What makes a good adventure for DM's?

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Plans for the PCs abilities, instead of simply blocking them or (worse) ignoring them - Things like scrying and teleporting should be beneficial but not make the game trivial.

This really upsets me. Unless it includes a logical, interesting and novel reason why the ability doesn't work. And it had better be obvious - I don't want to be explaining *why* to angry players after the game!

 

[kengar]

I agree with the above posts about clearly organized and laid out text as well as avoiding bottlenecks. One of the other things I like is when the adventure has an interesting back story that the PCs can actually end up learning. It's always irksome when there is an interesting and original idea for why the wizard is missing (or whatever), but few to no opportunities for the players to find out themselves. This is the kind of thing that can make an adventure look really interesting to the DM but just ends up making the party scratch their heads.

 

[DragonLancer]

Lets see...

1. Don't railroad. Make sure that the module layout allows for the players to make the choices.
2. I don't mind the stranger in the tavern style introduction for low level adventures, but for higher level modules it doesn't make much sense.
3. Detailed background and plot, but without being convoluted and hard to get your head around.
4. A plot that actually interests the players. Far too many just get a shrug and the players go along with it.
5. Easily adaptable to a homebrew or published world.
6. NPC and monster stats in the relevant room/area description rather than stuck in the appendix.
7. Fewer magic items/treasure. Modules just seem to have far too much in them, and the DM has go through and weed most of it out.

and

8. Don't inlcude magical effects that can't be duplicated. Example being: In NightFang Spire module, there is a "fountain" that pours out healing "liquid" several times per day. Theres no reason for it, it just is. My players tried to tear the thing out the floor and carry it with them out of their. When I had it cease function when they did, they complained - Not because I did, but because they don't like magical things that don't actually exist and are just put in for the sake of it.

 

[Emirikol]

The Industry Standard Of Formatting-dungeon

When it comes to layout, I feel that DUNGEON has the most friendly method, tested and true after 18 years! WotC and the RPGA have copied that method for their writers guides. The DM-friendly layout is as follows:

1. ADVENTURE TITLE & AUTHOR
2. BLURB AND SCHEDULED LEVELS. The blurb's should be written FOR the DM, but are sometimes still written convention-style where they uselessly ask inane questions. The scheduled levels should be standard to 4-6 players and should include a side-bar for MODIFYING THE ADVENTURE LEVELS to make it more useful to more DM's.
3. NOTES ON HOW TO RUN THE ADVENTURE. Technical details go here, such as "it would be useful to have a cleric along this adventure."
4. ADVENTURE BACKGROUND (All the extra crap that a DM _MAY_ use to run the scenario, but that doesn't belong in the "DM's text" of the encounters. It's the history leading up to the scenario and local news going on currently).
5. ADVENTURE SUMMARY (a step-by-step method on how the scenario is expected to play out. All secrets and plot twists are listed here so the DM doesn't miss them in the fluffy-text later.)
6. ENCOUNTERS 1-20 without stupid encounter names (pet peeve)
..... a. Read Aloud Text (i.e. "Boxed Text" - written 3rd person without assuming any action on the parts of the players. The words, "..as you.." are not used when this is done properly otherwise it TELLS the players what they are doing instead of 'inviting' them to participate.)
..... b. DM's text - the text necessary to run the encounter and how the encounter ~should~ play out.
..... c. Monsters, traps, etc. or reference to the appropriate page in MM/DMG
..... d. Development and clue to the next encounter blatantly laid out
..... e. Relevant maps nearby. Sometimes these can be nicely grouped in the appendix.
7. CONCLUSION
8. APPENDICES

This may seem like a given, but it's amazing how many scenarios I see from 3rd party companies who seem to think that the DM must be a living encyclopedia to run their stuff. In the "notes on how to run the adventure" it says, "the DM should read through this adventuer sixty or seventy times and memorize all of the obscure details to run it properly. In fact, our formatting is so dumb that the DM will find the actual re-writting sufficient to have written his own adventure in the first place."

My other pet peeve is when the Read Aloud (aka boxed text) is written in 2nd person. Something like this: "As YOU enter the room, YOU see a book. YOU assume that the book is demonic because it has human skin on the cover. YOU also see a tapestry on the wall and get a chill up YOUR spine when you realize that it's from the ancient Suloise era of the Sea of Dust. While YOU are looking around YOU are attacked by a goblin. YOU don't have time to respond and YOU are surprised."

Where's there room for the player to take action when the author is telling him what he's doing and leading him by the nose. Third person is best. It's also a LOT more DM friendly.

Dungeon has been exceptional with their 3rd person Read-Aloud (aka boxed) text with the exception of the latest issue, where the PC's are insanely led by the nose from one encounter to the next with 2nd person-style writing (i.e. telling YOU what YOU are doing instead of what exists in view).

jh


..

 

[Altalazar]

All of the above - plus I like when even some of the more wild player action possibilities are anticipated and there are a few suggestions about how to handle it and enough detail that you can make something up yourself. Little touches like that show the designers really thought things out. I like that.

 

[Ed Cha]

I look first to see if it fits my style. If not, I may still be able to use it as long as it's really good stuff. So I look at the artwork first because pictures say a thousand words. The problem is, a lot of RPG books these days contain images that are not really related to the text. I also read a few paragraphs here and there to check the quality of the writing before picking it up. I am interested in not so much concept, but execution. How developed are the characters and plotlines? Are they interesting and varied?

 

[Emirikol]

Exactly. I never understood why adventures would have
a) artwork that the DM can't show the players
b) background that will never be revealed to players

jh

 

[mearls]

For me, a published adventure has to provide me with something that justifies the effort I have to put into studying it. In most cases, the time it takes to read and prep a published module is two or three times greater than what I need to create my own.

Last Friday, I printed a map from WotC, used the DMG to randomly stock half of it, then stocked the rest to make it coherent and give it a plot, and even created PCs in about 2 or 3 hours. That resulted in about 6 hours of gaming, and ideas and inspiration for the dungeon's second level.

IME, most published modules give me way too much detail, plots that sprawl all over the place, and too little room for my own maneuvers.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Why are there so few treasure hunts? I mean, most players would love a brand new flame tongue. Why not just spill the beans - that there is a flame tongue in the nearest dungeon and all you have to do is go get it?

Most of the time you just stumble over the flame tongue (or whatever) after defeating some dude sitting around a 10' by 10' room.

 

[DanielSchenstrom]

Apart from ease of use, when I read them, I look for inspiration. I look for scenes. Descriptions and setups that makes my brain start to think "this is how I'll present this". If the text doesn't inspire me I know I'll give a dull performance.

I don't presume everyone who reads this has played avery module I have so I'll use a pop culture reference instead.

Terminator 2. That's what I look for in a module. Scenes like where the truck jumps off the bridge, or when the T´s are fighting, ramming each other into the walls, or when they confront the scientist and T2 cuts open his arm.

I like for the modules to have the balance I enjoy. Some over the top action, some interactions with unique NPCs, a mystery or two and an unusual environment.
I also like them to include enough background information if I want to continue using the area and NPCs after the module is finished.

I haven't bought a new module since back when Spelljammer was a published line, altough I do buy lots of old modules, or get them after the line's ended. (I'm a bit of a collector.)