Serious poll: introductory or full length adventures in campaign setting source book?

[ExiStanc3]

Well, adventures hooks too. That said, I just plainly hate setting books.
I want stakes!! There is no such thing as a 'frozen setting', except in our hobby.
So, provide me with stakes, with situations, tension. What is important at the moment for this setting.

And let me manage the rest.

 

[delericho]

A mini-adventure for me. Unlike most of the other posters, though, actually do like having a mini-adventure (plus some hooks throughout the work, but really those should go without saying).

One thing, though: your included adventure really needs to set the scene for this world, not just be some generic thing you've hit with some proper nouns.

Edit: and, having posted, now I see that this one's been necro'd from way back.

 

[howandwhy99]

That's a very hard question. I think a lot of it depends upon what you are publishing as a campaign setting. Some designs may work better as a series of modules or even one single one. Look at Greyhawk's modules. But also look at I6 Ravenloft.

I think full-length adventures need to be able to stand alone ultimately. Otherwise you are effectively asking DMs to only run them in your campaign setting. Mini-adventures, even a few, could go along with into introducing what kind of adventures you particularly see in the setting. Take Forgotten Realms for instance. That setting is too big for included adventures actually, but if it were smaller I could see a mini in Waterdeep, the Dales, Cormyr, the Western Heartlands, maybe plenty of other locations too.

If you're publishing a slim campaign setting, say 40-60 pages, then I would definitely only include a mini-adventure if at all.

The trouble with minis is they might not be able to set the whole setting off like a full length adventure does. A good full length adventure showcases a lot of the features of a setting, while an accompanying setting book would illustrate so many of the tantalizing features which were only touched upon in the adventure. As I said at start, it's a hard question to answer.

 

[GMMichael]

Well, adventures hooks too. That said, I just plainly hate setting books.
I want stakes!! There is no such thing as a 'frozen setting', except in our hobby.
So, provide me with stakes, with situations, tension. What is important at the moment for this setting.

And let me manage the rest.

Wasn't this conversation over, um, 12 YEARS ago?

 

[ExiStanc3]

Wasn't this conversation over, um, 12 YEARS ago?

Really? I was not aware of it. Sounds like good news ...

 

[howandwhy99]

Really? I was not aware of it. Sounds like good news ...

D&D campaign setting books have to be a single point in time. That's the world the players begin in. It's up to them to change into something different, even if that means sitting around and watching as it changes itself. A setting with a timeline quits it from being a game as the player's consequences become predetermined. There are no options in the game, just false choices. Ditto any adventures.

 

[DungeonsNDads]

I've DMd for 7 years, from my first session I've never felt the need to use a published adventure so they have never really appealed to me as anything other than a source for some ideas to incorporate into my own stuff. It would of course depend on the difference in price, but in all honesty I wouldn't miss them and think the time and effort could probably be best used elsewhere, at least for me, I'm sure there's plenty of people who like to run pre-mades.

 

[ExiStanc3]

D&D campaign setting books have to be a single point in time. That's the world the players begin in. It's up to them to change into something different, even if that means sitting around and watching as it changes itself. A setting with a timeline quits it from being a game as the player's consequences become predetermined. There are no options in the game, just false choices. Ditto any adventures.

If you're telling me that previous attempts to acheive a 'living setting' (something with a timeline) were failures (WoD, for instance, than I would gladly agree. That said, it doesn't mean it can't be done. Honestly, for me, a setting presented for a single point (which is fixed) is of no use to me; but neither are a timeline describing the events of the players (and you are right, this is boring). I strongly believe this hobby needs to come up with new avenues, new design to propose 'adventures modules'.

Back to this thread, I don't think a mini adventures can help much. It is going to be a linear structure, even if it is a short one. As for a full scenario, just check this thread. But there are other ways. Take the hexcrawl approach with products like Point of Light, for instance.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I voted, "It depends." An "introductory" adventure should NOT be necessary to sell your game setting. After reading it any decent DM should be sufficiently inspired with setting-specific hooks, characters, places, events, whatever that an adventure would write itself.

Did you design the setting to cater to new DM's who don't know enough yet to write and run their first adventure? That's rather a different question isn't it? Is the setting NOT aimed at newbies? Well, then we're back to not needing any adventure at all.

Is the setting small and without a padded page-count and you have lots of space that you could fill with an adventure of some length or other that would only further facilitate "getting into it?" By all means write something worthy of being printed in your core book and referenced for all time.

Edit: Holy Necro. Well, I suppose the question is currently sorta relevant but I'd have bypassed commenting on the thread if I'd been more awake and aware that it was started 12 years ago.

There should be a warning attached to a thread if it ever drops off the first page...

 

[ExiStanc3]

Edit: Holy Necro. Well, I suppose the question is currently sorta relevant but I'd have bypassed commenting on the thread if I'd been more awake and aware that it was started 12 years ago.

Oh ... then it is my mistake!!! Sorry about that. How come this board proposes similar threads (at the foot of page) that are that old?