Are adventures/modules more important than system?

[jshaft37]

I've been thinking about the transition from 4e to Next, as well as a look back at iconic material, and it makes me wonder if the adventures (including materials to use in home-brew adventures) are possibly more important than the system.

WotC did not put its best foot forward with the transition to 4e and that was reflected in KotS, Dungeon Delves, Dungeon Magazine, etc. After 2010, the quality of the material has vastly improved, but too little too late for many, as first impressions are lasting.

Therefore, I believe that WotC needs to come out of the gate with strong adventures that really showcase 5e.

What type of adventures/modules/settings should WotC launch with 5e?

 

[Savage Wombat]

Well, they need an out-of-the-gate 1st level adventure that really blows players out of the water. And it needs to be more finely balanced than some previous attempts - we don't want the starting adventure to accidentally end in TPKS at a quarter of the tables.

And for contrast, something extremely sandboxy. The Caves of Chaos playtest material might work for that.

I'd also suggest not trying to release one big adventure path as your first series of modules - they'll want to show off higher level play too, so at least one mid- or high-level adventure, probably with pregen PCs just in case.

 

[Grydan]

More important than system? No. I don't care if it's the best story or sandbox ever created, if the system doesn't work it doesn't work.

If the system works well, but the published adventures are sub-par, I can come up with my own adventures.

If the adventures are great, but the system is sub-par, I don't want to invent my own system or convert everything over to some existing system.

Can they do better than what they have in the past? I should certainly hope so.

I have played through Thunderspire Labyrinth. I have DMed Keep on the Shadowfell, Thunderspire Labyrinth, and most of Pyramid of Shadows. I consider them valuable lessons in adventure design that will influence any adventure I create going forward.

By that I mean, they mostly taught me how not to do things.

Like Keep on the Shadowfell taught me not to insert things into the plot that seem important but are actually never again referenced. (See the mirror at the dig site...)

Thunderspire Labyrinth taught me to hate Duergar, and tiny rooms, and that it's nice if communities make some sort of sense, because the Seven Pillared Hall just didn't. Oh, and that no one location really needs more than a handful of encounters, before you really just would rather be somewhere else.

Which of course makes Pyramid of Shadows such a wonderful follow-up to Thunderspire. Teaching me that it can always be worse, and you could trap the party in a place for three or four levels, with no chance of communicating with the outside world. Which works especially well for characters approaching the Paragon Tier, where they're supposed to be becoming very well known. Well known for not having been heard from in months, I guess.

To be fair, there were things in each that worked. They just don't necessarily stand out in my memory quite as much as the things that made no sense.

 

[jshaft37]

I guess I didn't consider that the Next system could be terrible

I like all the D&D systems for the most part, they all have strong points and weak points, I don't consider any of them unusable. that being said I choose to run 4e (mostly essentials at this point), because its easier for me to DM.

 

[El Mahdi]

What type of adventures/modules/settings should WotC launch with 5e?

Ones by third party publishers that do a much better job at adventures, enabled by a more open Game System License.

 

[hanez]

One of the greatest things about 3e was the adventures

The 3pp adventures were incredible, my favorites were AEGs lil pamphlet adventures, 5 pages with some ideas, a map, and a couple NPCs. Just enough meat for me to craft an adventure around. Paizo also did exceptionally well with the adventure paths, although sometimes I feel they gave too much detail, and it became a pain to modify the adventures because they were too much.

Either way, I DMd WOTCs official adventures at the start of 4e, and I would have to admit they went a long way to ruining the system for us. The healing surges, characters from some other game that all did the same thing, and lack of non combat focused classes didnt help though.

Are adventures more important then the system... probably not, but close.

 

[Celebrim]

Yes.

 

[TwinBahamut]

Published adventures pretty much have no bearing at all on my opinion of a system. Core rulebooks are expensive enough, and making up your own adventures is too important a part of the game for me. I'll probably continue to ignore them in 5E just like in previous editions.

So, I think the core rules of a system are way more important than published adventures.

 

[jshaft37]

Published adventures pretty much have no bearing at all on my opinion of a system. Core rulebooks are expensive enough, and making up your own adventures is too important a part of the game for me. I'll probably continue to ignore them in 5E just like in previous editions.

So, I think the core rules of a system are way more important than published adventures.

would you like for system/setting agnostic hooks, inns, towns/cities/villages, npcs, factions, etc? is that material useful to you to cherry pick, or do you completely ignore it? for example, as a continuation of Reavers of Harkenworld, I reskinned the Neverwinter setting to create Sarthel which is under the control of the Iron Circle.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

If the system works well, but the published adventures are sub-par, I can come up with my own adventures.

If the adventures are great, but the system is sub-par, I don't want to invent my own system or convert everything over to some existing system.

Can they do better than what they have in the past? I should certainly hope so.

Adventures are one of the better teaching tools available, to get people up and running the system quickly, even if they then turn around and homebrew from then on out. If you system is great, but your system advice is not so hot, the first few adventures better show you what the advice failed to tell you. Of course, showing and telling well is preferable.

After that point, having great adventures is only important if you want to sell to people who like adventures--certainly useful and a market you don't want to neglect, if sizable, but not a critical thing. However, having a few good adventures, early, is practically crucial. It's like having a lousy character sheet to start versus a good one--not absolutely necessary in the long run, but will keep your wings severely clipped if you fail in this area.