How to Make an Event-Based D&D Adventure in 10 Steps

[@theDMLair]

Support the channel and get truckloads of AWESOME D&D DM RESOURCES you can use in your games right here! www.patreon.com/thedmlair Join our awesome, welcoming community of game masters who encourage and help each other out: discord.gg/thedmlair Get 100% FREE D&D 5e adventures and DM resources right here: www.thedmlair.com/

[@42billybob]

Barbarian just doesn't want to lose his unarmored bonuses.

[@Beth-cj7ip]

Lol!

[@WolfmanXD]

Nah, barbarian is just an angry Karen.

[@Bearinthewoods88]

@@WolfmanXD The Rogue was the one yelling and telling him what to do, the Barbarian was just calm and trying to be rational. Just because you don’t like someone’s argument doesn’t make them a Karen, there are “Karen”’s on either side of any argument. The one yelling and trying to tell others what to do is the Karen.

[@Bearinthewoods88]

@@erikh5512 They were more at risk by sitting close together than by him not wearing a mask. Every health official has said that keeping distance is way more important than wearing a mask.

[@mattb4072]

@@erikh5512 well given that this disease isn't more dangerous than the flu, the people who are at risk should be the ones not playing.

[@joem1480]

I absolutely love the fact that you managed to bring back your annoyance at the dice sharing blurb

[@Beth-cj7ip]

Yes!

[@theDMLair]

Is hands-down the stupidest sentence in all of Tasha's Guide to Everything LOL

[@hugofontes5708]

@@theDMLair wait a sec, that was for real?? Lmao

[@Bearinthewoods88]

I am probably in the minority, but I have found Tasha’s to be the least useful D&D book I have when it comes to DM’ing or playing. And that even includes Hero’s Feast! Lol. I am not trying to hate the book, I TRY to use it, but every time I open it to look something up, I just never find anything the least bit helpful. Also, I hate the name. Its not a cauldron; other books are aptly named (handbook, guide, tome, guide...). Why not this one?

[@kingnothing007]

@@Bearinthewoods88 You're using it wrong then... TL;DR: New subclasses, spells and rules on how to modify everything is what they promised to deliver, and though it wasn't as much as I expected, it did deliver what they promised. Longer version here: The subclasses are cool. The guidelines on how to customize characters at level 1 are cool (a lot of us use that already anyway). The guidelines on how to change classes/subclasses are cool (we do that too, but it's cool that it's printed). New spells are cool too. It's definitely not what the hype made it to be, but it's cool. I don't use anything other than the 3 core, Mordenkainen's, Tasha's and Xanathar's everything else I check out once in a while to have a reference on how to make a custom magic item (I check what some NPCs have and the level they are), or I look at the level of spells some NPCs can cast to estimate the right CR of an enemy NPC that I created with Wizard levels as I couldn't give a rat's ass about premade stuff. Not sorry, I'm a kid of the 3/3.5 E with a taint of AD&D, where I could grab a monster template and create an NPC with class levels, even to Epic levels (beyond level 21). I loved Tasha's hype because it promised to offer guidelines on how to customize everything. It was not what I expected, but it did deliver what they promised, to a less extent than I thought, but it did.

[@malkavian2]

I like to design a flow chart that shows what would happen if the party never got involved It gives me a solid base to go on

[@Battleguild]

Causality in effect.

[@malkavian2]

@@Battleguild its just fun at the end of an adventure to see what could have happened and the dumpster fire my players have made!

[@Battleguild]

@@malkavian2 Deliberately ignore a request for a zombie horde extermination a couple villages away? After 2d4 ingame weeks later, and the quest is still ignored? Such a shame that no one helped, now the zombie horde just got bigger by eating 1-2 villages.

[@incongruentcreative]

That is actually great advice.

[@bkdan262]

and....yes I grabbed my copy of Tasha's and turned to p.141

[@TheCamo_MF_Ninja]

I know the beginning part was a joke, but ironically our druid and our Warlock contracted covid less than a month apart and they both have a low constitution score. Our two barbarians sit next to our Warlock and neither of them have contracted it yet. Lol

[@Recoil1808]

OH NO THE STATS HAVE LEAKED INTO THE REAL WO-- Wait. Screw this I'm making a half elf fighter for those sweet, sweet stats!

[@mikegould6590]

I ran an entire campaign around the actions of a coven of hags. Each hag had a specialty, so they would create events in different locations, forcing the players to choose which hag to deal with. This lead to wilderness, dungeon, urban and other adventures. They sought items or allies to find where each hag was hiding. It allowed me to make interesting hags with individual motivations and inter-coven rivalry. By the time they got to the head of the coven, Bitterwhistle, they had two years of hunting her, culminating in a climatic confrontation with custom lighting, settings and music at the table. That battle and campaign changed my game world and created new events for the next campaign - all player generated.

[@jtlamby23]

this is pure awesome

[@mikegould6590]

@@jtlamby23Thank you

[@mke3053]

I did something similar. To this day my players tremble when they even suspect there is a hag involved.

[@nightflame69]

The whole dice sharing/hand washing thing had me laughing. Especially with the dump stat argument

[@sashamercier3337]

I'm an event-based DM. It's what I do - I love coming up with things on the fly and craft story as I go. I would advise, as Luke says, don't plan too much. The spontaneity is what makes it special. My session adventure notes look something like this: - They see the orc in the bushes - Fight - Find evidence of camp - Fight small camp - Find prisoner - Help prisoner find family - Family sold prisoner into slavery - [Investigate slavery ring] or [report to authorities] 3-4 of those, and it's that's a multi-game adventure. Lots of room for switching it up. Lots of room for improv. Keep it simple.

[@quastor749]

Plot twist Sardec was mind controlled by the „good“ vampire and framed because he was hindering Petrifa from taking over the town 🙃

[@nathanly8761]

My personal DM style is mostly improv with large amounts of writing post session to figure out how my group of adventurers has changed the course of the campaign. Edit: also applies to what I say as a DM that I didn't initially intend to do. Gotta roll with the chaos

[@rasleyforde2363]

I realized that I really rather GM event based adventures, so thank you for the video

[@Gagneto]

you know luke, I'm one of those guys who tend to prepare massive flowcharts on adventures and recently I picked up a group to dm to and I decided to challenge myself to not do it, and although it has been going well I feel like I'm so tired after dming for them that I wish I had prepared more stuff, that probably ties in what kind of person you are and where you work better, what I'm trying to say is that sometimes that extra work preparing stuff is so we don't get exhausted after a game of a lot of improvising, but maybe that's just the game I'm running, legend of the five rings is a much heavier game on roleplay

[@rachelkubacki1642]

I had terrible anxiety in High School and College if I didn't over prepare for tests and quizzes. Same thing with raiding in World of Warcraft. If I didn't have so many extra consumables that I could easily share I would have anxiety. My warlock class leader always came to raid without shards and I would fill a max sized shard bag and fill any other open consumable spot with more shards. People are indeed different.

[@zendikarisparkmage2938]

Just a comment for the algorithm.

[@tailkinker1972]

One of the cooler things about event-based adventures is that you can set up more than one, and let PCs decide in which order they tackle them. My most recent PF2 campaign was set up this way.

[@heathersharo5294]

New DM here. I ran my first session last week with a module and I had much better interaction with my players when I just improvised. There is no way I can remember all of the stuff in the module. I think these videos are just what I needed.

[@charactergeneric1885]

I just love how easily these instructions can be transferred to other systems. Thanks for your very helpful video!

[@VaSoapman]

I've just noticed that you've had to put on that handprint facepaint every single time you record these.

[@theDMLair]

Yes yes I do. LOL

[@-alexanderhosch-4828]

M a x i u m e f f o r t

[@MephiticMiasma]

twice when the druid did it.

[@scottdavenport551]

Thank you for this video, I wanted to make an adventure for my daughter that did not take too much prep and this helped inspire me.

[@Cyberfender1]

Thanks!

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

Fantastic explanations. This is exactly how I run my theatre of the mind style games. Maps are only as important as where you have to stay. As soon as you can leave and find the same adventure, the map is no longer a thing.

[@dam-a-dab5922]

I will watch this video so many times its so helpful. Never saw anything about event based adventures till now as I own a bunch of 5e books but not the Dm's Guide and im the only dm in my group.They are still playing and 15 sessions

[@crimfan]

I tend to find that D&D works as a partially event based/partially location based work. Time pressure is good, absolutely, as are other tricks to drain PC resources, but one thing I'll often do is use a line map (think like a subway stop map) to map out locations in relation to each other and then have set pieces within those locations. In those areas, the regular "work day" mechanics hold. Basically use events to connect locations.

[@antediluvial]

Just played through my first campaign and am thinking about DMing at college next year Love your videos and they gave me the inspiration to start working on my homebrew

[@LightningMcCream]

One of my rules of thumbs for building an adventure is just plan 5 adventure-hooks per level. All 5 adventure hooks will happen in the background if the players don't interact with it Usually these adventure hooks are like "Take A Tour of the Magical Prison (some evil wizard escapes if adventures didn't go to the prison)" Now that 1 adventure-hook can lead into another or multiple adventure-hooks for a future level.

[@AndrewBetts]

GRANDCON!! Great video. Love seeing people that have been to my local cons!

[@bruced648]

a flow chart of villain options is very helpful. it allows for minions and hirelings of the villain to have multiple encounters. as the story unfolds, the players may guess and thwart parts of the plan which can lead to 'mistakes' made by the villain. this can be rewarding for the players.

[@CastleSoul]

I love the intro. Educational and funny at the same time!

[@STJ-789]

Comment for the KZbin algorithm. Great video. I really like the content but it's the skits in the beginning that truly make my day!!!!

[@paull7968]

Great stuff! I enjoy all the DM Lair videos.

[@kazing747]

Thanks for your tips! Really helpful. Next weekend is my first game as DM. I like your energy too!

[@lesouth03]

How'd it go?

[@RyuSpike]

In terms of organizing events, I do it in a way that is similar to how it is done in video games. Example being if players decided to kill or spare a villain's sidekick they beaten. Killing them will create a "flag" which will activate future events or conversations. If the party killed that sidekick, they will be seen favorably by the town but the sidekick's family will want revenge. Sparing them will have the town view the heroes as merciful and the sidekick's family will be thankful, but the sidekick was able to access an important contact within the prison that will further the villain's plan. So rather than a large flowchart, I am collecting flags and activating events when the correct flag is present.

[@davidwagner2626]

I gave up planning years ago...I just wing most of my sessions. I got really good at making up complicated plots on the fly based entirely on what the PCs are doing. I'd usually have some monsters or villains in mind and throw them in after the group has created their own plot hook. My brother ran our previous session, city was under siege. Party created road blocks to slow their progress (rock slides in canyon areas). Next session, my brother had nothing planned so I picked it up. Captain of the guard is grateful, hooks the party up with free drinks and board at an inn. Inns are packed due to influx of farmers and other seeking shelter within the walls. One of the party members shouts in the middle of a crowded tavern "Anyone here a Zentarim spy?" Plot hook created...they start rooting out, catching and reporting to the Captain...who's now behind it all...messages sent through homing pidgeons in code, all funded by a local noble, etc... just created the plot as they went. It was a blast.

[@jayp8786]

Great info on event versus location adventures! Love the emphasis on improv, players can be unpredictable so save your sanity.

[@reyvynnightveil1706]

Oh wow... this is how I have been doing my long-running campaigns for over 30 years... I like the agency it gives the players and the challenge for me to react in a manner that makes sense to the campaign. I feel like I should mention that in section 4, you touched on a thing that I think requires its own section. The Villain and their minions or allies are well and defined, and that is definitely the starting point, but you need to establish their rivals, victims, and enemies pretty well too, and appropriately plan THOSE NPCs' reactions to either the party or the villains. This could end up being side quests, or nothing at all if the players ignore them, but it makes the world react to the villain and the party's effect on that villain as well. Do they view the party as a boon, an annoyance, an obstacle, an ally, a bunch of buffoons? IMPROV!

[@TheRoberts333]

In my experience the more I improvise, the more interesting and fun the session is for the players. Thankfully I am decent enough at improv at the table so my prep time is mostly reduced down to me balancing combat encounters and daydreaming about the next piece of lore for them to discover to further the plot.

[@goliathcleric]

Don't touch my dice, lest ye face death.

[@theDMLair]

Good thing we play remotely...

[@MakCurrel]

I second this! Dice are both sacret and personal. You may have my lender set, alas the D20 is missing. 😘

[@foxheadl169]

I LOVE commenting because of the algorithm and it's non stop rampage!

[@russelljacob7955]

This matches very well how I do my DMing where everything if location or not is event driven. Particularily with time. I summarize as follows: "The NPCs are the DM PCs" So when players do an action, what is NPC reaction. So players say they rest, what do NPC do to progress their objective while they rest? This includes NPCs need to rest themselves.

[@Lcirex]

Let us not forget that Fat Cat has been established to be a min-max with a dump in DeX and a max in charisma so Barbarian is endangering him since his low move makes it hard for him to stay social distancing safe from Barbarian. Remember high con is great for saves but if you stay in a place where you need to keep making a saving throws then you asking for that one low roll to let you down.

[@blitzthekraken9832]

Why a thank you should be given at the end of every session to the DM. Thank You! I call event based DMing - Controlled Chaos

[@frankzamary2477]

For the algorithm sounds like it should be the battle cry of all KZbinrs. so here is my comment: FOR THE ALGORITHM!

[@PhreddiePhatPhlaps]

Hey, dumping CON is great. It gives you a ton of free time in combat to plan out your roleplay.

[@MephiticMiasma]

your death scene?

[@DannyBellTheAuthor]

I create crazy complicated flow charts when I run games that are large murder mystery types. I'm the dude with the flowchart and I'm actually good with most of it not being used. The most fun I have is when the players break the flowcharts and do something I didn't expect. Now, that said, there are a lot of games that are much more improv based and those are also fun.

[@rainfyre2694]

Player in a campaign that I planed to take to level 12: my best friend betrayed my village and became a lich. Me, a dm: oh ho ho ho.

[@MasterTMO]

This is one I'll have to listen to a few times - my campaign is being designed on the fly. I have a few events semi-planned for the future, but not many. I need to build up my resources.

[@LostWhits]

Love the intro. Really well written.

[@knight907]

I don’t know how much it’ll help you, but I’ll leave a comment just in case. Great video. Love this system. Great video. 👍

[@ByGraceWeAreSave]

Thanks for the video. I sent it to a few of my DM friends.

[@aliciacordero7436]

I love this. It's a better-outlined/better-thought-out version of what I'm doing for my campaign. Also - "you don't always have to use an existing statblock" Side eye at my kit-bashed vampire spawn/volo's necromancer BBEG with legendary actions and teleport. Specifically not a true vampire and can't become one (master is dead), so he's trying to bring vecna back into the world to learn how to become a lich instead (or as well?) as a reward.

[@SpookyGhostIsHere]

Love this, wouldn’t change a word. My players love when I can do this 👍

[@kevinbujak2490]

Good tips. Thanks for the info. Keep it coming.

[@graveyardshift2100]

I seriously thought that the druid was a warlock

[@srvfan17]

He used to be a Warlock, but he changed to Druid so he could have more options and chances to speak, I believe was the reasoning

[@logan5818]

Realizing I've been having such a hard time creating dungeon maps because I've done my whole campaign as event based adventures. Just got a huge list of various NPCs, their locations, plans, enemies, and allies, a timer and a couple plot hooks for each plan, and wait for the players' characters to do what they do best (destroy everyone's plans and make enemies).

[@michaelwinter742]

Directions unclear. Made playing D&D an event. People are showing up without canceling. What do I do?!

[@BelegaerTheGreat]

Rejoice, and teach us fellow DMs HOW?

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

Don't forget to get out the dice and ACTUALLY play D&D... ;o)

[@landonmackey1091]

Shucks, I made an event “playing D&D,” and then everyone cancelled on me

[@tvn525]

Always appreciate your videos man!

[@martinphillpot2010]

Excellent video, I seem to run a lot of event driven adventures, I also tend to improvise more than I really should because I get bored during prep, I'll prep with outlined bullet points and not bother filling in the rest. Reminds me, I have a new antagonist / ally / patron to stat up, probably going to be a battlemaster 3 levels higher than my pcs.

[@savingplayer1613]

The dude who thinks players will make decisions on a flowchart, doesn't know how unpredictable or chaotic humans and their characters can be 😂

[@hugofontes5708]

and that's why my design flowchart is basically a bunch of bubbles with "oh crap, I didn't think of that" -> "well, fak"

[@skankmcgank]

Yup. Got a roguish PC who got humiliated by a couple of meth elves doing mma on him. He's spent hours trying to find and harm them, and I can easily see this turning into a whole big thing. Let's not do this quest we were ostensibly on, let's follow random encounter pickpockets into their sewer lair because they tried to scam / strongarm PCs into giving up some coin. Time to draw a few sewer maps just in case.

[@thehermitthetower1126]

nah, my flowcharts work bruh. there are categorically only so many things a person can do, magical or otherwise. it just takes forethought, consideration, and generalization in terms of category. people are not that complex.

[@mattpace1026]

That's not even the worst advice this guy has given. He actually encouraged people to completely improvise adventures as you go along. I'm betting this dude has never actually run a game that made it past the first session.

[@colinsanders9397]

I once skipped an entire survival arc because my players used witchbolt as an arc-welder and repaired the airship. The bastards.

[@Frolmaster]

I feel that in this kind of adventure, it is primordially important to design your villain and what means he/she has at his/her disposal. Then, plan their plan and their typical responses to opposition. Improvise the rest. I totally run dungeons the same way. I think its much more realistic and dynamic than having a bunch of goblins playing cards for years waiting for adventurers busting through 'that' door... =)

[@jakeand9020]

I always run what you might call "active" dungeons. I plan out the total of all the critters in a given dungeon and possible reinforcements if the players spend too much time there. Then the party encounters them logically, depending on their actions. If they are careless and just go stomping around attacking whatever they see, they soon find the entire dungeon hunting them down, if they use stealth and dispatch does quietly, it works much like a normal dungeon. Resting in any capacity is a good way to get discovered, and on top of "activating" all the enemies it's also likely that more gave arrived.

[@TeaspoonUlysses]

Thanks for the video. Mine is definitely event-based. My improv skills must improve!

[@emessar]

I've used a flowchart before for running investigation type adventures. I think of it like a map, but instead of map of terrain it's a map of connections between encounters. For me, it helps ensure that there is a path that can be navigated to solve the mystery. I even included check-based shortcuts which were analogous to secret doors. If you think of it that way, it's really no different than drawing a dungeon map (probably easier). I do agree though that trying to map "every eventuality" would be nuts and you still need to be able to improvise. They might find short cuts that you didn't plan for. But even in a dungeon, sometimes the players will just pick a direction and use a spell to bypass the walls you drew. That's just gaming.

[@guillaumevermeillesanchezm2427]

I'm really interested in the Adventuring Day video, especially how to work around it. Some campaigns are more leaned towards politics or exploration and combats does not happen as often as they should regarding the Adventuring Day. How to make those styles work anyway is a great topic IMHO.

[@wapper7777]

Literally all it takes is a tiny bit of time sensitivity to get the players to not want to rest. I have been running a campaign for my wife. Her character was a farm girl that had been trained by the village blacksmith to be a talented fighter. One day a red dragon wyrmling attacked her farm and the black smith was chasing it but got injured in front of her and told her to chase the dragon. I was setting it up so she would take a few days to track the dragon and had to talk her into resting and taking breaks because she just wanted to push through 😂

[@willmena96]

Can't believe you just described the current arc of my main campaign lol. Only difference is that bad guy isn't a vampire

[@erikakensuke]

I think the generalized "flow chart" you should have, should direct to the outcomes you want to see like 1.if they take the bait -finding the right murderer -finding the wrong murderer 2. If they ignore the bait -one more bait -maybe continues on another town in the region? -new event 3. If they just burn the town down.

[@Piqipeg]

Great advice, as always! ^^

[@primerodeabordo]

I like how Luke always keeps the audience interested in what is important, the game! His personal opinions on other issues or systems are clear, humorous and brief, no drama !! DM's Lair is a collection for those who want to focus on what is most important, having fun! Subscribed and giving it a thumbs up!

[@theDMLair]

Thank you! 😀

[@earlkriewall7251]

This was a very useful video. Thank you.

[@Natsirt666]

Speaking of BBEG's, can you please do a video/discussion on your thoughts on running a BBEG in combat? How can you make them threatening and challenging, and inspire "some" feelings of hopelessness in the PC's, but ultimately have them fallible in some way?

[@denisnadeau865]

Really good advice !

[@SpicyMcFeely]

Can't believe Barbarian is an anti-masker

[@hatterhedron4267]

next thing you know he's gonna be wearing a tin foil hat

[@playahsan]

And I used to think he was the most sane of the group :(

[@nicholasjackson8709]

I would have given him inspiration🤣😂

[@Recoil1808]

I mean. Wizard doesn't even wash his hands. Are we sure he's playing a wizard and not a Wu Jen?

[@disunsnogoot3319]

Thanks for the DMing advice

[@joshschmuck3035]

Love these videos! Making a comment because you said so!

[@theDMLair]

Thanks! 😀

[@last2nkow]

for me i love making a "perfect timeline" for the BBEG's plan. this is the sequence of events and actions the BBEG thinks will lead to their victory, that could only go wrong if some sort of meddlesome adventuring group got involved. this lets me as the DM know what resources the BBEG definitely has and needs to enact the plan, and lets me come up with a timeline and more importantly time pressure for the players. then i love coming up with how he would improvize to fix stuff that goes wrong. just one reaction they take based on each point of the master plan going wrong. this might be interferring with the investigators directly, it could be planting evidence or seeking out a new resource or mercinary to take a second stab at the lynchpin events the BBEG needs to happen to win. but i always give the players a clearly less bad outcome than if they hadnt thwarted the first attempt at the plot event (like having a victim kidnapped rather than murdered). by doing this it makes it really clear which events are absolutely needed for the plan to work vs things the BBEG wants, but are willing to write off. i try to make these required points in the plan only about 1 in 3 of the events, and make them harder to foil. the result is usually like 3 columns of a table in Word. column 1 column 2 column 3 plot event resources involved contingency planned.

[@corbyrobinson3640]

Love your stuff man.

[@theDMLair]

Thanks! 😀

[@screamingblue7]

I loudly cackled at Smart Players Never Dump Con, something I have uttered every time I have helped a 5E character generation (and some earlier). But seriously, also enjoyed the PSA on the scourge of the age too.

[@Scorned]

In regards to the flow chart guy, I get it. Improv is sometimes the most daunting part of D&D. I have to come up with something on the fly and then it's all of a sudden Canon. I'd much rather have a set list of possible results that can be applied to different situations. Don't get me wrong. I know you can never 100% get rid of improvisation but having some planning is a lot more comforting

[@robinmartin4464]

I appreciate the perspective.

[@MephiticMiasma]

"you should unsubscribe" **hits like**

[@Lord_Arn]

“Luke always has good advice” *hits unsubscribe* “Wait a minute!” LoL

[@Chris-fn4df]

Did a similar campaign when I was a kid. We botched the investigation of some raids and who was behind them. Ended up being unwitting henchmen of the big bad for almost a year.

[@loki3275]

Apparently ive been running a weird mix of Event and Place based adventures since i started lol. Also, the intro is why im glad i dont run games in person, makes life simple. Dont have to worry about masks if youre miles away in seperate states lol.

[@WolfmanXD]

So, the campaign that I'm running right now is essentially this. It's a war with the Drow. The inciting incident was the drow launching their attack on the surface world, including the town the pcs were staying at at that point. They ended up starting the adventure as messengers between lord Dagult Neverember of Neverwinter and the leaders of other factions as they work to build an alliance to fight back the drow. Then when they got stronger they became an elite strike force, sent in to kill key targets while the army kept them distracted. They've so far made their way through the entire baenre family, with the exception of Matron mother yvonnel. They've adventured through the surface world, the underdark, parts of avernus and Mount Celestia, and have now traveled to the Demonweb pits, the home plane is the spider queen lolth. Tomorrow is our final session in the adventure, where they confront yvonnel and attempt to stop the ritual to create the avatar of lolth, allowing her to attack toril directly, all but assuring her victory. It should be interesting.

[@hexchad765]

I do this. Events I prep: 1. Enter an area or NPC. (Green) 2. Happens to the players. (Red) 3. Player initiated. (Blue) This is ALL I prep. I even mark up printed official modules with the colors above and improvise the rest.

[@russelljacob7955]

I have had con dump characters. They were glorious!

[@FrostSpike]

With online play I find that I have to plan ahead a bit more and come up with a number of encounters that get triggered by various events so that I can prepare battlemaps ahead of time (a bugbear of mine with online play). Works OK with a "generic" battlemap but better to have something nice prepared that specific to the storyline and area. Always like to have a list of things that I need to convey to the party as part of an encounter to make sure I can hit the plot points needing to be covered at that time.

[@TalonSilvercloud]

Re: Flow Chart It can be a handy tool. Emphasis on CAN. It CAN also make things more chaotic and harder to keep the world running and feeling like a living thing. Unless your players are severely nitpicky semantic/pedantic types who do it to feel smart and perhaps don't realize they're being arseholes. For any event, I imagine the three most likely outcomes. I write three pieces of dialogue for them for a single NPC related to the event, so I have something cool sounding to say, and it gives me a hook for roleplaying out reactions to the event. It's a tool for me to get into the headspace. Though I don't do this for all of the events before the campaign begins. I pick nearby events to develop and build connections to the PC's or NPC's or future events, or some combination thereof.

[@STJ-789]

HOLY CRAP!!!! I LOL every single time he says that!!!!

[@Anshu-Kajika]

by answering these 4 questions helps a lot. Who, What , Where, & Why?

[@8-7-styx94]

If you're a chart person and really enjoy those visual aids you can make a response chart which has the level of how far the players have progressed and the BBEGs response to it. Low - players found some incriminating evidence of Sardaks wrong doings - send some followers to mislead or maybe a shade or two to retrieve the evidence Medium - players are learning Sardak did it but compelling evidence is not yet in their possession- multiple Low responses, wave of zombies or maybe some vampire thralls to try and convince players it was really the other guy using their imagery, icons, banners, etc. High - players are certain it was Sardak and on the hunt - send multiple Med response, big waves of mooks with maybe a thrall or wight. Convincing time is over these will be clearly attempting to TPK with gusto.

[@lizzy532]

It's funny how you mentioned that most adventures are location based, I think most of my adventures are event-based-- it just seems more compelling to me that the actions of the villain or conflict dictates the adventure, but that's just me.

[@pontuskarsten8271]

I've come to realize... that the barbarian... sounds like Glenn in Superstore 😂

[@user-gw1sh9qc2s]

All planning, whether it be in terms of game subsystem complexity, # of advance sessions, # of alternates, or even # of event contingences, the rule of 3 is best. Never chart out more than 3 levels of complexity unless you want to break your capability to play. Eg., I made a skill system. Some skills need another skills before you can take them (Single level complexity), but other skills like crafting may need a skill before you attain it, and yet other adjacent skills to be great at it (Double level complexity). This is a good maximum limit of complexity you can assume you and your players can handle, and even then it may be a bit much.

[@Alex-sf5uz]

Im definitely more of an exploration focused DM/Player so i prefer location based play, I'm not sure of theres a style of play that by default has more prep it probably depends on the DM, i would say that with location based play there is a lot more chance to frontload the prep as in my experience even relatively small dungeons can take more than one session to complete meaning that theres a less prep from session to session.

[@fallenreaper9066]

Honestly a video on Adventure Day mechanics would be great

[@GeekPsychology]

Great advice!

[@hacksmerian2879]

Scourge of nations. Very clever.

[@TheMouseTrapp]

I love how many dice the barbarian has

[@mennoantheunisse3933]

Love the intro XD

[@skeetazaurus]

Thanks for the public health message Luke! 😷 I'm a really new DM and I think making flow charts, even when they inevitably barely get used, is a good exercise to help me get better at improvising. I realize how long it takes to make (and my flow charts are usually pretty general) but even when I don't use part of a flow chart, I still feel more confident knowing what I might have done. Plus, if I come up with something really cool and the players go in a different direction, I think of ways to adapt my cool idea to another part of the adventure and use it then. One day, when I have more experience, I'm sure I'll stop using flow charts, but for now it's fun and helpful.

[@jonasateo]

Great video!