What Do You Expect of Published Adventures?

[Lanefan]

The biggest thing I want is a synopsis of the scenario, with all hooks and major players, right up at the front. I won't wade through the entire product to find out what is going on.

The second thing is good maps.

Thirdly, I could do without the stat blocks. That data is available for free via Google, so stop wasting pages and cluttering up the product.

Fourthly, quite suggesting courses of actions for the PCs. Players are generally twisted individuals and will come up with strange and convoluted plans (or just barge in and kill everyone), so again, quit puffing up the word count.

All I need are maps, location descriptions, a crisp summary of the major players & their goals, intentions, and resources, and a concise summary of the plot a the front. I'll do the rest, and odds are good I'll change a lot of things, anyway.

I agree with all of this except the bolded; I don't keep a computer behind my DM screen thus I want all that material on the paper in front of me - even more so if there's anything non-standard about the stat block or the creature.

 

[kenada]

What Do You Expect of Published Adventures?

My expectations are low for most published adventures, assuming something put out by WotC or Paizo (or similar from other publishers). I expect them to try to tell a story, be hard to use at the table, and need a lot of work from the GM to make functional.

Here's what I think a published campaign adventure should have:
1) Motivation for the characters (and their players) to go on the adventure.
2) A story/plot/background that the GM can convey to the players - and the logical means of sharing that information naturally within the adventure.
3) Clear goals, which are more or less achievable (by sword, spell, or wits) by the character level range indicated by the adventure.
4) A unified theme building up to a satisfying climactic resolution
5) Consistency and logical story/world building.
6) A compelling villain, antagonist ("conflict" to use a literary term)

Of course you need maps, enemies, encounters, treasures, traps, etc. But without the things I mentioned above, you have an adventure site, not a campaign. There are additional items I prefer to see in my adventures, but I think without the above, you're not going to have a successful campaign without adding lots of additional work.

I just want an adventure site. When you have an effectively structured adventure that doesn’t prescribe an outcome, it’s basically serving as a stakes question you can only answer by playing it. That’s something I’ve really enjoyed about Necrotic Gnome’s adventures. The fact that two groups can have very different experiences is pretty cool.

 

[payn]

It used to be maps, monsters, NPCs, and treasure. That is only the baseline now. I want a nice detailed adventure synopsis that gives me an outline overview. I want one or more communities fleshed out with details on people, places, and things. I want little story bits to drop throughout as the adventure unfolds. I want detailed monster stat blocs, personality, and reason for being where they are.

Out of an adventure path, I want all of the above in each chapter. I also want a nice detailed players guide. This can not be overlooked enough. A good player's guide provides adventure background, character ideas, and buy in for the path.

 

[Argyle King]

One of my expectations is using "normal" parts of a book to help organize things.

A functional table of contents, index, and glossary can go a long way toward making a product more user friendly. I've seen a growing number of products (even some from WoTC) which struggle with some of those basic book-structure properties.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I agree with all of this except the bolded; I don't keep a computer behind my DM screen thus I want all that material on the paper in front of me - even more so if there's anything non-standard about the stat block or the creature.

I get it. I use a PC and iPad instead of a screen, so I don't want my pdfs crowded with redundant information.

 

[aco175]

Thirdly, I could do without the stat blocks. That data is available for free via Google, so stop wasting pages and cluttering up the product.

I like to have the statblocks like what 4e did. I find that I'm wasting my time cutting/pasting and listing the monsters in a guide. Then I have to print them out or tab the books and use side sheets. I would rather print more pages up front and have the stats included.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I like to have the statblocks like what 4e did. I find that I'm wasting my time cutting/pasting and listing the monsters in a guide. Then I have to print them out or tab the books and use side sheets. I would rather print more pages up front and have the stats included.

I don't print anything, and since I use Roll20 or a VTT, pogs are already stat'd.

 

[Retreater]

I don't print anything, and since I use Roll20 or a VTT, pogs are already stat'd.

That's a great point. For me, all the running in the past 2 years has been on VTT. And due to the ease of finding games online and the difficulty of meeting in person (not even during a pandemic), I've ended up getting in significantly more gaming time than I've done in past years. Even after the pandemic ends, the best I can hope for is one (or two) in-person games a month.
So for me the adventures best formatted for VTT are going to beat out lovely artisan layout in a print book from a usability perspective. I wonder if publishers will ever really take advantage of that technology? Like linking up NPCs so a GM can easily see that character's role in future AP chapters, allowing a GM to see how history and adventure are connected together, etc.
Basically every adventure I've seen, you're lucky to even get text descriptions in pop-up windows.

 

[Retreater]

For those of you who say "all I want are adventure sites," is that for Adventure Paths and campaign modules that cover levels 1-12 (or 20)? Like, you're really ok with 300-400 page books with no plot, story - just mostly unconnected encounters?

 

[Lanefan]

For those of you who say "all I want are adventure sites," is that for Adventure Paths and campaign modules that cover levels 1-12 (or 20)? Like, you're really ok with 300-400 page books with no plot, story - just mostly unconnected encounters?

This exact rationale is why I bought Princes of the Apocalypse. When I looked through it I didn't see an AP. What I saw was 15 or so useful-size standalone adventures, covering a nice wide range of levels, that I could extract and with minimal tweaking drop in wherever I wanted. Looked at that way it worked out to less than $5 Canadian per adventure; and I'll take that all day long.

And that's what I want - a bunch of adventures that can stand on their own. Let me worry about stringing them together (or not) and fitting them in with whatever else is going on; any game/campaign/setting I run is always going to be much bigger than a single AP.