Thinking Small Adventures

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 I want to explain a philosophy for adventure design I have developed on, I hope: thinking small.

Honey I Shrunk the Adventure!

Many good adventures give lots of play out of small packages. This is not a new idea. The 3 hex campaign start and 5 room dungeon are known for giving creativity via constraints (a well-touted idea). Brevity in the adventure text is also a much-loved and effective way to give creativity through vagueries. I see these as a part of a core rule of thumb: do more with less.

I think this is a great design philosophy. I would like to push it a bit further, and to a potentially new aspect of the rule of thumb, that deserves just as much attention. Before, I have written a scenario premise, which you can get a whole session out of (in most cases), and I've mentioned before having a cool idea. I want to propose a design philosophy: have the core danger of a setting fit into a single coherent description, and a summary of an adventure location fit into a paragraph or so.

A Cool Idea

I'm a firm believer that a good session revolves around a central activity or conflict. Completing the activity or resolving the conflict should be the goal of a single session. Its focus makes GM prep easier, its resolution provides good session structure, and it provides a chunk to fit into a larger campaign. 

This may sound like one-shot stuff, but I think campaigns should also be broken into linked cool ideas. This provides a natural session-length structure and gives a more gripping session when a campaign might feel like it slogs through the same type of material.

I think a cool idea is viable when it can be summarized pretty succinctly (maybe not literally one sentence, but succinctly). Many of my favorite adventures fit this. Lair of the Lamb can be summarized as "You are trapped in a dungeon with a giant monstrosity. Can you escape before being eaten?" Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier can be summarized as "Can you loot the giant crystal tomb, fallen from the sky, and fend off its alien residents?" If it doesn't sound cool in a format like this, it may not be as cool as you think.

I think this provides a lot of centrality for a game as well. What are we doing in the dungeon? Well, refer to central activity/conflict and you have your answer. This gives players more to do than just wander from room to room. It sets up conflicts to have opinions on, and that guides plans and actions.

This eases GM prep as well, by not having to come up with many disconnected elements for an adventure location. It should all be somehow, some way, fitting with the central idea. The ideas can all flow from there. Just consider your conflict from a local, regional, or global perspective and the interactions that it has on that scale.

Think small: a short description should have a lot of adventure potential.

Where do Cool Ideas Come From?

Messenger pigeons deliver them to expecting GMs. But seriously, I want to reiterate the best advice on cool ideas: rip off stuff. Mix and remix ideas, combine, splice, and multiply the elements. Follow your dreams, especially your nightmares. Watch books and read movies. Scribbly a podcast. Ok I'm just saying random words now. Get on a chaise lounge and free associate, have a friend take notes (the ORIGINAL slush pile, if I do say so).

Here are some Cool Ideas for you to start with:

  • Bomb defusal
  • Silent Gardens (as referenced above)
  • Hostage situation
  • Trapped with THE BEAST (a la LotL, or Over the Garden Wall)
  • Recover delicate ancient artifact (Indiana Jones, Archive 81... maybe.)
  • Exorcise a possessed house (Poltergeist, Monster House)
  • Help a haunted painter (Duma Key)
  • Hunt down feral vampire (RuneScape... kinda)
  • Why are the animals talking? Why do they say such mean things? (ok getting off the chaise lounge now)

Combine, splice, and multiply. And think small.

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