Must You Tell Your Players What Adventure You Are Running?

[Voadam]

I’ll take it all day everyday over guy who ends up playing a Druid with a shark companion in a desert campaign.

 

[el-remmen]

It's not that I wouldn't tell them, it is just that I heavily modify and mix n' match adventures and sometimes even re-title them, so not sure it'd do much for them even if they were familiar with it! I do like for them to know for easy reference. Like, "Remember, when we fought the giant beavers in "When a Star Falls?'"

The only time I would not is when the title is a spoiler. Dungeon Magazine was really bad about this sometimes. For example, many years ago there was an adventure called "The Petrifying Priestess." Can you guess what the secret evil cult leader was at the end? Why yes! A medusa. The adventure clearly meant for it to be a reveal and built towards discovering the mystery - but if you told the players the title? So I told them it was called "The P_____ P_____" and that I'd fill in the blanks later.

 

[el-remmen]

Other times it doesn't matter at all. One of my groups is (ostensibly) doing T1-T4: The Temple of Elemental Evil. They know this and knew from the beginning there will be apocalyptic elemental cults to fight. (of course, they have followed every sidetrek possible and haven't even made it to the moathouse once in 4 levels and 25 sessions)

 

[KYRON45]

Players ruin everything!!!

 

[Voadam]

Do you usually tell your players if you are using published material?

Sometimes?

My two PBP games on here were Death in Freeport which mentions the module name in the title and my Wildwood Red in Tooth and Claw game which mentions the setting and theme but not any of the modules I was running.

I usually pitch a game based on the theme or setting.

The last time I was asked to run a campaign I looked over stuff I had and came up with short elevator pitches of modules/APs I had with mostly trying for the themes of the modules with enough connection to the module title that I could remember what I was actually suggesting the next week when we got back together.

1 Rising Shadow in Middle Earth
2 Investigations in Pirate City
3 Completely Not-Haunted Funeral of Professor Jones
4 Starts off with Goblins
5 Plagues, Riots, More 2020 themes
6 Meteor Strike
7 Efreeti Aladdin
8 Ancient Dungeons
9 Baba Yaga and the White Witch
10 Punch Demons in the Face
11 The Mummy
12 Thundarr the Barbarian
13 Maquis in Devil-Nazi Land
14 Doctors Without Borders
15 Tatters of a Play
16 Masks Around the World
17 Dark Shadows
18 Spawn of Pulp Action
19 The Lothian Express
20 Chained Coffin in the Holler

None of these were things I was worried about my players having played before as none of them were into Paizo APs or Call of Cthulhu or 5e Middle Earth or Dungeon Crawl Classics.

Once they were interested in the Thundarr concept and then were all in on the crashed ancient Sci-Fi ship in D&D land premise at some point I sent them a link for the short free Iron Gods adventure path player's guide with some notes for how I was changing some things for my homebrew setting and then some more changes later to iterate on their character concepts.

Name recognition for new things you are interested in can be fine, I have signed up for a number of PBP games in part to try out an adventure path that sounded fun from Paizo's description or general buzz. It can be useful to be aware of if it would be something your players already know about from having played through it or run it or own and read it already. I have gone into a Temple of Elemental Evil game as a player even though I had already run the moathouse as a DM in the past, letting the group know I had done so but I would not mention or act on any spoilers. I have also played in a d20 Warcraft game where I played an ignorant barbarian troll because I did not have a background familiarity with the Warcraft setting like everyone else in the game. I also really like having the free short intro player guides for Paizo Adventure Paths as both a player and as a DM to refer players to.

 

[Nightfly]

Some adventure titles are spoilers themselves. For example, I’m currently running Against the Cult of the Reptile God for one of my GURPS groups. I told them that I’m adapting an old AD&D adventure, but not the title. They still have no idea that there’s a “cult” or a “reptile god;” the slow discovery of those elements is part of the fun.

I did something similar when I ran The Vorpal Sword is in Room 12b.

 

[Tonguez]

I like to make characters invested in the setting and adventure, which is hard if I don't know what the game will be about. I extend the same courtesy to my players.

This has come up a few times and I dont get it - if I tell the players "you're starting in a coastal city bustling with trade, warm climate, late rennaisance, all phb races - is that not enough to tie yourself to the setting? As GM Id that pick up your PCs background to expand on. No adventures yet...

 

[The Sigil]

If my players are curious, when I run pre-published adventure, I am willing to tell them what it was I ran them through AFTER they are done with it.

 

[payn]

This has come up a few times and I dont get it - if I tell the players "you're starting in a coastal city bustling with trade, warm climate, late rennaisance, all phb races - is that not enough to tie yourself to the setting? As GM Id that pick up your PCs background to expand on. No adventures yet...

This has come up a few times and I dont get it - if I tell the players "you're starting in a coastal city bustling with trade, warm climate, late rennaisance, all phb races - is that not enough to tie yourself to the setting? As GM Id that pick up your PCs background to expand on. No adventures yet...

No, not really. My background could be anything. I have no idea what expect from that description.

 

[Reynard]

No, not really. My background could be anything. I have no idea what expect from that description.

So, to what degree do you prefer to know the basis? Are you thinking how the players guides for the Pathfinder APs work?