by Michael Shea
A powerful noble family seeks vengeance for a slain criminal son.
Orc raiders enslaved dwarves to dig into an ancient dark elf ruin.
A fledgling apprentice releases a demon who begins building a fiendish army.
A corrupt warlord harries a poor village with a hired band of rogues.
A supernatural plague from a forgotten elven ruin turns local villagers into ghouls.
A floating keep from an alternate world crashes into a nearby wild forest.
A thieves guild threatens to release a hallucinogen into a city’s water supply.
Forbidden knowledge revealed in an old book brings powerful justicars who plan to wipe out everyone in the town.
The corpse of an old god infested with devils appears embedded within a nearby mountain.
The death of a hill giant lord’s son brings down the lord’s goblinoid army onto a nearby walled city.
A king finds a hidden door within his keep that leads to a vast multi-leveled labyrinth.
A kobald witch-doctor discovers a powerful artifact that sways inhuman armies to his service.
A band of mercenaries starts a war between two feuding cities.
An evil priest becomes filled with terrible power and unleashes charismatic cultists across the land.
A fallen hero’s father frames local adventurers, while allying with wilderness tribes to increase terror.
Recent foresting expansions upset a nearby swamp full of lizard-men and their black dragon god-king.
20 movie-inspired quests
Hunt down a powerful beast never seen in this area before (Jaws)
Find an ancient buried artifact before an evil army does (Raiders of the Lost Ark)
Find a lost treasure to negotiate a hostage rescue (Romancing the Stone)
Hunt down constructs that believe they are human (Blade Runner)
Protect a young girl who holds the fate of a kingdom in her mind (Firefly)
Seek revenge upon the cult that wiped out a whole village (Conan the Barbarian)
Drop behind enemy lines to destroy a bridge (Bridge over the River Kwai)
Hunt down a rogue general now seen as a god by an army of goblinoids (Apocalypse Now)
Seek revenge on rogue bandits who accosted a bar wench (Unforgiven)
Find the last surviving brother of five in the middle of a war (Saving Private Ryan)
Take revenge on the orc tribe that murdered a young girl’s father (True Grit)
Protect a village from a band of monstrous brigands (Seven Samurai / Magnificent Seven)
Save a village from two warring bandit tribes (Yojimbo)
Find a lost treasure before two other parties find it (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly)
Imprison or slay a powerful demon trapped within a keep (The Keep)
Destroy an ancient artifact containing the soul of a demon prince (The Prince of Darkness)
Hunt down and destroy a shapeshifting monster released from an ancient buried vessel (The Thing)
Kill the gang of assassins who left you for dead (Kill Bill)
Kidnap or rescue an unborn heir (The Way of the Gun)
Steal an artifact from the most powerful bank in the city (Heat)
20 adventure locations
A network of natural caves beneath an ancient hollowed-out tree
A long-forgotten cellar beneath an inn
A forgotten dungeon beneath a castle
A ruined temple to a dark forgotten god
A field of ruin in the corpse of a massive dragon
A mad wizard’s trapped dungeon
A twisted maze in a haunted wood
The ruins of a keep fallen in battle
Festering sewers beneath the town
A fortress carved from a stone mountain
A haunted catacombs in a mound carved like a giant skull
A forgotten crypt of a mad king
A temple of an evil cult hidden in the chambers of a church
A network of passages in a huge mansion
Dark passages of swirling nightmare beyond a portal of black-mirrored glass
The remains of a city buried under volcanic rock
A hidden vault beneath a seaside lighthouse
Hidden passages lost beneath an old library
A wizard’s tower on a floating earthmote
Natural caves behind a huge waterfall
20 fantasy names
Axbury Whitemane
Brianne Ironfist
Janis Willowswift
Oroth Windstone
Peters Whitecloak
Randis Rockwell
Tristan Graystone
Ovena Blackstone
Anerhost Bluecloak
Palman Freestar
Krisset Alwind
Florena Graymoon
Duberos Rothchild
Chorn Evenstar
Envil Moonbane
Janna Leafblade
Kogas Ironcutter
Liona Seawinter
Patsi Dawnbubble
Travell Wintersbane
20 NPC character frameworks
Belloq, from Raiders of the Lost Ark
Han Solo, from Star Wars
Yu Shu Lien, from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dolores Claiborne, from Dolores Claiborne
Tom Hagen, from The Godfather
Sherif Ali, from Lawrence of Arabia
Dick Hallorann, from The Shining
Sgt. Dignam, from The Departed
Sgt. Apone, from Aliens
Little Bill Daggett, from Unforgiven
Jean Lundegaard, from Fargo
Chuckie Sullivan, from Good Will Hunting
Robert “Bobby Elvis” Munson, from Sons of Anarchy
Chief Tyrol, from Battlestar Galactica
Calamity Jane, from Deadwood
Mike Ehrmantraut, from Breaking Bad
Rupert Giles, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Titus Pullo, from Rome
Lorne, from Angel
Sir Francis Walsingham, from Elizabeth
20 Encounter terrain effects
An unholy circle of power that steals life energy
A skull glyph painted in blood that fills creatures with battle rage
A summoning circle that spawns minions
A mystical obelisk that radiates arcane power
A flaming cauldron that spurts fireballs
A gargoyle statue that spits poison darts
A statue of a warrior with a swinging axe trap
A dragon statue that breathes fire
Murder holes from which enemies fire arrows
Invisible exploding runes on the floor
A skull on a pike that whispers dark words
A crystal that fires a beam of burning light
A pit trap filled with poison sticks
An area of anti-gravity
A mirror of entrapment
Portraits of screaming maidens that drive living creatures mad
Delicate urns of poison gas
Serpent statues that spit acid
Steel rods that fire lightning
A pillar of black tentacles that grabs and pulls people closer
20 PC relationships
Survivors of former adventuring party
Adopted siblings
Master and apprentice
Boss and hired hand
Former prisoners
Bounty hunters
Former militia
Former solders in a losing war
Former members of a thieves guild
Lord and serf
Ward and protector
Former grifters
Mercenaries
Former enemies that now work together
Business partners
Former students of beloved teacher
Former slaves
Former privateers
Dueling partners
Failed protectors of a lost artifact
20 combat outs
Constructs
disabled
Summoned creatures unsummoned
Brutes sacrifice health for damage
Villains surrender and become quest givers
Monsters flee
Aberrant monsters explode
Truce negotiated
Puzzle solved
Powerful weapon unleashed
Followers sacrifice themselves while leader escapes
Cavern collapses
Villain teleports explosively
NPC rescued
Item stolen
PCs flee from an overwhelming force
Gods intervene
Minions betray villain
Guards break it up
The true villain shows up
The true purpose reveals the battle as a ruse
20 encounter-wide environmental effects
Growing clouds of poisonous gas
Whispers of the insane dead cause psychic damage
Acid dripping from the ceiling burns creatures
Thick fog makes it difficult to see at range
Quaking ground threatens to knock people prone
Hallucinogenic gas makes people attack allies
Hot steam burns creatures more severely each round
Lightning bolts damage or incapacitate creatures
Portals vomit forth hordes of minions
Ghosts of vengeance fill creatures with bloodlust
Shifting time increases accuracy but decreases defenses
An unholy presence limits healing
Arcing electricity hurts those that are close to other creatures
Arcane lodestones limit magic use
Icy floors make people slide around Mario style
Freezing mist damages and slows those within
Crushing walls close in
Clouds of bats interrupt casting
A flood of foul water threatens to drown creatures
Flammable oil threatens to ignite
20 Things that never should have been found
Ancient book from before the time of mortals
Sealed copper cylinder containing the last breath of a dead god
Crown of the lich queen
A jeweled demon skull that always speaks the dark truth
The dagger that pierced the heart of a child heir to a fallen empire
A ancient tablet describing the death of a current king
A steel coffin containing the dust of an entombed vampire
An urn containing the ashes of an adulterous queen and her dark priest lover
An immortal child
Scrolls of a dark spell that cannot be destroyed
An ancient well leading to a dark world
A twisted horn that awakens the eater of the world
A sphere holding the souls of the dead
A jeweled box of secrets, lies, and jealousy
A priceless gem that brought murder to every previous owner
An ethereal prison in the form of an adamantine monolith
An ancient primordial burial ground
An intricate mechanical box containing an unknown seed
A treasure chest containing a still-beating heart
The skull of a man dated a million years older than mortals
Appendix B: The Dungeon Master Survey
From 22 April 2012 until 17 June 2012, I conducted a survey of dungeon master preparation techniques. The survey included results from 817 dungeon masters across all editions of D&D. I broke the survey up into several multiple-choice questions related to the preparation of D&D games across any edition of Dungeons and Dragons. The survey questions included the following:
How often to you run Dungeons & Dragons games?
How much time do you spend preparing for each game you run?
Which version of Dungeons & Dragons do you primarily run?
How long are your D&D game sessions?
In your game, how long does each combat encounter take?
How much time do you spend preparing the following for each game? World building
Combat encounter design
Monster design
NPC development
Non-combat encounter design
Battle map preparation
Props and handouts
Experience and Treasure
Each of these questions had specific pre-defined time periods. You can download a full copy of the survey results in Excel.
Survey flaws
Surveys like these are almost always inherently flawed. Different game systems sometimes get mixed together in the results. The multiple-choice nature of the survey doesn’t allow for a clean bell curve of time spent. These results, however, give us a broad look at where many DMs spend their time in preparation for their game.
Versions of D&D ran
Of the 817 respondents, 51 of them (6%) mostly ran Original D&D, 1st Edition AD&D, or 2nd edition AD&D. Of the remaining 766 respondents, 420 (51%) primarily ran 4th edition; 278 (34%) primarily ran Pathfinder; and 68 (8%) primarily ran 3rd or 3.5 Edition D&D.
How often did participants run their games?
Of the 817 total participants, 10% run games less than monthly; 14% run monthly; 18% run twice a month; 35% run weekly; and 23% run more than weekly. While looking at overall preparation time, I filtered the results down to those who ran games weekly or more than weekly; 470 of the total 817. This helped normalize the time spent between sessions.
Total preparation time
Of the 470 participants who ran games weekly or more, 11% spent less than one hour preparing for each game; 39% spent 1–3 hours; 29% spent 3–6 hours; 15% spent 6–10 hours; and 7% spent more than 10 hours preparing for their games.
Detailed tabulated results
The following chart includes results from 470 respondents who play all versions of D&D weekly or more often broken out by specific activity:
none < 30 min 30 min - 1 hr 1-2 hrs > 2 hrs
Combat Encounter Design 19% 42% 24% 11% 4%
Non-Combat Encounter Design 16% 50% 20% 12% 2%
Battle Map Preparation 37% 41% 14% 5% 3%
Monster Design 27% 35% 19% 14% 5%
NPC Development 14% 52% 20% 12% 2%
World Building 17% 26% 12% 14% 31%
Experience and Loot 40% 47% 9% 4% 0%
Props and Handouts 31% 46% 13% 7% 1%
Appendix C: Dungeon Master Preparation Questionnaire
In addition to the DM survey and in preparation for this book, I sent out a questionnaire to ten dungeon masters who have run many D&D games and are strong supporters of the Dungeons and Dragons community. In the following pages, you will find their responses to the questionnaire.
Teos Abadia
Teos Abadia is a freelance WOTC designer, 28-year dungeon master veteran, and twelve-year organizer for Dungeons and Dragons organized play events. In 2010, he became the lead administrator for the Ashes of Athas Dark Sun organized play event.
What D&D game preparation activities have the most positive effect on your game?
Two kinds:
1) Tying the developing story to the PCs. I usually spend at least one hour of prep for each 4-hr game working on aspects of the coming session that will link to the goals/backstory/personality/allegiances of 1–2 PCs.
2) A broad category I like to call ‘Episodic story-arcing’. This is time I spend on ensuring the next session pushes the campaign’s plot forward in a rich way. I like to have 2–3 broad story arcs, which may weave together at times. Because of that I find it is important for me to think carefully about how each session functions as an episode, progressing and revealing more of the story for PCs and their players. This isn’t just high-level; it includes encounter design such as choice of foes, terrain, and the like, directly leading to actual mechanical elements.
The actual mechanical elements are an important third part. Things like fine-tuning monsters, writing puzzles, crafting story/skill challenges, selecting terrain powers, selecting rewards, etc. are all important to me as the third
element in telling the story and, critically, making encounters stimulating and fun.
What D&D game preparation activities have the least positive effect on the game?
I’m not big on custom extensive world building, mainly because few players really benefit from that level of depth. Also, campaigns seldom last beyond 9 months. That prep can end up a big solo experience.
There are many activities I once did in great detail but now an outline is best with the details best left for spontaneity at the table. For example, NPC details such as a distinctive voice: not bad, but it works almost as well to just make up a voice and mannerisms at the table.
I used to work a lot on the flow between encounters, such as conditions when foes begin to fight or surrender. Now it is just the barest of an outline and I improvise based on what PCs do. Same with details of negotiations, descriptions of non-combat locations, work on organizations, etc. Just a very light outline and I take notes during the session on what I make up.
Thinking back on your most memorable and enjoyable D&D moments at the table, how often were they pre-planned? How often were they spontaneous?
I’ve had great games where I was making up everything. At the same time, my best sessions are ones where I prepared a great outline with close integration to story arcs and the narratives/goals of PCs and then had sufficient detail to make it a great engaging session. For me, preparation is very important.
From an RPGA perspective, preparation is critical. DMs that prepare are always better. The ones that add props for terrain, picked minis carefully, have voices for NPCs, and build upon the adventure are always the best. Some of that is related rather than causal (better DMs care) but it is also causal: it makes a difference when the DM goes the extra mile.
The same is true for DMs running pre-packaged adventures. Running cold is often boring and sub-par unless the DM is amazing.
I also find that experience is critical. I tend to think DMs learn a lot through preparation. They may go overboard on things like setting or terrain at times, but adjust over time. Eventually a DM is skilled enough to do a lot on the fly.
