Skip to content

Stage-by-Stage

Stage-by-Stage Breakdown

Stage 1: The Test

Purpose: Test the players before they enter the main adventure. Establish tone and introduce the initial challenges.

Structure:

  • Present an immediate obstacle or challenge
  • Players must overcome the challenge to proceed
  • Success or failure here can affect later stages

Challenge Types:

  • Combat: Guards, watchbeasts, territorial creatures
  • Puzzle: Locked door, riddle, magical ward
  • Social: Gatekeeper NPC, negotiation, intimidation
  • Stealth: Avoiding patrols, sneaking past sentries
  • Skill: Climbing, swimming, disabling a trap

Plot Integration:

Introduce one actor or element from the primary plot. This gives players their first hint of what's going on.

Examples by Plot Type:

  • Pursuit (5-1): The fugitive's trail leads through dangerous territory; encounter previous pursuers who failed
  • Mystery (5-2): Mysterious symbols at the entrance must be interpreted; a dead investigator's notes provide clues
  • Abduction (4-2): Fight off secondary kidnappers trying to steal the same target; meet the guardian too late

Design Tips:

  • Keep it relatively straightforward; this isn't the climax
  • Use Minion (3–4D) or Standard (5–7D) threats for combat challenges
  • Set Threshold 2–3 for most skill challenges; reserve Threshold 4 for genuinely hard tasks
  • Allow multiple solutions when possible
  • This should take 20–30 minutes of game time

Stage 2: The Contemplation

Purpose: Slow the pace. Give players time to think, plan, and roleplay. Build tension through anticipation rather than action.

Structure:

  • Significantly different challenge type from Stage 1
  • Rewards careful thought over quick action
  • Reveals information or forces choice

Challenge Types:

  • Riddle: Traditional puzzle with cryptic clues
  • Moral Choice: No clearly right answer; consequences either way
  • NPC Interaction: Bargaining, gathering information, persuasion
  • Investigation: Searching for clues, piecing together a mystery
  • Trap Complexity: Multi-step puzzle trap requiring coordination
  • Resource Decision: Which path? What to bring? Who goes first?

Plot Integration:

Reveal deeper motivations or complications in the primary plot. This is where players learn what's really at stake.

Examples by Plot Type:

  • Revenge (3-1): Meet an NPC who reveals the "criminal" may not be guilty; must choose whether to continue
  • Disaster (1-2): Find the messenger's final words; learn the vanquished power had good reasons
  • Ambition (6-5): Discover the ambitious person's tragic backstory; is the coveted object worth the cost?

Design Tips:

  • No combat in Stage 2 unless the entire stage is a tense negotiation
  • Multiple NPCs provide richer interaction; see AX.C.14.03 for quick NPC construction
  • Prepare 2–3 possible solutions
  • Information gathered here should be useful in Stages 3–4
  • Give quiet characters spotlight moments
  • This should take 30–45 minutes of game time

Sample Moral Choices:

  • "The artifact can save one village but doom another which one?"
  • "The prisoner knows the way forward but wants freedom; do you release them?"
  • "The ritual requires a sacrifice; who gives what up?"

Stage 3: The Twist

Purpose: Surprise the players. Subvert expectations. Complicate the situation dramatically.

Structure:

  • Something unexpected occurs
  • Players must adapt to new information or circumstances
  • Raises stakes or reveals deception

Twist Types:

  • Betrayal: Ally was actually enemy; helper has ulterior motives
  • Reversal: The "villain" was protecting something; the "victim" was the real threat
  • Complication: The artifact is cursed; the rescue target doesn't want rescue
  • Ambush: Enemy was waiting; the trap was specifically for this party
  • False Goal: What they sought isn't here; it was never the real objective
  • Escalation: Bigger threat arrives; situation spirals out of control
  • Revelation: A PC's backstory connects to current events

Plot Integration:

This is where the primary plot takes its most dramatic turn. The actors' true natures or relationships are revealed.

Examples by Plot Type:

  • Supplication (1-1): The "persecutor" appears and reveals they're the rightful authority; the supplicant is a deceiver
  • Deliverance (2-1): The threatener was protecting the unfortunates from something worse
  • Familial Hatred (1-3): The party discovers they're all related; this is a family matter
  • An Enemy Loved (5-5): One PC realizes the enemy is someone they cared about

Design Tips:

  • The twist should make sense in retrospect but surprise in the moment
  • Seed clues in Stages 1–2 so players feel clever piecing it together
  • Don't make the twist negate everything they've accomplished
  • Allow for player reactions pause to let them discuss
  • This revelation should directly impact Stage 4
  • This can be a quick scene (10–15 minutes) or longer if combat ensues

Foreshadowing Examples:

  • Stage 1: Guard mentions "the master's protection"
  • Stage 2: Find a letter warning against "the false savior"
  • Stage 3: Reveal that they're guarding villagers from a plague the party might spread

Stage 4: The Climax

Purpose: Resolve the primary plot through the final conflict. Highest stakes, greatest challenge.

Structure:

  • Culmination of all previous stages
  • Usually the most mechanically challenging encounter
  • Success or failure has clear consequences

Conflict Types:

  • Combat: Boss fight with Elite (8–10D) or Champion (11–13D) threat
  • Negotiation: Tense diplomacy with real risk of failure
  • Race Against Time: Complete objective before deadline
  • Skill Challenge: Complex multi-person coordination test
  • Chase: Pursuit with obstacles and hazards
  • Ritual Completion: Protected spellcasting under pressure
  • Hybrid: Combat while also achieving a separate objective

Plot Integration:

The actors in the primary plot reach their moment of truth. Players directly interact with or embody these roles.

Examples by Plot Type:

  • Daring Enterprise (3-2): Final confrontation with the adversary over the goal; bold leader's plan reaches fruition
  • Revolt (2-2): Face the tyrant directly; inspire or lead the conspirators
  • Obtaining (6-2): All opposed groups converge; the judge or referee makes their decision based on the party's actions
  • Conflict with a God (1-6): The immortal's avatar appears; mortal characters must find a way to prevail

Design Tips:

  • Use appropriate power level for your party (see AX.C.14.06 for encounter balance)
  • Make the environment interesting: hazards, cover, multiple levels
  • Have enemy tactics prepared but be ready to adjust
  • Multiple objectives create more interest than "defeat all enemies"
  • Allow for non-combat resolutions if players are creative
  • This should take 45–60 minutes of game time

Encounter Design Elements:

  • Primary Threat: Elite or Champion enemy
  • Secondary Threats: Minions or environmental hazards
  • Objectives: Beyond "defeat all enemies" rescue, stop a ritual, escape, etc.
  • Complications: Reinforcements, time limit, difficult terrain
  • Escape Plan: How does the enemy retreat if losing?

Stage 5: The Resolution

Purpose: Wrap up the current adventure and seed the next one. Provide rewards and introduce the secondary plot hook.

Structure:

  • Immediate aftermath of Stage 4
  • Rewards distributed
  • Hook for future adventure discovered
  • Loose ends addressed or deliberately left dangling

Resolution Elements:

  • Rewards: Wealth, equipment, and items appropriate to party level; see Genre Catalog for setting-specific values
  • Information: New knowledge, a contact, reputation, a map
  • Consequences: How did their choices affect the world? See AX.C.14.08 for tracking guidance
  • Character Moments: Time for PC interactions and reflection
  • The Hook: Introduction of the secondary plot

Hook Types:

  • Item: Found letter, map, mysterious artifact
  • NPC: Survivor who needs help, prisoner with information, messenger arrives
  • Revelation: True nature of what they faced; bigger picture emerges
  • Complication: Unintended consequence of their victory
  • Invitation: Summoned by authority, challenged by rival, recruited by faction

Plot Integration for Secondary Hook:

Use the secondary plot here. It doesn't need to connect to the primary plot at all that contrast creates variety. Choose a plot with different themes and actors.

Examples:

  • Primary Plot: Mystery (5-2) They solved the enigma; Secondary Hook: Pursuit (5-1) Find evidence someone is hunting one of the PCs
  • Primary Plot: Revenge (3-1) They helped the avenger; Secondary Hook: Disaster (1-2) A messenger arrives saying their home settlement has fallen

Design Tips:

  • Don't rush this stage give time for players to absorb the outcome
  • A Short Rest is appropriate here
  • Rewards should include 1–2 useful items plus wealth
  • The hook should be intriguing, not demanding players choose when to pursue it
  • End on a question or unresolved tension
  • This should take 20–30 minutes of game time

Reward Scale by Party Level:

Party Level Wealth Consumables Permanent Items
6D (New) Modest (Genre Catalog) 1–2 Possibly 1 minor item
9D (Mid) Significant (Genre Catalog) 2–3 1 item
12D (High) Substantial (Genre Catalog) 3–4 1–2 items, possibly 1 major item