D&D 5E What do you want in a published adventure? / Adventure design best practices?

[robus]

Agreed on boxed text. I find it's often too wordy to be useful and the players tune out.

Separate pull out maps for DMs and players.

No ability checks without consequences for failure.

No monsters/NPCs without motivations (what do they want and when will they run)

No more random monster placement (I know it's the FR but really. Ravenloft was created as a response to random monsters - have we not learned that lesson?)

 

[steeldragons]

I concur with Lanefan on the 1e-style simplified monster stat block in the encounter/room description.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION] [MENTION=92511]steeldragons[/MENTION] So, if I were taking the Oni (ogre mage), what would its abbreviated stats look like? Something like this?

Oni: Large giant; AC 16; HP 110; Saves Str +4, Dex +3, Con +6, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha +5; #Att 2 glaive, +7 (10 ft or 5 ft in Medium size), 2d10+4 slashing (or 1d10+4 in Medium size); senses 14 (darkvision 60 ft); change shape, magic weapons, regeneration (10); innate spells (at will – darkness, invisibility, 1/day –charm person, cone of cold, gaseous form, sleep; CR 7 (2,900 XP); Monster Manual.

And then if an Oni appears elsewhere in the adventure 4 times, you repeat that abbreviated stat block each of those 4 times?

What about much more complex monsters? Things like Archmages or Beholders?

What about rooms where who is in the room changes significantly based on different times of day, ceremonial circumstances, etc?

 

[LordEntrails]

Yes it should start fast. But it doesn't have to be completely unique and one or two cliches or stereotypes can help get that going. To get past the setup and into the fun faster.

I will say if I came across an adventure author that did not include boxed text, I would probably never buy from them again.

Yes, boxed text can be bad. It can be lots of things. A good DM or may not use the boxed text as-is, and a good DM can read boxed text without the PC's ever knowing that he is actually reading boxed text. But, an inexperienced DM will suffer greatly without boxed text.

Just because boxed text is there, doesn't mean that it is always going to be the right set of text to be read. It is an example, a default, a hey, if everything goes they way it might be most likely to go, then it is a sample of what you can use. As an author, you don't, shouldn't, can't provide boxed text for every eventuallity.

But one of the primary reasons for buying an adventure is to have something ready to run as-is. Something I can run without spending more time than it takes to read through it once. If I have to read it, take notes on it, plan what the NPC's might say, think about how I want to describe the rooms... well then I might have well just made the adventure myself.

A final note on boxed text. I'm a big proponent of maps and images. Every room should have an image or map for it (for the players), so boxed text doesn't have to describe the shape of the room, doesn't have to use left, right, north or east. Oh, and repeating things like the ceiling height or type of floor is boring, it should only be mentioned if it is different than what comes before or is non-standard.

Oh, and maps don't have to be amazing, but they should be good. It really is not hard to do good maps yourself. There are several very good mapping programs that don't take much to learn and really are not that expensive. If you are putting together a professional quality module, then have some quality maps in it. (Either find a cartographer or spend $50 and 20 hours to learn how to make maps yourself!)

I like the idea of indexes and relationships maps (or mind maps) if they are needed.

Yes, most published adventures should have an acceptable/expected linear path. Otherwise if it is just a sandbox, then it should probably be a campaign setting and not an adventure (wasn't it Judges Guild who used to do things like that?).

Not a fan of downtime inside of most adventures. Adventures should be limited in scope, not an entire adventure path.

Regardless of page count, IMO the entry inside the adventure should be short (a stat block) and then if the creature is not in the SRD/MM the appendix should have a full block for them. Though my opinion on this is pretty... unimportant to me since I use Fantasy Grounds and stats are just done once and linked in full as many times as needed.

 

[Quickleaf]

A final note on boxed text. I'm a big proponent of maps and images. Every room should have an image or map for it (for the players), so boxed text doesn't have to describe the shape of the room, doesn't have to use left, right, north or east.

When you say "every" room...that's a very high standard to hold an adventure to given the cost of commissioning art.

I'd say the vast majority of published adventures I've used have not met that standard. And for good reason. Too expensive for anyone except for *maybe* a WotC or FFG to pull off.

But maybe you didn't mean that to sound as absolute as it does? Maybe just having a map which covers the whole dungeon, including all rooms, is what you meant?

 

[Lanefan]

So, if I were taking the Oni (ogre mage), what would its abbreviated stats look like? Something like this?

Oni: Large giant; AC 16; HP 110; Saves Str +4, Dex +3, Con +6, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha +5; #Att 2 glaive, +7 (10 ft or 5 ft in Medium size), 2d10+4 slashing (or 1d10+4 in Medium size); senses 14 (darkvision 60 ft); change shape, magic weapons, regeneration (10); innate spells (at will – darkness, invisibility, 1/day –charm person, cone of cold, gaseous form, sleep; CR 7 (2,900 XP); Monster Manual.

More or less. The only thing I'd add would be the page number in the MM.

And then if an Oni appears elsewhere in the adventure 4 times, you repeat that abbreviated stat block each of those 4 times?

If two or more of the appearances happen to be on the same two-page spread then one could point to the other, where the stat block is (assuming they're exactly the same). Otherwise, 4 times it is.

What about much more complex monsters? Things like Archmages or Beholders?

The stat block has to go somewhere, no matter how big or elaborate it is. Put it in the creature's room description.

What about rooms where who is in the room changes significantly based on different times of day, ceremonial circumstances, etc?

That's messier. Anything that's based permanently in that room e.g. a guardian statue gets its stat block there. Otherwise, this is one case where just saying what's in the room when and pointing to the stat blocks for their lairs makes sense. It might look something like:

AREA 11 - MAIN TEMPLE ROOM <boxed description goes here>

OCCUPANTS - these vary as shown below:

Always present: Guardian Statue (1), HP 95, AC 17, <etc. - full stat block>
Present within one hour of any sunrise or sunset: Any surviving Clerics from area 13 (page 8), HP 29,27,31,34; AC 13 or 16
Present within one hour either side of noon: Any surviving acolytes from area 28 (page 15), HP 7 each; AC 12
Present during any ceremony (see development track page 2 for when these occur): all of the above plus Temple Master from area 31 (page 16), HP 78; AC 15 or 22
Present 30% of the time when no others are present: 1-3 Giant Rats from area 9 (page 6), HP 4 each; AC 12 - note that these will flee to area 9 on noticing anything other than a Giant Rat enter this area.

Howzat?

Lanefan

 

[Lanefan]

Yes, most published adventures should have an acceptable/expected linear path. Otherwise if it is just a sandbox, then it should probably be a campaign setting and not an adventure (wasn't it Judges Guild who used to do things like that?).

Why does an adventure need a linear path?

Ideally a good adventure never plays the same way twice, mostly because it's possible for a different approach to be taken by the party each time you run it.

A fine old-time example of this is the dungeon part of L1 Secret of Bone Hill. There's multiple ways to enter the castle/dungeon complex, multiple ways to go once inside including several closeable loops, and no guarantee for the DM what order things will be found/encountered in. Great design!

The same can be said of Dark Tower, a Judges Guild module that while being big for an adventure is still way too small to ever be considered a campaign settiing.

B10 Night's Dark Terror is one module that's closer to being its own little setting than just a single adventure, and IMO suffers for it.

Lanefan

 

[ExploderWizard]

1) Good useful maps. Not simply set piece battle maps for areas where combat is "expected". There should be a map for any area included in the adventure. If the adventure features a village or town then there should be a map provided. It doesn't have to be a battle map, just a map. A good example being the area & town maps provided with module L1. The maps should be presented separate from the adventure text for easy reference. Players versions of area maps can be nice but not essential.

2) The adventure should be presented as a scenario. The status quo, the major NPCs/monsters and their resources at the time the PCs arrive on the scene should be presented along with a brief history of how this situation came to be. The overall goals of the major NPCs should be presented as well along with how they intend to use their resources to achieve them.

3) Likely courses of action that the NPCs/monsters will take in the near future should everything go to plan and how they will react to attempts to interfere with said plans.

4) The contents of areas featured in the adventure (monsters, objects, treasure, interesting features) A good adventure will feature some mundane stuff that could be used to great effect by clever players.


THATS IT! No linear courses of action required. The DM knows the NPCs, what they are planning and their timetable, the resources at their disposal, and the plan for using them. Let the players interact with this in a manner that they see fit. There are no chapters, no pre-conceived scenes. The chapters can only be written as players progress through the adventure and write them through actual play.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I've just finished reading thru The Red Hand of Doom, and something I noticed and liked was the fact that the ennemy/NPC present in the room/situation were written next to the name of the room.

Also, I dislike when they put the map after the description of the rooms, not before. Reading the LMoP, the chapter on the Tressendar manor starts describing the general layout on one page, then you have the description of rooms 1 to 4 on the next page, but you still dont have a visual of the whole thing, which only appears on the next page. Start with the map so we can have a global view of the dungeon, then describe the rooms one by one.

I'd like to have more complex ''skill challenges'' where all PCs need to use their combined skills to overcome a challenge and get a number of success to trigger a beneficial outcome. I find that most ''skill/social encounters'' are resolved by only one character and it damages the feeling of cooperation that I try to create. The last UA on Traps was a good exemple: you were faced with traps that require more than a single check by the rogue. The magic-users could attempt to destroy part of the magic ward protecting the traps, the warriors must use their might to allow a rogue to reach the mechanical component of the traps etc. All the party is needed to overcome the trap.

 

[shoak1]

Why does an adventure need a linear path?

Because there are many of us that play that way and eschew sandbox....