D&D General How do you know an adventure is "good" just from reading it?

[Reynard]

If we are talking about assessing the adventure, I read the intro and overview, then skip to the monsters, NPCs, magic items, new subsystems, etc Appendices to get a sense of what new and interesting stuff the adventure is doing. After that, I read lightly through the whole adventure and read each chapter/section more carefully prior to play. If I am being a good GM, I also make my own relationship maps and flowcharts, and print out a copy of the map I can thoroughly annotate so I know what monsters are in what rooms or whatever.

 

[payn]

Inspired by @Neonchameleon's post about their process, I have a follow up question from my OP, which folks can engage with if interested.

How do you read an adventure? For example, I typically go through the first time and read pretty much every word - except monster stat blocks. Those I skim.

If I am going to actually run it, then I read the initial sections, and only read what I need to to be ready for the next session in play. I think that's not an optimal way to engage with an adventure!

I'm looking for how other people read their adventures - and interested in hearing if "the how" changes depending on the various use cases: expecting to run it; hoping to run it; reading for pleasure; etc

I definitely read all the overviews and synopsis. A few folks have covered that. In the case of an adventure path, I read all the overviews and synopsis. I want to loosely know what the entire campaign is going to look like. I also hit online forums for reviews and discussions with folks who have ran the adventure. Actual play can help decide if I want to go forward or not.

Once I have done a quick pass through and online review, I then begin digesting all the info of the first module. I start to take notes on what I would add, subtract, change, emphasize, etc.. I also make detailed notes about anything early on that will pop up again or be relevant later. I will converse with other GMs online about anything I'm curious about.

Might sound like a lot of work to some folks, and it is. I have been told it shows at the table and it is very appreciated by my players. So, if I commit to an adventure, I am very committed to making it the best experience I can.

 

[Voadam]

Inspired by @Neonchameleon's post about their process, I have a follow up question from my OP, which folks can engage with if interested.

How do you read an adventure? For example, I typically go through the first time and read pretty much every word - except monster stat blocks. Those I skim.

If I am going to actually run it, then I read the initial sections, and only read what I need to to be ready for the next session in play. I think that's not an optimal way to engage with an adventure!

I'm looking for how other people read their adventures - and interested in hearing if "the how" changes depending on the various use cases: expecting to run it; hoping to run it; reading for pleasure; etc

Pretty much the same.

A once over of reading all the way through, then re-read the summary, then generally each week the immediate part I will be working with in the upcoming session, jumping around to relevant parts.

I occasionally have gone in with just reading the beginning and going from there, I did that with the 1e Temple of Elemental Evil, reading about Homlette and Nulb and the Moathouse and the summary and running through the moat house but not having gone through all Temple parts when I ran it. Which turned out well when my group decided to skip town for Greyhawk after finishing the Moathouse instead of continuing on to the Temple proper.

Currently in my 6 module Iron Gods adventure path where I am in Module 3 I have only read the first three modules. I plan to read the 4th before running it, but I am going off the AP summaries and details in the first three to plan ahead on plot foreshadowing stuff. Having just started module 3 I am mostly focusing on the immediate stuff coming up which means the module plot summary, the town gazetteer, the likely town NPC interactions, and the town plot points.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Pretty much the same.

A once over of reading all the way through, then re-read the summary, then generally each week the immediate part I will be working with in the upcoming session, jumping around to relevant parts.

I occasionally have gone in with just reading the beginning and going from there, I did that with the 1e Temple of Elemental Evil, reading about Homlette and Nulb and the Moathouse and the summary and running through the moat house but not having gone through all Temple parts when I ran it. Which turned out well when my group decided to skip town for Greyhawk after finishing the Moathouse instead of continuing on to the Temple proper.

Currently in my 6 module Iron Gods adventure path where I am in Module 3 I have only read the first three modules. I plan to read the 4th before running it, but I am going off the AP summaries and details in the first three to plan ahead on plot foreshadowing stuff. Having just started module 3 I am mostly focusing on the immediate stuff coming up which means the module plot summary, the town gazetteer, the likely town NPC interactions, and the town plot points.

Isn't it possible if you do that you could end up revealing a significant clue or developing a major theme that you might have wanted to drop earlier in the campaign?

 

[Voadam]

Isn't it possible if you do that you could end up revealing a significant clue or developing a major theme that you might have wanted to drop earlier in the campaign?

Absolutely.

When I ran the Carrion Crown AP it helped immensely that I had read the whole AP, plus a bunch of Paizo threads, and a well done 5e conversion which helped shore up the weak interconnections by tying the module 6 villain to be a creepy supporting ally NPC in Module 1 and 2 instead of just showing up in module 6 out of the blue.

That was an aberration for pre-campaign prep for big AP type stuff I have run though and came after a period of a lot of just playing and reading stuff on my own without DMing and the need to prep for the next weekly session.

Most often I end up saying I have some adventures with interesting premises, checking if anybody is interested, and going from there even if I have not read everything through first other than the first module I intend to run in the campaign.

When I ran the six-module Reign of Winter AP I was mostly jazzed up for the Baba Yaga theme and had read the 1st module when I started the campaign and was pretty much partially through reading module 4 and considering running something else as the 4th part when the party TPK'd in Module 3.

My current weekly DMing game came about because the previous DM was burnt out so I volunteered to run a game. I had a list of twenty big plot adventures (Paizo APs, big WotC 5e adventures, Call of Cthulhu big adventure books, others) I had that I was interested in, even though I had not read all the way through most of them. The players were all excited about the premise of Iron Gods so I dove into it.

In my current weekly Iron Gods AP I have the band width to read one module ahead when I get close to the end of the current one and to read up each week to refresh on stuff that is coming up and pull in supplemental stuff I want to throw in, but not to go much farther than that. Each module is 96 pages long and sometimes the organization in the individual modules is poor so focusing on the immediate stuff to get specifics straight can take up a bunch of my prep time.

So focusing on the immediate is enough to keep the game going and be on top of immediate stuff and it has been hugely fun for me and the players. If I waited to do ultimate complete prep I would have missed out on a lot of good DMing.

 

[wedgeski]

If I'm standing in FLGS and perusing an adventure, the criteria that will make me purchase the book are laughingly superficial:

• Thematic art, especially of NPC's. They are the most important part of the adventure for me.
• Clear maps at all scales. The adventure locale should have one of the best pieces of art in the game, with all key locations marked. Give me good maps, and I can hold the adventure together.
• More than one inspired location or encounter. Flicking through, you can usually spot the encounters that have received the lion's share of the writer(s)' attention. What I want is a "Huh, that's cool" moment.
• An actual finale, and some indication that the writer(s) have considered different paths to it.

With those signals, I can usually have fun with an adventure. Tick those boxes and you might have a sale. The actual qualities of the adventure, its coherence, its accomodation of the PC's actions, its pacing, and its surprises and its thrills, are almost impossible to judge from a quick read-through, so I've stopped trying.

 

[Parmandur]

If I'm standing in FLGS and perusing an adventure, the criteria that will make me purchase the book are laughingly superficial:

• Thematic art, especially of NPC's. They are the most important part of the adventure for me.
• Clear maps at all scales. The adventure locale should have one of the best pieces of art in the game, with all key locations marked. Give me good maps, and I can hold the adventure together.
• More than one inspired location or encounter. Flicking through, you can usually spot the encounters that have received the lion's share of the writer(s)' attention. What I want is a "Huh, that's cool" moment.
• An actual finale, and some indication that the writer(s) have considered different paths to it.

With those signals, I can usually have fun with an adventure. Tick those boxes and you might have a sale. The actual qualities of the adventure, its coherence, its accomodation of the PC's actions, its pacing, and its surprises and its thrills, are almost impossible to judge from a quick read-through, so I've stopped trying.

I think your reasoning is pretty sound there, particularly about maps. A good set of maps is valuable, even better if theyvare well keyed to encounters.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Read straight through, then it's in the memory banks and I know where to go to look for stuff when I need it.

I used to be able to do that forty years ago!

 

[Parmandur]

I used to be able to do that forty years ago!

I do still reference the book, my memory isn't oerfect: but I can keep enough in mind to know where to go.

In general, the less real world practical informs, the better I am able to recall it.

 

[payn]

I don't use physical books anymore to GM. Takes too much space on table and eats way too much time.