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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercule" data-source="post: 6560106" data-attributes="member: 5100">From a consumer POV, I like it, but with caveats.The first "pro" is an easy one: quality. Whether I re-run the AP or not, I'll read through the entirety before deciding to run it. Then, I'll read through again, making any conversion notes, whether taking a 1E module to 5E or a Forgotten Realms module to Eberron. Then, I actually run it.While running it, I read it multiple times. Before each session, I read any material that is likely to be needed for the session and skim anything that might be needed. Most of the time, only a third to a half of what I read is used because I prep for multiple paths. During the session, I use the text the players actually need, of course, but I may reference wandering monsters, rooms within earshot of certain noises, etc. After each session, I tend to review what the players did and make appropriate notes and plans for the next session, including any decisions intelligent monsters might make upon discovering the carnage the PCs have wrought (discovery isn't guaranteed, but I at least consider what could happen). Finally, things like new monsters, spells, and magic items are often referenced -- with a softbound book, I'll probably copy the text to somewhere else, where it'll be forgotten, but a hardcover can remain as a reference indefinitely. So, that's a minimum of something like six reads. That's more than many of my sourcebooks have gotten. Really, a good AP ends up having a lot more in common with the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book than a 32-page "module".All the above assumes a certain quality of the contents. I was less than impressed by HotDQ and don't even plan to run it; so I don't find the material, itself, to be worthy of a hardcover. It would be easier to swallow if the size had been more substantial, though. Paradoxically, I would probably have been happier to pay more for the entirety of Tyranny of Dragons and not use it than to have paid less for only half that I'm still not using. One the other hand, given my enjoyment of the 1E and 3E installments of the Elemental Evil stories, as well as liking the work the author did on Phandelver, I'm almost guaranteed to buy Princes of the Apocalypse, even though I don't plan to use it, right away.So, one (maybe even two) well-written, 300-page campaign (AP) hard-covers would be fairly likely to earn my dollars. The two-step approach used by Tyranny of Dragons, especially with (IMO) the poor content, not so much.The other factor, of course, is how setting-specific the AP is. Phandelver was technically set in the Realms, but it was trivial to file off the serial numbers and toss it into Eberron (or a home brew). ToD was very tightly coupled to the Realms; I eventually gave up trying to convert it to Eberron, and I'm not sure that it could even be dropped into a ground-up homebrew without the homebrew becoming, essentially, a selective copy of the Realms. As someone with a certain amount of antipathy towards the Realms, that's a limiting factor, but it's not inherent in the format.</blockquote>

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