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What do you want in a published adventure? / Adventure design best practices?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ath-kethin" data-source="post: 7156882" data-attributes="member: 6798775"><p>So I gave an example of what I liked about X4; here's an example of what I don't:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH]85663[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>That's the extent of the information given, for each area. It's very crunchy and has a lot of information, but you can't just read it to the players because it includes stuff they wouldn't know (including mechanical terms). Running this cold or semi-cold is a real challenge, because 40 out of the adventure's 48 pages are location descriptions like that. Unless you put in substantial time beforehand working out how you want to word everything, describing these areas is a pain in the ass.</p><p></p><p>Every boxed text section I've ever seen carries the legend "read or paraphrase the following." That gives the DM the option of organizing the data differently if they feel like, or making any changes they want/need. But the bulk of the work is done for them. Especially in a setting where, for example, flowery language is common and where the physical space (architecture, extraplanar qualities, etc) are different from the norm, or where the adventure is intended to evoke a certain type of mood, having this work done ahead of time is invaluable. Could you imagine a module meant to evoke Lovecraftian horror written in the style above? I bet you can come up with evocative prose on the fly to describe misty hallways and dripping, undulating corridors pretty easily. But for how long? 40 pages' worth? Groups who don't want to use it don't have to. But it's easier to have it and not use it than need it and not have it.</p><p></p><p>So sure it's for the players, but it's for the DM too, maybe even moreso. Somebody running a published adventure isn't looking to do extra work; one purpose of using a published adventure is to <em>reduce </em>the amount of work you need to do. Keep that in mind.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ath-kethin, post: 7156882, member: 6798775"] So I gave an example of what I liked about X4; here's an example of what I don't: [ATTACH=CONFIG]85663._xfImport[/ATTACH] That's the extent of the information given, for each area. It's very crunchy and has a lot of information, but you can't just read it to the players because it includes stuff they wouldn't know (including mechanical terms). Running this cold or semi-cold is a real challenge, because 40 out of the adventure's 48 pages are location descriptions like that. Unless you put in substantial time beforehand working out how you want to word everything, describing these areas is a pain in the ass. Every boxed text section I've ever seen carries the legend "read or paraphrase the following." That gives the DM the option of organizing the data differently if they feel like, or making any changes they want/need. But the bulk of the work is done for them. Especially in a setting where, for example, flowery language is common and where the physical space (architecture, extraplanar qualities, etc) are different from the norm, or where the adventure is intended to evoke a certain type of mood, having this work done ahead of time is invaluable. Could you imagine a module meant to evoke Lovecraftian horror written in the style above? I bet you can come up with evocative prose on the fly to describe misty hallways and dripping, undulating corridors pretty easily. But for how long? 40 pages' worth? Groups who don't want to use it don't have to. But it's easier to have it and not use it than need it and not have it. So sure it's for the players, but it's for the DM too, maybe even moreso. Somebody running a published adventure isn't looking to do extra work; one purpose of using a published adventure is to [I]reduce [/I]the amount of work you need to do. Keep that in mind. [/QUOTE]
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