Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="mmadsen" data-source="post: 215964" data-attributes="member: 1645">But filtering all the material into "supporting" or "fundamental" categories isn't trivial.  In fact, simply getting the gist of a module isn't always trivial.  Some modules you can spend an evening reading and feel ready to run the next day.  Others deluge you with details.Again, is it important that the monk assassin leaves a yellow lotus blossum?  You don't know until you've read the entire module thoroughly.  Often you'll dismiss details as "supporting", but sometimes they're important.  I'd probably peg a clue left by an assassin as important, but maybe it's not clear why.  Ideally modules would lay out more behind-the-scenes thinking, so you'd know what the original writer was going for and knew how to edit it without destroying it.Right, but how does the DM use his time?  A to-the-point module can save the DM time and be more flexible.  Don't tell me the captain of the guard is 6'2" tall, blond, courting the daughter of so-and-so, etc., if it doesn't play into the current plot.  It'll just slow me down.That's just it though.  If the module tells you the merchant prince is the son of the recently deceased burgher who rose up to his position of greatness, etc., can you change that to provide a better hook for your campaign?  You don't know until you've done a lot work.I think too many details can give the DM too much to sift through, obfuscating the essence of the scenario, making it harder to customize the scenario and provide the specific hooks and tie-ins that fit the DM's existing campaign.(And in a campaign setting supplement -- different beast, I know -- too many details can simply remove options from the DM.  That forest is already filled.  Those mountains already house these three goblin tribes.  Etc.)</blockquote>

Verification