Adventure seeds and full adventures and things between...

[MerricB]

Something that has struck me about Wizards' strategy of supporting D&D: They cover the range of products you need to create and run adventures.

You have the basics: monsters, treasure, traps, etc., and guidelines for putting them together to form a challenging (but not killer) adventure.

You have the fully-fledged adventures: RttToEE, the Eberron trilogy, and other ones that are coming out soon. (Red Hand of Doom! Yay!)

You have individual encounter ideas. Book of Challenges. Prestige class NPCs with suggested encounters (in the more recent books).

You have small locations. The Touchstone sites (Sandstorm, Planar Handbook).

You have more developed locations. I'm thinking of the Adventure Locations in the environment books, and to some extent the Fantastic Locations products.

You have adventure ideas, in DMG, the Races books, etc.

The one area where making adventures is a real pain, NPC stats, is being addressed in the prestige class format, and NPC stat blocks in other products (like DMG2). It'd still be nice if they were easier to create, but I'm fairly happy with what I have.

###

I suppose one thing they haven't done yet is the more developed adventure idea - one that takes a paragraph or two to describe the "plot" of the adventure, but leaving the locations and encounters for you to fill in.

Hmm.

Anything else that would be good for making adventures, or are Wizards pretty much getting it right?

Cheers!

 

[LordMelquiades]

Interesting

Good post Merric. For a start, it surprised me, seeing it in black and white like that, just how much actual adventure-related stuff Wizards have put out. I'll stop whinging about their lack of adventure support!

But you are right. What I think would be good is something that "pulls stuff together", something that links various environmental aspects into a more cohesive whole. Not small adventures (a la AEG's Adventure books), but adventure frameworks, something that means less work for we harried DMs than a one-line or one-para plot hook, not eually something that won't require serious unpicking.

Something like Ruins of Intrigue, actually, but with a reduced scope.

Are any companies out there doing this?

Melq

 

[jgbrowning]

Try some non WoTC Seeds for free from my wee little company.

Here's the freebie: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=406&products_id=3069&SRC=ENworld

And here's the link to the page full of 27 Seeds products in Horror, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Supers, Modern, Pulp, and Post-Apocalyptic Genres. Dey only a buck 35 for 4 pages of ideas...

http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?manufacturers_id=406

joe b.

 

[LordMelquiades]

thanks Joe. Speaking personally (er, as opposed to speaking for Merric) what I'm interested in is something more than this, but less than a module. Wizards have similar 'seeds' in their 'Steal this Hook' section, but I'd like to see a decent overview of the idea, eg a page or two, but leaving out maps, encounter details etc.

Cheers

 

[jgbrowning]

Ah sorry, my bad. Something more like the old "Book of Encounters" then?

joe b.

 

[LordMelquiades]

Kinda. Not so much entire, discrete encounters; more the overview and plot info for a decent-sized module, without all the details.

For example, for Forge of Fury done in this way, there'd be one para on the backstory, one of the geographical positioning of the stronghold, and one or two paras on each section within the complex, including an overview of each section's inhabitants.

 

[blargney the second]

I find the Sharn Inquisitives to be particularly inspiring in that niche. I can take them, modify them to fit current story hooks, and give them directly to the PCs to use as they see fit! They don't spell out what's going on behind the scenes, but that's where the fun of making up stories with your players comes in.

-blarg

 

[LordMelquiades]

I guess I'm lazy--I want more than this, but less than a full module!

 

[Tarril Wolfeye]

What you need are Adventure Overviews.
Check out Age of Worms Overload at Paizo's Site and tell us if this is what you're looking for.

 

[Steverooo]

Well, this isn't what you want, but maybe Merric might... Here are a list of "Plot Elements" that can be strung together, in different ways, to make adventures. Each includes a list of what needs to be added, in order to flesh it out:

Five Minute Adventures (many of which take more time than that). These are specifically aimed at Sci-Fi, but can be easily adapted to Fantasy... and best of all, they're free!