Three Things I Learned From Writing Dungeons & Dragons Adventures

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Before I embarked on the perilous journey of speculative fiction author, my primary writing gig was in the tabletop RPG and tabletop miniature game industries. Though writing material for roleplaying games is a different animal than writing fiction, there are parallels, and I still use the lessons I learned there in my fiction. The best and most useful type of RPG writing I did for that purpose was designing adventures for Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote nine for Wizards of the Coast and a bunch of others for Goodman Games and Privateer Press, and here are three things I took away from that experience.

As usual, this is based on my experience and what proved useful to me. Some of this may apply to how you write, and some of it may not, and that’s okay. :)

1) Outline, Outline, Outline. My first adventure attempts were free-form, and I found that a difficult way to write them. When I started outlining, it became much easier. A D&D adventure is still a story, often with three distinct acts, and each of those acts contains a number of scenes that move the story along. In an adventure, those scenes are NPC encounters and combat scenarios, but they serve the same purpose as far as storytelling goes. They drive the players though the narrative. Now, of course, in an adventure, the players are telling part of the story, too, so it’s a collaborative effort, but the bare bones of the story, the outline, is still an incredibly useful tool for the author to map out the path the players will follow.

When I write fiction, I approach my outlines in a similar fashion. I use a three-act structure, and each of those acts contains various scenes and story beats that keep me on track when I’m writing. My fiction outlines are longer and more detailed than my adventure outlines were, but they serve the same purpose. I need to build the skeleton of the story before I can flesh it out, and without that structure, I tend to lose my way. Fast.

2) Memorable Motivating Characters. As I said above, an adventure is a story, and stories need strong, memorable characters. In an adventure, the players are the stars. They are the protagonists, but if you want to keep them engaged, you need to introduce a compelling motivation to get them on the road to adventure. This is often the villain or antagonist, whether they be an evil wizard or a rampaging monster, and their evil machinations are what motivate the players to take action.

When I’m writing fiction, my protagonist has to be interesting, of course, but, man, those secondary characters need to pull their weight, too. Obviously, a strong antagonist is important, but, maybe even more so is the characters that provide the protagonist positive motivation. The antagonist is what the protagonist fights against, those secondary characters are often what the protagonist fights for. Writing adventures definitely taught me the benefit of having both in a story, though I will admit, I do struggle with the positive motivation at times. I mean, it’s just easier to write horrific villains, amirite? ;)

3) Get to the Good Stuff. In a Dungeons & Dragons adventure, you have to get a lot across to the players and dungeon master in a short space so you can get the players into the meat of the adventure. This can be something like read-aloud text that describes a location to the actions and reactions of nonplayer characters and monsters. You also need to give background to the dungeon master, such as the history of the location where the adventure takes place or the backstory for the villain or the monsters that will challenge the players. The DM needs to be able to quickly and confidently relate this information to players, and you, the writer, have to work it in along with all of the mechanical information needed to run the actual game. So, brevity is key, but all of these details still need to be compelling and drive the players through the story.

Brevity is also important in fiction, especially the style of fiction I write. I want to set the scene in as few words as possible so I can do what Vladimir Nabokov recommends: get the main characters up a tree and throw rocks at them. However, just like in a D&D adventure, those little scene-setting details need to be compelling AND they need to convey important information. If I fail to do that, I’m gonna lose the reader before I get to the meat of the story. This kind of brevity is generally more important in the short fiction I write, especially flash fiction, but I tend to be brief with these elements in my long-form fiction as well. That said, It might not be as pivotal to other authors.

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So, that’s what I’ve learned from my adventure-writing days. If you’re curious about the D&D adventures I’ve written or just want to see my bona fides, here’s a list of my “greatest hits.” :)

• “Death and Taxes” published by Wizards of the Coast in Dungeon #201

• “Heart of the Scar” published by Wizard of the Coast in Dungeon #197

• “The Wayward Wyrmling” published by Wizard of the Coast in Dungeon #182

• “The Vault of Darom Madar” published by Wizards of the Coast in Dungeon #181

• The Lost Cistern of Aravek published by Wizards of the Coast

• “The Crawling Fane” published by Wizards of the Coast in Dungeon #178

• “Dead by Dawn” published by Wizards of the Coast in Dungeon #176

• “The Tainted Spiral” published by Wizards of the Coast in Dungeon #173

• “Stick in the Mud” published by Wizards of the Coast in Dungeon #171