D&D 5E How Wotc can improve the adventure books.

[Haffrung]

I’d love to see a plethora of starter sets, a number of 6-10 adventures, a few 11-15 and a couple of 16-20. Each setting should have a dedicated starter set IMHO.

They could present adventures in tiers:

Tier 1: Level 1-4 adventure
Tier 2: Level 5-8
Tier 3: Level 9-12

Publish two of each tier a year, at 112 pages each. Include suggestions for how to link each of the tiers up to the others (Tier 1 adventure A can link up to Tier 2 adventure A or Tier 2 adventure B, etc).

The merits of the format are A) Most groups might actually finish an adventure rather than stalling out a third or half the way through; B) It's a lot easier to design and present a 4 level / 12 session adventure than a 14 level / 40 session one; C) DMs could easily integrate the adventures into their own campaigns.

But I suppose that approach wouldn't leverage synergies with the brand licensing strategy of cross-platform media events and products like Forgotten Realms books, boardgames, and videogames built around Epic Dungeons and Dragons Adventures (TM). Still, when you think of how much better WotC could make its adventure material if the overriding purpose of the books was to help people run fun games of D&D at the table, rather than all the ancillary goals that drive their publishing strategy today...

 

[M_Natas]

Funny, I thought about opening such a thread, too, because I publish on DMsguild (in German), and am looking in improving the adventures I'm gonna publish.

What I noticed in the published adventures: They are not GM friendly.

1. To run some encounters, I would need to have like 3-4 books open (or would need to have the same book open on different pages to see all relevant stats), to have all the monster stats to run an encounter. I can overcome that with preparation by copying all the relevant monster stat blocks, but it would be much easier if they just put them on the same page as the encounter.

2. Relevant Information for Encounters/Adventures/Dungeons are hidden in Walls of Text. If you need to look up something in a book, you sometimes need to read several paragraphs of text to find it, because the only thing highlighted in text are monster/npc names. It is a lot of homework for a DM to prepare it all in advanced in a manner that is easy to use and reference. If WotC would design that better, in a way that would make it easier to reference and find information faster, that would make it easier.
The books are made to be easy to read through, but not easy to use it to run a game.

3. Lost mines of Phandelvar - it is supposed to be an introductory adventure - but it doesn't teach the DM or the players really how to play. I dare to say, a beginner's DM would have quite the trouble running Lost mines. I played it as a player with a newbie DM and in some areas he had really trouble with some of the motivations put in the game and keep the PCs motivated to continue the adventure. An experienced DM could fix all the problems of Lost Mines, but it is to much to be expected of a newbie DM.

I think with a better design (not even changing the content, just the presentation of it) WotC could really reduce the workload a DM has to do to prepare an adventure, so that it is easy to run. Like I'm reading rime of the Frostmaiden now - I'm still at the Ten-Town Encounters - and I imagine what I would have to prep to run this, I become a little dizzy. Copying a lotmof stat blocks to have them easily available, condensing the needed information from a dungeon, so I can reference them easily ... That is all menial DM work that could be avoided by better presentation of the informationy so the DM could concentrate more on the creative side of preparing an adventure.

 

[R_J_K75]

1. To run some encounters, I would need to have like 3-4 books open (or would need to have the same book open on different pages to see all relevant stats), to have all the monster stats to run an encounter. I can overcome that with preparation by copying all the relevant monster stat blocks, but it would be much easier if they just put them on the same page as the encounter.

2. Relevant Information for Encounters/Adventures/Dungeons are hidden in Walls of Text. If you need to look up something in a book, you sometimes need to read several paragraphs of text to find it, because the only thing highlighted in text are monster/npc names. It is a lot of homework for a DM to prepare it all in advanced in a manner that is easy to use and reference. If WotC would design that better, in a way that would make it easier to reference and find information faster, that would make it easier.
The books are made to be easy to read through, but not easy to use it to run a game.

I would gladly pay for an adventure regardless of the page count that was half reprinted material in the way of stats on the page I need them. Monsters, NPCs, spells, traps, magical items, etc, even if they're truncated. I dont want to have consult a stack of books while prepping or running the adventure. It definitely is alot of work for the DM ideally 90% of information I need should be in the book and where I need it. If there are maps, make them big enough so I can use them and make them pullout. I dont want to have to flip pages to use the map, and sure dont want to have to buy a separate "map pack" that includes all the maps that are in the adventure I just bought, (looking at you DotMM). These are all things that 1E and 2E adventures did. Seems at some point in 3E/3.5 the adventure format got really weird where they started doing an overview of an encounter in one section of the book and then the tactical portion of the same encounter in another section. I would definitely prefer soft cover as opposed to hardbacks too as it makes it easier to scan stuff and print it for a session. There's a lot WotC could do to improve adventure format and content but between people like myself who prefer a physical book as opposed to people who prefer a digital copy on DDB or a VTT, I can understand that they'll never please everyone.

 

[jasper]

@M_Natas Yes DM’s Guild stuff generally is missing monsters. I will do a “GOOD JOB” to the Dragoncon 2019 crew who were writing the Epic. I mentioned they were missing 2 or 3 monsters, and DMs would need to photocopy those. The writers rewrote the Epic to include the monsters.

3. Lost mines. I have only glanced at the adventure. Hmm Hey Old folks. And Middle age (Not that middle age Oofta) folks with kids. For Christmas toss a Lost Mine to you kids. Make them run it with their friends. Make them submit reports to you about how it went. Then we see if Lost mines need a revision.

 

[DEFCON 1]

It would help I think if WotC printed on their opening page:

"The cost of an adventure book is not inversely proportional to the amount of work you will need to do to run the adventure for your group. Paying more does not mean you get to do less. That is not how adventure pricing works."

 

[Shardstone]

It will never cease to baffle me how asking for adventures to be better prompts some people to tell you how worthless your opinion and desires are, and how you should feel bad for having them.

 

[robus]

@M_Natas - I can’t like your post enough!

 

[robus]

It would help I think if WotC printed on their opening page:

"The cost of an adventure book is not inversely proportional to the amount of work you will need to do to run the adventure for your group. Paying more does not mean you get to do less. That is not how adventure pricing works."

I think just putting “Hey DMs, we hope you enjoy reading this adventure because it’s going to be a real pain when you try to run it! ” would do the job.

I find a really softens the blow, so that would be a nice touch.

 

[robus]

3. Lost mines of Phandelvar - it is supposed to be an introductory adventure - but it doesn't teach the DM or the players really how to play. I dare to say, a beginner's DM would have quite the trouble running Lost mines. I played it as a player with a newbie DM and in some areas he had really trouble with some of the motivations put in the game and keep the PCs motivated to continue the adventure. An experienced DM could fix all the problems of Lost Mines, but it is to much to be expected of a newbie DM.

And thanks for this. It’s an unpopular opinion, but one I definitely share. That opening encounter for goodness sakes! Not only illogical: dead horses in the road is pretty big sign of trouble ahead! But also the poor DM has to handle an ambush scenario! TPKs are not uncommon I hear. I immediately “broke the rules” by having arrows pepper the wagon and roadway giving the players at least a chance to make some choices about the dangerous situation (but that was because I done some reading here - or elsewhere, because I was feeling so out of my depth as a new DM).

 

[Oofta]

It will never cease to baffle me how asking for adventures to be better prompts some people to tell you how worthless your opinion and desires are, and how you should feel bad for having them.

If anything I've written sounds like criticism of people asking for advice or help I apologize. Because fundamentally, DMing is not easy. It's a skill that good DMs will continuously try to improve.

I agree that mods (and all things D&D) could be better. I try to give advice and approaches on how to adjust for those deficiencies because they have always been and will always be there. I just don't see the point of screaming at the wind. The wind does not notice. WOTC will not change because of anything we post here. All we can do is try to help each other be better DMs one question at a time.