(Part of NextLevel)

The average adventure, no matter what its form, has a very simple structure. When one does not know this structure, one usually ends up reinventing the wheel every time one writes a new adventure. that is not very practical.

The structure goes something like this: The player characters go somewhere, overcome a challenge, get a reward, and go somewhere else to overcome another challenge for another reward, possibly with the help of the first reward they got. For example, they kick in a door, defeat a troll and takes the big weapon it had so they can defeat the ogre behind the next door.

This is a very simple structure. Many entertaining adventures have been created by simply repeating it over and over again with the proper variations. So let's see what we can vary, shall we?

The combination of a location, a challenge and a reward is usually called a scene. Complex scenes may have more than one of either location, challenge and/or reward, as noted above.

Adventures basically consist of a lot of scenes that have a common story to them.

Let's have an example of a scene slightly more complex than the troll & ogre thing: Inside a church, the players must figure out why the priest keeps avoiding their questions clumsily. If they realize he refuses to speek because someone else is present, they may just root out this intruder and capture him. That will allow them to get some very good information from both the priest and their captive.

Pick location, challenge(s) and reward(s), and you have a scene. Now let's look at plot and structure.

Plot

Like scenes, the plot of an adventure contains a few elements that can usually be filled pretty fast. For future reference, we will call the four main elements Initiator, Complicator, Objective and Target.

An example: The local mayor wants to secretly rig the next election. His major opponent wants to avoid that. The mayor is the Initiator, his opponent is the Complicator, the election is the Target, and the rigging is the objective. Most game worlds have tons of characters, organizations, events, and so on that can be put into this core foursome.

Unlike movies, plots need not be excessively complex in most roleplaying game adventures; player bickering and side-tracking (shopping and general rowdiness, mostly) will add quite a lot of action to most games, and social interaction between the players around the table will also be a big part of a game.

What the plot needs to do is first of all to explain why a lot of things happen; if two sides just start making life horrible for each other for now perceivable reason, things tend to degenerate into a mess quite quickly. The plot adds an explanation, even when the link is not entirely visible ("I don't know why they are out here in the junkyard at night, but it has to have something to do with that robbery"). In it's simplest form, a plot is a McGuffin: Someone wants to get something, or bring it to someone else, and someone wants to stop them. A quick explanation (blueprints, hostage, whatever) is quickly thrown in, and the characters have a reason for fighting each other. Often, no more is needed.

Hook

The plot can basically be seen as what will happen if the player characters never get involved. 'A' wants to hurt 'B' and 'B' wants to stop that ('B' is both Target and Complicator here; being both Target and Initiator is also possible, though less common. Being both Initiator and Complicator is very illogical). If it was just a story, either A or B would succeed, end of story.

Enter the player characters! But why do they enter, and for what purpose? To take the purpose first, in a simple adventure (as the Quick'N'Dirty ones tend to be), they are either on the Initiator's or Complicator's side. They may even be the Initiator or Complicator. Their motives need not be incredibly complex; greed (loot or paycheck), revenge, fear (of being killed, or for losing someone or something), or a host of other simple motives can do the job just fine. A bit of variation between these from adventure to adventure is healthy, or they may start growing numb to a particular motive ("oh Christ, not another plot to kill my sister. I think we should just do it ourselves and get it over with already"). Just remember: Whatever the motive, it should be aimed at both the players and their player characters! If it is not aimed at the players, they will not act. If it is not aimed at the characters, it will seem irrational and might upset the plausibility of the campaign.

Just find something the players want their characters to do, and allow them to do it through participation in the adventure. They want wealth and fame? Well, by saving the princess from the orcs, they may get just that.

Structure

The point of structure is to take the players from the beginning of the adventure, with no knowledge of who what and why, to the conclusion, with a good enough picture of events to understand why it had to be done. From A to B, essentially, and with the ability to look back and say "so that's why".