Modules: Made to Read vs Made to Run?

[Micah Sweet]

No, but it has started to feel a little hostile, with a pretty explicit correlation between "not wanting to read a lot of text" and "lazy GM".

The two sides do seem pretty diametrically opposed. I know some have suggested otherwise, but personally I find it hard to believe that, for any given product, it doesn't have to be one way or the other. And if what one side wants actively harms what the other wants, conflict is likely.

 

[Bill Zebub]

The two sides do seem pretty diametrically opposed. I know some have suggested otherwise, but personally I find it hard to believe that, for any given product, it doesn't have to be one way or the other. And if what one side wants actively harms what the other wants, conflict is likely.

We really need 2 versions of each.

Times 3 media: print, PDF, and HTML.

Also, I prefer my adventures in Old English. kthnxbai.

 

[Gorgon Zee]

Yeah. That's what set me off initially. I'm generally more familiar with OSR-style easy-to-run modules and in a fit of nostalgia started looking over some of my Call of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu modules. They are the epitome of walls of text you have to dig and dig and dig through to get anything useful.

When many of them could just as easily be presented as:

[X] dabbled in something they should not have and unleashed [Y] into the world. You have to follow the clues to piece together what happened and prevent [Y] from destroying [Z].

Now here's a list of far too many NPCs, a few locations with bad maps, and the most convoluted and largely irrelevant backstory we could come up with.

Hmmm. This is very far rom my experience of CoC modules. There are a lot of CoC source books that have this style of presentation, but the ones that are actually modules have seemed pretty good to me, almost always starting with a "ways in which the investigators get involved" section, then usually a set of scenes and how they are linked together with an end scene (or scenes) described which clearly state what the players must do to attain different goals.

If you are looking for a more plotted scenario where there is a single clear path through the module, then there are some modules like that, but it's not really the investigative style. It is fair to say that investigative modules do need more prep and this more GM time investment than the standard linear plot modules; a mystery has to make sense when looked at afterwards, whereas heists, gang wars and other standard RPG tropes don't as much.

For me the most annoying modules are investigative modules written for people playing a non-investigative system. When I had to run such a module in LG or LFR, I knew I'd have to spend time reworking it or trying to make the investigation actually meaningful, as opposed to making random skill checks until the time ran out and a goon attacks who gives you the info to lead you to the boss and final fight.

 

[xoth.publishing]

You might like adventures that Joseph R. Lewis writes. He takes great care to be succinct but have some flavour text. He puts a lot of thought into layout, writing and design.

Nice, thanks for the tip!

I googled his name, and the first thing that pops up is a new adventure called "Lovely Jade Necropolis", inspired by the writings of Clark Ashton Smith. I will definitely have to check this out!