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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rechan" data-source="post: 5108204" data-attributes="member: 54846">The Small Things1. The Plot Links: A Web, not a RopeThe biggest sin I think that the Scales of War adventure path had was that the adventures (at least in the early levels) were not very strongly linked. Which is what makes an AP important, the linked plot! In KotS, the plots/areas were linked only by letters. It makes you think the villains just like to write diaries. If the PCs didn't read the letters, they would basically miss any involvement of the villains beforehand. In Thunderspire you have the only thing linking the Duergar to the Hobgoblins to the Well of Demons is the slave shuffle. There should be more incentives, and more plot relevance, to go there. This is also a source of frustration for folks running the published modules consecutively: they need help simply to link them all together, to weave the modules together. Nothing links Thunderspire to the PoS. Nothing links Thunderspire to P2. KotS is only tangentally related to Thunderspire by the slaves, but that almost feel stacked on.I realize that you may not want every adventure to be so tightly woven that you can't pick one up and run it alone, or be missing context clues. But even so, they should have stronger relationships. A good example is a trio of adventures in Dungeon - "Touch of Madness" "Depth of Madness" "Brink of Madness". Each one can be a stand alone, self contained plot, but each builds on the plot of the last. This is strong, awesome, and rewarding to do consecutively. 2. Victory. Make it Matter, Never Undercut itOne of the most offensive things, to me, about Thunderspire is that the hook to get into the adventure is "Slaves were taken, we gotta rescue them". But as soon as the PCs bust into the first dungeon, the slaves are gone. Then they go to the next, and only some are there, and they've been shuffled off to a third dungeon. A player who's been slogging through this dungeon, only to find out "Your Princess Is In Another Castle" will feel cheated of his victory over the dungeon. This should never happen. The PCs victories should matter, and advance the story, and possibly "change the game" of the plot (The villain has to change his plans because he's lost this resource over here, etc). 3. Value of Reading and PersonalityOne of the reasons folks cite Paizo as so great at making adventures is because Paizo puts things in the adventures to make them an enjoyable read. Now, I know that you are writing adventures to be run as adventures, but to have enjoyable ideas pouring out of the pages (rather than encounters set up on the framework fo plot) is going to make the adventure better. One thing that makes it better are NPCs, and things the players can enjoy. Rise of the Runelords set the PCs in a town, and really fleshed that town out. Second Darkness had the PCs invested heavily in the business they worked for during the first adventure. Legacy of Fire had the PCs tightly associated with the caravan they were guarding. This not only fed back to "Thinking Outside the Box", but it made the NPCs involved really important.Compare this to Winterhaven, which felt utterly flat. No one felt unique, nothing felt personable. Splug was a good try, but there needs to be more than just Splug.4. Not everything needs to revolve around Stopping the VillainThis gets back to encounters and plot, but one thing that almost seems to be missing is an element of Exploration. Just "There's something there that we don't know, let's go poke it with a stick and see what's there". Thunderspire had the potential for this. But there was always the pressure to "Go beat the villain, go save the slaves", rather than any offered freedom. 5. The Magic of the LocationOne thing I feel that truly, truly is lacking is a Mythical/Fantastical feeling. No sites that are merely mythical or truly Strange and Special. A forest made of crystal? A well castle/village/whatnot that only appears during the full moon? A cave that rises up out of the ground when the command words are spoken (ala Aladdin or Ali Baba)? Please put locales in there, and make the locales interesting purely because of the spectacle of them. A unique thing, rather than 'Just another kingdome/valley/castle/swamp'. What makes that place different from all the others aside from the monsters inside of it?</blockquote>

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