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Where's the Villain? and other musings. Why some published campaigns are great and some aren't (Spoiler alerts)
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<blockquote data-quote="TheSword" data-source="post: 9262988" data-attributes="member: 6879661"><p>There just three things that I’ve recognized make Published Campaigns great for me. I’d go so far as to say that every published campaign (I’ve probably ran 20+) that worked had those elements. By the nature of the discussion though, that’s my personal opinion. Nor is it and exhaustive list. There may be other elements that are essential - I just don’t know them yet.</p><p></p><p>I too have a lot of time for Dragon Heist. Though I would say that it has four amazing villains featured quite early on. Whilst there are linear elements - particulary the atrocious part four which is superficial and rushed. But the rest is surprisingly open. There are also really fun NPCs to interact with their own goals and objectives.</p><p></p><p>To be clear I don’t think a great adventure needs to be a sandbox. However to be great it does have to have elements of player choice. The ability to forward or back - revisit old places and pursue personal interests. This might be in the relatively small boundary of a town or camp or a city like Waterdeep. What definitely isn’t great are published campaigns that assume the party go from A to B to C to D with little option or reason to do otherwise. It doesn’t have to be the whole campaign. I think there’s no problem to splitting between open sections and closed sections.</p><p></p><p>The Enemy Within does this for instance by having the relatively linear travel sections by road and boat. With an encounter or two along the way - blossoming into these amazingly detailed and vibrant open world areas of Bogenhafen or Wittgendorf or Middenheim.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TheSword, post: 9262988, member: 6879661"] There just three things that I’ve recognized make Published Campaigns great for me. I’d go so far as to say that every published campaign (I’ve probably ran 20+) that worked had those elements. By the nature of the discussion though, that’s my personal opinion. Nor is it and exhaustive list. There may be other elements that are essential - I just don’t know them yet. I too have a lot of time for Dragon Heist. Though I would say that it has four amazing villains featured quite early on. Whilst there are linear elements - particulary the atrocious part four which is superficial and rushed. But the rest is surprisingly open. There are also really fun NPCs to interact with their own goals and objectives. To be clear I don’t think a great adventure needs to be a sandbox. However to be great it does have to have elements of player choice. The ability to forward or back - revisit old places and pursue personal interests. This might be in the relatively small boundary of a town or camp or a city like Waterdeep. What definitely isn’t great are published campaigns that assume the party go from A to B to C to D with little option or reason to do otherwise. It doesn’t have to be the whole campaign. I think there’s no problem to splitting between open sections and closed sections. The Enemy Within does this for instance by having the relatively linear travel sections by road and boat. With an encounter or two along the way - blossoming into these amazingly detailed and vibrant open world areas of Bogenhafen or Wittgendorf or Middenheim. [/QUOTE]
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Where's the Villain? and other musings. Why some published campaigns are great and some aren't (Spoiler alerts)
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