Of the various elements that go together to make an adventure, probably the two that most set the scene are the location and the villain. After all, in any adventure story, these are the most important elements after the heroes themselves, and it is the job of the players to bring their heroes to the table. But these elements are in the hands of the DM, and so care should be taken to make them live up to their billing.
More Than Just a Dungeon
Over on Part Four, I did a post on world-building concepts in which I spoke briefly about "The World Malevolent". The basic idea I was getting at was that adventures generally shouldn't be set in "a dungeon" or "a forest" or "a temple". Sure, any of those locations could work... but they're a bit bland.
Instead, I'm inclined to think that D&D adventures should look more like "Sanctum" or "Vertical Limit" or "Poseidon", or similar - they take place in environments that are at best coldly indifferent to whether the PCs live or die, if not being outright hostile to mortal life.
Of course, the idea should go beyond just "the PCs take X damage every round" - that really isn't that much better. However, the dungeon should include entirely natural challenges and 'traps' designed to make things difficult. Ceilings should be prone to collapse behind (or around!) the PCs, floors should slope to make things difficult. Pit traps should open as the ancient flagstones finally crumble under their weight. And so on, and so forth.
Multiple Paths
Additionally, in keeping with my theory that an adventure should have multiple mostly-independent goals, and allow for interesting decisions, the adventure location should allow for multiple paths. Ideally, the dungeon should have several different entrances. Most rooms should have three or four doors (one means it's a dead-end; two means it's effectively a corridor).
Oh, and avoid symmetry in your maps. It makes things easy to draw, that's true... but it also leads to both laziness on the part of the designer and boredom on the part of the players.
Multiple Layers of Inhabitants
So, you have this cave complex, and it's home to a tribe of goblins. When stocking the dungeon, therefore, you put some goblins in the first room. Then some goblins in the second room. In the third room... some goblins. You might throw a couple of tame wolves, and maybe a hobgoblin or two, in for variety.
It makes sense, doesn't it? The dungeon is a goblin lair, so you stock it with goblins. What could possibly be wrong with that?
Well... goblins, goblins, and more goblins. Huzzah!
How about this for an alternative, and equally realistic, approach:
You have this cave complex, that was originally one of the routes used by dwarves during their great Quest for Sky, as they came up from the Underdark. Along the way, they fought running battles with orcs, and although they buried many of their dead in the deep, as they neared the end of their journey they were so hard pressed that some great champions were abandoned. Their corpses defiled by the orcs, they now linger on as malign undead. (Plus, of course, somewhere in there is an entrance to the Underdark - what manner of evils may lurk therein?)
In the ages that past, some of the caves closer to the surface were used by bandits on the run from the lawful authorities. These rogues fled the caves when attacked by the undead, but they left various treasures behind, guarded by fiendish traps.
Of course, there's that goblin tribe I mentioned above. And they coexist with a mated pair of brown bears, that terrify the goblins enough that they haven't driven them out...
And so we get four distinctly different types of antagonist, each with good reason to be there, and none of which is truly an ally of the other. Add in some natural hazards, and surely that's got to be a more interesting location for adventure?
(There are, of course, even more interesting options. Adding a second 'intelligent' tribe to the mix automatically opens up other options: are the two allies, enemies, or quietly neutral? How does each respond to PC incursion? Can they be turned on one another?)
The Big Bad
Back in 2nd Edition days, a lot of the GMing advice essentially said to start with the villain of the piece. After all, the nature of the villain will inform the decisions that make up the rest of the adventure. Plus, you want a good, fun climax to your adventure, and a good villain will give you that.
I no longer consider this to be good advice.
I have two reasons for this. The first is that considering the climax of the adventure already presupposes a story structure for the adventure. But the DM isn't writing a story - there's absolutely nothing to say that the PCs won't turn back just before encountering the dragon (true story), that they won't ally with the villain against some other foe. Or, indeed, that the Paladin won't score a critical hit with max Power Attack on his Greataxe, thus causing 90 points of damage in the first attack and one-shotting the villain (yes, another true story).
The other reason is that I'm now inclined to think that adventures shouldn't have one goal, which means that they shouldn't have one villain, which means that designing that villain first is rather meaningless.
(Incidentally, the BBEG thing seems to have started with "Ravenloft", way back when. This adventure also marks something of a start for the "adventure as story" school of design, which then continued in the "Dragonlance" adventures. Unfortunately, I think people saw that "Ravenloft" was genuinely a huge step forward in adventure design, determined that this was down to the villain and the story, and so they learned the wrong lessons.)
So, my advice with regard to villains is to consider the entire adventure holistically. Let the nature of the adventure inform the design of your villain, and let the nature of your villain inform the design of your adventure - each should influence the other. And even that assumes that you even have a BBEG.
(I must note, in fairness, that I certainly wouldn't do this universally. In most campaigns, there are likely to be ongoing villains written into the ongoing narrative. Naturally, if there's an adventure centred on facing down one of their villains, hopefully for the final time, then of course you should have the villain in mind first!)
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