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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6213424" data-attributes="member: 4937">Dragon Lance gets a bad rap.&nbsp; It was a remarkable piece of gaming that attempted to elevate the game to the level of being an art form.&nbsp; It was innovative.&nbsp;&nbsp; It was well written.&nbsp; It had amazing dungeon design.&nbsp; It incorporated all sorts of elements into a an epic campaign.The real problem with Dragon Lance is that it is impossible to write down a campaign.&nbsp; You can make a transcript of a campaign, but you can't write down what it takes to run a campaign except by a pretty loose example.&nbsp;&nbsp; All published modules ultimately have this problem.&nbsp;&nbsp; You've got 32 or 64 pages worth of text.&nbsp; It's not enough to tell the guy running the game everything he needs to know to run a game, because the set of what you need to know is nigh near infinite.&nbsp;&nbsp; The real DM treats a published module like campaign source material, knowing that it can be repurposed, rearranged, reformatted, or recontextualized.&nbsp;&nbsp; He knows that the story may go off the rails and is ok with that.&nbsp; He knows he can go broad for a while, and eventually reel the story back in so that it comes at an event or location from a new direction.&nbsp;&nbsp; He knows the story is going to leave the road, and he's ok with that.&nbsp; Maybe in his DragonLance campaign there are completely different heroes of the lance with completely different ties to the NPCs in the game.&nbsp; Maybe in his DragonLance campaign, the PC's devote themselves to building a mighty navy and ship to ship (or ship to dragon, or dragon to ship) combat plays prominently in the story.&nbsp; Maybe in his DragonLance campaign, the characters join the dragon armies and try to help conquer Krynn.&nbsp;&nbsp; That doesn't eliminate the value of well crafted modules.What it does mean is a well-crafted module can't replace a DM.&nbsp; That's the real mistake that the industry keeps making.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6213424, member: 4937"] Dragon Lance gets a bad rap. It was a remarkable piece of gaming that attempted to elevate the game to the level of being an art form. It was innovative. It was well written. It had amazing dungeon design. It incorporated all sorts of elements into a an epic campaign. The real problem with Dragon Lance is that it is impossible to write down a campaign. You can make a transcript of a campaign, but you can't write down what it takes to run a campaign except by a pretty loose example. All published modules ultimately have this problem. You've got 32 or 64 pages worth of text. It's not enough to tell the guy running the game everything he needs to know to run a game, because the set of what you need to know is nigh near infinite. The real DM treats a published module like campaign source material, knowing that it can be repurposed, rearranged, reformatted, or recontextualized. He knows that the story may go off the rails and is ok with that. He knows he can go broad for a while, and eventually reel the story back in so that it comes at an event or location from a new direction. He knows the story is going to leave the road, and he's ok with that. Maybe in his DragonLance campaign there are completely different heroes of the lance with completely different ties to the NPCs in the game. Maybe in his DragonLance campaign, the PC's devote themselves to building a mighty navy and ship to ship (or ship to dragon, or dragon to ship) combat plays prominently in the story. Maybe in his DragonLance campaign, the characters join the dragon armies and try to help conquer Krynn. That doesn't eliminate the value of well crafted modules. What it does mean is a well-crafted module can't replace a DM. That's the real mistake that the industry keeps making. [/QUOTE]

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