Random musings.

Imagine a party of characters made up of a Ferengi, a Klingon, a Romulan and a Vulcan.

Imagine how each character would approach a problem. Imagine what would motivate each character. Imagine how the party would resolve any interpersonal conflicts during an adventure.

A harmonious group is a boring group.

Adventure Design I: A basic lair.

First of a series on adventure design. I'm going to start with a very basic lair. Experienced GMs may wish to skip this one, but I do plan to build up concepts gradually.

First, I decide on the system, I'll use Basic D&D. I then come up with a concept. In this case, a small band of orcs. Their lair is in a cave. I'll arbitrarily decide on how many adventurers, and of what level. If I were going to make this lair for an existing campaign, I'd instead use the number of characters and their levels of the current players.
4 characters of level 1.

Next, I come up with a map. There's lots of mapping software on the web, and many maps from existing modules or geomorph resources could be used. In this case, I'll simply freehand a map on plain paper.

Map layout is pretty important. For example, a string of linear encounter areas is dirt simple, and very boring.

Instead, I'll break up the encounters by including branching paths.

I also added a sixth enounter area to break up the symmetry of the map.

I tend to number areas as close to how I think they'll be encountered by the party. Of course, since I've got branching paths, I can't do it perfectly. But I try to get it as close as possible, since it will make finding encounters in my notes a little easier.

I'm now ready to make a key. I'm going to put in some orcs, and keep the level range and number of characters in mind. Considering the low level, I'm going to use 50% of the total party level for an easy encounter, 100% of the party level for an average encounter, and 150% of the total party level for a hard encounter.

1. 2 Orc lookouts are guarding the entrance to the caves.

AC: 6, HD: 1, HP: 3 ea, Attacks: 1 weapon, Damage: 1d6, Save as: Fighter 1, Morale: 8, AL: C.

I tend to use just the relevant stats. I don't necessarily need the Treasure Type or Number Appearing for a key. I also like to decide by die roll or fiat how many HP the monsters have.

2. Central cave. There are 4 orcs here, roasting a giant lizard on a spit.

See encounter 1 for stats on the orcs.

A little flavor text, and I don't need to retype the stats for the orcs in this part of the cave.

3. Storeroom. There are sacks of mouldy grain, and dirty pelts here.

Not every location must have a combat encounter. 

4. Hoard. This cave holds the spoils that the orc raiders have taken. There is 500 gp worth of trade goods stolen from the nearby town here. 3 orcs guard the hoard.

5. Guard room. There are 2 orc guardians here, they are particularly tough, and have 6 HP each.

6. Chief's lair. The orc chief and some of his minions are here. The orc chief has 3 HD, and 9 HP, his minions are standard orcs, use the stats from encounter 1 for them.

The orc chief has a magical axe +1 to hit and damage. In his personal stash of loot is a potion of healing (which he may try to use during a fight), 36 gp in coins, and an ivory tusk worth 50 gp.

Done. A simple lair that should provide about 30-45 minutes worth of gaming, and only took about 15 minutes to write up. It's very simple though. In further entries, I'll punch the lair up a little.