Best practices for easy-to-run modules [+]

[Reynard]

• Evident seperation of player-facing description vs. GM-only secrets. I hate it when I'm paraphrasing a room description and it immediately flows into secrets ("the heroes see a fireplace full of charred bones covering a secret panel where the macguffin was hidden")

This one has caught me on occassion, especially with Paizo APs.

 

[Bill Zebub]

While the long-winded background might help, specific suggestions of what the villain could do instead would be far better.

That's exactly what I was thinking. A long background could be replaced with very brief comments about personality, goals, and tactics/strategy.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Another little thing: if the author wants to convey their idea of a situation (a room, an environment, a moment), give us 3 senses of descriptions. Tell us an interesting sound, a compelling scent, maybe even a touch. “You see…blah blah blah” only goes so far. Plus the more sense cues you give the GM, the more interesting details they can provide as players investigate the environment.

I agree. I tried this with Tomb of Entropy, and got lots of good feedback on it.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I think a really interesting exercise might be to "rewrite" a WotC adventure in the accessibility style we are talking about here. What does that look like? Where is the balance?

Working on it

As soon as I wrap up Shadow Fables, I plan on doing just this for B2. It's my favorite module, but could use some improvement presentation style-wise after 50 years of lessons learned while keeping the sandboxy aspect still important and up front. We just finished it recently in a 1e game I was a player in, and while playing it, lots of ideas about how to rewrite it came up.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Eg:
Scarlett, faery (??? Aged).
Flowing red evening gown that hides her feet. Glamour wavers around slowly pulsing moth wings. Arresting eyes you want to tip into like a deep black pool. Quote: Oh aren’t you all just ADORABLE children.

I like this example, aaaand to be totally nitpicky, I would want it even more terse:

• Flowing red evening gown that hides her feet.
• Glamour wavers around slowly pulsing moth wings.
• Arresting eyes you want to tip into like a deep black pools.

P.S. I also really like giving NPCs an archetypical quote. Done right (and I think the above does it right) it both gives the GM something to use and conveys more than a much longer description.

 

[Piperken]

I'll tell you what, my friends: I've read probably 100+ modules over my decades of gaming, but I'm writing my first one, and it is an exercise in humility!

You'll get there. Revising is where most stuff happens!