The most important thing in designing adventures for TTRPG is to keep your players involved.
There are four types of players:
- Competitive: They like to level up, get new equipment and make their characters better;
- Explorers: They want to explore every nooks and cranny of the game world, trying to know every possible information, no matter how trivial;
- Socializers: They want to interact with the other player, preferring them w.r.t. to the NPCs.
- Assassins: These are the player that want to wreck havoc among the world and among the other players.
These 4 categories were introduced by Bartle to descrive videogames players but they are also good categories to describe TTRPGs players.
Whenever you write an adventure you need to keep in mind these four categories, asking yourself for every encounter which of these players are going to like it, keeping count of how many encounters or event in the adventure are going to be appealing for each type of players.
You need to give competitive player items and bonus for their characters, hide secrets for the explorers to find, make good social challenges to the socializer so that they may discuss, debate and celebrate with the other players and make some encounters for the assassins so that they may save of back-stab their group.
Once finished is good to re-read your work to see how much does it offer to these types of players.
Encouraging interactions between players
When writing adventure is good to use the principle of trying to find ways to create players’ interactions opportunity.
A good way to do so is prepare parallel roads to the objective that attracts different kinds of players (i.e. a road attracts assassins and socializers, while the others attracts competitive and explorers).
This should happen also during fights making some of them cooperation challenges.
A good way to do so is letting them plan and execute their plans against the enemies. To better do this always make sure that the enemy are varied:
50 goblins is just a boring fight that you have to get trough.
30 goblins kept in march by three ogres riding on wargs, all at the orders of an ogre mage with two trolls body guards is another thing.
When there are different enemies, the players have to make decision on who to attack first and how to behave on the battleground.
Using different groups of monsters with a defined social structure makes them a realistic part of the world and makes also giving them reward more sensed: goblins may just be meat to throw on the battlefield with nothing on them, but that wizard may have something of value.
Not every encounter needs to be choreographed. However it’s a good idea to mix senseless battles with something more interesting. Also, varying difficulty is very important.
Giving players choices
Offering players choices also makes them interact. Like which road to take, how to react to an NPC, etc. will make the adventure looks like a collaborative efforts between players and GMs, and makes player more involved in a session.
Don’t skim on challenges
Every reward worth of this name should be taken from the GM’s hands with effort. You need to give them both challenges that require fast thinking and tactical decisions.
You need to give them tension.