Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Help me make WotC adventures better.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="UniversalMonster" data-source="post: 5108262" data-attributes="member: 1034"><p>Hey Rodney, Peter Seckler here. I do a lot of DMing with the Living Realms campaign, DM 4E at least twice weekly (and sometimes more) and I have a habit of changing up published adventures as well as writing my own. </p><p></p><p>I have some suggestions. </p><p></p><p>I've run two of the "official" published adventures: Scepter Tower of Spellguard and Prince of Undeath. </p><p></p><p>Of the two, Scepter Tower is better but it has some problems: (The oracle bit is really good, I like the monastery..) but the 3 dungeons are somewhat problematic. Each is completely linear. The wall dungeon, the tunnels, and the tower are all completely linear and must be run in order. </p><p></p><p>Prince of Undeath kinda has the same issues, (and has nothing redeeming like the monastery or the oracle that the Dm can make his own) but I was so excited about epic level gaming that I did my best to ignore them (and I hacked in a stopover in the City of Brass between the Red Hold and the Forge of Four Worlds, as well as a subplot about one of the PCs being a prince of hell and being allied with the devils in the Forge of Four Worlds). It's also completely linear (and scripted to the point that ship-based encounters on the Abyssal ship are scripted at intervals). </p><p></p><p>The encounters are GOOD, don't get me wrong here, but this adventure has low value for play (it's just too scripted) and no replay value. It's not like you can try an alternate path through the adventure. </p><p></p><p>ok, so my advice: </p><p></p><p>Detail out the entire area, and the NPCs, and keep creating cool encounters. But please, please please AVOID trying to create an adventure story. This is off limits to designers. You can create the story of a place before it has been explored (ala Barrier Peaks/Isle of Dread) but <em>let the players and the DMs come up with the story of what happens once the adventure is in play. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p></p><p>When I write adventures myself I have a few encounters planned and printed out, and I have the area/location detailed out, and of course I have my NPCs and so on.. but I never really know what is going to happen in the adventure or which way the players are going to choose.</p><p></p><p>More paths, more branching.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="UniversalMonster, post: 5108262, member: 1034"] Hey Rodney, Peter Seckler here. I do a lot of DMing with the Living Realms campaign, DM 4E at least twice weekly (and sometimes more) and I have a habit of changing up published adventures as well as writing my own. I have some suggestions. I've run two of the "official" published adventures: Scepter Tower of Spellguard and Prince of Undeath. Of the two, Scepter Tower is better but it has some problems: (The oracle bit is really good, I like the monastery..) but the 3 dungeons are somewhat problematic. Each is completely linear. The wall dungeon, the tunnels, and the tower are all completely linear and must be run in order. Prince of Undeath kinda has the same issues, (and has nothing redeeming like the monastery or the oracle that the Dm can make his own) but I was so excited about epic level gaming that I did my best to ignore them (and I hacked in a stopover in the City of Brass between the Red Hold and the Forge of Four Worlds, as well as a subplot about one of the PCs being a prince of hell and being allied with the devils in the Forge of Four Worlds). It's also completely linear (and scripted to the point that ship-based encounters on the Abyssal ship are scripted at intervals). The encounters are GOOD, don't get me wrong here, but this adventure has low value for play (it's just too scripted) and no replay value. It's not like you can try an alternate path through the adventure. ok, so my advice: Detail out the entire area, and the NPCs, and keep creating cool encounters. But please, please please AVOID trying to create an adventure story. This is off limits to designers. You can create the story of a place before it has been explored (ala Barrier Peaks/Isle of Dread) but [I]let the players and the DMs come up with the story of what happens once the adventure is in play. [/I] When I write adventures myself I have a few encounters planned and printed out, and I have the area/location detailed out, and of course I have my NPCs and so on.. but I never really know what is going to happen in the adventure or which way the players are going to choose. More paths, more branching. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Help me make WotC adventures better.
Top
