Daily Adventure Prompts @dailyadventureprompts - Tumblr Blog

The Daily Adventure Prompts Masterpost

After several years of running this blog, it’s become more and more evident that I need some central reference where people can access all my different DM advice posts, important tags, and ongoing series. Sharing my ideas with people and helping to improve the art and craft of being a dungeonmaster was always the point of DAP after all, and its of no help to anyone if the answers to important questions are buried under a hundred or more pages of my rambling.

To that end, I present this post as an ever expanding catalogue of my thoughts. Something that you can page through at your leisure in hopes some of my hardwon lessons will be of use to you.

#DM advice #masterpost

Genuinely curious: How many of your players are loot goblins? (meaning, will take on risk because there's the promise of something shiny/empowering on the other side?). Because I've been reflecting on it recently and I've realized I'm usually the ONLY treasure motivated player in my play group.

This might explain why most of my players, despite PREFERRING to play dungeons & dragons, explicitly don't like dungeons because they see them as high pressure slogs. Their brains aren't wired to shoot off fireworks in the reward centre when I dangle a treasure map or glimmering trinket in front of them.

I knew it was a disconnect before, but I've genuinly only realized how big the gap really is after taking a break from d&d for a while.

#dapper digresses #dnd meta

🤔 unexpected aspect of GM burnout: draining the cool stuff reservoir.

In a long running campaign, one of the GM's many jobs is providing a steady stream of cool encounters/sights/scenarios/characters for players to enjoy.

Thing is, players burn through those things at a rate somewhere between FAST and LIGHTING FAST, sometimes faster than can be sustained by the narrative that many games (esp D&D campaigns) can sustain. In Traditional stories the author has total control over when a story element gets to exist on camera/ has overstayed its welcome, but in ttrpgs that decision relies almost entirely on the whims of the dice/players.

I had a party that had an unwritten "no antagonists" rule, so the moment they learned of an NPC that was opposed to them in any way, they would immediately devote their every available resource to killing them at the earliest opportunity.

Rebuilding this stock of cool ideas is an active process that requires downtime, as well as developing skills of knowing how to make you have. Emptying the reservoir leads to derivative and underdeveloped story ideas (which can likewise undermine a campaign but I'm going to make another post about that)

#dapper digresses #dm tip #dnd meta

Man, lately I've really wanting to make some pixel art. If any of my wonderful followers have some resources they'd recommend for getting started, I'd love some suggestions!

#dapper digresses #want to make a game so bad but I'll need to teach myself everything from scratch aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh

spaceshipsandpurpledrank

punissuer

ID / TL;DW: young Black man explains the history of voodoo dolls: they originated in England, where Black people where prohibited from learning to read or write, to help witches keep track of what ailed their patients. Eg., person goes to witch and laments headache, they treat their headache and make a small doll (called "poppet"), trying to represent them as good as possible, stick a needle in its head and put it up a shelf. When they return next week, the witch takes their poppet and asks about their headache. If it's gone, they remove the needle, otherwise they know they have to treat a rather persistent headache.

tartrazeen

I'm just gonna freeze-frame this for everybody:

#history #man I love the feeling of learning stuff

Wild idea: your party gets to the big city excited to offload their dungeon plunder, restock their gear, and score some sweet magic items except when they get to the bustling, chaotic market you run it almost EXACTLY like you would a dungeon crawl. Rather than managing HP and spellslots and the like, the party's goal is to manage their funds while haggling with merchants, avoiding pickpockets and not attracting the attention of the guards. If they do well, they'll be able to find better deals and even rare, secretive imports.

#dnd #dm advice

HEY I MADE A THING AND I'M REALLY PROUD OF IT. So you know how I've been obsessed with Triangle Agency lately? (And you should be too it's amazing) Well, last summer, when I got into the game I decided I was going to make a ton of player Anomalies for it, effectively doubling the then available number of class options. And boy... did I ever commit.

Nine Anomalies with some of the weirdest powers I could think up, a book full of secrets to unlock.

Threshold: Mystery, Quests, Wizardry

Cornerstone: Earth, Archeology, Shelter

Dread: Fight, Flight, Slasher flicks

Index: Books, Museums, Memories

Feast: Hunger, Fine dining, Werewolves

Projection: Perception, Truth, The silver screen

Skitter: Bugs, Poison, Disgust

Synapse: Technology, Electricity, Overstimulation

Fathom: Water, The unknown, Moby Dick energy

If any of this catches your eye, you should absolutely check out Tirangle Agency! And if you want to get these Anomalies for yourself (or just toss me some support) you should head over to my itch page.

Art by the ever amazing @cohav-muzar

#triangle agency #homebrew #ttrpg #indie rpg

psssst, don't tell anyone but the secret sauce of getting your players invested in your TTRPG is to make likeable (or hateable) characters that care about whatever's going on in the plot. Humans are social creatures, and we'll pack bond with anything INCLUDING fictional entities.

#dm tip #dm tips #players get high on the DM roleplaying silly little guys like DMs get high on doing plot reveals #the friction occurs when either group forgets that

thewriteadviceforwriters

🧩 How to Outline Without Feeling Like You’re Dying

(a non-suffering writer’s guide to structure, sanity, and staying mildly hydrated)

Hey besties. Let’s talk outlines. Specifically: how to do them without crawling into the floorboards and screaming like a Victorian ghost.

If just hearing the word “outline” sends your brain into chaos-mode, welcome. You’re not broken, you’re just a writer whose process has been hijacked by Very Serious Advice™ that doesn’t fit you. You don’t need to build a military-grade beat sheet. You don’t need a sixteen-tab spreadsheet. You don’t need to suffer to be legitimate. You just need a structure that feels like it’s helping you, not haunting you.

So. Here’s how to outline your book without losing your soul (or all your serotonin).

—

🍓 1. Stop thinking of it as “outlining.” That word is cursed. Try “story sketch.” “Narrative roadmap.” “Planning soup.” Whatever gets your brain to chill out. The goal here is to understand your story, not architect it to death.

Outlining isn’t predicting everything. It’s just building a scaffold so your plot doesn't fall over mid-draft.

—

🧠 2. Find your plot skeleton. There are lots of plot structures floating around: 3-Act. Save the Cat. Hero’s Journey. Take what helps, ignore the rest.

If all else fails, try this dirt-simple one I use when my brain is mush:

Act I: What’s the problem?

Act II: Why can’t we fix it?

Act III: What finally makes us change?

Ending: What does that change cost?

You don’t need to fill in every detail. You just need to know what’s driving your character, what’s blocking them, and what choices will change them.

—

🛒 3. Make a “scene bucket list.” Before you start plotting in order, write down a list of scenes you know you want: key vibes, emotional beats, dramatic reveals, whatever.

These are your anchors. Even if you don’t know where they go yet, they’re proof your story already exists, it just needs connecting tissue.

Bonus: when you inevitably get stuck later, one of these might be the scene that pulls you back in.

—

🧩 4. Start with 5 key scenes. That’s it. Here’s a minimalist approach that won’t kill your momentum:

Opening (what sucks about their world?)

Catalyst (what throws them off course?)

Midpoint (what makes them confront themselves?)

Climax (what breaks or remakes them?)

Ending (what’s changed?)

Plot the spaces between those after you’ve nailed these. Think of it like nailing down corners of a poster before smoothing the rest.

You’re not “doing it wrong” if you start messy. A messy start is a start.

—

🔧 5. Use the outline to ask questions, not just answer them. Every section of your outline should provoke a question that the scene must answer.

Instead of: — “Chapter 5: Sarah finds a journal.”

Try: — “Chapter 5: What truth does Sarah find that complicates her next move?”

This makes your story active, not just a list of stuff that happens. Outlines aren’t just there to record, they’re tools for curiosity.

—

🪤 6. Beware of the Perfectionist Trap™. You will not get the entire plot perfect before you write. Don’t stall your momentum waiting for a divine lightning bolt of Clarity. You get clarity by writing.

Think of your outline as a map drawn in pencil, not ink. It’s allowed to evolve. It should evolve.

You’re not building a museum exhibit. You’re making a prototype.

—

🧼 7. Clean up after you start drafting. Here’s the secret: the first draft will teach you what the story’s actually about. You can go back and revise the outline to fit that. It’s not wasted work, it’s evolving scaffolding.

You don’t have to build the house before you live in it. You can live in the mess while you figure out where the kitchen goes.

—

🛟 8. If you’re a discovery writer, hybrid it. A lot of “pantsers” aren’t anti-outline, they’re just anti-stiff-outline. That’s fair.

Try using “signposts,” not full scenes:

Here’s a secret someone’s hiding.

Here’s the emotional breakdown scene.

Here’s a betrayal. Maybe not sure by who yet.

Let the plot breathe. Let the characters argue with your outline. That tension is where the fun happens.

—

🪴 TL;DR but emotionally: You don’t need a flawless outline to write a good book. You just need a loose net of ideas, a couple of emotional anchors, and the willingness to pivot when your story teaches you something new.

Outlines should support you, not suffocate you.

Let yourself try. Let it be imperfect. That’s where the good stuff lives.

Go forth and outline like a gently chaotic legend 🧃

— written with snacks in hand by Rin T. @ thewriteadviceforwriters 🍓🧠✍️

Sometimes the problem isn’t your plot. It’s your first 5 pages. Fix it here → 🖤 Free eBook: 5 Opening Pages Mistakes to Stop Making:

✦ A free (and actually helpful) guide to leveling up your first 10 pages ✦If you're unsure whether your opening is ✨doing enough✨ to hook re

#writing #writing advice

Ngl, being someone who commissions art in the wake of the TADC finale and the start of artfight season has me feeling like a racoon scavenging through dumpsters after a major sports event.

Like yessss, keep sharing your friends' brilliant artworks while I stuff my gluttonous little bookmarks folder, this season of bounty will keep me well stocked for MONTHS.

#dapper digresses

liliotl

So im going to be doing sketch coms because im so desperately in need of money for rent and paying off my medical debt lol

10$ without color 20$ with color idk

Also here's my kofi

Become a supporter of LiLiotl today!

liliotl

Commission example 🥀

So one of the things that you don't notice about D&D until you start playing other games is that by its very design (and despite the complaints of almost every single dungeon master,) D&D conditions players to be passive and uninventive.

Think about it this way...If a player wants to do something, they require:

the DM to allow them to do so (either in their role as referee or narrator)

the mechanics to be arranged in their favour (everything from class builds to environmental penalties to limited use abilities)

the dice to cooperate

If any one of these things isn't checked off, the player simply CAN'T do what they wanted to do. How many times have players come up with a solution for a challenge that SHOULD work, only to be foiled when either DM fiat or poor dicerolls said no?

Unless it’s something they’ve specc’d their character to be good at, players become pessimistic about the outcome of their actions, so they don’t try things. They don’t speak up in dialogue because they don't want their uncharismatic character to roll persuasion, they don't poke around the room because their afraid their unperceptive character will trigger a trap. They wait until the DM HANDS them the answer

DMs lament that their parties aren’t taking risks (because risks are supposed to be where the fun is), despite the fact that they’ve thoroughly punished players for taking risks in the past. This problem’s gotten so bad I’ve had completely new players start compulsively checking EVERY room for mimics because d&d’s “gotcha” attitude has pervaded out into the cultural consciousness surrounding the game.

Compare this with something like blades in the dark, which uses a d6 system where 1-3 is a failure, 4-5 is a success with a drawback, and 6 is a complete success. That’s a 50% chance of the player getting to do (at least partially) what they want, and that’s before we get into tossing multiple dice or expending resources to affect the roll.

Games like BitD train their players to be proactive about making moves in story/gameplay because those moves have a (mechanically incentivised) likelihood of paying off. It's one of the reasons that one of the best D&D hacks that I've ever used is the Tales of the Valiant's version of inspiration, which encourages players to make rolls by giving you rewards when you fail.

#dnd meta #game design

Are you the sort of person who likes things that are "weird"?

Do you like inventing blorbos and then subjecting them to the horrors™ ?

Would you get excited by the idea of a game that not only encouraged characterization, experimentation, and out of the box thinking.. but explicitly rewarded it?

Are you a burnt out queer filled with rage at the state of the world, looking for a chance to cause some cathartic havoc?

You* should start playing Triangle Agency

*stanndard disclaimer that no TTRPG is for everyone.

The Pitch: Triangle Agency is a paranormal investigation game like Monster of the Week or Delta Green where you play as unwilling employees of a laughably sinister corporation that has you plunging into pockets of warped reality in the hopes of keeping the world together long enough to make quarterly profits.

You do this by capturing Anomalies, entities born of thoughts and feelings so strong that they reshape the world around them in disastrous ways: An icecream truck that wants to help people escape a summer heatwave and ends up freezing them solid, the imaginary friend of a lonely kid that goes on to kidnapping other children once their playmate outgrows them, a tech-billionaire's gravity warping ego tearing up the city to make way for their futuristic vision.

Every player is also bonded with their own Anomaly which lets them warp reality in their own specific ways. Just as a scattering of examples: Catalogues can make any tool for any job, including conjuring alternate versions of themselves. Dreams can put targets to sleep and jump into works of art to interact with the characters inside. Manifolds can teleport at will and trap enemies in liminal labyrinths. Guns can intimidate ANYTHING with the threat of violence and delete whatever they point at from reality.

It makes the game this delightfully odd three-part-blend of Gravity Falls, The Magnus Archives, and Chainsaw Man. You're superheroes clocking in to work menial office jobs before getting hauled out into the field to solve mysteries, kill nightmares, and confront physical manifestations of your greatest regrets.

Why you should check this game out: Despite my many comparisons to other things, I don't think I've ever played anything quite like Triangle Agency, and I think as someone who enjoys TTRPGS, you owe it to yourself to try something this fun and this different. As a player, I've never felt more empowered to play my character the way I wanted them, and be rewarded for engaging with the parts of the game I found interesting. As a GM it's a BREEZE to prep/run, taking almost all the stress out of running the session because as far off the rails as players go, the structure of the game always snaps them back where you need them by the end of the mission.

So, do yourself a favor, Join the Discord to find yourself a group and grab some of the free missions then check out the full game or the demo rules over on itch.

#triangle agency #ttrpg #ttrpgs #ttrpg community #tabletop rpg #indie rpg #horror #corporate horror

spicymancer

Dungeon Mastery

vulpes-aestatis

Baby sphinx trying to be like mama and waylaying travelers, but all its riddles are completely non-sensical like the ones a 1st grader would tell

thecactifindahome

Lil tip if you ever need a good early game villain for your low level d&d adventures: Today's landlords are directly analogous to barons and other petty fief holding nobles....

extracting value from a small handful to a few dozen families in exchange for seldom delivered "services",

letting their lands fall into disrepair while living in fleeting luxury and toadying up to those with actual power,

constantly coveting the holdings of their neighbors and contriving schemes to increase what they own,

fully willing to ruin people's lives (incluidng hiring mercenaries/the authority of the state) if they think the land you live on would be more valuable used some other way.

Then just slap a fantasy filter over your own worst landlord stories and let your party deliver catharsis on your behalf. In my own example, there was the time that I and my fellow broke college students humble villagers were living in a cramped apartment with too many stairs fronteir logging settlement high up in the mountain valleys, which was probably illegal given that it wasn't up to code in any way left off the royal tax register so the lord could pocket all the money. When we had moved in settled there, it had been owned by one of the most widely known landlords in town most prestigious noble houses in the realm, but after a year or two few generations it got handed off to his shitass "handyman" brother who never fixed anything without explination an idolent second son who was denied his larger inheritence. The land lord never awnsered complatins about the mice monsters, the total lack of heating or cooling harsh seasons, or the mold problem creeping sickness and would only show up without warning every couple of months years to make changes no one had asked for. Things got very bad near the end when he alternated between not collecting the rents for months years at a time and trying to intimidate us into moving out for playing him... all because as he turned out he had forgotten how logging into his bank/email worked under the infuence of a minor demon of sloth.

Which is a pretty satisfying lvl 1-4 adventure arc if I do say so myself.

#dnd #history #dm tips

luckthebard

I think the thing that’s starting to annoy me too about Taliesin’s approach to this campaign is like…he’s very clearly not trusting Brennan as the DM to be straight with him above table. Brennan is saying things, both above table during the game and in the cooldowns that are clear DM signaling of “this is what the story is and what the themes are” and his response is to slyly be like “hmmm cute but I don’t trust it, I have a bad feeling”.

And it’s like. At a certain point with D&D you have to trust that the DM isn’t tricking you about what story is being told. If you don’t, you’re going to be actively working against the collaborative storytelling.

dailyadventureprompts

"Minesweeper" playstyle. seen it before, fallen into the habit myself more than once. Tends to come about when a player is invested in their character (perhaps even over invested, depending on your taste) and is playing with (or thinks they're playing with) someone who's going to "gotcha" them to death.

Thing is, Brennan isn't a gotcha DM, he's absolutely a dyed in the wool cinematic DM who more often than not puts everything on the table for people to have the cool moments he designs for them.

I wonder if it's a holdover of the whole elemental shard fiasco. I remember Taliesin talking about how he thought Matt's warning signs were green lights and it nearly cost him a character he was REALLY invested in.

#critical role meta

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Daily Adventure Prompts