Sabre Runner's Adventure Template

<div class='cover-header'>Adventure Template</div>

<div style='position:absolute;left:260px;top:145px;text-align:center;color:#fff;text-shadow:1px 1px 2px #000000,-1px 1px 2px #000000,1px -1px 2px #000000,-1px -1px 2px #000000;font-size:22px;'>by Eran "Sabre Runner" Arbel</div>

<div class='cover-footer'>An Adventure for A System<br/>
Designed for [number] to [number] [number]th level characters<br/>
</div>

\pagebreak

#### REMOVE THIS! REPLACE ANYTHING INSIDE [] WITH YOUR OWN CONTENT!

#### And if you want an example of all this, buy [my adventure on the DM's Guild](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/322511/Monkey-Wrenches "Monkey Wrenches")!

## Adventure Primer

*[Cool Qoute]*

[Say again for what amount of what characters this adventure is for. Also good to mention how long it's supposed to run.]

[The intended setting for this adventure, or options on where to place it.]

[What type of adventure is this (Mostly combat, exploration, or social), what players should expect as far as major beats are concerned, and maybe even tell them what characters to bring.]

[Maturity rating, accessibility notes, and any triggers you think could happen from this adventure.]

### Background

[Give some background notes to the guide, things they should know before the adventure starts.]

### Overview

The adventure’s story is spread over [number] parts and takes [number] hours to play. The adventure begins with The Setup scene.

The main goal of the adventure is [...]

* **The Setup: [Part Name].** [Show the PCs what they are dealing with (or think they're dealing with) and the hook for the adventure.]
* **The Challenge: [Part Name].** [The first obstacle in getting into the adventure, preferable to focus on one specific pillar like 70/20/10 Exploration, Social, and Combat.]
* **The Setback: [Part Name].** [Something is sprung on the party that is unexpected. Something is not as it seems. They have to retread old ground or look at old things in a new way to understand what's really going on. Preferable to focus on a different pillar or all of them.]
* **The Culmination: [Part Name].** [The PCs do what they're actually here to do to solve the situation. This could be a skill challenge but usually a big boss fight, exhausted or depleted from parts 1 and 2.]
* **The Reward/Twist: [Part Name].** [The characters celebrate victory, get their rewards, and/or find out that they got it wrong all along, the big bad is actually somewhere else or they only solved one part of a much bigger issue or even that they were on the wrong side from the beginning.]

### Adventure Hooks

[General definition of the characters that are gearing up for the adventure.] But you can also address specific characters with specific interests.

\columnbreak

They could be:
* **Background - [Background Name]**. [Why a person with this background might be interested.]
* **Alignment - [Alignment Name]**. [Why a person with this alignment might be interested.]
* **Class - [Class Name]**. [Why a person with this class might be interested.]
* **Race - [Race Name]**. [Why a person with this race might be interested.]

### Tabletop Audio

Throughout this adventure are recommendations for audio tracks to use, whether for inspiration for the mood of the section or to actually play at your table.

To access these tracks, go to [Tabletop Audio](http://tabletopaudio.com "Tabletop Audio") and find the tracks by name. Then you can play them from the site or save them for later.

### Tension

Something I've come across that I now like to use in every adventure is the Angry GM's [Tension Pool](https://theangrygm.com/definitive-tension-pool/). Read about it in the attached article but in the sense of an adventure or a scene, you have to think about the following things:

1. **What adds to the pool?** What eats up the leeway in the scene? If the adventure timeline is a couple days then a few hours will do it. If the scene is a tense negotiation, any unprofessionality can stack.
2. **What rolls the pool?** What "pokes the bear"? For an infiltration, leaving a body in the open or making too much noise. If it's preparing a town for an invasion then scouting the enemies or doing anything that is big and flashy.
3. **Complications.** This should be a table per the situation. Make it as big and diverse as you can (without breaking your brain): A d100 table of ever worsening events that you can add +5 or +10 to the roll for every time it triggers or a d20 table where you roll a d4 and upgrade the die for each trigger. Don't make the table more than 2/3rds monsters.
4. **What clears the pool?** When is the tension over? It could be disabling all the guards, alarms or ability to call reinforcements or when the adventure ends.

\pagebreakNum

### Format

I don't write adventures exactly in the style prescribed by Wizards of the Coast. I find it is not very conductive to remembering the information or referencing it mid-game. As a non-English native, guiding almost entirely non-English games, boxed text is almost entirely useless for me.

Therefore, every part of the adventure is divided into **Scenes**.

Each scene has several sections: **The Scene, NPCs, Motivation, Information, Treasure and Pillars**.

**The Scene:** Sights, Sounds, and Smells (Sometimes even Touch and Taste).

**NPCs:** The prominent characters to encounter, who they are, and how they look.

**Motivation:** What the NPCs want, what their goals are, and what their purpose is in that scene.

**Information:** The sources of information that the party might explore, and what they hold.

**Treasure:** Any material gain the party might find and what they have to do to get it. Prepare for the PCs to loot every nook and creature for any copper piece or little knick-knack they can find.

**Pillars:** Exploration, Social, and Combat and suggestions of how the scene might react if the party tries each of them.
If this section is empty, the scene is not meant for intricate interaction.

**Difficulty** explains how to make the scene slightly easier or harder if you feel the need to.

\pagebreakNum

# The Setup: [Part Name]

#### Estimated Time: [Number] minutes.

This section is the Setup. It's meant as a short introduction, the hook, and mostly an info-dump (but get the players to ask for it).

[Short description of what is expected to happen and what the characters should accomplish before moving on to the next part.]

> **Tabletop Audio Musical Note**: ["Track Names"].

## [Scene Number & Scene Name]

### The Scene

##### Sights
[What can be see here?]

##### Sounds
[What can be hear here?]

##### Smells
[What can be smelled here?]

##### Touch
[What can be felt here?]

##### Taste
[What can be tasted here?]

### NPCs

##### [NPC Name]
[Short physical description, who they actually are, attitude, and mannerisms]

### Motivation

##### [NPC Name]
[What are they trying to achieve? What do they really want? What are they doing here?]

### Information

##### [Information Source - creature or object]
[What can be gleaned from this source and how will it respond to predictable approaches?]

### Treasure
[What can be retrieved (from creatures or objects) and what must be done to get it?]

### Pillars

##### Exploration
[What skills or other interactions can PCs perform and what will they achieve?]

##### Social
[What will happen if the PCs act kindly, harshly, or manipulatively towards creatures?]

##### Combat
[How will creatures behave if combat ensues and what terrain or environmental hazards will affect combat?]

### Difficulty

##### Easier
[What to do to make the scene easier.]

##### Harder
[What to do to make the scene harder.]

### Tension

##### Timeframes

##### Triggers

##### Complications

##### End

\pagebreakNum

# The Challenge: [Part Name]

#### Estimated Time: [Number] minutes.

The Challenge is the PCs first mechanical interaction. It can be exploration, social, or combat but it should show the players you mean business. The PCs can fail here but not irrevocably.

[Short description of what is expected to happen and what the characters should accomplish before moving on to the next part.]

> **Tabletop Audio Musical Note**: ["Track Names"].

## [Scene Number & Scene Name]

### The Scene

##### Sights
[What can be see here?]

##### Sounds
[What can be hear here?]

##### Smells
[What can be smelled here?]

##### Touch
[What can be felt here?]

##### Taste
[What can be tasted here?]

### NPCs

##### [NPC Name]
[Short physical description, who they actually are, attitude, and mannerisms]

### Motivation

##### [NPC Name]
[What are they trying to achieve? What do they really want? What are they doing here?]

### Information

##### [Information Source - creature or object]
[What can be gleaned from this source and how will it respond to predictable approaches?]

### Treasure
[What can be retrieved (from creatures or objects) and what must be done to get it?]

### Pillars

##### Exploration
[What skills or other interactions can PCs perform and what will they achieve?]

##### Social
[What will happen if the PCs act kindly, harshly, or manipulatively towards creatures?]

##### Combat
[How will creatures behave if combat ensues and what terrain or environmental hazards will affect combat?]

### Difficulty

##### Easier
[What to do to make the scene easier.]

##### Harder
[What to do to make the scene harder.]

### Tension

##### Timeframes

##### Triggers

##### Complications

##### End

\pagebreakNum

# The Setback: [Part Name]

#### Estimated Time: [Number] minutes.

The PCs run into something that stops their charge forward, an obstacle or a missing piece, that forces them back to regroup and re-evaluate.

[Short description of what is expected to happen and what the characters should accomplish before moving on to the next part.]

> **Tabletop Audio Musical Note**: ["Track Names"].

## [Scene Number & Scene Name]

### The Scene

##### Sights
[What can be see here?]

##### Sounds
[What can be hear here?]

##### Smells
[What can be smelled here?]

##### Touch
[What can be felt here?]

##### Taste
[What can be tasted here?]

### NPCs

##### [NPC Name]
[Short physical description, who they actually are, attitude, and mannerisms]

### Motivation

##### [NPC Name]
[What are they trying to achieve? What do they really want? What are they doing here?]

### Information

##### [Information Source - creature or object]
[What can be gleaned from this source and how will it respond to predictable approaches?]

### Treasure
[What can be retrieved (from creatures or objects) and what must be done to get it?]

### Pillars

##### Exploration
[What skills or other interactions can PCs perform and what will they achieve?]

##### Social
[What will happen if the PCs act kindly, harshly, or manipulatively towards creatures?]

##### Combat
[How will creatures behave if combat ensues and what terrain or environmental hazards will affect combat?]

### Difficulty

##### Easier
[What to do to make the scene easier.]

##### Harder
[What to do to make the scene harder.]

### Tension

##### Timeframes

##### Triggers

##### Complications

##### End

\pagebreakNum

# The Culmination: [Part Name]

#### Estimated Time: [Number] minutes.

This is what we're here for and what the PCs worked to get to. This should look like the end: just do this and the adventure is resolved. Usually this is the boss confrontation, the main event.

[Short description of what is expected to happen and what the characters should accomplish before moving on to the next part.]

> **Tabletop Audio Musical Note**: ["Track Names"].

## [Scene Number & Scene Name]

### The Scene

##### Sights
[What can be see here?]

##### Sounds
[What can be hear here?]

##### Smells
[What can be smelled here?]

##### Touch
[What can be felt here?]

##### Taste
[What can be tasted here?]

### NPCs

##### [NPC Name]
[Short physical description, who they actually are, attitude, and mannerisms]

### Motivation

##### [NPC Name]
[What are they trying to achieve? What do they really want? What are they doing here?]

### Information

##### [Information Source - creature or object]
[What can be gleaned from this source and how will it respond to predictable approaches?]

### Treasure
[What can be retrieved (from creatures or objects) and what must be done to get it?]

### Pillars

##### Exploration
[What skills or other interactions can PCs perform and what will they achieve?]

##### Social
[What will happen if the PCs act kindly, harshly, or manipulatively towards creatures?]

##### Combat
[How will creatures behave if combat ensues and what terrain or environmental hazards will affect combat?]

### Difficulty

##### Easier
[What to do to make the scene easier.]

##### Harder
[What to do to make the scene harder.]

### Tension

##### Timeframes

##### Triggers

##### Complications

##### End

\pagebreakNum

# The Reward/Twist: [Part Name]

#### Estimated Time: [Number] minutes.

The PCs (and players) get to celebrate a hard won victory, show how everyone and everything reacts joyfully and reward them... or... they find the twist, figure out the real deal and get a hook for the next adventure.

> **Tabletop Audio Musical Note**: ["Track Names"].

## [Scene Number & Scene Name]

### The Scene

##### Sights
[What can be see here?]

##### Sounds
[What can be hear here?]

##### Smells
[What can be smelled here?]

##### Touch
[What can be felt here?]

##### Taste
[What can be tasted here?]

### NPCs

##### [NPC Name]
[Short physical description, who they actually are, attitude, and mannerisms]

### Motivation

##### [NPC Name]
[What are they trying to achieve? What do they really want? What are they doing here?]

### Information

##### [Information Source - creature or object]
[What can be gleaned from this source and how will it respond to predictable approaches?]

### Treasure
[What can be retrieved (from creatures or objects) and what must be done to get it?]

\pagebreakNum

## Creature Statistics

[Use Insert\Monster Block to add the creatures present in the adventure. This is also a good place to detail your villain for the adventure and what makes them so.]

\pagebreakNum

# Map [Map Number & Name]

###### [Enter a map here if you want.]

\pagebreak
 
 <div class='back-cover-image'></div>
 
 <div style='margin-top:20px;'></div>
 
 <div class='back-cover-header'>
 
 Adventure
 
 Title
 
 </div>
 
 <div class='back-cover-text'>
 
 [Back side blurb.]
 
 [Get possible buyers hooked on your adventure.]
 
 [Some simple generic info about who this adventure is good for.]

</div>
 
 <div class='back-cover-diamond' style='top: 669px;'></div>
 
 <div style='margin-top:35px;'></div>
 
  <div class='back-cover-logo'></div>
 
 <div class='back-cover-logo-link'>
 
 [WWW.GMBINDER.COM](https://www.gmbinder.com)
 
 </div>
 
 \columnbreak
 
 <div class='back-cover-right'>
 
 ##### Credits
 
**Design & Writing** by [Name Here].

**Editing** by [Name Here].

**Art** by [Name Here].

**Monster Design** by [Name Here].

**Map** by [Name Here].

**Based on Adventure Template** by [Eran "Sabre Runner" Arbel](https://eran.geek.co.il/links).

</div>