Review Standards

It’s difficult to describe exactly what goes into writing a good adventure, as there isn’t one true method. Gavin Norman’s adventures look very different from Gus L.’s but they are both masters of the craft and I enjoy their work immensely. But I do think it will be useful if I try to enumerate what I look for when reading an adventure. Adventure design is a compromise between many different factors and it’s impossible to do all of these things all of the time, but an author should keep them in mind. I may come back and update this from time to time. Let me know in the comments if you think there’s something I should add, tweak or to let me know that I’m dumb and my opinions are bad.

Tell the GM in plain English exactly what’s going on. All the history, all the secrets, all the puzzles. Don’t make them piece it together. Give them all the information so they can convey it to the players as they see fit.
Information should be relevant to the PCs and actionable. Avoid descriptions like “this room used to be a kitchen during the heyday of King Goober VII”. Avoid overlong background sections and histories that the PCs will never be able to learn or use to their advantage. Focus on information that GM needs to convey to the players so they can play the game.
Pay attention to time. It is a crucial game mechanic that the players should be in constant interaction with. It’s a valuable resource and you should look for opportunities to limit it and use it up.
Time in Shadowdark is measured in rounds or real-time hours. If you’re going to use any other measurement of time you’d better have a very good reason and an explanation of how it works.
Create dilemmas. Give the players lots of choices to make and make some of those choices very difficult. The ability to make infinite impactful choices are the advantage TTRPGs have over any other sort of gaming and it’s also FUN.
I prefer to make traps somewhat obvious and enticing. This is a great opportunity for a dilemma. The players should have an idea of the risk of triggering the trap and the reward for outsmarting it.
Avoid having monsters attack as soon as the party enters the room. Give the monsters something to do besides waiting to die. Check out these tables for inspiration if you can’t think of anything: https://blog.d4caltrops.com/p/ose-encounter-activity-tables.html. Use reaction rolls.
But wherever possible, give the players the choice to fight. Sometimes their prior decisions will lead to inevitable combat, and that’s fine, as long as it is result of their decisions.
Whatever your room key format/layout is, make sure that it:
- Draws attention to the most interactive/interesting parts of the location.
- Follows the order that that PCs will likely notice things. Do not put the three enraged ogres wielding bloody axes at the end of the room key.
- Does not over-describe in the initial room description. Leave some things for the player to ask the GM about.
Make sure you’re adventure includes an appropriate amount of treasure. The rewards should be proportionate to the risk and effort required.
Make it HOTT: Hazards, obstacles, tricks and traps. Create opportunities for interactions “beyond simple traps to ‘save’ against and monsters ready to ‘fight until killed’” (quoted from Gus L.). Environmental obstacles, puzzles, mysteries, etc etc. Something to engage the players’ brains outside of their character sheet.
Provide support for multiple solutions to the dungeons’ problems, both for the players and the GMs. For the players this means things like multiple paths, environmental tools, opportunities for stealth, social solutions and, of course, violence. For GMs this means open-ended encounters and puzzles, anticipating possible solutions by providing things like ability check DCs and time required, and information on how a dungeon’s inhabitants might behave and what they want.
Include original art that depicts unique monsters and memorable scenes from the adventure. If you’re tempted to use AI art, remember that there is lots of stock art and public domain art available, and that Buddyscott uses stick man art that looks rad as hell.
Use standard DCs of 9/12/15/18 that are in the core rules. A DC 20 can be used sparingly. By standardizing this way, the players understand what each number represents in difficulty and everyone is working on the same, even scale. It also avoides some of the subtle DC inflation that occurs at higher levels. A 12 is always normal.
Learn how to make monsters consistent with the core rules and level appropriate. Simple things like calculating hit points are often done incorrectly. This is explained in pages 189-193 in the book. There is also a great guide to monster stats here: https://mattdietrich.itch.io/guide-to-shadowdark-monster-statistics.