The NO PREP D&D adventure format

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The Divine Assassins Legend Keeper file:
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Reading a full length D&D campaign before running it takes too long, and shouldn’t be necessary. I’m proposing a “no prep” adventure and campaign format for Dungeons and Dragons, or any TTRPG! With this format, you can just read the first chapter, before the adventure, and be able to know the general layout of the story, which characters are important, and what information will lead the characters through the adventure. Let me know what you think! Would you like publishers to adopt something like this? Would this make you more likely to run a longer pre-written campaign?
To run the Divine Assassins adventure, just sign up for a trial of Legend Keeper, then download the .lk file from the google drive link. Then import the adventure into your account!
Check out the Patreon for more content, magic items, the adventure pdf (including animated maps), and more!
/ powerwordspill
Video edited by:
Noah Martin - martyck.us/home

[@sarahbozman5191]

An outline, an outline!!! Why do none of the adventures contain an outline??!! Bah, I’ve been saying this for years. Lesson planning 101.

[@TookyG]

Because all you'd need is the outline.

[@superpalmier9]

I've been DMing for a few years now, and always trying to better my practice. Every time I click on a video of yours, I end up with an epiphany of some sort. It's like you're pulling ideas from my subconscious that I'm vaguely aware of, and make it into a concise, very well put tip. I mean, the layer tip is so simple yet super powerful and actionnable. You truly are a great teacher and an awesome DM. Keep it up !

[@powerwordspill]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate that!

[@flamespire2235]

Id love to point people towards the Alexandrian blog, look at his Three Clue Rule or other Mysteries articles for more in depth explanations of these concepts. I think it's one of the best TTRPG ressources, people should really be reading the alexandrian ;)

[@Gavinwad]

Emphatically yes. I'm 2/3 through DMing Out of the Abyss and I'm prepping and running the exact same way you did for SKT, with the same problems. This video actually scratched a very specific itch for me, thanks so much!

[@Gavinwad]

Specifically, I'm trying to figure out how to write my own adventures and format them and stuff. Great insights.

[@itsginn]

Tip for people who don't want to or can't spend money on a paid product, with Obsidian Canvas you can also easily create flow charts. I also use the canvas as a GM screen with all necessary info available at a glance

[@stuphoenix]

my whole thought processs watching the ad was "this is just obsidian with some of the work done for you." Funny enough, it was this channel that pointed me to obsidian in the first place.

[@itsginn]

yeah I'm generally not a fan of vendor lock-in. I had everything in Notion before and then their server went down and I couldn't access any of my notes for half a day

[@thomaswhite3059]

​@stuphoenix all the note taking services/world anvils out there is just Obsidian with some of the details handled for you

[@chaosmeisters6781]

I like LegendKeeper because the work it has done for me indeed. I can get most in Obsidian but it is way more work. So its my money for saving the time to set up everything. I do like how I control obsidian though.

[@mikeb.1705]

Love the flow chart breakdown. I've been doing this in my head and via scribbled notes for decades, but seeing it in flow chart format was like turning on a light. Actually putting the stuff in my head / notes into a flow chart will make things so much easier for me to follow / keep things straight in future games. Thanks for that!

[@thothrax5621]

Because that encoder looking thing has been there in all these videos, and has been changing it's orientation every time, I've been assuming for awhile now its been containing secret messages in each video, or maybe when all the videos are combined it reveals something, but I'm far too lazy to look into it. If this inspires anyone to check, let me know what you determine.

[@badgerburns521]

it looks like a davinci cryptic

[@clayhouston1]

Thanks for this! I’ll be running this with my parents for their first time playing dnd! You’re the best Mr. Spill!

[@Zombu47]

This is brilliant. I tried to incorporate something similar into my adventures on the DMs Guild back before the OGL debacle (pulled all my stuff off of it since then) but couldn't figure out a format that I truly liked. If I ever get back to writing I'll definitely be using this method if you are comfortable with others doing so.

[@EmergentGM]

That's brilliant @powerwordspill! Super intiuitive and easy to follow! Takes the trouble out of figuring out how places and clues tie together. Sharing this with my GM friends!

[@gameraven13]

Do I see a fellow Professor DM watcher? He has a great video on the flow chart design for adventures from a couple years ago that I use all the time. Also for red herrings, I think a better tip is to use them responsibly. Don't just toss them in with reckless abandon hoping the players won't pursue a dead end. Instead, make the red herrings still lead towards the actual answer, but maybe the party assumes something that's opposite to the truth. I think a perfect example of this is in the first two episodes of Legends of Vox Machina when the crew thinks they know who the dragon is disguising themself as within the city only to realize that the character they were condemning was actually trying to help solve the mystery. Yet in pursuing this red herring character to watch them and investigate them, it leads them DIRECTLY to the main plot and the reveal of who the dragon actually is. Red herrings like this can work great in DnD as plot twists so long as that red herring still leads the party to investigate the locations and people that the adventure wants them to investigate.

[@WayneBraack]

Flow charts? What a unique NEW idea. Why didn't anyone ever think of these before?.. You are my new God of Knowledge. All praise The Spill! Great stuff my good man.

[@ActualChef]

I was just getting ready to do all the prep for Storm King’s Thunder. Which I really want to run. But it’s such a beast. I WISH it had a flow chart and simplified chapter structure.

[@thomaswhite3059]

I will say that MCG does something like this for their adventures, especially the things intended for convention play like Into the Violet Vale or The Suffering Game for Numenera/Cypher System

[@TheSavageGoose]

The City Guard Chronicles (one of my favorite series of short adventures) has a flow chart for showing the possible routs your players may take based on the clues in each scene. They are wonderfully well done and this reminded me of them.

[@myrezz8833]

Kinda feel like an RPG shouldn't require you memorize the whole textbook before being able to play, OR at least people being more cool with frequent pauses to look up info often

[@panicbuttonv1]

That's why I like how the paranoia writers write their mission books. (At least for the perfect and red clearance editions; I haven't read the older version of mission books.) They break the missions into chapters, but before you start, they give you a mission intro for the DM, then a chapter summary of each chapter and then the mission background of why this is going on. This is nice for when I need to do a quick one-shot when some of my players call off at the last minute.

[@sethwood1676]

My biggest issue with a lot of adventure paths(looking at you strange aeons specifically) is not describing important characters and events at the beginning. Specifically referring to a character in strange aeons where you have to read to the end of the first book to find out their personality and how'd they'd react to events at the very beginning. I wish they'd had a flow chart and page numbers at the beginning for reference. There's a lot of unneeded text in adventure paths that don't need to be there.

[@armorclasshero2103]

The fact that wotc still doesnt know how to write adventures after 30 years is quite telling. Especially when other much smaller publishers figured it out. Wotc is just slop.

[@Jahnkasad]

IIRC, Curse of Strahd has 12 chapters - your suggestion would've increased page count by a significant margin (1-2 pages for the first outline, then an additional 1-2 pages per chapter).

[@alexanderwizardjar9540]

Hah! Pepe Silvia easter egg spotted!

[@shadesofgray9]

What i would loke to do is create a campaign using a set of one page adventures...they are so much easier to run as across a session (or 2).

[@jasongrundy1717]

Nothing wrong with red herrings. DM controls time just as author. Just say "you waste a week and discover it was a red herring. Moving on."

[@josephlarsen]

To be clear :) - if we use your exact format discussed here in officially released adventures are you ok with that? I love the idea of having a prep page and a flow chart and the whole thing.

[@powerwordspill]

I would love that!! Yes, please use it exactly as is

[@PaulNegoescu]

You described a lot of how Masks of Nyarlathotep, the latest version, is layed out. Have a look at some point it has other great ideas too...

[@VanillaFeline]

Non sponsored opinion, what do you think is a batter DnD world building resource? Legend keeper or world anvil?

[@MoxOwl]

Great video...could we get this format in a google docs?

[@3nertia]

Can't I just buy the adventure in like a pdf format?

[@powerwordspill]

You can grab it from my Patreon! I'm planning to add PDFs to my store but I haven't had time to set that up yet. That will be coming in the future though

[@3nertia]

@@powerwordspill Guess I'm waiting till I can grab the .pdf without needing Legend Keeper then 🙂

[@robinroberts2568]

​@@3nertiahe didn't say you need legend keeper. He said you need to support him on patreon then you can get it from there.

[@3nertia]

@@robinroberts2568 Maybe you missed the context clue where I implied I don't fuck with subscriptions ...

[@robinroberts2568]

​@@3nertia lol wow. I was just trying to help. The mental gymnastics required to make out like I'm the one failing basic reading comprehension is astonishing.

[@JynksterDM]

yes preparation is often a real tension killer and invades PC agency; easy to get anhcored to the way it is SUPOSSED to go instead of letting players come to a conclusion;

[@cameronsitton501]

Wow what a wrong takeaway

[@ninjanate0724]

FIRST

[@tobiaskuhn3437]

second and first reply