Fronts vs the 5x5 method

Quite some time ago now, I came up with three campaign setting briefs that I could run in DH5, which is now Dark Fantasy X. It was my intention to use the "fronts" method from Dungeon World to further develop these briefs into something that I could run. Fronts are not really like a campaign or an adventure; there is very little pre-written, like a module or the newer 5e style campaigns. However, it posits challenges that the PCs should face, by creating antagonistic individuals or organizations with goals that the PCs would potentially challenge. If they don't challenge them, the individuals gradually start to accomplish their goals, and things get worse in the setting, at some point presumably sparking the PCs to intervene... although if they don't, it's not the end of the world, and they can further deal with other challenges that I suppose that they think are more interesting than the one that they've ignored. This is much more how I like to run than modules anyway. However, I've found that creating "fronts" is very fiddly and mechanical, and I dislike the method, even though it's not terribly different than methods that I use more intuitively and less mechanically. Dungeon World is, in general, a very jargony game that loves to create engineering-like flowcharts for what is fundamentally a less structured activity, and I found myself turned off by thinking of creating "dangers" and "grim portents" and all of that jazz. Even if, realistically, I'd have to create all of that material anyway, the way fronts as structured just kind of clashed with my brain in some fundamental way, so I never really got around to it.

Another method which I liked better and used a bit early on in the CULT OF UNDEATH project was the 5x5 method. You can find this online, at the original blog where it was written, but the best version of the method is described in Dragon Magazine #429, which is available here via Scribd if you don't have it. I didn't keep using this method, because like pre-written adventures everywhere, even if it was a looser format, it proscribed what the PCs were supposed to do, which misses the point. I do like the method, though, for structuring outlines, it's just that I wouldn't ever want to structure an adventure outline like that anymore.

But wait! I thought. What if—instead of using the 5x5 model to try and plot out the actions of the PCs—I used it to plot out the actions of the NPCs, specifically the villains and antagonists that the PCs would be expected to confront? I don't know why this didn't click with me before, but that is a structure that I can use better than the weird, mechanistic and creativity and soul sucking fronts system, which I like much more in theory than in practice.

Now, I still need to come up with a bit of structure for my antagonists and villains; which isn't much different than coming up with the "dangers" of Dungeon World, and I also need to think of clues that the PCs will be able to find that will clue them in that the villains are progressing through their steps. But I actually don't think committing those to words is important... yet. I'll also point out that there's nothing magical about the number 5 in the 5x5. I think it's a good number of rows to have, because those correspond to steps in the antagonists plans, and five is a reasonable number for a plan that is reasonable to run the PCs against. But the number of columns can be more fluid. I actually think three overarching campaign "plots" is my preferred method, but I also like to have marginally smaller (at least in terms of stakes and "screen time", if you will) columns for each PC that I get. And I can't actually even start working on those until I get my PCs. So, we'll start with the basic 3-5 plots and put them in place for each of my three setting briefs: CULT OF UNDEATH, CHAOS IN WAYCHESTER and MIND-WIZARDS OF THE DAEMON WASTELAND and then see what next steps I go with after that. I'm actually thinking... that I may use this same structure as a story outline, and then write some fiction about my own characters, since gaming in the short-term seems unlikely. But we'll see. That's a bit of a wild idea right now, and certainly not a commitment.

Not 100% sure what Frank Frazetta's artwork of a werewolf and a vampire fighting has to do with that other than that it fits thematically—more or less—with the CULT OF UNDEATH brief, but what-the-heck. It's a cool picture.