D&D 5E Adventure Design: Backstory and History

[Charles Rampant]

Interesting discussion. I've been just directly reading out the boxed text from Princes, which seems to be holding the players' attention, though I do mean to ask them whether they'd prefer I not do that. I've found both Princes and Phandelver to be pretty easy to run at the table, once read sufficiently to understand what is going on, but then I notice that many of the cited examples here are enormously larger than the boxed text/NPC descriptions from those modules. For me as a DM, the biggest crisis moments are always when the players turn to a NPC and ask him/her some awkward question: in a homebrew, I could easily decide what they know/will share, but in a pregen I obviously want to make sure that I don't let slip some vital information early. Some people upthread have noted that they hate having NPC knowledge listed out, calling it a waste of space; I'd say that it was vital to me, so that I have an idea of what will happen when the players inevitably capture or question someone.

 

[delericho]

Out of interest, have any of you checked out Monte Cook's "Weird Discoveries" for Numenera? (The link is to a free preview giving one of the ten "no-prep" adventures.) If so, what did you think of it?

 

[ExploderWizard]

While we are on this subject, what I can't stand is when modules have maps that label all the rooms with numbers and letters, and then have the legend on a different page. It drives me nuts! And they do this for very simple maps too. You could just as easily fit the legend on the map itself, or simply replace the numbers with actual names of the rooms.

If the campaign module is such that the map is on the left page, and the legend on the right page, then this obviously not a problem. But I rarely see them do this. I always have to flip the page to the other side to see what "Room A" is supposed to be. And thus I find myself constantly flipping back and forth, back and forth, between the pages.

I realize that some DM's like to print these maps out, and for that reason might not want all the rooms labeled. But personally I cover unvisited rooms up anyway. If a room is a throneroom, don't call it "Room A", just call it "THRONEROOM".

If maps are done in a user friendly format then they aren't stuck in a hardbound book to begin with. They are on the inside of the card stock module cover as is proper.

 

[77IM]

Is now an appropriate time to mention that I vastly prefer adventures in PDF format? I like to print out maps and scribble on them; print out monster stat blocks and take notes in the margins; print out NPC portraits and give them to the players; etc.

 

[Celtavian]

Is now an appropriate time to mention that I vastly prefer adventures in PDF format? I like to print out maps and scribble on them; print out monster stat blocks and take notes in the margins; print out NPC portraits and give them to the players; etc.

I wish they would provide the maps in PDF format and monster stat blocks. I like a book to have at the table. I'd love to be able to print out monsters, NPCs, and maps for easy use.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Maps and basic encounters ARE the time-consuming stuff! Special encounters and-or boss fights aren't that hard to design, and there's usually only one or two or three per adventure. If I need backstory (often unlikely) I'll have it in place beforehand if it's relevant to anything ongoing or I'll dream it up on the fly if it isn't.

I have more maps than I can shake a stick at, and if it's not for a special encounter, then I can whip them up on the fly with ease.

Putting together a special encounter that's actually climactic is much more difficult.

 

[Mad Zagyg]

Too bad we couldn't go back into time and prove this. I'd bet a substantial amount of money that White Plume Mountain would not be on the all time classics list without those three items. They were some amazing, standout magic items. If you removed them, White Plume Mountain] would fall far down or off the list of classics.

And I wish I could take your substantial amount of money.

No doubt that the coolness of the three magic items contributed to the adventure's greatness, but there was just so much to love about that module. In fact, the way in which you've been talking about it makes me think you either ran it badly or had a poor DM (assuming you ran through it at all). The point of the adventure is that you have been hired by wealthy collectors to retrieve the items for them. That is, you have to return them when the adventure is over. Good DMs would stress the potential implications of a band of "heroes" who intend to disappear and keep the items for themselves.

And even if they DID decide to keep these sick weapons, there is a mighty high chance they will wind up suffering from agoraphobia, a strong desire to convert people to the world's prominent ocean god, and a predilection for committing the occasional murder just to appease the appetite of their perpetually hungry, soul-sucking greatsword.

According to the adventure's intro, the wealthy collectors have promised to grant them "whatever they desire, if it is within their power to do so" if they manage to bring the weapons back. There was always something captivating to me about that offer. It provides so many opportunities for awesome role-playing and a great finale to the adventure. What do the players ask for, and what does the DM think these collectors can reasonably offer?

Furthermore, we have an incredible villain, made all the more agonizingly cool because he never appears in the adventure, which really toys with the players' expectations. Is he truly the 1300 year old wizard Keraptis or just some thiefly poser who is assuming the mantle? Only the DM knows. If it is the wizard, has he gone mad? Maybe he was mad all along. He did, after all, vanish without a trace over a millennia ago into the old lava tubes of White Plume Mountain with his band of renegade gnomes.

The dungeon itself is tons of fun, as intended, with really well imagined challenges, obstacles, and puzzles. It is not merely a randomly generated dungeon with room numbers and monsters. Frictionless floors, bubbling chasms, and inverted ziggurats filled with strange monsters is the kind of stuff you find in here. The adventure really made use of the environment like no adventure prior (or maybe even since). Should we shoot at the giant crab in the bubble room? What if we miss the target and hit the rubbery wall surrounded by boiling hot water? How should we "cross cavern vast, where chain-links rattle?" How can we cross the room we can't stand on? These all resulted in great game play every time I've run it.

It also provides a creepy ending. As the heroes leave the dungeon they hear the disembodied voice of Kereptis (?) thanking them for being so entertaining before throwing two Efreeti (Nix and Nox) at them with intentions to see them off to the "Indoctrination Center."

And finally, we have the most badass poem/note that kicks the whole adventure off. It's pretty much the coolest thing you can write if your a 1300+ year old wizard who wants to mock the people you stole some really powerful and rare magic items from. I can still recite the entire poem from memory, but it was the last paragraph that I always found to be particularly chilling:

I care not, former owners brave
What heroes you seek to hire.
Though mighty, I'll make each one my slave
Or send him to the fire.

Pure balls, Mr. Keraptis. Pure balls.

So, when you say that the adventure is only good because it has some really kewl loot, I feel as though you are objectively wrong. In my opinion, White Plume Mountain has more weight in its 16 pages than Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat had in 188.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I often find myself reading background on an NPC in an adventure, and find myself thinking "will any of this ever come to light to the players?"

Very often the answer is no. Which means that such backstory is unnecessary. And unnecessary words should be omitted.

I think that for any NPC their role in the adventure should determine the depth to which the adventure's author goes with them. Three tiers of detail would suffice...low for the bandit leader, medium for the evil wizard that hired the bandits, and high for the Drow Nobles that are manipulating the wizard. And so on.

I personally love when adventures use simple details in bullet points for NPCs. I think that generally, prose is overused in adventure writing.

 

[Celtavian]

And I wish I could take your substantial amount of money.

No doubt that the coolness of the three magic items contributed to the adventure's greatness, but there was just so much to love about that module. In fact, the way in which you've been talking about it makes me think you either ran it badly or had a poor DM (assuming you ran through it at all). The point of the adventure is that you have been hired by wealthy collectors to retrieve the items for them. That is, you have to return them when the adventure is over. Good DMs would stress the potential implications of a band of "heroes" who intend to disappear and keep the items for themselves.

And even if they DID decide to keep these sick weapons, there is a mighty high chance they will wind up suffering from agoraphobia, a strong desire to convert people to the world's prominent ocean god, and a predilection for committing the occasional murder just to appease the appetite of their perpetually hungry, soul-sucking greatsword.

According to the adventure's intro, the wealthy collectors have promised to grant them "whatever they desire, if it is within their power to do so" if they manage to bring the weapons back. There was always something captivating to me about that offer. It provides so many opportunities for awesome role-playing and a great finale to the adventure. What do the players ask for, and what does the DM think these collectors can reasonably offer?

Furthermore, we have an incredible villain, made all the more agonizingly cool because he never appears in the adventure, which really toys with the players' expectations. Is he truly the 1300 year old wizard Keraptis or just some thiefly poser who is assuming the mantle? Only the DM knows. If it is the wizard, has he gone mad? Maybe he was mad all along. He did, after all, vanish without a trace over a millennia ago into the old lava tubes of White Plume Mountain with his band of renegade gnomes.

The dungeon itself is tons of fun, as intended, with really well imagined challenges, obstacles, and puzzles. It is not merely a randomly generated dungeon with room numbers and monsters. Frictionless floors, bubbling chasms, and inverted ziggurats filled with strange monsters is the kind of stuff you find in here. The adventure really made use of the environment like no adventure prior (or maybe even since). Should we shoot at the giant crab in the bubble room? What if we miss the target and hit the rubbery wall surrounded by boiling hot water? How should we "cross cavern vast, where chain-links rattle?" How can we cross the room we can't stand on? These all resulted in great game play every time I've run it.

It also provides a creepy ending. As the heroes leave the dungeon they hear the disembodied voice of Kereptis (?) thanking them for being so entertaining before throwing two Efreeti (Nix and Nox) at them with intentions to see them off to the "Indoctrination Center."

And finally, we have the most badass poem/note that kicks the whole adventure off. It's pretty much the coolest thing you can write if your a 1300+ year old wizard who wants to mock the people you stole some really powerful and rare magic items from. I can still recite the entire poem from memory, but it was the last paragraph that I always found to be particularly chilling:

I care not, former owners brave
What heroes you seek to hire.
Though mighty, I'll make each one my slave
Or send him to the fire.

Pure balls, Mr. Keraptis. Pure balls.

So, when you say that the adventure is only good because it has some really kewl loot, I feel as though you are objectively wrong. In my opinion, White Plume Mountain has more weight in its 16 pages than Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat had in 188.

The module was level 5-10. Maybe it was hard for the lower level characters, but it was easy for characters level 7 or above. Do you really think the characters had trouble with the giant crab? Whether to shoot at it or not with magic at their disposal? It wasn't a very tough module.

As far as the other stuff, my players took at least Blackravor every time. Why wouldn't they? As a DM I would never run a game where the players have to take the best items back to someone else, which was another weakness of the module. One I ignored.

We see things differently. I remember White Plume Mountain because it was full of nice magic items beyond the big 3 that were relatively easy to obtain. I didn't find it as entertaining as Against the Giants or as memorably deadly as Tomb of Horrors. Temple of Elemental Evil provided a lot more play time. White Plume Mountain was an odd little module with some amazing magic items. You seem to have done more with Keraptis than I or the DMs I played with ever did. He was the equivalent of a magic mouth summoning trap at the end. I didn't find the module as interesting as you found it as far as the encounters go. I mainly wanted Whelm and Blackrazor for some of my characters. The riddles and odd traps were not so hard to figure out.