Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
"A Special Warning Regarding the Deadliness of this Module" (or Adventure Design Philosophy)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 8153125" data-attributes="member: 11"><p>So I was prepping an old 1E module for use in my 5e campaign. As far as I'm concerned 1E modules and <em>Dungeon </em>of the 1E/2E era are still <em>the best</em> adventures for D&D ever made - but with the caveat that the only 5E modules I've run are ones that were converted from 1E and other editions in <em>Ghosts of Saltmarsh </em>and I never played or read any 4E modules (I was so turned off by 2E and 3E pre-packaged modules I just never looked beyond them). Anyway, I found this note early on in the module I was prepping:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]130364[/ATTACH]</p><p>The warning made me laugh because it was so indicative of an old playstyle and because I could not imagine my players asking to play a different character for an adventure b/c they were afraid of their character dying (even if I would allow such a switch- which I probably wouldn't). I did send them the above screenshot to get them a little nervous though! <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" alt="🤣" title="Rolling on the floor laughing :rofl:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f923.png" data-shortname=":rofl:" /></p><p></p><p>It did make me wonder about people's design philosophy when it comes to choosing, adapting, or writing adventures for their home games. Personally what I like about 1E modules is that they tend to be big and sandbox-y providing me a framework for establishing my own stakes and making the elements fit in my own setting. I honestly don't think I've ever run an adventure as written - so I guess one of the qualities I look for is adaptability. </p><p></p><p>What I love about <em>Dungeon </em>magazine adventures (esp. of the early to mid-90s) are the wonderfully inventive sites they provide, the interesting and detailed NPCs, the non-standard plots a lot of them have (ironically, for a while <em>Dungeon </em>magazine seemed to eschew actual dungeons), and the differences in style and tone among them (including a lot of "dark fairytale" feel adventures, which I really like). When it comes to Dungeon I am the master at cutting and pasting elements from different adventures together.</p><p></p><p>So what is your take on making use of pre-written adventures or for writing (re-writing) your own? What is your take on determining difficulty and for purposefully designing adventures that challenge in the way the warning above suggests? I know there is vocal presence of people on these boards who find 5E D&D not deadly or tactical enough (I disagree wholeheartedly, but <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" alt="🤷♂️" title="Man shrugging :man_shrugging:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f937-2642.png" data-shortname=":man_shrugging:" />) or that the CR system is broken (I don't have an opinion since I barely look at CR), so my guess is there will be people commenting to say that 5E <em>can't </em> be made to foster that feeling of fear, but that's fine. If your philosophy is just not run 5E or change it dramatically, just tell us about how you do make use of adventure material to foster the game you like. (This thread is not limited to 5E as the tag suggests).</p><p></p><p>Oh and if anyone is curious, I don't think the adventure this warning is from is REALLY all that dangerous. . . but I need to finish reading it through and begin the actual conversion.</p><p></p><p>If I had to boil it down to a one sentence philosophy: I like modules with a capacious plot that provide a site for non-linear engagement with interesting NPCs and more straightforward set-pieces to explore and/or have interesting battles using the environment.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="el-remmen, post: 8153125, member: 11"] So I was prepping an old 1E module for use in my 5e campaign. As far as I'm concerned 1E modules and [I]Dungeon [/I]of the 1E/2E era are still [I]the best[/I] adventures for D&D ever made - but with the caveat that the only 5E modules I've run are ones that were converted from 1E and other editions in [I]Ghosts of Saltmarsh [/I]and I never played or read any 4E modules (I was so turned off by 2E and 3E pre-packaged modules I just never looked beyond them). Anyway, I found this note early on in the module I was prepping: [ATTACH type="full" alt="Epo_K3-WMAAn9Dm.jpg"]130364[/ATTACH] The warning made me laugh because it was so indicative of an old playstyle and because I could not imagine my players asking to play a different character for an adventure b/c they were afraid of their character dying (even if I would allow such a switch- which I probably wouldn't). I did send them the above screenshot to get them a little nervous though! 🤣 It did make me wonder about people's design philosophy when it comes to choosing, adapting, or writing adventures for their home games. Personally what I like about 1E modules is that they tend to be big and sandbox-y providing me a framework for establishing my own stakes and making the elements fit in my own setting. I honestly don't think I've ever run an adventure as written - so I guess one of the qualities I look for is adaptability. What I love about [I]Dungeon [/I]magazine adventures (esp. of the early to mid-90s) are the wonderfully inventive sites they provide, the interesting and detailed NPCs, the non-standard plots a lot of them have (ironically, for a while [I]Dungeon [/I]magazine seemed to eschew actual dungeons), and the differences in style and tone among them (including a lot of "dark fairytale" feel adventures, which I really like). When it comes to Dungeon I am the master at cutting and pasting elements from different adventures together. So what is your take on making use of pre-written adventures or for writing (re-writing) your own? What is your take on determining difficulty and for purposefully designing adventures that challenge in the way the warning above suggests? I know there is vocal presence of people on these boards who find 5E D&D not deadly or tactical enough (I disagree wholeheartedly, but 🤷♂️) or that the CR system is broken (I don't have an opinion since I barely look at CR), so my guess is there will be people commenting to say that 5E [I]can't [/I] be made to foster that feeling of fear, but that's fine. If your philosophy is just not run 5E or change it dramatically, just tell us about how you do make use of adventure material to foster the game you like. (This thread is not limited to 5E as the tag suggests). Oh and if anyone is curious, I don't think the adventure this warning is from is REALLY all that dangerous. . . but I need to finish reading it through and begin the actual conversion. If I had to boil it down to a one sentence philosophy: I like modules with a capacious plot that provide a site for non-linear engagement with interesting NPCs and more straightforward set-pieces to explore and/or have interesting battles using the environment. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
"A Special Warning Regarding the Deadliness of this Module" (or Adventure Design Philosophy)
Top