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What do you want in a published adventure? / Adventure design best practices?
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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7156816" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>Some things I'd like to see, in no particular order:</p><p></p><p>- limited if any baked-in backstory to allow the module to be fully self-contained as far as possible (yes this is possible even when a module is part of an AP)</p><p>- if it's a dungeon crawl:</p><p>- - - multiple ways in and out, some obvious, some not so</p><p>- - - closed loops on some levels to avoid linearity (linearity is boring!)</p><p>- - - multiple access points and methods between one level, deck or floor and another; some of which skip or bypass levels</p><p>- - - secret areas that a party might miss completely</p><p>- - - intentional 'holes' in the map; areas of solid rock that don't contain a secret room no matter how hard they look</p><p>- - - linear lengths of stairways noted on the maps and-or in the write-ups (this is always a headache)</p><p>- passing attention paid to 'what-if' situations e.g. what if the PCs are three days late in completing the time-sensitive mission, or what if the PCs charm or capture this person instead of killing</p><p>- boxed text describing each area and its obvious contents and-or occupants (explained below)</p><p>- something different or new; whether it's a magic item, a monster or villain, a location, a nifty trap, or whatever - a reason to remember the module afterwards</p><p>- wandering monsters that make sense, and if they don't make sense don't put 'em in</p><p>- a day by day (or similar) story development track if the adventure site is not static - particularly important in race-against-time style modules</p><p>- monsters' stats in 1e-style short form in the write-up for the room in which they (are most likely to) appear</p><p></p><p>Boxed text: the reason this is important is that without it it's far too easy for a DM to miss key elements that are buried in the text, leading to headaches later. The trick is to write the boxed text as 'direction-neutral' - NEVER use "left" and "right" as directions as the party might approach from the other way! - and if the area is large enough you might need to have several boxed texts, one for each possible direction of approach, as not all of it can be seen at once.</p><p></p><p>Lanefan</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 7156816, member: 29398"] Some things I'd like to see, in no particular order: - limited if any baked-in backstory to allow the module to be fully self-contained as far as possible (yes this is possible even when a module is part of an AP) - if it's a dungeon crawl: - - - multiple ways in and out, some obvious, some not so - - - closed loops on some levels to avoid linearity (linearity is boring!) - - - multiple access points and methods between one level, deck or floor and another; some of which skip or bypass levels - - - secret areas that a party might miss completely - - - intentional 'holes' in the map; areas of solid rock that don't contain a secret room no matter how hard they look - - - linear lengths of stairways noted on the maps and-or in the write-ups (this is always a headache) - passing attention paid to 'what-if' situations e.g. what if the PCs are three days late in completing the time-sensitive mission, or what if the PCs charm or capture this person instead of killing - boxed text describing each area and its obvious contents and-or occupants (explained below) - something different or new; whether it's a magic item, a monster or villain, a location, a nifty trap, or whatever - a reason to remember the module afterwards - wandering monsters that make sense, and if they don't make sense don't put 'em in - a day by day (or similar) story development track if the adventure site is not static - particularly important in race-against-time style modules - monsters' stats in 1e-style short form in the write-up for the room in which they (are most likely to) appear Boxed text: the reason this is important is that without it it's far too easy for a DM to miss key elements that are buried in the text, leading to headaches later. The trick is to write the boxed text as 'direction-neutral' - NEVER use "left" and "right" as directions as the party might approach from the other way! - and if the area is large enough you might need to have several boxed texts, one for each possible direction of approach, as not all of it can be seen at once. Lanefan [/QUOTE]
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