rising to a 20t tall flat ceiling Stone burs fiercely in the center of the produces I am so sorry I dozed off there and so with your players if you run these games straight out of the book so what should we just take all these adventurers out back and put them out of their misery yeah no we can save them I can save them just like with my sweet sweet Shadow heart I I can fix her you'll need to do a lot more leg work before I commit to any hip work crap where were we uh H yeah saving our games the first mistake you might make is reading that text verbatim to the players you're going to have to read a bit ahead before each game you're going to have toare but wait we need a method to this madness one that allows us to run the ideas presented in these books with ease entire dungeons towns NPCs with personalities all out a glance all with a highlighter don't you dare touch me stand back no just kidding what we're looking for is harder better faster stronger and by that I mean just the information we need at a glance in as few few words as possible I found a shorthand method that does all of these things because I describe my world like a point-and-click computer game here's how I do it first let's pick a room for this example we'll use the bottom floor of old bone Grinder from chapter six of curse of strad it's a windmill where a witch's coven resides this room alone takes up half a page in 41 words and has a lot going on for us to work with all right bear with me as we look at the read loud text the ground flooor has been converted into a makeshift kitchen but the room is filthy baskets and old dish wear are piled everywhere adding to the Clutter is a Peddler's cart a chicken Coupe a heavy wooden trunk and a pretty wooden cabinet with flowers painted on its doors in addition to the clucking of the chickens you hear Toad's C all right time out I never read aloud the read aloud text when I read directly from the book I start to see a glassy Sheen in my player's eyes rather us use your own words to describe the scene we'll put the room number down 01 and we'll give it a better name ground floor doesn't convey any sort of image but filthy makeshift kitchen does so let's label it that below the room's name I put down the size shape and general feel of the room in as few words as possible this room is round 20 ft in diameter 8T ceilings now we label all the senses we see baskets and dishes piled everywhere we hear chickens clucking toads croaking we smell baking pastries mixed with some horrendous stench and if the players were to walk inside they'll feel the crunch of the littered children Bones on the floor that is our big picture but what's inside that can be interacted with well we have several things looking at the read aloud a Peddler's cart a chicken coup a heavy wooden trunk a pretty wooden cabinet and an open Barrel in the room Center we'll also want to know if there's any exits from this room note them at the end of your list assuming the players are approaching this room from the front door there's a stairway that leads up to the second level time out now if I was your player and I asked you what was in the cabinet how quick could you find it in this paragraph in the middle of our game this is where my philosophy of running the game like a pointand click puzzle starts to show this is all I describe as what's inside this room after paraphrasing my big picture when my players click on something listed here I search the cabinet I have an arrow that tells me if there's more information if they decide to give the object any further investigation so inside the cabinet you see bowls with baking ingredients inside as well as a couple hollowed out gourds there's also also about a dozen locks of hair hanging inside the doorway as well as a few labeled containers what's in the gourds bone meal made from children what's on the labels there are three containers the first says youth the second laughter and the third mother's milk what do they look like youth has a golden syrupy texture while laughter looks like a redish tea and mother's milk has a green milky consistency I drink the mommy [Music] milk you just drank pale tinure poison wait what does that do bro well if I just used the book I'd have to grab my DM guide to look up what it does but I can put either a page number to look it up later or a shorthand version of it in parenthesis on my notes if we note the remaining objects in this room room using arrows we would get something like this wow that's 58% less words in the original and it's easier on the eyes I've been using this method for years now but find a style that works for you but hey no matter how good your notes are you'll never run a great game without this bit of advice right here that's all I got see you

Channel: Deficient Master

Views: 143,810

Keywords: d&d, dnd, ttrpg, adventure design

Id: khgQ5q1sfNI

Length: 8min 30sec (510 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 20 2023