Balancing the freedom of exploration that Dungeons & Dragons offers with compelling storytelling can be difficult for some Dungeon Masters, but experienced DMs understand when to encourage free-roaming world-building and episodic adventures, and when to stay laser-focused on dramatic stakes. Exploring the campaign’s fantasy world and pursuing whatever character-driven agenda appeals to the party is a key part of the classic DnD experience. Once a high-stakes conflict is introduced, presenting a session that feels like a filler episode of a television series is a sure-fire way to kill any narrative momentum and urgency the DM has worked to build.

With the difficulties adults face scheduling DnD sessions at times, it is important to make every session count. The notion of making any given session feel like a satisfying chapter of a book or an episode of a TV show is well-established. Players and DMs alike want to be able to look back at a session with a sense of accomplishment and progress, as PCs make choices that craft DnD’s emergent, collective storytelling. At some point, the stakes of a campaign’s central conflict need to become evident. The wrong kind of session can completely undercut those stakes, destroying narrative immersion.

D&D Exploration & Side Quests Aid Early World Building

Getting Lost In The Wilderness, Or In Side Quests, Is Fine At The Start

Some pre-written modules provide a framework for new DMs to run DnD campaigns, but most quickly move on to bespoke stories within an established campaign world, or even home-brewing a world of their own. The early portions of a campaign are an excellent time to focus on world-building and character development. Even in a familiar setting like the Forgotten Realms, the characteristics of the campaign’s starting region may differ wildly. Having looser goals with fewer time-based restrictions makes sense for a campaign’s start. The DM can set the tone of the region and its problems, foreshadowing the campaign’s themes and conflicts.

The 2024 DnD Ranger received changed spells that mostly impact its function in battle, but the loss of the Natural Explorer feature creates some wrinkles. The ability was associated with a specific terrain type, which occasionally required guesswork and DM adjudication, but one of its key functions was preventing the party from getting lost. The Exploration pillar of DnD could be seen as the most ambiguous one, and even for the DMs who enjoy falling back on the “man vs. nature” style of conflict within their campaign, a group getting lost is not inherently compelling or interesting, and devastates momentum.

Even in lower-stakes campaigns, such as one where two factions race to claim a treasure from a tomb, badly timed filler content destroys any sense of real stakes a game might have built.

A DM needs to judge when a campaign has time to meander with low-stakes side quests, and the group getting lost in the weeds, sometimes literally, while exploring the world. This could take place early in a game, while its central narrative is still unfolding, or in between arcs for more episodic-structured campaigns. At some point, most campaigns will feature a central conflict that carries more urgency. That is where aimless wilderness treks and filler content can be detrimental to any sense of stakes and immersion in the story. Shifting gears to build intensity and dramatic momentum requires experience.

Making High Stakes D&D Conflicts Takes Effort

Building Urgency Is Important, Maintaining It Is Just As Vital

There is some debate about the first BBEG in DnD’s history, and while every game does not center on a single villain pulling the strings, most campaigns do have a central antagonist of some kind. The classic JRPG Final Fantasy 7 provides a great model for a DnD campaign in many respects. It escalates from an urban adventure in Midgar to a pursuit of Sephiroth across all of Gaia. Near the game’s conclusion, Sephiroth summons Meteor, a spell that will devastate the world and allow him to become a god. Many DnD games pursue stakes that are just as epic.

At that stage of Final Fantasy 7’s story, while focusing on stopping Sephiroth and saving the planet should be the party’s sole focus, many players decide to roam the world, collecting weapons and Materia, fighting optional bosses, and power leveling. In the context of a tabletop RPG like DnD, where immersion is paramount, this mode of behavior would obviously annihilate any verisimilitude and sense of urgency. Even in lower-stakes campaigns, such as one where two factions race to claim a treasure from a tomb, badly timed filler content destroys any sense of real stakes a game might have built.

It is always better to maintain narrative momentum and rush a Dungeons & Dragons campaign to its conclusion than to destroy any investment in the story through ill-timed filler content.

The 2024 DnD DMG has travel rules detailing how far a party can journey in a day, and other subsystems geared towards the exploration pillar, but a poorly timed roll on a table can derail any momentum. For this reason, skilled DMs exercise judgment on when to include randomized events, and when to simply let the party travel from point A to point B. When the PCs have a clear goal and their story is building towards a major confrontation, unrelated random encounters with bandits or Bugbears can harm momentum, and getting lost in the wilderness can evaporate it altogether.

Meandering D&D Content Undercuts Stakes

Filler Sessions Kill A Campaign's Narrative Momentum

One could argue that all filler sessions could be eliminated from DnD, and the result would be a tighter campaign with far better pacing and energy. Some groups enjoy the occasional throwback excursions where they explore at their leisure without a ticking clock or an important goal driving them. If a DM wishes to include these elements in the campaign, it is vital to know when to pull away from them to let the story’s momentum carry the players forward. Otherwise, a DM sabotages their own campaign, simply because they picked the very worst time for a quirky side quest.

The natural pacing of DnD can aid narrative momentum organically. As characters gain levels, and access to spells like wind walk, tedious filler and exploration challenges evaporate, allowing for more focus on the central drama of the story.

Tabletop RPGs are both games and collaborative storytelling experiences. Some DnD DMs mistake events for story, assuming any sequence of occurrences adds up to a satisfying story. The PCs are the protagonists of the story, not the Dungeon Master. When the players seize on a goal, whether it is a military coup or saving the world, the DM would be wise to work with that energy instead of against it. It is always better to maintain narrative momentum and rush a Dungeons & Dragons campaign to its conclusion than to destroy any investment in the story through ill-timed filler content.

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