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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 6218041" data-attributes="member: 3192">I'd suggest not putting any player objectives into a D&D adventure module. Those are for the player to choose. Modules which tell players "kill this monster, "save the king" or "start your own barony" are placing an end point on the module. Modules don't have conclusions in D&D, campaigns do. Players can go back to the dungeon time and time again. The trick is, as game time progresses the consequences of the game alter the module. At the starting state the witch queen has captured the king and froze him. After a time another person rises to run the kingdom. After more time they might be crowned king. After even more time the kingdom may be conquered. And later still the population of the kingdom may have fled and dispersed leaving empty cities and citadels. And then those fill with different monsters. And finally, at some later point, maybe the king is freed from his frozen tomb only to find he is no longer a king, his kingdom is gone, his family has grown old and died, his castle is now a broken ruin populated by 4-winged devil-monkeys. The point is, the module doesn't end just because the players start it and leave. They could have saved the king right away, but that still doesn't mean the module is over.When I design an adventure I'm usually inspired by an idea I've had and try and put it into game mechanics. This could be a cool monster like a mindflayer, a magical effect like mind reading, an interesting item like the bruise-puffing thornapples, or an intriguing location like a town that needs to feed a creature to its "well" every full moon.The nice thing about modules is they don't have to worry about whether their pieces already exist in any setting. Settings are defined by what's in the modules put in them and then further define those elements when they are studied deeper than the module provides.Because of this limitation on design, modules are free not to answer every question in the setting and can be self contained to satisfy their particular level (or levels more likely) of challenge. Just avoid attempting to trap the PCs within them a la Ravenloft or Mud Sorcerer's Tomb - no "Beat this level or game over" designs. No I'm free to come up with a cool adventure that includes all the ideas I listed before. Alien-esque lairing Mindflayers enthralling 4-winged devil-monkeys to steal members of a tribe of lunar pit feeders to mind read their understandings of bruise-puffing thornapples. There are all kinds of hooks for players who stumble into the module or are looking for any piece of it. I mean, who doesn't want to eat magical thornapple pie?</blockquote>

Verification