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"Are the Authors of the Dungeon & Dragons Hardcover Adventures Blind to the Plight of DMs?"
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<blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 7374910" data-attributes="member: 6796661"><p>In my thinking, the big APs are for more experienced DMs and those needing more easily-digested adventure material are better served by the Adventurer's League material. Unfortunately, many new DMs may not know to look at the AL material. They are more likely to buy the fancy AP books from the FLGS or Amazon. WoTC should consider publishing a hard bound "annual" of select AL adventures with aditional artwork and other other aids, targeted at DMs that want easier to run adventures and who may want to run each as a more independent module, rather than committing to campaign lasting many months. </p><p></p><p>I am running Curse of Strahd now and love it. But it is a lot of work to prep. It is dense with details and interlinked relationships. I decided to run CoS because I was having trouble finding the time to world build and create adventures for my monthly homebrew games. But the advantage of home brew is that I created all the content, so I remember it easier and, in a pinch, I can improvise much easier. CoS has required a lot of work to prep. I've used outlines and relationship maps created by third parties to help with my prep and progress tracking, and that is after having read through the book twice and watching the Dice, Camera, Action series. It is still fun for me and I enjoy the adventure path a great deal, including the deadly sandbox it runs through. But I can see this being daunting for a new DM.</p><p></p><p>It is certainly much easier to prepare an adventure that has clear phases and the major encounter set up. Not only can you prep the game with a minimal amount of time reading over just the portion you are likely to get through in the session, but you can prepare all the minis, battlemaps, and statblocks you'll need. Running CoS requires more thoughtful prep to be able to set up for whatever the characters run into. I like to think that I've been able to handle this with a minimal amount of time required for players to sit around while I set up a battle, for example, but it takes time to plan and some experience as a DM. </p><p></p><p>For new DMs, I would recommend skipping the big APs and trying:</p><p></p><p>1. In Volo's Wake - a series of easy to run AL adventures</p><p></p><p>2. Tales from the Yawning Portal - some are harder to digest than other but most are fairly straight-forward dungeon crawls. Some of the room mechanics can be difficult for new DMs to run without some prep, but you only have to digest the material from that one duneon, not an entire AP. </p><p></p><p>3. Trail of the Apprentice. Sure, it is "family friendly" but it is also new-DM friendly. There is no reason why a group of adult players would not enjoy this easy to digest and run AP. It deals with were rats and mummies and orc raids, and all that fun stuff with an ongoing mystery to solve. I like DMing it and I would enjoy playing in it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MNblockhead, post: 7374910, member: 6796661"] In my thinking, the big APs are for more experienced DMs and those needing more easily-digested adventure material are better served by the Adventurer's League material. Unfortunately, many new DMs may not know to look at the AL material. They are more likely to buy the fancy AP books from the FLGS or Amazon. WoTC should consider publishing a hard bound "annual" of select AL adventures with aditional artwork and other other aids, targeted at DMs that want easier to run adventures and who may want to run each as a more independent module, rather than committing to campaign lasting many months. I am running Curse of Strahd now and love it. But it is a lot of work to prep. It is dense with details and interlinked relationships. I decided to run CoS because I was having trouble finding the time to world build and create adventures for my monthly homebrew games. But the advantage of home brew is that I created all the content, so I remember it easier and, in a pinch, I can improvise much easier. CoS has required a lot of work to prep. I've used outlines and relationship maps created by third parties to help with my prep and progress tracking, and that is after having read through the book twice and watching the Dice, Camera, Action series. It is still fun for me and I enjoy the adventure path a great deal, including the deadly sandbox it runs through. But I can see this being daunting for a new DM. It is certainly much easier to prepare an adventure that has clear phases and the major encounter set up. Not only can you prep the game with a minimal amount of time reading over just the portion you are likely to get through in the session, but you can prepare all the minis, battlemaps, and statblocks you'll need. Running CoS requires more thoughtful prep to be able to set up for whatever the characters run into. I like to think that I've been able to handle this with a minimal amount of time required for players to sit around while I set up a battle, for example, but it takes time to plan and some experience as a DM. For new DMs, I would recommend skipping the big APs and trying: 1. In Volo's Wake - a series of easy to run AL adventures 2. Tales from the Yawning Portal - some are harder to digest than other but most are fairly straight-forward dungeon crawls. Some of the room mechanics can be difficult for new DMs to run without some prep, but you only have to digest the material from that one duneon, not an entire AP. 3. Trail of the Apprentice. Sure, it is "family friendly" but it is also new-DM friendly. There is no reason why a group of adult players would not enjoy this easy to digest and run AP. It deals with were rats and mummies and orc raids, and all that fun stuff with an ongoing mystery to solve. I like DMing it and I would enjoy playing in it. [/QUOTE]
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