D&D 5E Randomness and D&D

[Lanefan]

It is possible that I've just been extraordinarily unlucky over a similar length of time, but I've never--not once--played in a published adventure that was more than a time-filler, and I've never--not once--been able to make enough sense out of any to run them.

Interesting. What canned adventures have you tried to run? (as opposed to full-length APs, which are a different breed of animal entirely)

And yes, they're not all perfect or even good right out of the tin - most take a bit of tweaking if only to fit them into your own campaign's settng and-or story. But even with that they're hella less work than writing a homebrew adventure from scratch.

 

[Lanefan]

The Net Libram of Random Magical Effects v2. A d10,000 list of random and wild magical mishaps. Originally written for WFRP.

And I thought my wild-magic list was long at about 320 possibilities!

I love this! Thanks.

 

[Andvari]

I'm not personally a fan of random HP on level ups.

 

[Lanefan]

Thankfully we no longer have to think about it.

Thankfully? I'd replace that word with "regrettably", if I was forced to play a modern edition. Fortunately, that's not the case.

And were I forced to run a modern edition, I'd say get back to me in a year or so 'cause it's gonna take me that long to kitbash the system into something I'm willing to touch.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

The Net Libram of Random Magical Effects v2. A d10,000 list of random and wild magical mishaps. Originally written for WFRP.

0000: The Nearest Star Explodes.

 

[payn]

Thankfully? I'd replace that word with "regrettably", if I was forced to play a modern edition. Fortunately, that's not the case.

And were I forced to run a modern edition, I'd say get back to me in a year or so 'cause it's gonna take me that long to kitbash the system into something I'm willing to touch.

I just assume a time traveller went back to 1982 and gave you a laptop. This laptop has a quantum tunnel into the internet that only allows you to post on EN world.

 

[prabe]

Interesting. What canned adventures have you tried to run? (as opposed to full-length APs, which are a different breed of animal entirely)

And yes, they're not all perfect or even good right out of the tin - most take a bit of tweaking if only to fit them into your own campaign's settng and-or story. But even with that they're hella less work than writing a homebrew adventure from scratch.

None of the ones I've ever tried to read have made enough sense for me to run them, whether they were individual modules like back in the day, or more modern book-length nightmares. Trying to turn them into something that made the type of sense I need, to run them, seemed (and still seems) like more work than just making something up. So I ... gave up on them, and started running my own. After some flailing about and some aborted novelisting, I've gotten to a point I'm happy with how I'm running.

 

[Lanefan]

None of the ones I've ever tried to read have made enough sense for me to run them, whether they were individual modules like back in the day, or more modern book-length nightmares.

The book-length ones were and are a pain unless the book is the campaign and thus doesn't need to be fit in to anything else, but the standalones - with a few glaring exceptions - aren't, IME.

Trying to turn them into something that made the type of sense I need, to run them,

Can you elaborate on the bolded please? Are you talking about layout, or organization, or plot sense, or ???

And, which modules? As I say, some are certainly better/easier to work with than others.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

To each their own. I've always run more character-centric games, even back in the day.

Considering how much rarer magic items are in 5e adventures than older editions, if I've got a barbarian with Great Weapon Mastery and the only magic weapon that shows up (assuming that there's no one else that could use it) is a scimitar+1, I'm absolutely going to change that to a +1 great- sword or axe.

Not for me. Random is random; and if you choose to spec. in 2-h sword you're gambling that an enchanted one will turn up someday...or that you can commission someone to make you a magic one.

Further, in this type of game there's no way of knowing whether your 2-h sword specialist will live long enough to find it...by the time they get there you might be playing a mace-wielding Cleric.

Lay the adventure out ahead of time without regard for which specific PCs might play in it, and let the chips - and items - fall where they may.

 

[prabe]

The book-length ones were and are a pain unless the book is the campaign and thus doesn't need to be fit in to anything else, but the standalones - with a few glaring exceptions - aren't, IME.

Can you elaborate on the bolded please? Are you talking about layout, or organization, or plot sense, or ???

And, which modules? As I say, some are certainly better/easier to work with than others.

I have never read a published adventure and felt as though I understood just about anything about it. They literally don't make sense to me, reading them. And playing them, I feel straitjacketed by the expectations. The stuff I come up with to run--and I'm sure this is a shock--makes sense to me. It might well not make any sort of sense to anyone else, and that''s ... fine, since I'm the only one who has to run it.