DM's Adventure Writing Checklist

CHECKLIST
Genre and Themes: Stealth Heist, Raid, Dungeon Crawl, Hack-n-Slash, Intrigue, Mystery, Horror, Sci-Fi Fantasy. At sea, in secluded mountains, in a grand city, in a magic forest.
Premise - The goal and obstacles, or the Treasure and the Dungeon. Assassinate the Leader of the Merchant's Guild, Rescue the Princess from the Dragon's Lair, Steal the Tomb of Eldrich Horror from the Temple of Necromancy, Free the Thief Prince from the Evil Sheriff's Dungeon, Abduct the princess from her evil mother's castle in Alexandria and deliver her to her uncle in Lindblum.
Hook(s) and Incentive - The reason(s) why the players would care about the premise, and the Rewards for success. Have multiple hooks prepared and tailored to each player's interests and character's niche. Initial interested may be created by curiosity. A vision, dream, omen or prophecy, a scary fortune reading, a letter from a wizard.
Stakes - Consequences for failure or refusal. Something the PLAYERS care about should be at risk. What does the party stand to lose?
Inciting Incident - The event when things changed. The white knight was slain by the dark knight, the king fell ill and his brother became chancellor, the hunter killed the unicorn and became cursed for killing something so pure, the wizard disappeared the fellowship fell apart.
Conflict - Why do two sides oppose each other? Because if I get what I want, then you don't get what you want and vice versa. Biff can change the future with that Sports Almanac. We have to get it back, Marty!
Location - Town and Dungeon details. Mood, theme, genre, tone. Nearby features or locations, events, important people, shops and resources, factions. Sociology, politics, economics, religion, military, history.
NPCs - survivors, hostages, victims, witnesses, neutral entity, allies, patrons, contacts, mentors, factions or etc. - for Resources, Rewards, Tips, AND Directions!
Antagonist - Who are they? What do they care about and why? What do they do to try to succeed? What are their Strength and Weakness? The Sheriff of Nottingham excessively taxes the poor and is cruel to people who oppose him to keep everyone else in line.
McGuffin - A person or object for the hero and villain to compete for or fight over. Evil Tomb of Really Bad Spells, Royal Amulet, Ancient Ring of Power
Conditions or Complications - Specific Condition that adds a particular Interest, Requirement, Challenge, or Restriction. "You need a silver sword." "You have to be done by midnight." "Be discrete; The villain has eyes everywhere." "If the villain knows you're coming, he'll kill my dad." "The villain is actually your dad." "The evil dragon protects us from an even eviler dragon." "Get in and get out with the artifact, without getting caught, and don't wake the dragon." "The fortress is nigh-impregnable."
Setbacks or Sacrifices - an Opportunity or Resource that is lost adds tension and challenge. If you want to go through this door, you have to offer your blood. I will give you the key in exchange for your your magic amulet.
Surprise or Twist - Reverse Expectations; Use the audience's expectations against them. A betrayal? The plan failed because they knew we were coming all along. The strategy backfired because their weakness turned out to be lie? The wizard had a secret illness? The knight faked the thief's death? A seemingly good decision made for the right reasons turned out to be a grievous mistake?
Secret or Mystery and its Revelation - Villains secret weakness (bane) or Hero's secret weapon (boon). The villain's magic doesn't work if you know his true name. Only the sage in Mt. Doom knows, but what does he want for it?
Dilemma - Difficult choice between 2 things you don't want - "Pick your poison," or "choose your opponent,"or "choose the form of the destructor."
Moral Quandary - A particular type of dilemma where that party to do something that violates their ethos or alignment in order to achieve their goal or survive. "choose which one of your friends will die," Lifeboat dilemma where the lifeboat has room for 10, but there are 11 people. "Re: The prisoner dilemma. The lawful good paladin is obligated to accept surrender and to protect his prisoners to the death. The villain surrenders, but the NPC guide is prepared to kill the villain and anyone who stands in their way." Han Solo killing the Tonton to save Luke from freezing.
Red Herring - A clue, a tip, or false information with the effect of distracting or tricking the players. A false or incomplete answer to a riddle. X marks the spot, but there are two X's. A fake key.
Time Limit - Condition that creates a sense of urgency and tension. "If you don't figure out who the werewolf is and stop him before the next full moon..."
Climax - The location and circumstances of, who's present
Second Climax - "Just when the heroes think they're done..." or "You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" or "Now, behold my true form." or "This place is collapsing! We have to get out, now!" A second smaller climax used to resolve a minor conflict can follow the climax of the major conflict so that the Falling Action part of the story falls more slowly and hopefully is more interesting; but sometimes a story that goes from 60 to 0 could be the best way to do it.
Resolution - What changes?
Suspense - Suspense holds interests. To create suspense, ask a dramatic question: "Will the heroes..." Always have one question open to keep your audience coming back. When you provide an answer, also provider another question. Make the players work for the answers and offer them as a reward. 

Tips
Alternate Between Good and Bad Encounters (Moments of Hope and Fear) - Things that are too good for too long become boring. Things that are too bad for too long get overwhelming. When you mix it up, you alternate between satisfying anticipation and providing something new for them to anticipate. Ask a dramatic question then answer a dramatic question, but provide an new dramatic question. Give the player an obstacle that rewards a tool, then give then a new obstacle that the tool doesn't work on so they have to get a different tool and the next obstacle suggests what kind of tool they might find.
Give the Audience What they Want: Writer's should deliver what they promise. People are only happy to have their expectations subverted when the thing they were expecting the whole time wasn't really what they wanted to begin with and so the subversion is actually a pleasant surprise. Reference the movie Shrek. The knight in shining armor is an actual ogre named Shrek and not some prince charming. The princess he rescues doesn't get married to Prince Farquad because she falls in love with the ogre, Shrek, but you'd expect her to choose the human over the ogre. If the movie waited until the end to reveal that Fiona was an ogre, it would be the same move but you'd have a very different experience because the ending you were expecting would have been intentionally set up like they were going to deliver it but they didn't actually plan on delivering it. By the way, foreshadowing is important or you'd be as in the dark as Shrek himself and you would probably pity his every effort get Fiona back at the end. There would probably be a sense of dramatic irony watching him enter the church in a hurry to object to the wedding which subverting would have been nice. Oh, and Chekhov's Gun is also important. You gave Princess Fiona a fight scene and showed off how athletic she was, but you didn't give her a bigger, more dramatic fight scene later?
Inter-Party Conflict: Pitting the players against each works for some groups but not all. One PC wants to resolve the quest one way, but another PC wants to resolve it another way, and they can't both get their way. "So, have you figured out which of your friends is the traitor yet?"
Verbs: Choosing good verbs is important. A good verb unambiguously tells the players what to do and how to do it. "Slay the dragon." The wrong verbs do not help your players understand their goal and how to accomplish it. "Investigate the mysterious plague." In the first example, the players know they need to find a dragon and kill it. In the second example, the players might not have a clear starting point or a clear plan. Investigation is not the ultimate goal, investigation is the means to identify the goal. the potentially resulting in frustration and wasted time. This can be solved by changing the wording. "Identify and stop the source of the mysterious plague."
The Players are the Stars: In general, players don't really care about the NPCs. Don't let any NPCs upstage them or be more important than them.

Combat Encounters - List of random and fixed
Roleplay Encounters - List of random and fixed
Exploration Encounters - List of random and fixed
Skill Checks - For each character's specialty so they all have a chance to shine
Traps - Mix of easy, medium, hard, and deadly
Puzzles - for the players to solve, not their characters
Treasures - Award at intervals, not all at once at the end
Secrets -
Create Opportunities for Creativity - Rule of Cool

 

What is a One-Shot Adventure?
    A one-shot adventure is an adventure that is intended to be completed in as little as one session. A one-shot therefore needs to be simple. The structure for a short one-shot adventure is:

1. Set up the conflict and establish the goal quickly.
2. Put the adventurers where the conflict is, where they will spend the length of the session.

Here's an example of a premise for a simple one-shot adventure:
1. The players arrive in a village and the inn keeper tells the players there's a monster and some treasure in some ruins in the forest.
2. The players go to the forest to search for the ruins. They enter the ruin to fight the monster and get the treasure.

In this example, the conflict is the ruins and the monster inside. The goal is the treasure. You can always start the players right at the entrance of the ruins and narrate that they just came from the village after hearing rumors of such and such in the village, they explored the forest, and finally discovered the ruins said to contain a monster and some treasure. The players will spend most of the session in the dungeon.

Too Simple?
Just because the one-shot is simple doesn't mean it has to lack excitement, motivation, drama, suspense or tension. To add these things, start first by introducing some stakes, then add complications, one or more twist, setbacks, and whatever else. The stakes are the consequences of failure besides failure itself. Players generally care about their reward more than the NPCs or the setting, so the reward has to be at stake.

Stakes: Let's say that someone was kidnapped and is being held prisoner by some bandits in the ruins mentioned above. The bandits are now ransoming this prisoner. The players are offered a reward by the family of the prisoner, but the bandits are threatening to kill the prisoner. No rescue, no reward. The players are now incentivized to care about the safety of the prisoner.

Tension: add a source of fear, stress, or restrictions. Let's add some more tension by adding a time-limit. Let's say the bandits have given the family an arbitrary timeline. The family has two days to pay the ransom or else they will kill the prisoner. Now, the players can't afford to take their time and may be likely to struggle between careful planning with swift action.

Complications: Ok, how can this get worse? Let's say that the bandit leader is not someone you want to fight. He's a very tough and cunning fighter, and he's known for slaying no less than five well armed and armored elite soldiers who came to capture him in a single fight. Maybe this is because he has a magic sword (this is a carrot and a stick).

Twist: What's something you're expecting to happen? OK, that doesn't happen (that's the best way I know to explain what is a twist). Once the players are half-way into the dungeon, they discover a twist. The prisoner, disinterested in living the life of a surf and craving excitement, asked to join the gang of bandits and has earned a place among them by defeating three of their fighters in one-on-one fights. Now there's no prisoner to rescue.

Setback: The players need to lose something of value, usually a resource like hit points but it could also be an important personal or quest item. This adds suspense. The more personal the setback, the more dramatically interesting it is. Rather than the ordinary challenges of the dungeon being the sole cause of their diminishing resources, one of the Named NPCs will cause it. Have one of the bandits, perhaps the Prisoner or some other bandit, sneak up on and backstab a player or picks one of their pockets. This bandit then escapes and calls for help from the rest of the gang.

Second Climax: What do you call it when the hero thinks he's won, then one more conflict arises right at the end, threatening to steal victory out from under him? OK, so once the players defeat the bandit leader and escape, the prisoner explains that he didn't join the bandits for real, he was just trying to create an opportunity to escape. He agrees to go home with the players. However, one of the bandits follows the party and wants to get revenge on the prisoner by killing him for betraying the bandits resulting in a hostage stand-off or another combat encounter while everyone's at their limit.
   To feel organic, and to not feel like the DM is just being adversarial, the bandit who shows up at the end should be someone the players previously encountered who they have some unresolved conflict with. This could be the bandit who called for help or sprung a trap or punched one of the players in the eye and ran away.

The end: The players get their reward of whatever amount of gp and a bunch of EXP. 

Tips for Mysteries
1. Plot: Know unambiguously the who, what, when, where, why, and how.
2. Make it clear that there is a mystery to solve. A type of mystery called a Closed Circle Mystery is a mystery that occurs in a small space with a set number of suspects.
3. Know the investigators. Why are they involved? What Magic or Technology do they have that can solve your mystery too soon or spoil your mystery? Create puzzles that work with these abilities, not against them. Don't completely restrict these abilities without a very good reason.
4. Clues. Give clues that lead investigators to the next clue. Give clear and simple clues. Prepare 3 clues for any direction you want to send the investigators in case 1 clue is missed or isn't enough. Give clues as rewards for ability checks and encounters. Avoid Red Herrings or false clues.
5. Avoid linear plots. A Diamond Plot structure offers the investigators choices for what order they want to investigate nest. Do this by planting one or more clues that lead the investigators in more than one direction from the start or very early.
6. Prepare for failure. What happens if the investigators find a dead end? Make floating clues that they can find anywhere that can send them to where they should be going. Be ready to improvise and be flexible with your plot.

A Simple d6 System and an Alternative Set of Abilities

    RPGs are improvisation story telling games with rules. You can make up anything. Everything can be simplified and abstracted and reasoned in different ways. Here's an example of an alternate set of abilities and a simple system to compliment it. The abilities listed below represent very board categories or skills and abilities. Things like Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, Charisma, and etc. could easily apply to any of them depending on how the player describes how the ability applies to their character. At character creation, players pick one category to excel at and they start at an intermediate level (ability of 2). They are beginners (ability of 1) at everything else.

• Mind: Represents your reasoning, intellect, and learned knowledge. Your mind stat influences speech and skills related to material knowledge. Someone with a higher mind stat could argue they think faster and can react mentally faster. Someone with a high Mind might be a wizard, alchemist, craftsman, or researcher. In your world, Mind might be important for some types of tools, weapons, powers or magic.
  
• Body: Represents how strong, fast, fit, and healthy you are. Your hit points are improved by your Body. A higher body stat makes someone more skilled at tasks requiring physical strength, endurance, reflexes, agility, balance, and coordination. Someone with a high body might be a warrior or soldier. Someone with a higher Body is probably knowledgeable about subject matter pertaining to athletics or combat. In your world, Body is important for fighting with weapons.
  
• Spirit: Spirit represents your intuition, wisdom, and your affinity for and general disposition towards the supernatural. Someone with a high Spirit might be a priest, a mystic or a psychic. People who are receptive to spirituality might find your speech more compelling. You're probably more knowledgeable and skillful with matters sacred to you. In your world, Spirit might also be important for some types of powers or magic.

Roll Under
    You roll a single d6. You can succeed at a task by rolling equal to or under your ability score. The higher your score, the better your chances to succeed.

Ability Scores
The numbers for ability scores will be small due to the size of the die used and the scores are explained below. The GM may rule that if you roll a 6, you automatically fail and if you roll a 1, you automatically succeed regardless of skill or difficulty.

• 1 means you're an average person or a beginner.
  
• 2 means you're above average or have received training. You're intermediate.
• 3 means you're experienced or advanced.
• 4 means you're an expert. Few people achieve this level.
  
• 5 means you're a master with peak ability. This is a legendary or world class level.

Difficulty of Challenges
The GM will tell the players the difficulty of the a challenge they're rolling for and assigns a bonus or penalty to the players roll. The concept of difficulty is relative, as in "This task will be hard for you." The DM may need to balance the challenges for the players based on the probability of rolling a number on a d6. Rolling a 1 is likely to fail, rolling a 5 is likely to succeed. Try to assign a difficulty bonus or penalty to give the players a fair challenge. A +2 is generous at low if you have a low ability score, and a -1 is harsh if you have a very low score.

• Rolling a 1 is about a 16.67% chance of success
  
• Rolling a 1 to 2 is about a 33.3% chance of success
• Rolling a 1 to 3 is about a 50% chance of success
• Rolling a 1 to 4 is about a 66.67% chance of success
• Rolling a 1 to 5 is about a 83.3% chance of success.
• Rolling a 1 to 6 is 100% chance of success.
  

The difficulty bonus or penalty applies the ability for that roll. For example, if you have a 1 in an ability and the challenge is very easy, the GM may tell you to roll with a +3 bonus. This means you will have to roll a 1 to 4 on a d6 to succeed. The difficulty bonuses and penalties go as high as +3 and as low as -3. If the penalty exceeds your skill level, the GM may determine that you simply cannot attempt the challenge or that you automatically fail. The GM may also determine if the bonus applied to your skill is high enough, you may automatically succeed. A character's armor effectively imposes a difficulty penalty to an attackers rolls. Light Armor is a -1, Medium Armor is a -2, Heavy Armor is a -3.

• +3: Easy difficulty, but still requiring concentration and effort.
• +2: Medium difficulty. A beginner has a 50/50 chance.
• +1: Hard difficulty. More than half of all average people will struggle and fail.
  
• No bonus or penalty: A Very Hard difficulty. Advanced people have a 50/50 chance.
• -1: Very, very Hard difficulty. Specialized skill is needed. Luck is required if you're intermediate.
  
• -2: Extremely Hard difficulty. At this point, there's probably external forces acting against you.
  
• -3: May be impossible. Only a expert or master can succeed. You're probably solving an ancient unsolved puzzle or stopping a great big boulder with your bare hands at the edge of a cliff.

Hit Points
Hit points are an abstract concept representing how much damage a character can take. Taking damage usually means you've been injured or wounded in some way. Player characters determine how many hit points they start with by rolling a d6 and adding their body ability. The GM also determines what happens when your hit points reach 0; either you die instantly or you fall unconscious and start to die but can be saved by first aid or magic.

Damage
A d6 is used to determine how much damage is dealt with a successful attack. Powerful attacks may use 2 or more d6. A d3 is a d6 where 1-2 is a 1, 3-4 is a 2, and 5-6 is a 3 and is used for improvised weapons, weak attacks such as unarmed strikes, or attacks that are intended to deal non-leathal damage. Weapons or spells come in strength categories you can choose, or use the examples below.

• A small or light weapon such as a knife, club, or does d6-1 damage (minimum 1 damage).
• A medium weapon does d6 damage. such as a short or broad sword, a mace, battle ax, short bow, spear, 
• A large or heavy weapon does d6+1 damage such as a long sword, long bow, war hammer, great ax, or pole arm.
  

Improving you Character
Mark any abilities you've use during the adventure if you succeeded on at least one roll. After reaching a milestone such as completing a quest or an adventure, or achieving a character or story goal, your GM will allow you to improve your character's abilities. To do this, you can roll a d6 once for each ability score you've marked and roll over your ability score. If you roll higher than your ability, that ability improves by 1. The GM will also tell the players when they can improve their max hit points. To improve your max hit points, roll a d6 and add your body ability.

Skills for TTRPGs

 General Skills
    In a dungeon or in the wilderness, adventures are assumed to be constantly using these general skills: Search for hidden doors, traps, objects, listen at doors, move silently, hide in shadows, spot danger, climb sheer surfaces, track game, navigate and map, forage for wild edibles, administer first aid, jump gaps, balance narrow ledges, ride a mount, and swim rough water.
    There's no need to record these skills on the character sheet. When the player declares an action, the DM will determine how to resolve it, usually by having the player make an ability check by rolling a d20, adding bonuses or penalties, and meeting or beating a target number. Only some classes improve skills as they gain levels, such as the Thief and Ranger.
    Players and DMs may work out when a character's race, class, or background justifies a bonus to any skill check, for any of these skills or other skills not listed that you can imagine.

Thief Skills - Thieves improve at the following skills as they gain levels:
*Pick Pocket
*Open Locks (requires Thieves Tools)
*Disarm Traps (requires Thieves Tools)
Climb (Requires rope and/or climbing gear. The thief has a significant climb skill.)
Move Silently
Hide
Listen
*Backstab (this is actually a special attack, not a skill)
*skills exclusive to Thieves

Other Skills
    In a rules light game, the DM will make rulings regarding other skills. Such actions will typically be resolved as ability checks. Listed below are some classic and modern skills with brief explanations. You may use them as reference and inspiration for actions in play.
    Animal Handling to command or train animals, appraise the monetary value of an item, gamble at games, gather information such as news, gossip, and rumors, commit forgery, escape artistry, disguise, speech such as bluff, diplomacy, intimidate, communicate with another creature who doesn't share a language, or read lips, decipher script to identify writing, craft makeshift objects or minor ordinary objects with artisan tools, performance arts, concentration on spellcasting in the presence of distractions, medicine to diagnose and treat injuries or illness, work a profession or trade, recall or learn knowledge or identify something unknown, sense motives of a creature, sleight of hand to use the hands to conceal an object, spellcraft to identify a spell, magic research to learn new spells or create magic items, tumble and perform stunts or acrobatic feats, use rope to secure a grappling hook, tie a knot, or bind a creature, use magic device to activate an magic item.

DM Tips

• Target numbers are in reality, arbitrary. Set a target number for a skill check based on a reasonable difficulty. Come up with a difficulty scale, such as ~7 for easy, ~12 for medium, 17+ for hard. Adjust the difficulty towards easy as the characters level up to represent how they improve.
  
• You don't need to roll for everything. Rolls are required if you determine if there is a chance of failure and if there are consequences for failure.
• The DM is in charge of the rules. You can make up any rules, just let the players know what kind of rules they're going to be playing with. A good time to discuss homebrew rules is when inviting new players to games or at session zeros.