Opinions: What makes a good adventure?

Old One · Jan 18, 2002

Rel's Comments...

I think Rel's comments are very pertinent, especially in the context of linked adventures or a campaign. Giving the players reasons to really CARE about the enviornment they are in.

In my Faded Glory campaign, I have tied the PCs intimately to the game world...they, their friends, their family and their enemies all act, interact and react to what is going on. It is tough to do that in a stand alone adventure, but one thing that I would like to see is more suggestions by adventure/module authors on how DMs can plug the offering into an on-going campaign.

Old One

wolff96 · Jan 18, 2002

Re: Good Adventures

As a player, it's all about the encounters. Whether it's going to sword to sword and spell to spell with the enemy or bowing to your dance partner at the king's masked ball, the characters you meet along the way are what brings the world to life.

In my opinion, this is something that exists totally outside game system. Sure it's easy to make a monster unique by adding templates or odd powers to it, but it's the villainous little man who always lisps or has a manaical cackle that will stand out long after the latest half-fiend vampiric dragon is long dead. (Though I've got to admit that would be a memorable dragon!)

If the world doesn't live and breathe, it's not worth playing in.

Dave G · Jan 18, 2002

As a player... I just want a mixture of elements... I like hack and slash as much as the next person, but I want more opportunities to role play... I like puzzles and problem solving, but most DM's tend to overcompensate with them... just like with the monsters. They need to make sense... why would the Arch Mage have a riddle trap in the sewer beneath his lab? Why is the fire giant staying in this place? Answer these questions in a way that makes sense, and the world will become more real for everyone playing...

On a side note, for those who shy away from published adventures, I really like what Thunderhead Games did in their Interludes product, with ways to scale the encounters for different types of parties... Very cool!

Pielorinho · Jan 18, 2002

Very interesting thread! Some more thoughts:

-Villain Intelligence. Nothing grates more than being genuinely outsmarted by a villain. When the bad guy in our campaign stole all of our gear by shapeshifting into a party member, and by the way ambushed the impersonated party member and drove him insane, he earned a bunch of frothing enemies. He didn't just hurt us or steal from us: he wounded our pride, made us look like fools.

Contrariwise, I hate it when a putatively intelligent villain acts like a cretin. In one adventure, an enchanter has the ability to enter people's dreams, charm them there, implant suggestions in their minds, etc. What does the adventure designer have this villain do? Enter people's minds and go "booga booga," that's what! Stuff like that annoys me.

-Change of pacing. Like Ziggy said, killing things all day long gets just as boring as talking all day long does. I like adventures that include a mixture.

Otherwise, I agree with most of what's been said.

Daniel

Fayredeth · Jan 18, 2002

I will say that variety and yet continuity are big factors, an intriguing setup or plot, NPC interactivity, situations that make the players think and come up with a plan or else bad things will result. Keep it fresh. But don't hesitate to tie things in from the past which eventually dawn on the players.

Does that make any sense?

Fenrir · Jan 18, 2002

A consistent mood, theme, and style creates an effect that leaves the players with a better experience than simply having a smorgasboard. Also, a healthy mixture of action and drama, an ending that leaves them going "wow," and appropriate buildup of tension to said ending are also very good to have.

Also, I think that a player, not just a character, should take something away from a good adventure- much like some video games, like Metal Gear Solid. Not only did you have fun, but you learned something from it or found something particularly intriguing about it.

Can't forget the piles of dead bad guys (TM).

WSmith · Jan 18, 2002

Of course many long haired, buxom beautiful women wearing chainmail bikini can't hurt either.

Uller · Jan 18, 2002

FUN!

As a DM:

An adventure is fun if it kept the player's attention and things went roughly as planned: The problems were solvable, but not too easy or too hard. The players all felt like they had a chance to participate and knew roughly what to do(with out being led by the nose...they had to have an opportunity to change the course of things if they wanted).

As a player: It needs to be exciting. Again, not overly complex, but not overly easy either. I don't want to feel like I am following a single path...to follow it means success...to step off means death. There needs to be at least one good fight(more are better) and a feeling that we've discovered something new or solved a problem.

I don't care too much about inconsistant stories and what not...last game, we accidently released a demon...then we killed it without too much difficulty. There were powerful people keeping the demon locked up...obviously if we could destroy it, they could destroy it...I didn't allow that to ruin my fun....It was fun fighting the thing. It was fun negotiating with the people who were keeping it locked up....

Pielorinho · Jan 18, 2002

Drama Scenes

As a DM, I love getting to my Drama scenes.

Preparing Drama Scenes is the best part of game preparation. I hate making up stats for villains, and so I spend most of my time on the Drama Scenes, relying on tools like PCGen for a lot of the grunt work.

To continue my previous example, in the last session, a magical villain was able to enter the dreams of the players and make magical suggestions to them within their dreams. I spent awhile figuring out first what sort of suggestion he'd make, and then how each nightmare would play out.

Each nightmare "script" (I allowed players to interrupt the script with their own dream-actions) pulled on imagery from that PC's past, trying to creep the PC and player out as much as possible.

Now, there are precautions the PCs could have taken which would have prevented these nightmares from occurring; if they'd taken them, I would've had to suck it up and either modify or discard all my planning.

The fact that they didn't take these precautions meant that I got to play through these Drama Scenes. Which was lots of fun for me.

This is kinda based off of something PirateCat once wrote about adventure design: he starts with an interesting scene and tries to figure out how to get the story to that scene. I don't quite work that way -- I put pretty heavy weight on starting with NPC motivations and schemes, and work forward from there. But I definitely see the advantage of the Drama Scene method, and I try to marry the two approaches to story design as much as I can.

Daniel

Nightfall · Jan 18, 2002

Well I can think of at least three adventures in print and/or in Electronic format that are out.

White Robes and Black Hearts: The Enigma of the Aracanex by Dark Portal Games. Simply put, you want REALLY challenge your players, this is the module for you, ESPECIALLY if they are looking for a questing type of game.

Interludes: Excursions into Bluffside by Thunderhead Games. It is by far one of the more scalable and hands on type of deals for PCs, plus the fact nothing is ever certain or ending.

Rappen Athuk: 15 levels of pure hell and dungeon crawl madness. Without a doubt, this adventure will give your players some REAL nightmares and see at least more than one character die gruesomely.

Course I'm thinking that Necropolis will be even BETTER but still, that's because it was already done before hand!

So there's my picks fellas. Take them for what they are.