if I need to make up and fix half the adventure myself to make it coherent, then what did I pay money for. That is what this is about, not one hydra, I already did not care about the hydra in my earlier posts, so if you want to focus on that, I am not interested
You are not the first person to make this type of query so my comment is not directed at you specifically mamba... but it's more just a general response to everyone who makes these sorts of questions.
The answer to "What am I paying for?" is the same no matter what it is the person doesn't like-- (general) you are paying for everything you do end up using. In your specific response, mamba, you are paying for the half of the adventure you do end up using and which you don't end up fixing yourself. Now you may believe (and oftentimes rightly) that you are
overpaying for something if you end up not using all parts of it... but that doesn't mean you are paying for nothing.
But too often it seems like some people think that if they don't use EVERY piece of a product as-is... that they are getting shafted and nothing for their money. Which-- let's be frank-- is hogwash. None of these products can be used as-is by every single DM out there, because every single DM runs their game differently. There will be a small segment of the gaming populace that can and will run
Rime of the Frost Maiden exactly as written (for example)... but most of us wouldn't even come close. More often than not, there will be parts the DM won't want to use, parts the DM will want to use but it doesn't include enough detail for their own needs and thus they are forced to create their own, and parts that will be used but how it is written will not be in the format the DM prefers and thus they will have to re-write or just use as bulletpoints and improvise around.
But none of that discounts the work that is there on the page.
Yes... some DMs would rather just create an entire adventure themselves out of whole cloth than have 256 pages of pre-written material in an adventure path that they then have to massage into something that is useful for them. And that's cool. If it works better for them to just make everything up rather than re-purposing existing material and hammering it into a more useful shape... that's exactly how some of our DM brains work best. But if that's the case... then that DM shouldn't even be bothering to look at or consider these adventure books in the first place.
Long story short (too late!)... if any DM finds that these adventure books are
only worthwhile if they can be used as-is with no prep, no changes, and everything they need to keep their players following along without having to improvise fixes or redirects... then they shouldn't even bother to check. Because the odds of getting a product like that are essentially zero percent.
