5 tips for designing better adventures

In 4 Pro Secrets for Designing Better D&D Adventures, Professor Dungeon Master states that all adventures should have four key elements: an objective, a location, a time limit, and a villain.

One commenter suggested a fifth: a reason. I think this is a good addition, so here's the updated list of four five tips for designing better adventures:

1. Objective: Whatever the player characters are trying to get or do. This could be a person to retrieve or item to deliver. They should know what this is within 10 minutes.
2. Reason: Why the players should be involved and why no one else can do it? Give the players motivational hook beyond "there be treasure/reward" by connecting the objective to their backstory or a previous adventure.
3. Location: A castle, a crypt, a dungeon, a dark forest, a sunken pirate ship. The objective should send the players somewhere interesting to explore. Consider a five-room dungeon.
4. Time Limit: They create the suspense and a sense of urgency. But they should be real: if they players fail to meet the objective in the time limit, there should be consequences.
5. Villain: Real characters with their own objectives and time limits. These put them in opposition to the players and creates conflict. The best villains are ones that the characters encounter multiple times before the climax.

Watch the video for more details.