Best practices for easy-to-run modules [+]

[EpicureanDM]

Here are some quick images I threw together based on some of the feedback. Don't pay that much attention to the actual "adventure" (plot, railroad, etc.) but more on how it's laid out.

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Great idea to put the DC of locked doors directly on the map. I wasn't confused at all because I read the map's key.

The Overview section of Abode reminded me of a metaphor that I haven't used before now. It would be great if sections like "Overview" were written like director's commentary on a DVD. I'd go further and say RPG scenarios should be written in "DVD commentary voice" as much as they can. Not every word of every section, but it should be the majority of the text.

"DVD director commentary" captures the right tone and relationship between the designer and GM. I'm taking liberties with the actual text that Sacrosanct provided, but imagine an Overview section written more like this:

"This small stone fort contains three combat encounters (two Medium difficulty, one Hard). There's a total of 2,000 monster XP and 1,500 gold XP available including a Ring of Feather Fall and a scroll with Fireball and Mirror Image. Keep an eye on whether the players connect with one of two big clues placed here: the Letter from the Bishop and the murals depicting the True Heir. The fort should feel foreboding. If anyone fails a Perception check, give them disadvantage on future Perception checks until they leave the fort."

EDIT: This alternate Overview text isn't a narrative overview; it's a game overview.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I'm assuming you cut off the part of the map where it says how big the squares are and which way is north; if you didn't, that's another glaring omission on the part of the mapmaker.

This is such a weird criticism. The point of sharing that image was not to suggest that it's a perfect map in every imaginable way, but just to show how an isometric map could be evocative and fun to use. To complain about a lack of a compass rose just...well, it smacks of desperation to find something to criticize.

I don't even know what the source is, I just Googled "hand drawn isometric dungeon map." I mean, there’s no area numbers, either, so clearly it's not complete. It could have been a player version of a map, or part of a tutorial on drawing isometric maps, or maybe nothing whatsoever to do with RPGs.

FFS.

 

[Truename]

"This small stone fort contains three combat encounters (two Medium difficulty, one Hard). There's a total of 2,000 monster XP and 1,500 gold XP available including a Ring of Feather Fall and a scroll with Fireball and Mirror Image. Keep an eye on whether the players connect with one of two big clues placed here: the Letter from the Bishop and the murals depicting the True Heir. The fort should feel foreboding. If anyone fails a Perception check, give them disadvantage on future Perception checks until they leave the fort."

EDIT: This alternate Overview text isn't a narrative overview; it's a game overview.

This is great. I think we’re all conditioned to the idea that a module has to be focused on the “internal” of the game world and scenario. But of course it’s for the GM and an “external” view that speaks directly to what they need is a breath of fresh air.

 

[zakael19]

This is great. I think we’re all conditioned to the idea that a module has to be focused on the “internal” of the game world and scenario. But of course it’s for the GM and an “external” view that speaks directly to what they need is a breath of fresh air.

While not all of Trophy: Gold's organization is amazing, I like how many of the Incursions (its version of a dungeon scenario thing) emphasize general tone and considerations up front in a tone speaking directly to the GM:

This incursion includes imagery and motifs associated with literal harvests, such as farms, fields, a grain mill, the act of eating, crows, and so forth. It also uses harvest as a metaphor for birth. When running this incursion, emphasize the pastoral landscape (now overgrown); dwell on details bathed in traditional harvest colors (golds, oranges, deep purples); and make sure the tools of harvest are always at-hand (sickles, scythes, burlap sacks).

Or

Much of this incursion takes place underground, but even so, the heavens above should figure prominently: the stars, the planets, the night sky. Things should twinkle and glimmer, and there should be pinpricks of light in the darkness. Emphasize stillness, as if floating through a void, and silence. Characters should ramble about the heavens, about planetary alignments. If you need motifs, focus on stars and planets: swords with pommels shaped like ringed planets, murals decorated with constellations, treasures shaped like zodiac signs, etc. Put starry things both above the treasure-hunters’ heads and below their feet.

 

[EpicureanDM]

While not all of Trophy: Gold's organization is amazing, I like how many of the Incursions (its version of a dungeon scenario thing) emphasize general tone and considerations up front in a tone speaking directly to the GM:



Or

Yeah, this is the right idea. (I'd still like to see more game-talk in it, but my memory of Trophy suggests there's not much to the rules.)

I may have said earlier in the thread that scenario designers should share their design outlines with the GM. This sort of thing is what I mean. You can imagine those two excerpts as things that the designer would have written to themselves before they wrote the "proper" text of a scenario. It's like the designer's talking to themselves in a way. But it also makes plain their intent. They give plenty of examples and key words that a GM can latch onto, which is good, too.

RPG scenario presentation would improve tremendously if designers had to write most of it in the second person.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Made some useability changes (ignore the golem image placement overlap)

 

[Lanefan]

This is such a weird criticism. The point of sharing that image was not to suggest that it's a perfect map in every imaginable way, but just to show how an isometric map could be evocative and fun to use. To complain about a lack of a compass rose just...well, it smacks of desperation to find something to criticize.

No, it's merely one more criticism in a list of them, as shown in the post you quoted.

I don't even know what the source is, I just Googled "hand drawn isometric dungeon map." I mean, there’s no area numbers, either, so clearly it's not complete. It could have been a player version of a map, or part of a tutorial on drawing isometric maps, or maybe nothing whatsoever to do with RPGs.

Then perhaps not the best example to pull out?

 

[Lanefan]

Made some useability changes (ignore the golem image placement overlap)

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Nitpicks to an otherwise good presentation:

Xp for the golems should be listed with the monster write-up. Just saying 2200 xp for the whole scenario isn't granular enough, as for example it's always possible the PCs will for some reason never meet Za'Gatul (maybe they defeat the golems, take the treasure, and leave before Z'G is able to react to their presence; or they get through without ever meeting the rot grubs, or ...).

There's no scale. Yes the map has squares but the room dimensions aren't given in the write-ups nor is the square size mentioned.

Personal peeve: the number of golems should be locked in without regard for how many or what composition of PCs arrives there.

 

[Truename]

Ahem. (Edit: referring to two posts back.)

The [+] is to keep things positive

 

[Kromanjon]

As nothing overlaps vertically this map could be done top-down just as well, with numeric elevation values given to indicate elevation changes...which this iso map still doesnt tell me! How deep is the shaft from the rug room to the passage? What's the vertical and horizontal on the stairs (both sets)?

I'm assuming you cut off the part of the map where it says how big the squares are and which way is north; if you didn't, that's another glaring omission on the part of the mapmaker.

Nothing overlaps, this much is true, but the argument was that they were evocatice/mood setting so overlapping sections might not be the reason for the map. As for cardinal directions they are of course placed in a way that makes sense to where you placed the map into your world. As the map has drawn furnishing I would assume the squares are the standard 5 ft. unless it's a giants abode at which point I would adjust accordingly. The shaft with the ladder is 15 ft. The wide stairs are 15 ft. horizontal and 10 ft. vertical. The underground stairs are 10 ft. both vertical and horizontal. The spiked pit is 10 ft.

Can I guarantee this is what the person drawing this map thought? No. But it is a good looking map and it can easily be used as is by a skilled GM.