What is An Adventure?

Image by FreeImages.com/Petr Vins
I’ve been making a conscious effort to use the term “Adventure” lately in articles here at Campaign Mastery, instead of any of the alternatives, simply because more people seemed familiar with it, and it seemed to be the most ubiquitous reference, but a few weeks back, I had a troubling thought: We all think we know what we mean by “An Adventure”, but do we really? When I stopped to think about it, I couldn’t actually put my mental finger on the definitive characteristic of the “object” named by the term. What is An Adventure?
Perhaps it would be best to start by asking whether it even matters?
Subtle Distinctions
It didn’t take a lot of thinking about the subject to realize that there was a profound but subtle point to using the correct terminology, because it reflects the approach that we use to “adventure” design, and that’s one of the three most important interfaces between the players and any game – the others are the GM, and the Rules.
The “Adventure,” in functional terms, is how Story connects with the Player Characters, and through them, to the Players. That makes it pretty darned important.
More practically, knowing what it is that you are supposed to prepare, and why, makes it easier to direct your efforts in the most profitable direction. Today’s article is all about exploring game prep from a different, more philosophic, direction to see what can be learned.
The Dictionary Definition
According to Google, “Adventure” is a noun that means “an unusual and exciting or daring experience”. The Merriam-Webster dictionary is a little more fulsome, listing the meanings as:
- An undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks;
- The encountering of risks (e.g. “the spirit of adventure”);
- An exciting or remarkable experience (e.g. “An adventure in exotic dining”); or
- An enterprise involving financial risks.
None of those definitions fully encompass the usage of the term in RPG circles, however. The first Meriam-Webster definition perhaps comes closest, but it still seems incomplete. So, let’s turn to some of those RPG sources in search of enlightenment.
The 3.x Definition
The Player’s Handbook for D&D 3.5 devotes a substantial subsection to the concept. Copyright restrictions mean that I can’t quote it directly, or in full, but that doesn’t matter, because they don’t really define it, either, except perhaps with the phrase “epic quests for fortune and glory.”
More pertinent, perhaps, is the statement that follows that line: “These quests unfold as stories created by the actions your characters perform and the situations your GM presents.” Right away, that destroys what most GMs will think is meant by the term “adventure” – because they apply it to what they bring to the table, and that – according to D&D, anyway – isn’t an Adventure; it only becomes an adventure when it is presented to the players and their responses become the Adventure.
The Pathfinder Definition
Pathfinder is even less helpful on the subject, though it seems to say the same thing – “the players take on the roles of heroes who form a group (or party) to set out on dangerous adventures. Helping them tell this story is the Game Master (or GM) who decides what threats the player characters (or PCs) face and what sort of rewards they earn…”
Exactly what is it that most GMs think of as “The Adventure” or “An Adventure”? Pathfinder goes on to suggest that participants in the game should think of the GM as the narrator – an omniscient voice-over guy, who – being omniscient – has the ultimate authority over what is really happening (as opposed to what the Players may think is happening).
If we can’t, or (more properly, shouldn’t) call it an “Adventure”, what should we call it? “Narrative” and “Narration” is only part of it, after all – an important component, but far less than the whole.
Synonyms for Adventure
Perhaps we can get an answer to that question by considering synonyms for the term adventure, and seeing if any of them fit the bill. Google offers the following: exploit, escapade, deed, feat, trial, experience, incident, occurrence, event, happening, episode, affair.
- An Exploit is a term used more in titles these days than in everyday speech, except when talking about the far more modern usage of referring to a flaw in a computer system, network, or software. In the literary sense, an Exploit is indeed often considered a story or quest full with dangerous encounters along the way – but that’s actually misusing the term, according to the dictionary, which defines it as “a bold or daring feat” and implies through an example – “through a series of colorful exploits, the daring adventurers achieved their mission” – that it takes more than one Exploit to make up a single story. That immediately rules “Exploit” out, we need something that encompasses that entire series, plus the narrative framework that surrounds it.
- The term, An Escapade, if used to apply to the entire adventure would accurately describe one type of adventure, but not every possible adventure. If applied to a single encounter or subplot, then it is too small a term to encompass the whole. “Escapade” will not work.
- Similarly, if the overall story of the Adventure is described as achieving something, of performing A Deed, then this is too specific in story structure, while if it is applied to a smaller story structure, it is too narrow to encompass the totality. In fact, these same problems scuttle all the remaining synonyms offered – we will have to look further afield.
Slices of Game
Things might be clearer if we narrow down exactly what it is that we’re talking about, using descriptive terminology since we don’t have a working definition.

The Anatomical Structure of a Campaign
- A “Campaign” is made up of Adventures that may or may not have a larger linking narrative and may or may not impose definitive contextual gaps in between (i.e. has a common attribute of “serial” or “episodic” continuity).
- Adventures are a single story or episode within the larger narrative of the Campaign, linked thematically, tonally, stylistically, and conceptually into a single sub-narrative. An adventure may also contain elements that violate those qualities but form part of a dispersed wider narrative. One Adventure may link to another in various ways, but each can be considered isolated and self-contained within the context of the Campaign. If the Campaign is a book, an Adventure is Chapter; if a Campaign is a book series, each Adventure is a separate volume.
- Adventures can be divided into Acts in which different dramatic considerations are in play, within the service of the Adventure as a story or plotline.
- Acts are comprised of Events and Scenes, each of which may be broken down further into elementary constituents of PC actions/interactions, GM Narration, Dialogue, etc.
So, are we all on the same page? Then let’s begin.
The question is what the part of the Adventure that the GM brings to the table, and may generate prior to play, should be named – and what that name reflects about the structure and nature of the overall Campaign that the GM is providing.
Adventure vs Story
You can think of an Adventure as a Story being co-written by the Players and GM. Each has their own specific limitations to what they are entitled to do – the Players are (theoretically) confined to the actions, thoughts, dialogue, emotions, and reactions of one or perhaps two specific characters each, and these are supposed to be the protagonists of the story. The GM is (theoretically) confined to everything else, including the antagonist of the story.
In practice, the creative lines are more blurred. The GM can select and impose events and circumstances that will deliberately provoke a given reaction from one or more of the Player Characters, can involve characters with whom those Player Characters have formed relationships (which should remain consistent over time, either evolving or remaining static). The Players can choose actions that confine the GM to a smaller part of the whole narrative that he has in mind, can make intuitive or logical leaps that cut across the lines of plot development as the GM envisaged them, and steer the campaign in directions to their liking, whether that fits into what the GM was planning, or not. Furthermore, simply by virtue of being the protagonists, the Player Characters shape each adventure to conform to their individual abilities and mindsets, with a cumulative effect that is at least as strong as the influence of the GM on that overall shape.
You could even say that the Campaign consists of tectonic layers that can move in different directions, with the Players controlling every second layer.
Clearly, what the GM provides is plot, context, and content, but not a whole and complete story. Is it even possible to craft a story without protagonists? Perhaps, as a literary experiment, it could be done, but I think it would suffer greatly in terms of story as a result, and would be nothing more than a curiosity.
Adventure vs Plot
Is it the case, then, that what most GMs describe as an adventure simply a plot and the elements that constitute and manifest that plot?
Alas, no. Any plot created by a GM is incomplete without the direction and contribution of the players and the PCs that they manage, no matter how much it may anticipate and manipulate those directions and contributions. Furthermore, in most games, there is a random element controlled by neither Players nor GM, to which both are to some extent subservient. Good GMs can, and do, build allowances into their adventures for these random turns of the dice, but there is a limit to how much can be done. While the GM can prepare an outline of a plot, the only way to be sure of following it is to deny the capacity for their character’s self-determination to the players, and that is quite rightly frowned upon – to put it mildly.
At the same time, what GMs routinely prepare and call “An Adventure” is far larger and more detailed than a mere synopsis, which is what you would generally equate with an “outline”.
The other type of writing that routinely uses the terms “plot” and “outline” is the media, and they have an intermediate stage between script and outline called a treatment. Could this be the term we’re looking for?
Adventure vs Treatment
It was interesting to note that only two of the half-dozen dictionaries that I checked (online) even mentioned the media-oriented usage of the word. From those stem three definitions:
- A written sketch outlining the plot, characters, and action for a screenplay but not including certain elements of a finished screenplay, such as camera directions and dialogue.
- An adaptation of a novel or other literary work that serves as the basis for a screenplay.
- A preliminary outline of a film or teleplay laying out the key scenes, characters, and locales.
Definition 1:
“A written sketch” suggests something that is not as fully-realized as most RPG Adventures, so that’s a warning note. Obviously, most of the “action” is generated as the game proceeds by the interplay between random chance, players, PCs, GM, NPCs, and environment, so we can ignore its inclusion in the first definition, at least in this context. Plot and characters are definitely part of what the GM prepares, so that all tracks – with that initial caveat. Unfortunately, it all then unravels: camera directions aren’t included (the RPG version not only includes the camera directions, and the lighting directions, and the sound effects, it includes the shot-and-edited footage, or its equivalent; I could forgive that, but dialogue being excluded? When you put it all together, this is simply an expanded synopsis. I generate these all the time, as a tool for turning my outline into a full Adventure; it’s the equivalent to an RPG of storyboarding a movie, and barely 5% of what’s in a full Adventure.
Definition 2:
“An adaptation of a novel or other literary work that serves as the basis for a screenplay”. This is definitely not what we want, but it is analogous, provided that a synopsis can be adjudged a “literary work”. So there’s a similarity of process, but not of product. Like several of the other possible terms that have been looked at, Treatment – at least in this sense of the word – isn’t a match.
Definition 3:
But then we come to Definition 3, and you have think again. We have the same caveat as suggested by definition 1, i.e. what we are looking to give a more appropriate name is far more substantial than this definition seems to allow; and the usage obviously has to substitute “RPG” for “film or teleplay”; but the rest of the definition seems right on the money. Aside from the things that it leaves out, but an adventure does not.
It’s definitely the closes match that we’ve found so far. But while the definition could be stretched to cover an RPG Adventure-in-waiting, the need to stretch it sort of leaves me wondering if there is anything better?

Image by FreeImages.com/Michel Meynsbrughen
Adventure vs Module
Of course, when an adventure is published in (hypothetically) ready-to-play form, we refer to it as “A Module”, indicating that any given example is an optional extra to the core requirements for a game. Can we extend that term to cover what we, as GMs, produce?
I don’t think so, and the reason comes back to some of the things that I wrote earlier about the impact that the players and their characters have on a game. By definition, a commercially-satisfactory Module has to either include the characters as pre-Gens, or be character-agnostic. That criterion doesn’t apply to any of the “Adventures” that I create for my games, and never has; and, in fact, I have several times purchased or obtained “modules” through RPGNow and the like that failed in this respect quite noticeably, requiring at least some – and sometimes a complete – rewrite before they can be used; not because the characters in my game were so unusual in their abilities, or were completely different in character level, but because the characters in my campaign were not the characters in the author’s campaign.
Personally, I find that quite forgivable if what’s there is entertaining and interesting enough. And to be fair, I have only ever run two professionally-written module that needed zero rewriting – “Tomb Of Horrors” (AD&D) by Gary Gygax himself, when I was just starting out, and “Deep Horizon” (D&D 3.0) by Skip Williams. Also, to be fair, most of the modules that I have run were adapted to service an entirely different genre or game system.
- “Tomb Of Horrors” was included in the Dungeons Of Dread hardcover compilation in 2013. A few copies are still available through Amazon.
- There are also some copies of the original module available through Amazon, including 7 new copies – but even the cheapest costs more than the compilation. Possibly worth it if you want to run the module though, given the removable pages of illustrations that extensively display to the PCs what they are seeing.
- “Tomb Of Horrors” was also rewritten into a 4th Edition D&D Module by the same name. From reviews, it has some creative new ideas, but also loses a lot of the fearfulness within the original, replacing “save/win/make-no-mistakes or die” with “save/win/make-no-mistakes or almost die”. There are also copies of this version available on Amazon.
- Finally, there are copies of “Deep Horizon” that are quite reasonably priced at Amazon.
Development of a commercial-quality Module is a lot more work than most GMs put into their own home-brewed “Adventures”. Comparing the two is like saying that a billy-cart is the same as a Ferrari – because they both have four wheels on the ground. Or perhaps that’s being unkind, and the comparison should be between a Kia and a Formula 1 car. Either way, you get the point.
Extending the term “Module” in this way weakens the standard that it represents, and that standard is already under sufficient pressure. One of the unfortunate side-effects of sites like RPGNow is that it becomes a lot easier to publish something that’s substandard in quality. As I said earlier, I’ll forgive a lot if what is there is good enough to serve as a foundation, but I’m thankful that RPGNow uses the term “Adventure” instead of “Module”.

Image by FreeImages.com/Adam Rapp
Adventure vs Drama
Perhaps I’m not finding what I’m looking for because I’m looking for the wrong thing. Maybe “Adventure” is not actually a noun when used in the RPG sense, but an adjective describing the whatever-it-is that a GM produces, and people use the word as a noun because there is nothing better, or as a verbal shorthand. Certainly, when a film is described as “an adventure”, that’s the reality – the correct usage would be “An adventure film”. Adventure thus describes a genre, and not the actual product itself.
Any television show that is described as “an adventure” is generally classified as a subtype of Drama, and certainly in past articles at Campaign Mastery have shown how many elements of Dramatic fiction (regardless of medium) are relevant to the creation of RPG adventures.
Should an RPG adventure be classified as a form of literary construct within the category of “Drama”?
It took a bit of reflection before I reached the conclusion that it could not. Why? Because of the inherent differences between an RPG and a Drama. Several of the principles of “good drama” like Chekhov’s Gun simply don’t apply to an RPG due to its unscripted nature, for example. And I discovered the hard way that the standard forms of dramatic plot twist don’t work with RPGs, either, and had to create my own list (Part 1 and Part 2). For all that some aspects of drama apply, such as the techniques of Emotional Intensity (Part 1, Part 2), too many don’t for this to be a functional description.
Adventure vs Narrative
When you look over the definitions quoted earlier, the key word that leaps out at me is “narrative”. The Pathfinder definition of the GM”s role in the game makes specific mention of this function. Is this what a GM brings to the table?
The term “narrative”, in this context, has one huge advantage – it is unrestricted in scope, unlike many of the possibilities that have been considered so far. A Narrative can be long or short, it can be detailed or a vague outline, or a blend of both (though that would make it rather inconsistent in a literary sense).
“Narrative” is essentially a synonym for “story”. The actual definition is “A spoken or written account of connected events; a story”. If we think about this in the context of a shared creative space, and define what we seek to properly identify as the GM’s share of the story, his corner of that shared creative space, then this might work – though perhaps “semi-narrative” might be more appropriate.
Even the fact that the GM’s efforts are obviously incomplete and occasionally vague in terms of definitive plotline, due to the as-yet-nonexistent contribution of the Players, is acceptable from this perspective as an inevitability of the collaborative process. You can even state that the non-literary elements that the GM incorporates, like necessary skill checks and outcome interpretations, and NPCs, are more about giving direction to those elements that have not been worked out in advance.
The major thing that I don’t like about the term, in this usage, is the implication that the story – or even the GM’s contribution to it – is relatively stable and fixed. While some games – usually those run by GMs with a more literate style – may hold true to this, my experience is that no Adventure ever runs exactly the way it was written. This is a necessity of the collaborative experience; it comes back to the Players conferring free will on their characters and having the freedom to interpret the situations that the GM presents to those characters as they see fit. The GM can shape those situations as he sees fit in anticipation of specific responses that move the anticipated story in the desired direction, but ultimately the responsibility for decisions and interpretation belong equally to the players and GM.
I suppose you could employ the term “Draft Narrative” to get around this problem, but that doesn’t quite work for me, either; it goes too far in the other direction. No, we need to keep looking.
Adventure vs Scenario
For most of the last 35 years, the term that I have used to describe what I bring to the table when I sit down to run a game is a “Scenario”, but I have stepped away from doing so in these pages over the last year or so because many readers seemed to have difficulty grasping what I meant by the term.
My fundamental premise for presenting an Adventure for collaborative exploration at the game table is this: Present the players’ characters, i.e. the protagonists, with a situation, one that I as GM understand fully. Let them decide what to do about it, and how. To some extent, these decisions may be foreseeable, enabling some sense of how the story that results might unfold, and permitting some components of that story to be crafted in advance for a higher quality of outcome; but there is no guarantee that this anticipation will prove accurate. More often than not, the GM will – at some point – need to improvise or interpret.
That is where understanding that initial situation, the participants and causes and motives and backstory, becomes so useful; it provides the tools to determine how the non-protagonist participants will act and react to unexpected changes in the situation as a result of player-derived PC free will.
Rather than crafting some specific outcome in advance, and then laboring to force the unfolding story to fit into that mould, such an understanding leaves me free to focus my attention at the game table on making sure that the story is of satisfying quality, no matter how it turns out.

Image by FreeImages.com/Martin BOULANGER
So, what is “An Adventure”?
I look on things this way: the story is a boat on a river. The Players have their hands on the tiller, and control the rudder; I have control over the winds, tides, and currents. Initially, I will have almost total control over the situation, and can set the boat moving in whatever direction I want; but, over time, the players will first come to understand, and then, to master the individual conditions that I have set in motion. Ultimately, the final destination will be of their choosing, and will be the best possible outcome given the restricted options open to them as a result of those initial conditions. It’s a metaphor, but a useful one.
My “Adventure Phases” follow a predictable internal content pattern: very detailed at the start of each act, or phase, of the story, and increasingly vague as that act or phase progresses. My preparations focus intently on:
- encapsulating the necessary understanding of the situation to be presented to the players;
- providing any tools and raw materials necessary for integrating player choices into the developing situation;
- anticipating the most likely turns in the plot, with notes and plans concerning how best to ensure a satisfactory experience for all participants in the current phase of the plotline and in the adventure overall;
- drop-in plot elements that can be inserted wherever appropriate to ensure that success does not come too easily, and is at the same time, never entirely out of reach; and
- ensuring that events that are currently out-of-reach of player interference set up the next phase of the plotline, enabling that next phase to begin on as firm a footing as the start of this phase of the Adventure did.
The only official stops on my railroad are the ones that lead to a more entertaining story, regardless of which branch-line the players choose to follow.
Each phase of the adventure thus consists of three distinct types of events/scenes/encounters:
- Those over which the players have no control, which are designed to set up the next phase of the adventure;
- Those over which the players have some measure of control or influence, which cumulatively give them more control over the shape of the phase outcome, and hence over the overall Adventure outcome; and,
- Those that are designed as small characterization set-pieces, personal milestones and vignettes that exist for no other reason than to keep the players in touch with the ordinary lives and circumstances of their characters, over which the players have total control once the initial mini-situation is set in motion.
There is a certain amount of artistry and skill derived through expertise and experience that permits these to overlap to a certain extent, or permits one to act as a springboard into another, but that evolves of its own accord as you GM. These are the fundamentals.
By keeping the type and characteristics of these events in mind, and the necessary pattern of preparation content, I can restrict my attention on the most useful forms of game prep, and focus on ensuring the correct flow of emotional intensity within the Act that I am currently working on. This delivers to me, at the start of the days’ play, the tools and prefabricated materials to provide the most interesting and entertaining day’s play possible at the start of a game session, which then becomes the goal of actual play. To the maximum extent possible, every other concern and consideration has been prefabricated into those constituent prefab game elements.
The “Adventures” that I craft for my campaigns are half-finished blueprints; they can only ever be half-finished because the owners (the players) have not yet made the crucial decisions that will finish the specifications and parameters of the completed design. And my job, as GM, is to be the construction foreman and architect who produces the best possible finished “building” that can be constructed within the parameters of those decisions.
The “Adventure” that I bring to the table is not a finished work; its a set of building blocks, a foundation, and an attitude: the determination to make the day’s play as much fun as possible for the participants. There is no single term that is a definitive fit for this assemblage, because the content varies from case to case, from “adventure” to “adventure”. What doesn’t change is the process of putting those building blocks together into an entertaining collaborative storyline.
And that means that the most appropriate term for what I prepare before play is “an adventure” – not because it describes the product, but because it describes the process at the gaming table.
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October 2nd, 2015 at 1:38 am
Hi Mike,
Now you’re reading my mind! As a DM and RPG’er from the dark ages (late 70’s, early 80’s) who has been interested in returning to the hobby, I have been struggling with all of the concepts of encounters, acts, plot lines, adventures, story arcs and campaigns as I attempt to create my own campaign.
This has been especially frustrating since, as you point out, many people take it for granted that people understand what’s meant. It’s further confused as different people define them differently and, in many cases, consider some of them synonymous with each other.
To be honest, it was reading your articles about campaign and adventure creation that was the catalyst for me to try to define them to try to understand how you create campaigns. I only just did it less than a week ago for a blog entry I may one day post (if I get a blog running!).
Your blog has been the inspiration for me to return to DMing and I have only seriously started the process of campaign creation in the last 2-3 weeks after thinking about it for a couple of years now.
I just found it ironic that you posted this today after I spent a good couple days thinking about it!
Tracey
October 2nd, 2015 at 8:33 am
Glad the article hit the spot, Tracey, and I hope that it at least clarifies any lingering uncertainties that might still be hanging around. Welcome back to the ranks of GMs and thank you for the compliments – it’s been a pleasure helping you return to the fold :)
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October 7th, 2015 at 4:58 am
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October 17th, 2015 at 9:36 am
This was a great read and has articulated your definition very well. These days I tend to use the term ‘situation’ for what the GM brings to the table. I’ve started avoiding other words because they seem to have other meanings. I’ve done similar reading searching for a way to express this. David Bell’s book “Backwards and Forwards” on reading plays helped me consolidate my views. But terms do not cross over from other medias well, because in RPG we are the audience, authors, and the actors.
What I try to do is bring a situation in stasis but ready to burst with conflict to the table. Then uses the players as an intrusion to initiate a chain of actions. The Adventure or Story is protagonist actions until a new stasis is reached. Thanks for spelling out your ideas and prep steps, It will help me to further clarify my thoughts.
October 17th, 2015 at 10:59 am
Nicely explained, Adam, and I’m glad I was able to help clarify your thoughts on the subject. You have articulated your ‘drama in stasis’ approach very well, and it has a lot to commend it. The approach is very similar to what I do in some campaigns, and have done in others in the past. I largely only set it aside when I need a more dynamic, evolving, world for credibility reasons and to force the PCs to choose which plotlines they will prioritize and which they will let mature a little more before taking action :)
February 16th, 2016 at 12:56 am
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