D&D 5E Adventure Design: Backstory and History

[S'mon]

But the biggest problem, IMO, is that you tend not to get a paragraph of useless information that can be safely ignored in most cases. Rather, you get a paragraph of mostly useless information with one crucial detail embedded in it. And, of course, that one crucial fact isn't highlighted in any way - it's just one more statement amongst several. Which makes it harder to prep (since you have to read the whole thing carefully) and harder to run (since you can't see the crucial detail at a glance).

Yes, running the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP this was exactly my experience. Vital parts of the adventure structure would be buried deep in mounds of mostly-irrelevant text.

 

[Imaculata]

"3. Great Hall ______________________________ "

Room number, name of room/area, and one long, blank line for me to write in any info/detail. I just used my own letter code for what is in the room and determined specifics as needed or a day or so in advance of play. So "3. Great Hall : P, M, T". The "P" meant there was a traP in the room. The M, for Monster. And the T was for Treasure. I also had Obstacle, Hazzard and tricK (O, H, K). I had a 'cheat sheet' I could write up and keep at the side for a list of monsters. This allowed me to change things easily as the PC's explored areas and cleared them of monsters. I could go back in and "restock", as needed. I could have other monsters from other areas move into new rooms. In short, I could just use what I had written down, but decide on the specifics as needed. This allows me great freedom to gauge my players excitement (or not) levels for certain encounters or other things... all without "wasting words" that would have had to have been rewritten anyway after the first few delves into the ruins.

I would prefer if a lot of modules would make more use of cheat sheets. This also applies to the way they make maps for campaign modules. There's a lot of fun encounters that are bound to a specific room, thus tempting the DM to the sort of railroading behavior to have the players visit each room. To me, it would be fine to just mark "important rooms", and have a list of various misc discoveries in those rooms to the side. This would simply leave it up to the DM what is encountered in what room. And I don't mean boss rooms, I understand that a boss room would be predefined. But does everything need to be predefined? I think they could write these modules more loosely.

 

[Lanefan]

They look, to me, like an array of random and/or largely repetitive combat encounters, occasionally interspersed with uninteresting puzzles.

Which, along with a readable map, is all I need...or very close. I can fill in the rest myself...which is less work than removing all the pre-filled details and then filling it in myself, which many newer adventures expect.

The thing is, that's potentially useful information - if it means there is a deposed king somewhere that the PCs can ally with, or a disloyal faction, or... well, something.

IMO the problem is less that they provide information of this sort, but rather that, very often, it's just background lore that never goes anywhere.

If Gragi the Giant King is set up to (as written) be nothing more than a significant opponent for the party to take down, his background is mostly irrelevant. If in a particular campaign he's been set up to be anything more than that e.g. someone the party has to interact with or help or whatever, then each DM is going to have her own version of his background suited to her own campaign; again making redundant just about anything written in the module.

Lan-"my party, in fact, is about to meet Gragi; but as he's not the true boss anymore he'll probably be just another bigass Giant for them to take down"-efan

 

[Mouseferatu]

Which, along with a readable map, is all I need...or very close. I can fill in the rest myself...which is less work than removing all the pre-filled details and then filling it in myself, which many newer adventures expect.

I'd rather non-repetitive encounters and more interesting puzzles, myself.

But either way, whatever floats your boat. For me, though, if I'm buying a prewritten module, I want the option of running it more or less as-written. It should also be able to function as a source of inspiration, something I can pull encounters out of, or write my own background if I choose. But if it's not usable out of the box, it's not a complete adventure, IMO.

 

[MerricB]

But does everything need to be predefined? I think they could write these modules more loosely.

That's a fascinating question. For myself, I much prefer things to be predefined. And the reasons for that is because I prefer the players' choices to have a significant impact on the play of the adventure.

I dislike the idea of players faced with a choice of left or right with the decision having no actual impact on anything. If I ask the players to make a choice, I want it to mean something. Yes, you can find the key if you turn left, or not find it if you turn right. It's fine for those decisions to be made without knowledge of what the consequences are, although I'd not want the consequences to be permanent. (Because you turned right, you can never leave the dungeon... even if you go back, it won't work). But consequences like "we have to backtrack to find the key, even though we're low on resources?" They help tell a story.

One of the adventure-writing techniques I really dislike (and it sees play in both Out of the Abyss and an old Pathfinder adventure, The Bastards of Erebus) is when an escape is not determined by where the players go, but on how many encounters they've done beforehand. Doesn't matter if they turned left or right at the last junction, the escape happens because they've gained enough XP to be allowed to escape.

I'm not above tweaking details to make encounters more enjoyable, but I prefer the decisions of the players to actually change things.

Cheers!

 

[pming]

Hiya!

I would prefer if a lot of modules would make more use of cheat sheets. This also applies to the way they make maps for campaign modules.

--SNIP--

But does everything need to be predefined? I think they could write these modules more loosely.

I agree 83%. I like to see a bit more than what I saw in that "blueprint map package" for an actual "adventure module", but I found it nice that they included these level by level sheets with number, description, and a blank space for me to use however I want. I could have written out more in them, or I could have written out a "full adventure write up" and just referenced a page or encounter name (ex: "3. Great hall. -Mud Halls booklet, page 8", for example).

One module I ran that was made for Swords & Wizardry. I was using the Dominion Rules (free; http://www.dominionrules.org ) system in my own little "Dominion of Alstigar" ( https://dominions-of-alstigar.obsidianportal.com/ ). Anyway, the module was called Tomb of the Iron God (I bought it from Frog God Games: https://froggodgames.com/tomb-iron-god ). In it, it has the more standard layout.

It starts with a 2 pages of 'background info' that sets the stage for the adventure location (more like 1 page... an Introduction and a half-page rumor list to roll on if you want). It then jumps straight into the adventure locations, level by level. Each level has a paragraph on what the level was used for, a random monster chart, and then straight into room location descriptions. The descriptions are short and sweet, but I could have done without the "read aloud text" to some rooms where the text included monsters and stuff that, once killed, pretty much makes that text obsolete. I'd rather have my simple list of 'evocative wording' (e.g., "dusty, dry, rat tracks, twigs/rags along corners, hot-metal smell"), but easily reduced or ignored. The cool thing about this adventure is that right after all that, it has a big blank "box" called "Location # Notes:". This let me fill in what I wanted or make specific notes when the PC's altered the area so that if/when they went back 4 sessions later I would know that they rested up here after a big and bloody battle. I could 'restock' that room with something different that moved in while they were gone, for example. Seeing as I was using a completely different system, I used it for that as well. I printed the adventure out, so had no qualms about writing in it. But I have used sticky-note paper before, when I didn't want to "permanently" write on my print out.

When I write up my own "full" adventures, I use this method. I've actually used this method of "blank boxing" after a location area for a while now. Makes keeping notes or doing campaign session write ups really easy! I'd love to see 5e adventures done like this. I'd rather have a "paragraph or two" of blank space than a "paragraph or two" of how some monster doesn't like some specific other monster nine rooms down (especially if I read it and realize the PC's already killed said monster!). To me, that is much more "wasted" than a blank box of space.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Saeviomagy]

I don't buy modules for maps (I can whip those up myself) nor for normal monster encounters (again - I can flip to a page in the MM and throw a fight together with ease) nor for detailed history.

I buy modules for, in descending order
1) The plot and the characters that support it. I want all that work on tying characters, clues and locations together done for me, and done in greater detail than the amount that I can throw together off the cuff. I want a calendar that tells me the timeline that the bad guys are working to. I want all the threads that could lead my players to investigate the plot.
2) Interesting encounters with significant complexity (ability synergy, creative terrain/trap use for both sides etc) that have effective and unusual tactics mapped out.

I want both of these things done in such a way that I can look at the page and know what I'm doing. In short, I want some of the really time consuming stuff done for me.

 

[77IM]

Structured Text:

• I much prefer bulleted lists over prose
• Random tables and checkbox-lists are also good
• Lists make it easier to parse out important details during game play
• Authors are less tempted to wax lyrical or write a friggin' novel when they are constrained to ugly lists
• Adventures are meant to be played, not read

 

[Mouseferatu]

[*]Adventures are meant to be played, not read

Ooh, can't agree here. IMO, they're meant to be played and read.

But then, I believe that this applies to all RPG books, from adventures to campaign settings to rule books. They all have to be read first, and if that's a chore, they're not going to be played at all. AFAIAC, if I don't come out of reading an RPG book inspired with story and character ideas--and I mean inspired by the writing, not just cool mechanics--it's failed.

 

[77IM]

To each his own, and all that, but if making the adventure more readable makes it less playable, that's a huge fail.

I recently read Out of the Abyss cover-to-cover, and I enjoyed reading it, but most of my enjoyment came from imagining how much fun it would be to play it. And much though I like that adventure, I think there are numerous places where the text would have benefitted greatly from being more structured and action-oriented (by "action" I mean "Hey DM, here are the actions you should take"). An example of something they got really, really right is the

Spoiler

12 ingredients to defeat the demons -- they just list them all out, and explain a brief "why" for each one, and tell the DM where the ingredient can possibly by found

.

Structured Text
It doesn't just mean bulleted lists; ample use of headings, subheadings, and sections can also speed up readability.
Entry Headers. Fifth edition gets a lot of milage out of putting bold-italic "entry headers" at the start of a paragraph. I am not sure what the proper term for this kind of header is.