Well, Ariosto, I don't know about you, but, I generally say that an adventure and a scenario are pretty much synonymous.
Hmmm...tough call. I guess I've always seen "adventure" as meaning something fairly well-defined, as in a module; while "scenario" can be more, or less, or the same as a single adventure.
Take Village of Hommlet. There's two distinct scenarios in there - the village and the dungeon - but it's all one interconnected adventure.
Or worse, take Night's Dark Terror. There's about 6 different scenarios in that one...
But sometimes a relatively small but distinct adventure can occur within a larger scenario. An example might be where the scenario is a journey from town to and through adventure A but the party gets sidetracked into minor adventure B en route, then keeps going.
pemerton said:
One feature of typical published D&D adventures that I find irritating is the plot hook that seems to presuppose both (i) that the campaign is a traditional exploration campaign and (ii) that the players are happy to be more-or-less led by the GM in respect of a good chunk of that exploration (ie are happy to bite the GM's plot hooks). This combination of presuppositions seems a bit incoherent to me.
Which might be why I very rarely if ever use plot hooks as written (PHAW?) but instead lead in to the adventure in whatever way(s) make sense in the game world at the time.
That said, if they don't bite those hooks they won't get to that adventure; and if they don't bite any hooks they're probably going to get mighty bored.
As for encounters always being level-appropriate, there's more than one way to look at it.
One supposes the DM is going to run *adventures* that are at least vaguely level-appropriate, and thus encounters within those should mostly take care of themselves.
But encounters in the greater world? That's another question entirely, and having some encounters now and then that are wildly off-level is nothing more or less than realistic. And "level-inappropriate" can go both ways: a couple of times in the past I've had foolhardy groups of 0th and 1st level bandits try and hold up high-level magic-laden parties, mostly for the amusement value for all involved...
A 1e game, 7th-9th level party of about 9 characters with gobs of magic and wealth, capable of taking on just about anything, are somewhat lost deep in woods known to be dangerous. One (1) solitary 1/2-HD dumb-like-post Kobold steps into the path in front of them, levels a crossbow at the leader, and says "Stand and deliver!" in a high squeaky voice.
The terrified party scatters to the four winds, except one Dwarf who charges the Kobold and (amazingly) manages to fall into the Kobold's small and badly-covered pit trap!
Once the players realized it was a mere Kobold and the gales of laughter subsided, they regrouped, killed it, and moved on...
Lan-"for just a moment, that Kobold had more impact than a fleet of Giants"-efan