D&D General [+]APs, Railroads and Other Linear Adventures

[jgsugden]

Adventure Paths can be great tools for DMs trying their hand, or with little prep time. They're not my favorite, but when used, here are the things I'd recommend keeping in mind:

1.) Be Flexible - Don't take the text as written as required. Change things to suit your style, and to adjust for the things the PCs have done. If you want to keep on the path, figure out a way to bridge where the party goes to wheere you want them to be, and use improvised story elements to get them there. If the path expects them to take a job and go to a new town, but the PCs instead decide to decline the job and look for some bandits they heard about, make a quick bandit encounter and then give them a reason in the bandit camp to travel to the new town.

2.) Evaluate as You Go - You may want to run the Adventure Path, but you need to see if the players like it as well. No DM is an island. If the players are not digging it, evaluate and try to adjust. If they're still not digging it, talk to them about what is, and is not working.

3.) Change It Up - Change a few things. Players sometimes 'accidentally' find out things about prepublished adventures. If you change a few things, it can still keep them guessing. When I last ran a commercial adventure, I changed the names of all the NPCs, Locations, etc... and never told the PCs what I was running. They still guessed, but it took a while.

 

[Reynard]

I thought the point of using APs was mostly to reduce the prep workload on the DM.

Lol. No. Pre-written adventures of all kinds are significantly more work than homebrew

 

[bloodtide]

I don't really use terms like Railroad or Sandbox except when talking to others, and almost always pro sandbox gamers.

To me, a railraod is a normal adventure path: the players pick a path, then the characters move along the path as the path moves along with the characters. My train tracks are wide, so players can "try" anything....on the path.

I don't get Sandboxes at all. People just use sandbox for "good game". Though it has always been hard for me to even get anyone to describe "the sandbox play style" in some way that is unique.

Both Sandboxes and Railroads start with the players picking something to do in the game world. Both Sandboxes and Railroads have linear paths that have to be followed. Both Sandboxes and Railroads let the players "try anything" on a path. So...where is the sandbox different?

The vast majority of Adventure Paths only have one way to go. Your group wants to slay a dragon, then the end of that path is they must slay a dragon. There is no sandbox freedom where they go fishing. Your group wants to find the lost treasure, there are only so many clues and leads. The group wants to stop bandits or a cult or a baron, confronting and getting them to stop 'somehow' is about the only way.

You can try different ways on the path, but must always stay on the path.

The only response I ever got was the Sandbox vs Bad, Cruel, Inexperienced, Hostile or Clumsy GM. The GM that says the characters "can't" do something. But you can have a Bad, Cruel, Inexperienced, Hostile or Clumsy GM in a Sandbox.

 

[billd91]

Lol. No. Pre-written adventures of all kinds are significantly more work than homebrew

I don’t know that I’d agree with that. I may not put that kind of detail into a homebrew that goes into an AP or other published adventure, so I guess that’s a kind of comparative savings of work. But I sure don’t have to come up with the premise and structure, which I would otherwise consider substantial work.

But I do agree with your previous statement. The point of using an AP is, first and foremost, to experience the content.

 

[Reynard]

I don’t know that I’d agree with that. I may not put that kind of detail into a homebrew that goes into an AP or other published adventure, so I guess that’s a kind of comparative savings of work. But I sure don’t have to come up with the premise and structure, which I would otherwise consider substantial work.

But I do agree with your previous statement. The point of using an AP is, first and foremost, to experience the content.

Paizo and WotC both obfuscate important details in walls of prose, so there is labor in extracting all the relevant information necessary to run the thing. Then you have to tailor it to your players and party, to at least some degree. And you have to debug on top of it, because nothing is ever perfect.this are all things I think you do naturally when developing a scenario yourself. And on top of it you don't have to fill extra pages with fluff just to hit the word count.