What is the trick to writing your own adventures as a DM that don't suck! I have been DMing for over 6 years now and have never learned how to operate without a module.

Is it worth looking at quests in RPGs like oblivion for advice on how to run non-dungeon crawl adventures that have complexity, aren't predictable and have multiple equally decent choices?

My problem is the only adventures I can come up with are - 'Party has to go retrieve the jewel ring for the mayor of the city in the goblin caves.' How do I get good at making this more exciting?

The game I'm imagining looks like a cross between breaking bad and xena. Because the games I've noticed which hooks players are ones where action is always happening, their meeting many flavourful NPCs and the story is progressing in an mostly unpredictable but exciting manner.

>>96062311 (OP)
Go read the Alexandrian blog. Start in the game mastering 101 section, there is a shitload there.

His book is good too, if you want to throw down some cash, but it's all there for free on the website.

>>96062311 (OP)
You should have an idea of the story you going to try to do rather then shoot from the hip. Throw some hooks and let the party pick which ones they want to do. Don't go too hard into it or you railroad them but if you can't shoot from the hip. Just have 4 hooks and then make another set of hooks once they finish the ones they pick.

>>96062311 (OP)
1) Talk to your players about the theme and what they're interested to play
2) Write a short story with what you think the PCs will be
That short story will be your campaign. It's that simple. If it makes sense, run it. If it doesn't; write it again. Everything else is your ability to railroad them.

>>96062546
bad advice

>>96062320
>Go read the Alexandrian blog.
Came here to say this. His articles on narrative/campaign structure really helped me, as did going through his remixes for Descent into Avernus and Dragonheist.

>>96062589
Why?

>>96062320
This is good advice. Basiclaly it boils down to, don't overcomplicate your shit with plot. Have a structure and characters with motivations, but toss out the idea of a plot. You aren't a writer as a GM, you aren't a storyteller. Focus on making cool locations and encounters to overcome.

>>96062311 (OP)
Wow I heard of guys like you but never belived they existed.
Anyway I don't mean to shit on you, I use both modules and my imagination, I started RPGs with DnD 3.5 with my brother and after reading the base game I started to make my own worlds with my own setting and rules and weapons since day one and loved beign more a GM than a player, but with the pass of time I started to use more modules, even campaign modules when I was younger I shat on them thinking they were useless, but is just I never found a good module, but after I found the good ones I understood the pleasure to use it.
As for advice on running your campaign seems meme enough I even saw it post it here but IG is just
>your favorite things and setting mashed together and with name of stuff changed
>Your political fetish
>your BBEG/GGKG(Great Good Kind Guy if campaign is evil)
Usually it start from here then you start to tweak stuff add or delete from the setting. So you're on the right tracj with the Xena BB mashup IDK why when I read it I imagined a fantasy drug runner campaign like hunt the drug dealers or beign one in a world like Conan the Barbarian.

Read books. Not just shit you like but shit that actually challenges you. You can steal plot points from them or just the whole thing. Shit fuck dude, just read books

>>96062311 (OP)
Create a directed graph of scenes. If there is branching in a mystery, there should be clues to the True End in every scene.

Understand that your scenes are play pieces, and need to be as functional as a mini. If you describe something, it should be interactable. At the very least, if there is something in the scene players can interact with, it must be described when you introduce the scene. As a simple example, if there's a clue in the closet, you must tell players that there is a closet to go look in.

>>96063798
Give me some recommendations

>>96063684
Hoky fuck you sound like a shit GM.

>>96062311 (OP)
erotic butt

>>96062649
because this >>96063628
> toss out the idea of a plot. You aren't a writer as a GM, you aren't a storyteller
nta by the way in both cases

>>96064181
I said a short story, not a fucking novel. If you can figure out the ending of a story so that it makes sense, it's very easy to translate into campaign. Since OP claims he played 6 years, I don't think there are issues with mechanics. The problem is writing and story ideation. Unless, ofcousre, you really do enjoy running that 5e caffee.

>>96063836
Pale Fire by Nabokov

>>96064573
it doesn't matter
being a good writer could compliment your GMing
but fundamentally those are different skills

much like being a good track runner might help you in acrobatics, but it's training acrobatics that makes one a better acrobat

>>96062311 (OP)
>Is it worth looking at quests in RPGs like oblivion
yes
>advice on how to run non-dungeon crawl adventures that have complexity, aren't predictable and have multiple equally decent choices?
this isn't necessary to implement. have an idea in mind, a goal for the players, things you want them to interact with or discover, but stay flexible.

the trick is not to write (or even plan out) a whole adventure, just to get enough things in your mind and prepared to last you till the next session (or a bit further). keep your main ideas in mind and try to figure out how you can guide your players towards them.

>My problem is the only adventures I can come up with are - 'Party has to go retrieve the jewel ring for the mayor of the city in the goblin caves.' How do I get good at making this more exciting?
add shit. is mayor good or evil? are there only goblins in the caves? does someone else want the jewel ring? does someone else want the caves? i guarantee you that most people are nowhere near as picky about the structure of a campaign.

>>96063798
>Read books.
this but all media. books, movies, wikipedia, comics, paintings.

>>96062311 (OP)
Lets talk quests for a minute because you're asking big questions and we'll get very lost if we don't focus. Here's a very basic quest structure: Inciting Incident -> Resolution, that's one you're describing. The party is activated to go do a thing, they do the thing and come back. A way to make that type of quest more interesting is to change the structure to include a layer of complication that changes the basic problems that need solving or makes the players reevaluate their initial assumptions about the case. Ideally, the complications should give the players choices to make. In your example, what if the ring is full of bad mojo? Does the mayor know? Why is the ring like that? Did the mayor seem sketch or is that just retrospect? What would giving him the evil ring do for him (or to him) and the city he governs?
A neat thing about the model is that it's very scalable, from a tiny one: There's rats in the basement, BUT they're walking and talking, or a big one: The players have to defeat the evil empire, BUT the evil lord is one of the player's dad!
Remember, keep it simple so it's easier to remember and allows for more improvisation.

>>96063798
I like the Book of the new Sun, but that's like five books or something

>>96062311 (OP)
Honestly, I find prepping my own adventures easier than running modules.
Just think of some situation/quest etc. get the locations ready, sprinkle in some NPCs and/or factions with their motivations and your ready to go. I also like to think up stuff akin to "special effects". Just random shit I can add to an adventure spontaneosly or during prep. Stuff like fun NPCs, special enemies, riddles, traps, events or just things that I belief are nice "interactibles" for the players along the main quest.

>>96062311 (OP)
>All those posts
>All this pointless complex bullshit
>Not giving the most important advice