What are the important ingredients of a good adventure?
Crothian
First Post
There's a difference between what's important for an adventure and what makes a good module.
A good module has a good story, but not an over abundance of one. It has a variety of encounters that mix it up and has the possibility to supriser the PCs. It can make a player think and have fun.
A good module has a good story, but not an over abundance of one. It has a variety of encounters that mix it up and has the possibility to supriser the PCs. It can make a player think and have fun.
johnsemlak
First Post
Nice list. Short but succinct 
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Wormwood
Adventurer
1. I don't have to change anything*.nikolai said:
2. The boxed text** is good.
3. The other text*** is good.
* That's why I paid you, moduleboy.
** "Read this aloud to the players". Well, I'm gonna read it as-is, so please don't make me sound like a dork.
***The stuff like hit points and what's in the chest. Please don't ruin my campaign.
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Altalazar
First Post
It has to stir the imagination - and have some "high concept" bit to it that is memorable.
It has to have that certain quality such that certain obstacles, as they are overcome (or not) end up being gaming table legends to be told again and again - and compared with others who have run the same module.
Those are what really set apart the best modules. Hard to define exactly how to get there, though.
It has to have that certain quality such that certain obstacles, as they are overcome (or not) end up being gaming table legends to be told again and again - and compared with others who have run the same module.
Those are what really set apart the best modules. Hard to define exactly how to get there, though.
Gilladian
Adventurer
Classic adventures are flexible enough that almost any campaign world can handle them. Yet they are distinctive enough that when a player says to another player "we played Sinister secret of Saltmarsh" everyone knows what that entails. That first module was MARVELOUS. I still use the town of Saltmarsh in my campaign world. And when new players see it on the map, they immediately start telling others about their experience.
Another point they have to have is mood. The mood in "Keep on the Borderlands" was very different from that of the Ravenloft adventure, but each was definitive and memorable.
Gilladian
Another point they have to have is mood. The mood in "Keep on the Borderlands" was very different from that of the Ravenloft adventure, but each was definitive and memorable.
Gilladian
johnsemlak said:Nice list. Short but succinct
Thanks, John... If you're interested in the verbose, explicated version, go here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~ad2300/goodadve.htm
PS: This version is slanted more towards Sci-Fi, since it's on my 2300AD Web site, but replace "technology" with "magic", and it's much the same. I also have a Fantasy version of this article around here, somewhere... I'll see if I can find it, if there's any interest...?
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Background, Setting, Antagonist(s), Mystery (including surpises and new "stuff"), Versitility, and the Rational which ties it all together.
Some classic examples, off the top of my head:
The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. I've used that adventure dozens of times over the years as a setting for anything from rescue missions, escape scenarios, even a "random encounter" where the PC's encountered a band of hill giants and tracked them back to their lair.
Keep on the Borderlands, for similar reasons. Tons of NPC's between the Keep and Caves and a wide variety of things that can happen, including murder and political intrigue.
I think one of the important keys to a good adventure module is that you should be able to remove the author's "story" and still make full use of the adventure.
Some classic examples, off the top of my head:
The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. I've used that adventure dozens of times over the years as a setting for anything from rescue missions, escape scenarios, even a "random encounter" where the PC's encountered a band of hill giants and tracked them back to their lair.
Keep on the Borderlands, for similar reasons. Tons of NPC's between the Keep and Caves and a wide variety of things that can happen, including murder and political intrigue.
I think one of the important keys to a good adventure module is that you should be able to remove the author's "story" and still make full use of the adventure.
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