D&D 5E How do you read an adventure?

[Morrus]

When a nice juicy hardcover lands in your lap, how do you approach it? Do you simply read it cover to cover? Do you read the bits you think you will need first and start play before having read the whole thing? If you do read it all, do you remember it all?

What about location descriptions with various store rooms and cupboards and bedrooms and kitchens mapped out? Do you flip back and forth between a map and the descriptive text and read through it?

For that matter, how do you run a building where "navigation" isn't part of the features? I myself don't tend to describe it foot by foot - I don't say "You go along the hallway; there are two doors to your left" etc. if it's just, say, a bar, or a house. I'll just say "it's a large mansion; you're in the lobby (brief descriptive stuff), and this floor also has a grand drawing room, a library, a dining room, and stairs down to the servants quarters and kitchens" then if somebody says " I want to check out the library" I'll describe that in more detail. I don't really describe their geometrical locations or anything unless they really matter, and I don't generally mention a lot of rooms - I assume my players will assume there are storerooms and servants quarters and the like, and will bring them up if they decide they want to check those out. Obviously, I don't mention anything secret up-front, or anything behind locked or hidden doors. I've been running Curse of Strahd, and a lot of buildings have maps and room descriptions which are largely superfluous unless somebody specifically asks about them.

How about you?

 

[Shiroiken]

The first thing I do is look at new monsters and character options (if any), because those have potential use beyond the adventure. Then I pretty much read it cover to cover like a novel. If I know I'm going to run it, then I might look up my other books that might be useful (for example, if the adventure mentions being near Baulder's Gate, I own the adventure Murder in Baulder's Gate, which is an excellent location guide).

 

[wedgeski]

The first flick through goes right for the juicy stuff. Maps of Castle Ravenloft, stats for the big bads, stopping to ooh and aah over encounters that look really interesting, especially with an eye to ripping stuff out for my other campaigns. This is my first impression of the product and can instill reactions that are hard to shake later-on.

Second read through, I look for the high-level summaries. The intro, where the PC's might find themselves chapter to chapter, and so-on. I really want to come out of this phase with a solid idea of the adventure design. Often, this is the phase that most disappoints.

Third read through is cover to cover, to varying detail depending on whether I'm going to be running it soon. The hope during this phase is to emerge with a good idea of the adventure's strengths and weaknesses, and of how much work I might have to do (or not) to mould it into something my table will enjoy.

To answer your specific questions, I do flick back and forward between maps and encounter descriptions, otherwise I often kid myself into thinking I'm prepared, when I'm not. Having a good mental picture of an encounter's geography is important, at least for me.

 

[Ath'kethin]

The only big hardcover adventures I know are the WotC ones, and they pretty universally don't work for my campaign. So I immediately look for stuff I can pilfer: monsters, set pieces, and the like.

Storm King's Thunder is my favorite one so far, followed by Princes if the Apocalypse, due to the ease of looting such segment from them.

 

[Morrus]

Second read through, I look for the high-level summaries. The intro, where the PC's might find themselves chapter to chapter, and so-on. I really want to come out of this phase with a solid idea of the adventure design. Often, this is the phase that most disappoints.

Right with you there. You often get tons of background, but a one/two-page overview of the entire adventure is something many lack and which would make absorbing them so much easier. If you've read that first, any detail you read later is in a wider context. Something describing the structure of the adventure (as opposed to the structure of the book).

 

[delericho]

Cover to cover when I get it.

When I'm planning to run it, I'll read it again. This latter read-through is likely to be much more piecemeal - I'll read the next few sections, prep handouts and maps (and monster stats if that is helpful), and generally prepare as I would if I were running a homebrew adventure.

That said, I haven't run a published D&D/PF adventure in a very long time.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

I try to figure out how I can start the whole campaign, but I don't read more until my players get to the corresponding location. I kinda want to explore the world together with my friends rather than me reading ahead all the time.

Though sometimes I'm bored and then just read a random section I think might be useful to know ahead of time.

And yes I do flip back and forth. Like crazy.

So far, I have drawn maps myself (always only as far as my players can see), so my player know the layout without me telling them. If I'm in the mood I might even do some pixel art so they can see objects of interest and stuff.

 

[jasper]

Old school cover to cover first pass quickly. Second pass more detail reading and consulting maps/sources and mark thru magic items. Third pass if possible just spot read sections and make notes.
5E AL. Quick read thru till I get to the monster/magic/etc at end of module. Second detailed read thru. Third which is necessary. Read thru each section consult the map, back of mod, source books and take notes. Just yesterday I photo copied the Map for a module and wrote the room names, and locations on various objects.

 

[HawaiiSteveO]

First time through cover to cover, although quick skim.
Second time around read section(s) in play order in more detail. I recently started (CoS) writing right in the book in pencil, making check marks, X's, question marks, etc for stuff I want to follow up on, write down page #'s for PHB, MM etc.
One thing I pay attention to is maps and how different levels connect to each other - Castle Ravenloft is a great example. In more complex areas like this I need to look at map and read descriptions.

 

[Creamsteak]

Pathfinder adventures tended to be read cover to cover. The wizards of the coasts hardcovers I tend to read in a branching pattern, basically reading through the first few pages of each chapter to kind of understand the whole plot, then going back through the individual chapters more to dig the next layer of depth, then last I'll end up reading the very specific but often less significant stuff like the description of every single individual detail about a town.

Part of this I think is just straight-up how the two companies differed in the products they were selling. Mega-modules have larger scope, and in order to understand the significance of some NPC in the town you might need to read something four chapters ahead. They suggest reading it cover to cover, because that would in theory get you to the same place, but honestly a lot of the nuances of reading a module are just dull or droll. Sure, there are seven ogres there, and this shopkeeper has a hidden vault, but in order to run the game for my players it's a lot more important that I have some way to cognate the larger gears first.