D&D 5E What constitutes "DM Friendly" adventure / module in your opinion?

[Anthony Pacheco]

As a DM I've always been on the lookout for Dungeon Master friendly material, not just inspirational material.

I was talking to my DM friend and business partner the other day and realized my definition of "DM Friendly" and his did not quite match, and where it did match the priorities were different. I placed "Great Encounter Maps" as my #1 followed by "NPCs with clear motivations".

For the 5E DMs out there, what game mastery attributes to a module do you look for or wish there was more of in the 5E products you buy?

 

[5ekyu]

1 - Re-usable material and its sister morphable material. (good maps can be part of this.) The more potential content i can feed this product to and make that content "fuller" the better i like the product. This can apply to NPCs, Areas, maps, special unique and new stuff, etc etc etc. A product which has lots of stuff that is basically very narrow in its applicability is to me a lot of mostly crippled content.

2 - Omni-directional stories where the situations are set and events are in place and people are fleshed out but where there is a rich suite of options for the PCs to choose as to how they interact, use, abuse or just control/change the approaching results. basically, i would like to see the setup enable and be helpful for viable "paths" and objectives for (what can be clumsily summarized as) "any alignment of PCs Party." maybe the goods can rescue the sacrifices and stop the ritual, but maybe the neutrals can take payoffs to get certain sacrifices "off the block" and provide adequate replacements. maybe the darker party can actually not stop the ritual but merely wipe out the current bad so they can put someon else (or themselves) as the beneficiary of the ritual. maybe the darkers want to stop the ritual to prevent the other guy from getting the power-up but choose to do so without concern for the sacrifices and maybe by killing a key sacrifice before the time is right.


(Remember X-Men: Apocalypse? One of the flaws that bugged me the most was that the CIA agent never ever thought "Hey, If apoc gets Xavier we are all doomed and here i am with Xavier helpless right beside me and I could just kill him and prevent this." It deserved at least a discussion.)

So it really boils down to the more often and the more ways i can use the stuff in a product, the more i consider it friendly.

 

[Croesus]

1. Interesting, memorable NPCs with clear motivations.

2. Room and creature descriptions that include multiple senses. (But don't assume character actions, e.g., "As you character steps into the room and approaches the empty throne...").

These are the two items I most have trouble with, so any material that covers them has done 80% of what I need.

 

[LordEntrails]

DM Friendly is very different from Good.

Organization is imo the first and foremost requirement. Doesn't matter how good the story is, how great the maps are, how interesting the NPCs are. If the adventure is not well organized then you can't find what you need when you need it.

 

[Anthony Pacheco]

Thanks 5eku, I like your commentary for omni-directional stories. Not assuming the motivations for PCs to actually be in a certain spot provides a baseline for the encounter that makes the world more open, and there for relevant for your players. Sign me up.

RE: Maps.

How far with your map reuse do you want to go? For example, a map with the map key only in text (available in print or PDF) vs. a map version that has no labels on it at all (possible in a PDF as bonus content).

I think about good maps, a lot. Probably a bit too much, heh.

 

[Anthony Pacheco]

DM Friendly is very different from Good.

Organization is imo the first and foremost requirement. Doesn't matter how good the story is, how great the maps are, how interesting the NPCs are. If the adventure is not well organized then you can't find what you need when you need it.

The first thing that comes to my mind are stat blocks, custom magic items and map keys. Hunting for either of those drives me crazy. Also: PDFs without bookmarks.

 

[ad_hoc]

#1 requirement is that I can run it on the fly. I want to read the first page of a chapter to get a sense of what interconnects to what. After that whenever the party goes to a place or does a thing I want to be able to read it as we go.

#2 would be nice are random encounter tables with unique and interesting encounters based on the adventure. I love random encounters in an adventure, makes the place and the story feel alive. I don't just want a creature table though. I want a unique description for each one that makes it interesting.

 

[Charlaquin]

To me, DM friendly means material that is written with the understanding that the DM is going to modify the content to suit their needs. For an example of what I mean by that, I would much rather have a bulleted list of details about a scene for me to convey to the players in my own way, as opposed to a block of descriptive text that someone else has already written for me.

 

[5ekyu]

Thanks 5eku, I like your commentary for omni-directional stories. Not assuming the motivations for PCs to actually be in a certain spot provides a baseline for the encounter that makes the world more open, and there for relevant for your players. Sign me up.

RE: Maps.

How far with your map reuse do you want to go? For example, a map with the map key only in text (available in print or PDF) vs. a map version that has no labels on it at all (possible in a PDF as bonus content).

I think about good maps, a lot. Probably a bit too much, heh.

I can deal with map key indicators. Having a marked up and non marked up would be a plus but not required. More to the point i want its layout to be re-usable.

So a special undergroundctemple with very unusual and specific to this one story elements is less preferred than say "an abandoned dwarven temple" where most of the added flourishes and story bits are in description, not on map.

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[5ekyu]

To me, DM friendly means material that is written with the understanding that the DM is going to modify the content to suit their needs. For an example of what I mean by that, I would much rather have a bulleted list of details about a scene for me to convey to the players in my own way, as opposed to a block of descriptive text that someone else has already written for me.

I agree completely. I loathe "read text now" blocks.

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