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I can’t seem to DM written adventures.
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<blockquote data-quote="Retreater" data-source="post: 8979369" data-attributes="member: 42040"><p>To the OP: You're not alone. I have had far more failures running pre-written adventures than successes. And what I create myself typically goes over better than the pre-written stuff.</p><p></p><p>I think this is because adventures are actually poorly crafted for what they are intended to do. While there are factors like individual group interests and character abilities that cannot be controlled, here are some avoidable common traits that I think make them failures:</p><p></p><p><strong>Long, narrative backstories. </strong></p><p>Most of the time these are irrelevant to the adventure and serve to confuse DMs and players. It doesn't matter how the villain rose to power 1000 years ago. Stop telling me this story.</p><p></p><p><strong>Pointless railroad.</strong></p><p>Sometimes to keep a story going, you have to adhere to a general plot structure. But then there's stuff that doesn't matter. Recently I was running a PF2e adventure path that wanted a pretty despised villain from the first book to survive. In the climactic encounter, it was all "no matter what - this guy has to survive! If you let him die, everything is ruined!" and then it proceeded to give a completely scripted climax the party could do nothing about. I flipped through the rest of the AP, and wouldn't you know it, by the last book that villain had been killed off screen and came back as an undead. WTH? Not only did it not matter, it would've been better writing to let the party kill the guy. </p><p></p><p><strong>Confusing room descriptions.</strong></p><p>Scores of pointless descriptions, a backstory about a guy who appears in one room, cluttered details that mask the important parts of a room. All this makes it difficult for a DM to parse the important details and relay them to characters. </p><p></p><p>For the reason why this happens? I think many module writers think they're writing a story. They're wrong. What unfolds at the table during play is the story.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Retreater, post: 8979369, member: 42040"] To the OP: You're not alone. I have had far more failures running pre-written adventures than successes. And what I create myself typically goes over better than the pre-written stuff. I think this is because adventures are actually poorly crafted for what they are intended to do. While there are factors like individual group interests and character abilities that cannot be controlled, here are some avoidable common traits that I think make them failures: [B]Long, narrative backstories. [/B] Most of the time these are irrelevant to the adventure and serve to confuse DMs and players. It doesn't matter how the villain rose to power 1000 years ago. Stop telling me this story. [B]Pointless railroad.[/B] Sometimes to keep a story going, you have to adhere to a general plot structure. But then there's stuff that doesn't matter. Recently I was running a PF2e adventure path that wanted a pretty despised villain from the first book to survive. In the climactic encounter, it was all "no matter what - this guy has to survive! If you let him die, everything is ruined!" and then it proceeded to give a completely scripted climax the party could do nothing about. I flipped through the rest of the AP, and wouldn't you know it, by the last book that villain had been killed off screen and came back as an undead. WTH? Not only did it not matter, it would've been better writing to let the party kill the guy. [B]Confusing room descriptions.[/B] Scores of pointless descriptions, a backstory about a guy who appears in one room, cluttered details that mask the important parts of a room. All this makes it difficult for a DM to parse the important details and relay them to characters. For the reason why this happens? I think many module writers think they're writing a story. They're wrong. What unfolds at the table during play is the story. [/QUOTE]
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