Paul Farquhar
Legend
The trick with foreshadowing is that it only has to be foreshadowing in retrospect...
I'd like to explore this. For many editions of D&D and lots of other RGPS there were plenty of non-Adventure Path adventures put out. So it was completely possible to run adventure-eposodic, but not at all sandbox. I've played with multiple DMs who did this.Well, it's a matter of taste. The alternative to having no AP is a large sandbox. Some groups prefer that and it's fine. But there are also a lot of people who like an epic storyline, which no sandbox can provide because you need some sort of uber-arc to do this.
I'd like to explore this. For many editions of D&D and lots of other RGPS there were plenty of non-Adventure Path adventures put out. So it was completely possible to run adventure-eposodic, but not at all sandbox. I've played with multiple DMs who did this.
But really, your comment brought me to a different place - could there be a call for uber-arc products, that's separated from individual adventures? Actual seeds to be built on that provide an arc, lots of ways to tie in other adventures, sample NPCs and pertanent things for NPCs to do to help tie things in, suggested foes and locations, some set pieces for various Acts, rumors, information and lore, and a big finale run. Designed so that DMs can run whatever adventure modules they want, from homebrew to 3pp to official. Something to layer on top of existing adventures.
I'd like to explore this. For many editions of D&D and lots of other RGPS there were plenty of non-Adventure Path adventures put out. So it was completely possible to run adventure-eposodic, but not at all sandbox. I've played with multiple DMs who did this.
But really, your comment brought me to a different place - could there be a call for uber-arc products, that's separated from individual adventures? Actual seeds to be built on that provide an arc, lots of ways to tie in other adventures, sample NPCs and pertanent things for NPCs to do to help tie things in, suggested foes and locations, some set pieces for various Acts, rumors, information and lore, and a big finale run. Designed so that DMs can run whatever adventure modules they want, from homebrew to 3pp to official. Something to layer on top of existing adventures.
Probably Against the Giants -> Queen of the Demonweb Pits. But none of these where planned as a campaign, they where modules that spawned sequel modules. The first planned-from-the-start as a campaign would be Dragonlance.I'm actually not sure when the first campaign appeared, probably around T1 into the Temple of Elemental Evil, or Maybe the Slave Lords. But GDQ was fantastic.
Probably Against the Giants -> Queen of the Demonweb Pits. But none of these where planned as a campaign, they where modules that spawned sequel modules. The first planned-from-the-start as a campaign would be Dragonlance.
Wish I would have thought of using the Deck of Many Things. Much more fun than the Stone.I'm 35 sessions (about 70 hours) into my version of Dragon Heist. I used the Alexandrian Remix as inspiration, changed some of the factions, and replaced the Stone of Golorr with the Deck of Many Things. The result is arguably the best campaign I have ever run. It's thematically focused, has a variety of gameplay, and is always unpredictable. Lots of fun. I expect we'll wrap it up before session 50 with the characters just about 10th level.
Heh. To be fair, Dragon Heist, at least the adventure part, is about 32 pages long and it's not like a single line is a complex flowchart.Well, as someone who has just recently prepped an OSE version of B1: In Search of the Unknown, I would completely agree with that. However, those were like two of the very first adventures for Basic D&D - and the tradition of "fill out this dungeon to learn how to be a DM" more or less ended 40 years ago.
I know there were semantics on here (maybe another post, but in another Post-Mortem anyway) in which someone was saying "Adventure Paths" don't apply to the mega-campaign adventures by WotC. I'd say that it's been the norm for the entirety of Pathfinder's existence and basically all of 5e - so pretty much the last decade.
Again, if they presented these as campaign "toolboxes" for creating a mystery investigation (or a hexcrawl, etc.) I don't think I'd have as big of an issue. However, I'm trying to imagine myself as a 13 year-old trying to DM my friends in their first game. I'd be at a complete loss with many of these adventures - not to mention terribly overwhelmed by a 200+ page hardcover adventure (to go along with the three core books).
Definitely need more 32 page adventures, or at least more straightforward things that don't have complex flowcharts, etc.