Adapting Formats
Adapting Formats
The 5-stage structure is format-agnostic. Here is how each stage translates across common adventure contexts:
Dungeon Format
- Stage 1: Entrance guardians or trapped entry
- Stage 2: Puzzle room or NPC prisoner with information
- Stage 3: False treasure room with twist, or a secret door reveals a different path
- Stage 4: Boss chamber, throne room, or ritual chamber
- Stage 5: Treasure vault or escape with new information
Wilderness Format
- Stage 1: Encounter on the trail threats, beasts, environmental hazard
- Stage 2: Camp scene with NPC travelers or discovery of clues at a waypoint
- Stage 3: The destination isn't what it seemed false location, wrong target
- Stage 4: Final confrontation at the true destination
- Stage 5: Return journey with hook discovered en route
Urban Format
- Stage 1: Entry test bribed official, social challenge, stealth past surveillance
- Stage 2: Information gathering tavern, archive, interrogation
- Stage 3: Double-cross or misdirection by a contact
- Stage 4: Confrontation, chase through streets, standoff at a location
- Stage 5: Aftermath in a safe location with a new offer or complication
Social Format
- Stage 1: Entry to a high-stakes environment credentials checked, invitation required
- Stage 2: Mingling and intelligence gathering conversations, overheard exchanges
- Stage 3: Scandal erupts or an accusation is made
- Stage 4: Tense negotiation, formal challenge, or public confrontation
- Stage 5: Social consequences and a new alliance or enemy established
Planar Format
- Stage 1: Surviving transit and entry to an unfamiliar environment
- Stage 2: Learning this plane's rules NPC guide, experimentation, observation
- Stage 3: Rules change unexpectedly, or the guide's loyalty is revealed
- Stage 4: Confrontation with the plane's dominant entity or force
- Stage 5: Extraction with an artifact, knowledge, or consequence that carries back