Epic D&D is Easy

Summary

In this video, Daniel from Bandits Keep discusses the prevalence of epic-scale adventures in tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, often involving powerful creatures or deities. He contrasts these with 'human scale' stories that focus on relatable, character-driven narratives. Daniel explores the challenges of creating and engaging players in these smaller-scale adventures, emphasizing the importance of character buy-in and compelling NPCs. He encourages the development of stories that resonate with players on a personal level, beyond the traditional quest for treasure and glory.

Takeaways

• 🎲 The script discusses the prevalence of high-level creatures and deities in published adventures, often at the expense of more 'human scale' problems.
• 📚 The speaker mentions their own campaign includes many human-scaled adventures, contrasting with the typical focus on epic stories involving powerful beings.
• 🤔 The reason for the focus on epic stories might be due to their dramatic appeal and the tendency to create memorable narratives that stand out.
• 📘 The script references Conan stories by Robert E. Howard, which are not in chronological order and often feature epic battles, illustrating the common storytelling approach.
• 🏰 The 'Avengers problem' is mentioned, where every adventure has to be bigger and tougher, leading to a continuous escalation that can be exhausting.
• 🌆 The script suggests that human-scale adventures often involve dealing with the world as the 'monster,' such as navigating city politics or social issues.
• 👥 The importance of player and character buy-in for human-scale adventures is highlighted, requiring more setup and motivation for the characters to engage.
• 🏹 The speaker's campaign example involves tracking down slavers, a human-scale problem that requires investigation and strategy rather than just combat.
• 🧙‍♂️ It's suggested that adventures involving human-level foes require strong NPC personalities to quickly engage the players' interest and motivation.
• 🤝 The script emphasizes the need for creating NPCs that players want to interact with, both positively and negatively, to drive the story.
• 🗺 The difficulty of writing human-scale adventures for mass consumption is acknowledged, as they often require a specific player dynamic and table environment to work effectively.

Q & A

What is the main topic of discussion in the video by Daniel from Bandits Keep?

The main topic is the contrast between adventures that involve powerful creatures or gods and those that focus on human-scale, relatable problems in role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons.

Why do published adventures often include powerful creatures or gods as adversaries?

Published adventures often include powerful adversaries because they create epic stories that are engaging and can be easily understood by a wide audience.

What does Daniel suggest as an alternative to the 'big bad' creature or god in an adventure?

Daniel suggests creating adventures that deal with human-scale problems and involve relatable non-player characters (NPCs) that the player characters can connect with.

What is the 'Avengers problem' mentioned in the video?

The 'Avengers problem' refers to a situation in a campaign where every challenge has to be bigger and tougher than the last, leading to a lack of balance and potentially unrealistic scenarios.

Can you give an example of a human-scale problem from the video?

An example of a human-scale problem is helping a village deal with unfair taxation by the king, which may involve political maneuvering rather than just fighting.

What is the importance of player buy-in when creating a human-scale adventure?

Player buy-in is crucial because it ensures that the players are invested in the story and characters, making the adventure more engaging and meaningful.

What is the role of NPCs in human-scale adventures according to the video?

In human-scale adventures, NPCs play a significant role in driving the story by creating connections with the player characters and providing motivation for their actions.

Why might it be challenging to create a human-scale adventure for a mass audience?

Creating a human-scale adventure for a mass audience is challenging because it requires a deep connection between the player characters and the story, which is difficult to pre-script and may not resonate with all players.

What does Daniel recommend for creating engaging human-scale adventures?

Daniel recommends creating strong, personality-rich NPCs, ensuring there are rumors and interactions that can draw the player characters into the story, and avoiding the constant temptation of epic battles with powerful foes.

How does the video relate the stories of Conan by Robert E. Howard to the topic of human-scale adventures?

The video uses the stories of Conan to illustrate how epic tales can be interspersed with more personal, human-scale adventures, showing a variety of experiences throughout a character's life.

What is the significance of the city of Lankhmar in the context of the video?

Lankhmar is used as an example of a setting where the city itself is a character, and the adventures of the characters are deeply intertwined with the everyday life and challenges within the city.

Outlines

00:00

🧐 Human-Scale Adventures in RPGs

Daniel from Bandits Keep discusses the prevalence of high-level creatures and deities in published RPG adventures, questioning why there's a scarcity of human-scale problems in such stories. He reflects on his own campaign, which includes many human-scale issues, and ponders why epic adventures often overshadow these smaller, more relatable tales. Daniel suggests that powerful creatures are used because they create epic narratives, but he also acknowledges the importance of downtime and less epic journeys in a campaign's narrative. He references the stories of Conan by Robert E. Howard, noting how they are not told in chronological order but rather as great adventures, skipping over mundane life events. Daniel concludes by advocating for more human-scale adventures that involve the world itself as the 'monster' or challenge, using the example of the city of Lankhmar from Fritz Leiber's 'Gray Mouser' stories.

05:01

🤔 Engaging Players in Human-Scale Adventures

In this segment, Daniel emphasizes the importance of player buy-in for human-scale adventures, suggesting that it requires more setup than typical dungeon-crawling scenarios. He explains that players need to be invested in the narrative and their characters' motivations for engaging with human-level challenges. Daniel shares his experience of running a campaign where the players are tracking down slavers, a quest that arose organically from their interactions with NPCs and the world. He stresses the need for creating NPCs that players can connect with and for providing a context that naturally leads the party to become involved in human-scale issues. Daniel also touches on the challenge of writing such adventures for mass consumption, as they often require a specific type of player engagement and buy-in that is difficult to pre-script.

10:01

🎭 Crafting Human-Centric Adventures with NPCs

Daniel explores the idea of creating human-level foes and the challenges of motivating player characters to engage with them. He suggests that players generally prefer to see themselves as heroes rather than villains, which can complicate the portrayal of human enemies in adventures. To overcome this, Daniel advises creating NPCs with strong personalities that can quickly draw the party into conflicts. He also discusses the importance of rumors and world-building to naturally lead the party towards human-centric adventures. Daniel concludes by inviting feedback on human-scale adventures and promoting his Discord server, Patreon, and podcast 'Monsters and Treasure' as resources for further discussion and community engagement.

Keywords

💡Human Scale

The term 'human scale' in the context of the video refers to adventures or problems that are relatable and manageable by characters of average human abilities, as opposed to those that require superhuman or divine intervention. It is central to the video's theme of discussing the importance of creating adventures that are grounded in the everyday experiences and challenges faced by characters, rather than always focusing on epic, world-threatening scenarios. An example from the script is the discussion about creating adventures that deal with 'humanized problems' and the need for more stories that are at the 'human side'.

💡Published Adventures

Published adventures are pre-written, often commercially available, scenarios designed for role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. The video discusses the tendency for these adventures to feature powerful creatures or deities, suggesting that they often lack the 'human scale' stories that the speaker advocates for. The contrast is made between these published adventures and the desire for more relatable, human-centric narratives.

💡Epic Stories

Epic stories are grand narratives that often involve heroes overcoming great challenges, typically of a supernatural or larger-than-life nature. The video suggests that the reason for the prevalence of epic stories in role-playing games is because they are engaging and dramatic, but also points out the potential downside of creating a campaign that is solely focused on epic tales, leading to a need for constant escalation in challenges.

💡Downtime

In role-playing games, 'downtime' refers to periods when the characters are not engaged in active adventures or combat, but are instead involved in everyday activities or recovering from previous encounters. The video argues for the importance of incorporating downtime and less epic journeys into campaigns to create a more balanced and realistic游戏体验, allowing for a wider range of character interactions and development.

💡The Avengers Problem

The 'Avengers problem' mentioned in the video is a metaphor for a common issue in long-running campaigns where the challenges faced by the characters continually escalate, requiring them to face increasingly powerful enemies. This can lead to a lack of variety in gameplay and a potential diminishment of the impact of earlier, less powerful encounters.

💡NPCs (Non-Player Characters)

NPCs are characters in a role-playing game that are not controlled by a player but are instead operated by the game master or the game system itself. The video emphasizes the importance of creating NPCs with strong personalities and motivations that can drive the narrative and engage the player characters, particularly in human-scale adventures where the stakes may not be as immediately clear as in an epic battle.

💡Buy-in

In the context of the video, 'buy-in' refers to the investment or engagement of the players in the game's narrative and the motivations of their characters. The speaker discusses the need for players to be motivated to participate in human-scale adventures, which may require more setup and backstory than traditional, monster-focused scenarios.

💡RPG (Role-Playing Games)

RPG stands for Role-Playing Games, a type of game where players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. The video is focused on the design and experience of adventures within RPGs, particularly the balance between epic, large-scale challenges and smaller, more human-scale problems.

💡Sorcerer

A sorcerer in the context of the video is a type of magic-user character, often depicted as having significant power and abilities. The video contrasts the use of such powerful characters with the idea of human-scale adventures, suggesting that the focus should be more on the interactions and challenges that are relatable to the characters, rather than always relying on supernatural threats.

💡Investigation

Investigation in the context of the video refers to the process of uncovering information, solving mysteries, and piecing together clues within the game world. It is highlighted as a key component of human-scale adventures, where the characters may be dealing with complex problems that require more than just combat skills to resolve.

💡Railroading

Railroading in RPGs refers to a technique where the game master guides the players through a pre-determined series of events or encounters, often with little room for deviation. The video suggests that while some level of railroading may be necessary to engage players in human-scale adventures, it's also important to balance this with allowing for player agency and choice.

Highlights

Discussion on the prevalence of high-level creatures and deities in published adventures versus the need for more human-scale problems.

The author's personal campaign includes many human-scale issues, contrasting with typical published adventures.

Reasoning behind the use of powerful monsters or gods in adventures for creating epic stories.

The 'Avengers problem' in campaigns, where every challenge needs to be bigger and tougher than the last.

Importance of downtime and less epic journeys in campaigns to balance the scale of adventures.

Analysis of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories and their non-chronological order, emphasizing the epic nature of the tales.

The city of Lankhmar as a character in Fritz Leiber's stories, providing a backdrop for human-scale adventures.

The narrative twist in 'Ill Met in Lankhmar' where the heroes fight for personal reasons rather than traditional heroism.

Contrasting the personal stakes in Leiber's stories with the high fantasy of Howard's powerful sorcerers in Conan tales.

The necessity of player buy-in and character motivation for engaging in human-scale adventures.

The challenge of setting up human-scale adventures that require more backstory and player investment.

Creating relatable NPCs that drive the party's interest and involvement in the story.

The difficulty of writing human-scale adventures for mass consumption due to the need for player-specific connections.

The ethical considerations of having player characters fight human-level foes and the need for clear antagonists.

The importance of strong NPC personalities to quickly engage players in human-scale conflicts.

Encouraging the creation of adventures focused on human connections and interactions rather than just treasure hunts.

Invitation for feedback on human-scale adventures and resources for such campaigns.

Promotion of the author's Discord server, Patreon, and podcast 'Monsters and Treasure' for further engagement.

Transcripts

welcome to Bandits keep I'm Daniel this

week I want to talk about problems that

are on the human scale if you will I got

a great comment and they were kind of

mentioning that something bugged them

about so many of the adventures that are

out there I'm assuming they mean

published adventures and I was talking

about creating an adventure and they

said that they need a powerful creature

or some kind of God and these highlevel

characters to take care of it and rarely

if ever is there a story that's at The

Human Side kind of a humanized problem

to take care of and you know I replied

back saying well in my campaign there's

lots of that but it did make me think

why is it that when we get a a published

Adventure or when I'm here making a

video and talking about Adventure why is

there generally something bigger that

we're looking at we'll talk about that a

little bit in this video and then we'll

also talk about creating Adventures that

are more human scale fantasy needs

monsters so obviously I can only speak

for myself and not every designer ever

to create an adventure for Dungeons and

Dragons or any other fantasy RPG or

otherwise but I think when we're

creating an adventure or showing people

how to create Adventures the reason why

we tend to use some kind of really

powerful monster or God or demon or

super sorcerer or item is because that's

the stuff that makes the Epic stories

and I think and again this is how it is

in my campaign so please do chime in I

think that those types of stories are

peppered in throughout the lifetime if

you will of a character if we look at

the stories of Conan written by Roberty

Howard they are well first of all they

are published not in order right they

didn't start off with Conan as 16 and

then they get older one of the very

first stories if not the first story

Conan is older and already the king

later I think maybe the very next one or

one within that they do the Tower of the

elephant where he's very young

and Howard produced them in that order

my understanding is because he wanted to

write them in a way like a great warrior

who was now older was telling you

stories they don't tell you their life

story in order they tell you the stories

as they come up the Great Adventures

they don't talk about the downtimes the

lulls those they pass over with and I

did three or four month service with the

king's Army and then there was a monster

right so these are the stories that we

are tempted to make and I think that if

you run a Non-Stop campaign with only

these types of stories with no downtime

with none of that kind of stuff it does

become kind of like we'll call The

Avengers problem you've probably heard

people say that before where everything

just keeps having to get tougher and

tougher and tougher one monster after

another but I wonder and at least for me

again you only speak for myself if

that's how people's campaigns go

downtime and less epic Journeys so as I

said in my campaign there's lots of

humans sized if you will problems sure

the party fights the occasional demon or

really powerful monster Hydra or

something but most of what they're

dealing with most of the time are again

human scale now they're not always

facing humans they might be facing a

tribe Of Orcs or goblins or something to

that effect or they might be fighting

Berserkers or other types of humans

elves dwarves whatever but they're

people sized right they're not not

dragons they're not Gods they're not

incredibly powerful but in Mass they are

and often times the world itself is the

monster or the big bad if you want to

think of it like that if you enter into

a town let's take uh farford in the grey

Mouser right from Fritz Liber though

Amazing Stories if you haven't read them

lanmar which is a town that they or city

really I think probably the biggest city

in the world and that you know uh Newan

I think it's called lanmar in and of

itself is a character right the city is

a character and a lot of what uh farford

and the gym deal with when they're in

the city are parts of that and dealing

with just living day-to-day in the city

being broke gambling getting robbed

getting in trouble these are a lot of

their adventures and yes there's again

it's sword and sorcery there's magic

involved but it's not always over the

toop and it's not always destroyed

something that's very difficult to

destroy for instance in ill met in

lanmar which I just recently read so

it's kind of in my mind actually I read

the the graphic novel adaptation so it

wasn't quite the whole thing it's been a

while since I've heard the actual story

so if I miss part of it or the graphic

novel did forgive me fans but basically

farford and the great monster this is

their meeting they meet each other they

uh farid's girlfriend has a vendetta

against Thieves Guild the grey Mouser

just likes to steal stuff and basically

go into the Thieves Guild basically to

to make Havoc right and when they're

gone to do that a sorcerer uses magic

but not like a fireball or whatever they

use magic to sorry we got spoilers here

to basically we'll just say wreak havoc

on something that farford and the great

moner really love we'll say and then the

story takes a Twist and they go back and

seek revenge so again they are fighting

the Thieves Guild they're fighting

thieves they're fighting people with

sling stones and swords and daggers they

do eventually fight a sorcerer but that

fight is very brief and the Sorcerer of

themselves is not particularly tough

It's these ritual magic spells that are

very powerful so yeah they're powerful

but really they're just a person right

and we see that sometimes now to

contrast that sometimes in let's say a

Conan story like the Scarlet Citadel I

think is the one where

no it's uh anyways there's the Conan one

the other one where Conan basically

loses his throne temporarily and in that

one there's like a super powerful

sorcerer that can just kill people by

touching them so both of these things

exist do we need them both and how do we

use them in our campaign so I think we

talk a lot and this is kind of what the

comment was about about the other right

the demons the dragons this kind of

stuff let's talk about human

scale setting the stage

one of the most important things when

you are running a human scale type enemy

or Adventure is Buy in from the players

and not just buy in from the players but

buyin from the player characters that is

to say that you need players that want

to get involved and you it has to also

be reasonable for their characters to

want to get involved this generally

requires a lot more setup if I'm sitting

down to run a one shot or kind of a one

shot and I say all right we're going to

go and you're going to go to this this

forest and there's a ziggurat there and

there's supposed to be some treasure and

it's probably guarded by something but

you want to get that treasure cool

that's all the motivation most people

need most characters can be motivated by

that in you know most tables I've played

at even once played with a friend of

mine who their character was a a

merchant background and they were

obsessed with just selling everything so

they would go in there sure they wanted

the jewels and stuff but they were also

taking the furniture and strippings and

stuff off the walls so you can always

find a fun reason to go to a thing and

take the treasure because that's kind of

the heart of a lot of these

Adventures but to have somebody want to

help let's say a village like really

help a village not help a village by

killing the werewolf but help a village

because the king is basically unfair and

is taxing them and one single fight

against the king's guards is not going

to solve this it's going to take

political minations it might require

taking people off the throne figuring

out that that the you know the count is

putting money off to the side this is

something the players have to really

want to do they're not going to want to

just ride through that and go fine it's

one Adventure we'll just kill them and

go on this is something they have to be

super involved in this is why setup is

key and why I said that sure I make

these Adventures like this in the videos

but the reality is at my table it's not

like that currently they are now trying

to track down a group of slavers and

sure there's a bigger Story and there's

something Fantastical about it but

really what's happening is people are

being kidnapped and they're being taken

away and the party has decided that's

not cool again nobody hired them to do

it I didn't say this is the adventure

they heard rumors they encountered

people they saw and interacted with NPCs

that had suffered under the hands of the

slavers and decided they were going to

do something about it and because of

that they are now doing that of course

the slavers are hundreds and hundreds of

people and the party is only six and

they have some henchman and stuff so

it's not like they can just go again

stab somebody and walk away they've got

to figure out how to stop this even if

they killed half the slavers there's

something else going on right that's

deeper there's

investigation and this is really what we

need to do when we want to do these kind

of games we've got to put out there in

the world

NPCs that the party can connect with the

party can relate to and the party wants

to help or stop that is to say if the

party encounters somebody that's a

complete jerk they might want to take

that count out right it might not even

be about Justice For The Village it

might be like that count's a jerk and we

need to get them out of power and then

as a bonus you know the village gets

less taxes but that's the kind of thing

you need to do so it's not as easy to

set up an adventure unless you're going

to create lots of backstory and then it

requires a certain kind of player with a

certain kind of buyin for you to sit

down and go here's all this backstory

this is why your character wants to be

involved this is what they're here for

and then a little bit of railroading to

make them do it and I think that's why

me and maybe a lot of people that write

published Adventures don't create

Adventures like that for Mass public we

create Adventures that are simple things

that most people can get behind that you

can kind of manipulate to fit into your

campaign the type of Adventure that

requires this human connection is or

human level stuff it generally requires

human connection and that's not

something you can write into Adventure

that's something that has to happen at

your table human level

foes beyond that philosophizing let's

just say that you can do what I just

said well it's easy enough to set up

number one

a false god or a powerful person that is

a magic user that's not actually super

powerful but just claims to be a God

that's not really a god uh you know

wizard of O and all that you could

definitely do that if you want to keep

that edge but you can also just have the

player characters battling things that

are at human level the question really

becomes though why are they doing that I

think that a lot of people that play

these games and again this is just

please comment below they don't want

want to play a group of adventurers that

go into a town and kill a bunch of

humans or elves or dwarves or whatever

the are the playable species in your

campaign they don't want to be Bandits

basically right on some level even if

they want to be anti-heroes they still

want to be heroes they want to help they

want to feel like they're in the end

have accomplished something good even if

their character is reluctant so you

can't you know it's hard to say so who

are the bad guys so you're going to make

a bandit camp and then they're fighting

in people that are at that level of as

them and is that interesting again it is

if there's personality involved so if

you're going to do this what you've got

to do is have really strong

personalities in your NPCs that are very

very obvious and they need to get

directly in the way of the PCS in order

to get them on board as quickly as

possible and I say when you're going to

do this I mean if you're going to do it

for like a short Adventure if you're

going to write something out other

otherwise you just have to let it happen

in my world I have things that are

happening right and the party finds out

about these things and the things that

they find out about that they're

interested in they pursue sometimes it's

a massive magical monster on top of a

mountain sometimes it's a village that

needs to be saved but all of this comes

from the characters so really the advice

here is create NPCs that that the PCS

want to interact with both positively

and negatively make make sure that they

hear lots of rumors make sure that these

NBCS get in front of the

PCS and don't constantly tempt them away

with demons and dragons and piles of

gold in other places right make that

what your campaigns about and the

players will play that and occasionally

they'll find a treasure map go into a

deep dungeon and slay a dragon this is

really one of those ones that I would

love to hear some feedback because again

I keep saying over and over again but I

think it's which is always true of any

video but it's really true in this one I

can only speak from my

tables I run lots of human Centric stuff

but for the reason stated in the rest of

the video that you heard it's hard to

make an adventure like that for you to

consume and I feel like that's probably

the situation with most adventure

writers if you know of an adventure that

is human scale that has great NPCs you

can just thrust characters into and will

get right on board with it let me know

I'd love to read through it and maybe

run it I would love to see what people

do here besides leaving a great comment

which I know you will check out the

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find links to my Discord server lots of

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