Arcane Library Interview | Arcane Eye

About the Arcane Library

Since 2017, Kelsey has been continually releasing bestselling Dungeons & Dragons 5e adventures featuring stunning full-color artwork, battle maps, combat cards, and custom monsters and items. Some of her most popular works include:

The adventures are structured to be concise yet easy to follow, putting power back in the DM’s hands.

I find that a lot of adventures these days are over-written and overly detailed. In contrast, The Arcane Library adventures require less preparation and leave more room for DM interpretation, making each session feel truly unique.

Each page corresponds to a single encounter and includes dramatic questions to answer before moving forward in gameplay, how to transition to the next encounter, etc. Needless to say, Arcane Library is home to some of our favorite adventures to date.

If you want to find out what The Arcane Library is all about, sign up for our newsletter and get a free adventure. Kelsey will be sending out regular updates, articles, and exclusive D&D materials to subscribers so you don’t miss out.

Interview

Tell us about The Arcane Library – how did it start?

Arcane Library started as a way for me to write adventures and see if I could put my own spin on D&D material. At first, I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. I never expected the library to continue to grow and become a full-time job. At first, I just wrote adventures between jobs and on weekends.

Your adventures feature amazing storylines, characters and locations – what is the process like for coming up with a new adventure and writing it?

Thank you so much! Coming up with a new adventure is often a mix of daydreaming and absorbing material that I think is cool. In the end, many small influences and ideas unconsciously mix together to become a bigger, more unique idea. Once I have such a kernel (for example, a mysterious lighthouse invaded by evil forces), I start to explore what elements turn it into a concrete problem and interesting steps to the solution for the characters to take.

What inspires your adventures outside of the world of D&D?

Absolutely! I get most of my inspiration from watching movies and TV shows, reading fiction and non-fiction, playing video games, and enjoying the art of other creatives. For example, I once read an article about a security team that protects political leaders, which gave me the idea for an adventure I wrote. Inspiration can be found in many unexpected places!

There are quite a few horror-themed adventures out there. What draws you to this genre in particular among D&D adventures?

Horror is really fun to write because there’s a lot of foreshadowing and suspense. I love setting up characters to discover revelations and secrets that shape the truth of the story, and writing material with that structure is very satisfying. However, when it comes to watching horror movies or playing horror games, I’m actually quite scared!

Writing an adventure is certainly different from writing a novel in that you have to convey much more information to the reader in a short amount of time. What do you think makes a good D&D adventure?

I believe a good D&D adventure requires trusting the Dungeon Master. As a writer, I sometimes want to tell the person running the game every line, every perspective, every possibility, but it’s actually counterproductive because there’s just too much material to process. So, to me, the best adventure writing is to fit only the necessary information into as little space as possible.

Your adventures are concise and have a unique style. How did you come up with this presentation style and what advantages do you think it has over traditional publications?

The style I use when writing adventures is derived from how I used to take notes for my own games. I’m more of a “big picture” DM, coming into a session with a few bullet points about the plot, NPCs, and events. From there, I rely on excitement at the table to move the story forward and keep the pace exciting. So when I write adventures, I try to keep them flexible, easy to reference, and open to DMs making decisions and changes on the fly. The advantage my style has over traditional material is that it hopefully makes it easier for the DM to move the game along at a natural pace. I want the DM to get out of the writing and into the story as much as the players.

Do you have a favorite monster or magical item that you’ve created?

One of my favorite monsters to develop is from a book I co-authored with Matt Rauscher (The Pickled Dragon) called The Monstrous Lexicon. It’s a culture of elephant-human mystics called the Grooleshi, and they were a lot of fun to develop. They’re both monsters and a playable character race with a cool connection to precious gems. I’d love to be a Grooleshi monk in a campaign one day!

What is your favorite level tier to write adventures for? What is your least favorite level tier? (Low – 1-7, Medium – 8-14, High – 15-20)? Why?

I prefer to write for lower tiers because the characters are still a bit vulnerable and the sense of danger and excitement is very real. Writing high tier dungeons can be intimidating and they are probably my least favorite tier, but they are fun to tackle as a personal challenge. At higher levels, it’s easy to worry that the character will have unknown spells or abilities that will completely ruin the adventure. It can feel like a lot to tweak. When writing for higher tiers, I’ve found it helpful to keep a list of spells to watch out for (not necessarily to weaken them, but to have in mind). That way, you can avoid writing three encounters in a row that can all be defeated with a teleport. That being said, it’s nice to write one encounter that can be easily defeated with a teleport and have the player feel great that they overcame the challenge with a powerful spell.

How do you typically playtest your adventures and with whom? Do you often find yourself needing to tweak the balance of certain encounters?

I usually playtest my material completely in secret with my D&D group. I don’t tell the group that it’s a publication encounter, and I playtest bits and pieces on things that I feel need thorough testing. I tend to get more honest responses from players who don’t realize it’s a playtest. It might sound weird, but I’m more likely to rework NPCs, pacing, and story elements as a result of playtesting than combat. Combat can be hard to balance because of inconsistent party compositions and optimization levels for each group, so I usually leave it as is without messing around too much. But the motivation, pacing, and hook need to work well overall. If these elements don’t have the right impact, I’ll tweak them or rewrite them completely.

What does the future hold for The Arcane Library? Can you tell us a bit about what you have planned?

Absolutely! I’m currently working on a set of adventure anthologies called “Legends of the Library”. I’m planning (probably too ambitious) 5 volumes that, when combined, will contain one adventure for each level from 1 to 20. The adventures won’t be explicitly tied together by a story, but some of them will link together, which I think will be fun to discover. If my wicked plan works, I’m about a month away from finishing the first volume.

Conclusion

Thank you so much, Kelsey, for stopping by and talking to us about your D&D adventures. We can’t wait to see what’s to come! As always, if you love D&D, please consider supporting content creators. The easiest way to support Kelsey is by signing up for The Arcane Library’s newsletter or by purchasing her adventures and other products at the DM’s Guild or The Arcane Library shop.

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If you have any questions or would like to see more interviews and news about upcoming products in the D&D universe, post a comment below. If you like our content, subscribe to Arcane Eye.

Roland Drewes

Roland Drews is a content creator and editor at Arcane Eye. When he’s not watching basketball or playing guitar, he enjoys reading, writing, and playing Dungeons & Dragons. He currently lives in Bonn, Germany with his girlfriend, Jess.