I bang on a lot about adventure structure, because, in my opinion, it’s the most likely thing to sabotage a published adventure.

Published D&D adventures have a strange relationship with the form. By their very nature, they constrain the activities of the players. However, they also provide opportunities for adventure. It’s that balance between the constraints and the opportunities that is so hard to get right.

One of the nice things about delving into the realm of computer games, as I have heavily done for the past four years, is that I get to see a lot of the complaints about Dungeons & Dragons mirrored in the Computer RPG space.

You have games like The Last of Us, which is a very linear experience. A little agency is given to the player in how they approach the combats, and a few side paths which hold secret collectibles. I am sure you can think of more than a few adventures that are structured like that!

Meanwhile, there are the Open World games that, while they might have a storyline, that can be ignored as you go and explore other parts of the world and participate in side activities. Assassin’s Creed, Skyrim, and Horizon: Zero Dawn are examples of those.

But the open world game is not without criticism. The side activities can become pointless, purely checkbox-ticking without much meaningful content. And this is mirrored in Dungeons & Dragons. Although not every “sandbox” game is run in such a manner, at worst you’re exploring through many blank hexes on the Tomb of Annihilation or Isle of Dread map wondering what the point of it all is.

It’s not easy, this adventure writing game.

I was recently taking my players through a series of adventures by Troll Lord Games. They were Old School Games for a certain value of Old School. (I love the OSR, I don’t love everyone in it or everything it releases). But I could see how the campaign was hampered by a lack of understanding of its form.

The overall plot was that the players learn of a massive invading army and must return a banished god to the world to stop it. In most adventures in the modern era, the overall structure would be easy – mainly linear, but with opportunities (in key sites) for the players to bring their ingenuity to bear.

(“Modern” encompasses a lot of D&D’s history, in fact. But the techniques have gotten better over the years. Mostly).

The adventures had a curious lack of understanding of what was going on. Large sections were devoted to wilderness travel, but wilderness travel only interspersed with random encounters against creatures with no connection to the story. At one point, the designer devoted several pages to a monster lair, that could only be randomly encountered. But there was no reason to enter the lair – save perhaps a wish for loot. Except this is a party doing their best to save their homeland from the invasion. Why are they delaying their journey for this?

Rich Burlew, in his Order of the Stick webcomic, had a wonderful joke that there was only one random encounter on any journey. This is true for a certain type of adventure: the adventure where there’s a set goal and the journey is not the adventure. If you’re going to have an extended road trip with several encounters when you have an ongoing plot, they need to reinforce that plot.

It’s a good DMing technique to link otherwise random encounters to the plot. Goblins? They’re fleeing the invading horde! And I often do that in my games. But it really helps when the adventure considers this.

(When I run Hoard of the Dragon Queen, the road trip is a place where I can not only see the reaction of the players to the various encounters, but I can then demonstrate to them the reaction of the cultists! And if the players then use that knowledge, interesting things can occur. Like the party persuading the cultists that the assassins in the inn were actually after them…)

Another “modern” technique lacking was of scripted scenes. Yes, I know they have a bad reputation when poorly used, but there are times when you need to set the parameters of a situation so that everyone is on the same page. The amazing thing this series of adventures lacks is a concluding scene. You’ve returned the power of the god, and use it to crack a dam that will sweep the horde away. And then it’s got this assumption that you’ll be facing the horde when this occurs. In a very vague way.

For all my problems with Shadow of the Dragon Queen, it at least has an ending scene where you confront the Dragon Highlord in a plausible manner.

It is perfectly fine to have an adventure that is wide open, and provides more of a setting than a plot. But it’s very hard to have a plot and then design the adventure using only the tools for settings!

Shadow of the Dragon Queen and Tomb of Annihilation are unusual cousins in that they both have a hexcrawl done poorly. And, while both handle it differently, it’s the same underlying problem. (And, to be honest, Descent into Avernus also shares this problem).

For a hexcrawl that is also an investigation, the #1 thing you need to include on the map are clues to what the party are searching for.

Guess what all three of those adventures lack?

Shadow and Descent get around it by imposing a linear storyline on the hexcrawl. Surprise! It’s not an exploration after all, it’s you going from point A to point B to point C based on the needs of the plot (various NPCs being the directors of said plot).

Meanwhile, Tomb makes almost every location in the jungle devoid of clues to build the story. As I count it, there are three people who can tell you where to go, two of them in the starting city (and one in a fort along the coast). You have to luck into them or have a kindly DM.

Where’s the gradual building of knowledge that eventually leads to a realisation of your goal and the journey truly starting?

It’s sort of the same problem as with the Troll Lord Games adventure series – encounters divorced from the story.

(I am all for encounters that do world-building and aren‘t strictly tied to the adventure, but they can’t be the only type!)

Meanwhile, consider Storm King’s Thunder. In that adventure, after saving a town from a giant attack, the party gain a number of side quests to fulfil, each of which gives them treasure and experience. They have goals, and they’re having fun. However, as they travel the North, they encounter more and more giants doing strange things. These are random encounters, but they’re designed to intrigue the players and alert them that something is going on with the giants. And then, someone seeks out the party and explains that the North is in trouble, and he needs them to help save it!

Storm King’s Thunder understands the hybrid nature it needs. It moves between sandbox play, and then narrows down to linear play when the story requires it. It then opens up again, before narrowing down again.

Is SKT the only way to design an adventure? By no means! But it does show a better understanding of the form than some others I’ve read. Even if it doesn’t always explain that form well to DMs reading it!