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Five things I learned writing a competition-winning Adventure
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<blockquote data-quote="Thondor" data-source="post: 4991537" data-attributes="member: 31955"><p>Hmmm. Well first I'll admit that I am hardly a prolific adventure reader, especially if I ignore all the Dungeon articles I've read. That being said there are some elements I'll mention about a couple adventures that I find good and bad.</p><p> </p><p><em>In the Belly of the Beast</em> (by Mike Mearls, a 3.0? adventure) - This is a dramatic, low level (1st I believe) adventure with quite a bit of intrigue potential. And its different and a little creepy. There is also a timeline for events.</p><p>One of the things I like most about it is that it has handouts, and opponents (NPC's) all in one central place, as well as a combat worksheet. This makes it easy to run.</p><p> </p><p>I think there are a few elements in the above that I worked into my own adventure. One issues that gives me mixed feelings for <em>In the Belly of the Beast</em> is that it works in a lot of (commonly) higher level themes at low levels. Primarily 'Demons' and a kind of strange 'artifact'. I've never been able to decide if I really like this aspect or if I find it moderately repelling.</p><p> </p><p><em>The Pod Caverns of the Sinister Shroom</em> (Matt Finch, OSRIC or 1e AD&D - or similar) - Levels 1-3 I believe.</p><p>A really solid dungeon crawl that doesn't waste time. That is really original. It also possess great versimilitude. There are things going on that have nothing to do with the PCs that make you go - hun this could be real, the world is bigger then just me. Plus it has a few awesome - bizarre-mysterious-magical 'things', like a floating skull that follows the PCs around for no obvious reason.</p><p> </p><p>Again I tried to incorporate some of the versimilitude and some awesome - bizarre-mysterious-magical 'things' in my own work. I have mixed feelings on the two possible entrances into the dungeon in the <em>Pod Caverns</em>. It could be wonderful, but it could also be a little hard to run and might lead to anticlimax. Still I think it was probably a worthwhile decision.</p><p> </p><p>To address a classic that many may be familiar with:</p><p> </p><p><em>The Temple of Elemental Evil</em> (Gary Gygax and Frank Mentzer, 1e AD&D) - levels 1-8. I'm actually getting ready to run this.</p><p>There is some real potential for awesomeness in this. I worry that it could get burried under the grind though. </p><p>The details of Hommlet are excessive, except for first time DMs who have never detailed a town before. There is a lot intriguing details in the adventure that the DM can chose to use, but he has to activily chose to use it. Unfortunately it may be easy to miss both by DM and player. It seems to be a real 'make it your own piece' which has both benefits and disadvantages.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Hmm that got pretty long. Maybe I'll answer some of your other questions in another post<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Thondor, post: 4991537, member: 31955"] Hmmm. Well first I'll admit that I am hardly a prolific adventure reader, especially if I ignore all the Dungeon articles I've read. That being said there are some elements I'll mention about a couple adventures that I find good and bad. [I]In the Belly of the Beast[/I] (by Mike Mearls, a 3.0? adventure) - This is a dramatic, low level (1st I believe) adventure with quite a bit of intrigue potential. And its different and a little creepy. There is also a timeline for events. One of the things I like most about it is that it has handouts, and opponents (NPC's) all in one central place, as well as a combat worksheet. This makes it easy to run. I think there are a few elements in the above that I worked into my own adventure. One issues that gives me mixed feelings for [I]In the Belly of the Beast[/I] is that it works in a lot of (commonly) higher level themes at low levels. Primarily 'Demons' and a kind of strange 'artifact'. I've never been able to decide if I really like this aspect or if I find it moderately repelling. [I]The Pod Caverns of the Sinister Shroom[/I] (Matt Finch, OSRIC or 1e AD&D - or similar) - Levels 1-3 I believe. A really solid dungeon crawl that doesn't waste time. That is really original. It also possess great versimilitude. There are things going on that have nothing to do with the PCs that make you go - hun this could be real, the world is bigger then just me. Plus it has a few awesome - bizarre-mysterious-magical 'things', like a floating skull that follows the PCs around for no obvious reason. Again I tried to incorporate some of the versimilitude and some awesome - bizarre-mysterious-magical 'things' in my own work. I have mixed feelings on the two possible entrances into the dungeon in the [I]Pod Caverns[/I]. It could be wonderful, but it could also be a little hard to run and might lead to anticlimax. Still I think it was probably a worthwhile decision. To address a classic that many may be familiar with: [I]The Temple of Elemental Evil[/I] (Gary Gygax and Frank Mentzer, 1e AD&D) - levels 1-8. I'm actually getting ready to run this. There is some real potential for awesomeness in this. I worry that it could get burried under the grind though. The details of Hommlet are excessive, except for first time DMs who have never detailed a town before. There is a lot intriguing details in the adventure that the DM can chose to use, but he has to activily chose to use it. Unfortunately it may be easy to miss both by DM and player. It seems to be a real 'make it your own piece' which has both benefits and disadvantages. Hmm that got pretty long. Maybe I'll answer some of your other questions in another post:). [/QUOTE]
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