When you’re designing an encounter for use in your home game, you probably not putting down everything about it on paper. Some you will improvise at the table, other pieces you’ve already decided but live in your head rather than in any written form.

Getting that head space into a publishable form? That takes more words than you might expect. It does, however, depend on the audience you have.

Are you writing for a group of DMs who are happy improvising and extending the encounter? Then you can go shorter.

However, for the general, more unknown, DM, you go longer, trying to cover all the possibilities. If you’re not careful, this can become stupidly long.

Why is long bad? It’s because it covers Too Much Stuff. Every word you write is another word the DM needs to remember or quickly find when running the encounter.

I was amusing myself writing a short encounter to demonstrate how bad it can be to use poor fonts and colors, but it then developed into something more serious and wordy. So, I’m going to share that encounter with you, plus how I would write it for the home game.

The Home Game

A water elemental emerges from a well and grabs a young boy, who was trying to draw water from it. It’s very annoyed and will kill him if not stopped.

The Published Adventure Form

BEWARE THE WELL!

Who is this for? A party of level 5 characters.

Set-up: The characters begin in an Inn. A dwarf (named James) runs in and explains that things have gone CRAZY outside! He needs adventurers right now.

What is Outside: The characters see the village square with a lot of panicking people. A young human boy (commoner) named Shawn is held upside down by a tendril of water coming from inside the village well.

The Monster: The tendril of water is the arm of a water elemental named “WhooshOoshCloosh” in Aquan or “Drop of the Ocean” in Common. It accidentally appeared at the bottom of the well and was not impressed by Shawn attempting to dip a bucket into it. It is teaching him a lesson that he might not survive. Despite this, it is not evil, and does not (yet) damage the boy. But, as it only speaks Aquan, it is difficult to talk down. It fully emerges from the well in the second round of the encounter.

Complications: Shawn’s mother, Thea (commoner), is desperately attempting to grab the boy from the water elemental. Each round, she interferes with one random character adjacent to the elemental, imposing disadvantage on any attack rolls or ability checks that character makes.

Rescuing Shawn: A character adjacent to the Water Elemental may attempt to free Shawn from the monster using an action. They should make a DC 14 Strength or Dexterity check. On a success, they partially free the boy. On the third success, the boy is freed. Other methods may work at your discretion. After the boy is freed, the elemental will attempt to recover him, moving after him and using the grappling rules.

Getting Help: Two sages, Mike and Teos, know Aquan and can negotiate with the elemental. If the characters bring up the possibility of seeking help, you may inform them of the fact. The sages live nearby, and come to investigate the disturbance, arriving ten rounds after the encounter begins. If a character finds them first, halve the remaining time before they arrive. (So, if they are found in the fourth round, it takes three more rounds for them to arrive).

Resolving the Encounter: Anything could happen! Combat, negotiation, mime, interpretive dance, peace! Your presentation of the situation makes a difference. If you emphasise that the elemental is waving the boy around without hurting him, perhaps the characters won’t attack and will seek a peaceful resolution. Or you can make it more aggressive and turn this into a combat.

Rewards: Regardless of how the characters resolve the situation, award the party 1,800 XP if Shawn survives. The town also band together to give a reward to the party of 100 gold pieces and two potions of healing for each character. If Shawn does not survive, only award 900 XP, and the town does not give a reward. Depending on the party’s actions, they may be expelled from the town.

Notes and Comments

…and that isn’t even a complete published encounter form! Note the lack of details about the location. It could do with a lot of editing, and I think it still skews more towards the improvising DM rather the DM who needs everything written down. Although, I hope there is enough there for a DM to work with.

Writing adventures is an imperfect science. Even when using something at home, you want reminders so you can run the stuff that was in your head. And having elements that then spur your creativity as you run the adventure is also key. D&D adventures are interpreted, not run exactly such as in a computer game. The DM adjusts elements to better fit the party and the experience.

I chose the format of this encounter to give the DM an idea that this encounter is not necessarily a combat encounter. It’s a rescue-the-boy encounter, but you can resolve it peacefully. Though, given a lot of people I play with, it’s unlikely it wouldn’t end in combat. (I live in hope!)

Can you see how the encounter doesn’t cover everything? Say someone does speak Aquan (or Primordial). What details does it give about how you talk the elemental down? That’s not there. It’s something the DM needs to determine themselves. There are a couple of clues, yes, but it’s not something that is elaborated upon. Should it be there? Now, that’s a thornier question. And it gets even trickier when some DMs want a more structured framework, perhaps akin to how Skill Challenges worked in 4E.

What works best? Well, it helps to look at other adventures, and see what appeals to you!