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Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Starfinder RPG

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GameMastery Guide / Adventures / Elements of Adventure

Choosing Your Adventure

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 172
Specifics of storytelling style and ongoing plots aside, all adventures find common elements in the settings where their action unfolds. In the Pathfinder RPG, certain settings come up again and again: taverns where heroes meet for the first time and rest between adventures, dungeons rife with traps and monsters, untamed wilds full of mystery and danger, cities teeming with cutpurses and political subtlety, vast seas where swashbucklers and cutthroats sail into the unknown, and otherworldly planes where the impossible takes shape. While adventures certainly might occur in other venues, most conform in one way or another to the general settings described here—including the microcosm of the tavern, due to its traditional importance in the game. When planning or playing an adventure, it often helps to have an understanding of what type of locale forms the setting for your adventure. Most of the time this proves obvious—when the PCs are shopping and carousing, they’re likely in an urban setting, but when they’re exploring the back country, they’re probably in the wilderness. Such settings bring with them a variety of concerns and rules elements that the GM should be familiar with (or at least have on hand) as the adventure unfolds. If an adventure calls for the PCs to fight against privateers, for example, the GM should have the rules for swimming and drowning handy; it can also be helpful to know the parts of a ship and what creatures might randomly appear from the water. A major goal of this chapter is to collect these details and point the GM toward other useful pieces of information, providing much of the relevant details he needs to run a convincing adventure.

Just because an adventure takes place in a standard setting doesn’t mean that location always acts like a typical example of its kind. If the PCs find themselves slinking through the alleys of a drow city, the location likely functions much more like a dungeon than a city. By the same token, a forest under the effects of powerful fey magic might behave less like part of the wilderness and more akin to a plane unto itself. In such cases, rules not commonly associated with that type of setting might apply, driving home a sense of strangeness or menace that can help a setting feel all the more distinct. Thus, some of the most interesting and memorable uses of such elements might occur when they arise outside their typical settings.

Once the GM knows what type of adventure he wants to run, consulting the details and special rules in this chapter and the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook can help highlight those aspects that make the chosen location unique. Players should be able to feel that adventuring in a dungeon, underwater, and on the planes are all distinctly different experiences, presenting unique challenges and choices. Melding the descriptions of such settings with game components that help drive home the feel and personality of an adventure site can add variation and detail to any story. If the GM can meld both the descriptive and rules elements of the game—whether through creativity, rules knowledge, well-reasoned improvisation, quick reference, or a combination of these traits—the players’ roleplaying experiences will be all the richer.