The Next Adventure Design Jam at DriveThruRPG and Dungeon Masters Guild
Gamers have tried out a new-to-them RPG, they’ve played through the Quickstart or Starter Set, and are looking for more. This is where you come in!
“The Next Adventure” is a creative challenge for you to design and publish a new adventure that picks up where the first adventure left off. Whether that is continuing the story from Lost Mines of Phandelver for Dungeons & Dragons or giving the crew a new haunted house to explore after The Longest Night from World of Darkness: Ghost Hunters, or a follow up mission from A Quick Trip from Achtung! Cthulhu — it’s up to you to keep the game going!
We will be updating this article next week or producing an FAQ with questions as we receive them.
Design Jam Goals
Design and publish a new beginner-friendly adventure for one or more of the different Community Content Programs available on DriveThruRPG (such as Miskatonic Repository, Storypath Nexus, Free League Workshop, and more), as well as Dungeon Masters Guild, Pathfinder Infinite, and Storytellers Vault.
The new adventure should support and continue where the official Quickstart or Starter Set from the publisher ended.
Be creative, but be helpful. The goal is to help game masters continue where the first adventure ended and thus keep the fun rolling.
See below for rules, participating programs, process, and resources.
Rules
- Only Community Content Programs on DriveThruRPG, as well as DMsGuild, and Storytellers Vault are permitted.
- Adventures only. This design challenge is focused on adventure content, not player guides, spell books, locations, monsters, etc.
- Design from September 1st — September 30th.
- Submit on or before September 30th, 2024 at 11:59 PM CST. Late submissions will not be collected for the promotion (though you’re welcome to make it live outside of the promotion!)
- We will make it live on October 8th, 2024 for you. Do not make your title live before then.
- No A.I. images or writing.
- Adventures must be in official settings as permitted by the different Community Content Guidelines for each program. Community Content Programs that do not allow publishing within a publisher’s official setting (example: Deadlands) are not allowed for this design jam.
Other
- Most Community Content Programs have pre-made adventure templates and free-to-use stock art from the participating publisher. You are encouraged to make use of these.
- All Content Guidelines from individual Community Content Programs must be followed in addition to the game jam rules.
- Optional: You can join our Discord if you are already a Community Content Creator as the community content role. Make sure to follow the #welcome and Server Guide.
- Pathfinder Infinite still to be confirmed with Paizo. We will update this article with new information if we receive it.
Finishing Your Adventure Steps
The week of October 7th, 2024 we’ll be launching all of the The Next Adventure PDFs at DriveThruRPG or participating Community Content Program site with a special promotion.
Upload your title using the My Content tools on your Account page at DriveThruRPG (or DMsGuild or Storytellers Vault) and have your title set up through Enter a New Community Created Title before the deadline. Be as descriptive as possible in your text to let other gamers know more about your Adventure!
Make sure to link the Starter Set or Quickstart you are writing from in your description.
When you’re done, submit your title name, URL, and Community Content author name to matt@roll20.net (it helps us collect everything) on or before September 30th at 11:59 PM CST. We will communicate with those who submitted of what next steps are after submissions have closed.
Recommendations and Best Practices
While you’ll need to follow the exact Content Guidelines of the specific community content program you are writing your adventure for, we do have some recommendations to make your adventure a great addition to the design jam.
Page Count. 10–20 pages is recommended for a new adventure. This can be a mix of adventure content, handouts, pre-generated characters, or whatever works best for the game you are designing content for.
Detailed product descriptions. Check out these guidelines for creating an information and entertaining description.
Start the Adventure from a Canonical End Point. Make it an adventure that picks up where the official Quickstart or Starter Set ended and include detailed information about how the adventure continues the story. Many Quickstarts and Starter Sets include story hooks and suggestions for more games, we recommend that you use those hooks whenever possible.
We have a huge selection of resources to help you with your adventure design for this creative challenge. You will need to first select which Community Content Program you would like to create an adventure for. There are many exciting community content programs available here.
Be sure you select a program that has a Quickstart or Starter Set (see list below) from the participating publisher that you can write a new adventure for!
Note: Just because a publisher or program is not listed, does not mean anything deeper than simply, they do not have a Quickstart or Starter Set to jump off from or the publisher does not allow content in their worlds. We recommend trying out a new community content program if yours is not participating!
Resources on Adventure Design
- [Book] The Anatomy of Adventure | M.T. Black
- [Book] Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire | Onyx Path Publishing
- [Book] A Guide to Designing a Memorable Adventure | Fox and Boar Games
- [Book] So You Want to Design an Adventure | Geoff Gander
- [Article] How to Write for DMsGuild | RPGBot
- [Article] How to Write a D&D Adventure | Arcane Library
- [Article] Justice’s Guide to DMsGuild | Justice Arman
- [Video] How to Design Your Call of Cthulhu Title | Kat Clay
- [Courses] RPG Writer Workshop | Storytelling Collective
Participating Programs
You will find all Program Rules and Guidelines on DriveThruRPG, DMsGuild, and Storytellers Vault.
The Starter Sets and Quickstarts from where your adventure continues are here.
Chaosium
Miskatonic Repository
Jonstown Compendium
Explorer’s Society
Catalyst Game Labs | Holostreets
Coyote & Crow | Fireside
EN Publishing | WOIN
Gallant Knight Games | Tiny Trove
Green Ronin | Age Creators Alliance
Hero Games | Hall of Champions
Free League | Free League Workshop
Modiphius | World Builders
Mongoose Publishing | Travellers Aid Society
Nightpath Publishing | Entromancy Cryptographer’s Guild
Onyx Path Publishing
Storypath Nexus
Canis Minor
