Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pbartender" data-source="post: 5108320" data-attributes="member: 7533">Off the top of my head...A Modular Module. As others have said, follow 1E's lead, here...  Put the maps on inside of the cover, and let the cover be detachable.  For the module itself, have two separate booklets...  one for the adventure, and one for all the stat blocks.  Hand outs should be included on their own separate sheets, or in a fashion that makes them easy to detach and hand out.Organization. If you put stat blocks in a separate section or booklet, don't put them in there alphabetically.  Group them by organization, or by plot stages, or something similar.Presume, for example, all the stats for Sarshan's shadar-kai, dark creepers and other mercenary followers from Shadow Rift of Umbraforge are listed on three or four consecutive pages in a booklet separate from the actual adventure.  I can have the adventure booklet open to the relevant page for the encounter, I can have the fold maps propped up as a screen, I can have the monster booklet open to the relative pages for the stats, and I can easily mix and match the creatures to tailor the encounter for possible reinforcements and other unexpected circumstances, without flipping too many pages.  Plus, it eliminates unnecessary reprinting of maps and stats throughout.What's My Motivation?  Enemy NPCs and organizations should each have a short right-up including their motivations for doing what they're doing.  Not only does it make the adventure plot make more sense, but it gives the DM a means to judge what the NPCs are doing in the background when the PCs aren't there, and also helps the DM decide how the NPCs are likely to react when the PCs jump the rails...   Is Sarshan just a neutral mercenary monger, or does he have ulterior motives?  If Modra is in such big trouble with Sarshan, why is he so intent on returning to Umbraforge?  Where do Tusk's advance scouts go, if they aren't stopped in the tunnels beneath the Monestary?More Talking, Less Fighting.  The WotC adventures have a tendency to add in extra encounters that have no real connection to the plot and honestly don't make much sense in the context of the adventure other than to provide the XP require to ensure the PCs are at the proper level by the end of the adventure.  Get rid of them.Instead, replace them with non-combat encounters that provide that XP.  Or, start giving out bits of bonus XP reaching "plot milestones"...  The PCs found the ransom letter?  Bonus XP!  They uncovered the secret portal in the basement of the back alley tavern?  Bonus XP!  They gained extra information from a prisoner they captured?  Bonus XP!  Some of this is already done with Skill Challenges and Quests...  Do it more.  Enough that you can use it to replace combat encounters.Run Away!  Don't be afraid to suggest that bad guys retreat.  In 4E, we have easy triggers to determine morale, such as bloodied hit points.  Not only does it allow for recurring bad guys, but it helps keep the tougher combats from slogging on for too long.Treasure...  Picking treasure parcels is personally my biggest time-suck for published modules.  A handful of suggestions (make it 4, 6 or 8, so we can choose randomly, if we want) for each treasure parcel would be exceptionally helpful, and wouldn't really take up that much more space what you already devote to treasure parcels in the adventures.</blockquote>

Verification