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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide
GM Core / Chapter 1: Running the Game

Preparing Adventures

Source GM Core pg. 8 2.0
An adventure is a self-contained collection of story elements, characters, and settings that form the basis for the story you and the other players tell. Think of the adventure as an outline for your story. You'll have major beats you want to include, some consistent characters, and themes you want to convey, but all sorts of things can change during the process of turning the outline into a completed story.

You might use a published adventure from Paizo or another company, or you might construct your own adventure as you prepare for your game sessions.

Published Adventures

Source GM Core pg. 8 2.0
Prewritten adventures include background information and nonplayer characters needed for the story, plus all the locations, maps, and monster groups necessary for both exploration and encounters. Prewritten adventures can speed up your preparation, since you can simply read the relevant sections of the adventure before a game, and you don't have to create everything from scratch. A published adventure already includes the expected amount of encounters and treasure, and you can find adventures built for different character levels to match your group. Reading a published adventure or running one as your first game can help you see how adventures are structured, which makes it easier to write one later if you choose.

Though a published adventure is prewritten, it's not set in stone. Changing the details of an adventure to suit your group isn't just acceptable, it's encouraged! Use the backstories and predilections of the player characters to inform how you change the adventure. This can mean altering adversaries so they're linked to the player characters, changing the setting to a place some of the player characters are from, or excising particular scenes if you know they won't appeal to your players.

Pathfinder Society

Source GM Core pg. 8 2.0
Organized play campaigns allow you to play in and run games all over the world with persistent characters. If you want to play Pathfinder this way, you can do so through the Pathfinder Society program! Once you go online to pathfindersociety.club to make an account, you can organize games yourself with your friends or join an existing event.

At the start of a session when you're running a PFS adventure, you'll collect your players' information. At the end of the adventure, you'll write down the rewards their characters earn for completing the scenario on a chronicle sheet your players can keep for their records. The rewards they gain are detailed in each adventure. Once you report the session's results online, the rewards become a persistent part of these characters, even if they play in other games with other groups. These scenarios include important choices, and you can report what your group chose—decisions that will guide the future of the campaign!

Your Own Adventures

Source GM Core pg. 9 2.0
Building your own adventure can be much more challenging than using a published one, but it lets you express yourself, be even more creative, and tailor the game directly to the players and their characters. Chapter 2 contains guidance on building your own adventures, as well as tools and resources for designing content for your players.

Adventure plotting can start at many different points. You might begin with a particular antagonist, then construct an adventure that fits that villain's theme and leads the group to them. Alternatively, you could start with an interesting location for exploration, then populate it with adversaries and challenges appropriate to the setting.