I love 4E - but I hate the 4E modules. What can be done?

[Gort]

So, I've been playing 4e since it first came out, and I love it. It's a great system and I have a lot of fun DMing it and playing it. My problem is that I love the idea of the 4E modules like Keep on the Shadowfell and so on, but the way they are executed completely turns me off - they're just fight, fight, fight. Trouble is, I love the idea of having a shared experience with loads of other D&D players, and I love having lots of adventure made for me, and I love the maps and setups the modules have, but I just can't stomach the idea of 30 solid fights in a row in the same dungeon, room after room after room.

I much prefer the Dungeon Delve book, which has about three encounters per dungeon, which is far more my style. I like a bunch of setup and roleplaying, then a short dungeon crawl (about three encounters, maybe some minions/guards, then maybe some elite types and then finally the big boss).

So, I guess what I'm asking is whether there are any third party modules that are in shorter bursts of adventuring, or anything else I can do to make the 4e modules more to my taste.

 

[Thanee]

Well, Pyramid of Shadows basically consists of numerous small pieces put together, which could certainly be used seperately from the module, for example.

And there is always the option to simply make your own encounters. I heard it's a breeze with 4e.

Bye
Thanee

 

[delericho]

So, I guess what I'm asking is whether there are any third party modules that are in shorter bursts of adventuring, or anything else I can do to make the 4e modules more to my taste.

The only third-party adventure I am familiar with is "Forges of the Mountain King" by Goodman Games, which I really can't recommend.

I don't think we've seen anyone come close to realising the potential of 4e in a module - the game is sufficiently different that some of the old truths no longer apply, and I suspect people are still learning what works. I expect the published adventures to get much better over the next twelve months or so, much as they did with 3e (looking back, of the original 3e Adventure Path, only a couple of the modules are still particularly well regarded. Many of them fell flat at the time, while others simply have not aged well).

In the meantime, some suggestions:

- You could try taking the concept the published adventures, but hanging your own adventure around them. Sure, it's a bit less of a 'shared experience', but on the other hand your players get to experience something unique.

- You could take the existing modules and simply excise a lot of the material you just don't like. Find the dozen or so core encounters, ditch everything else, add some new 'connecting material' and ramp up the treasure and XP awards. This basically produces a "highlights package" of the adventure, which would seem to work well.

- You could convert the older classics to the new edition. (Obviously, getting hold of these is more difficult now that PDF sales have been suspended.) Things like the "Slavers" series, the Temple of Elemental Evil (probably not the "Return to..." though), "Sunless Citadel" and "Shackled City" have a strong element of shared experience to them, and should mostly convert across okay. (Also, although they're not hailed as classics, I found "Shattered Circle" to be a very good late-2nd Edition adventure, and the DD1-3 series ("Barrow of the Forgotten King", "The Sinister Spire", "Fortress of the Yuan-ti") to be very good late-3e adventures.)

- Or you could just hold off on published adventures entirely for a while. As I said, I expect them to improve; perhaps the time to go for that shared experience is then.

 

[Henrix]

Goodman Games have some nice adventures, really. The only ones I've really read are the three Punjar adventures. I really like those - city adventuring with shorter dungeons.

(The first one may need a little brushing up, as it was released very early in the 4e cycle. But it's fine as it is. The map is a little cramped, and may need creative adjudging as to where one can go.)

 

[Henry]

I have not yet found a 4E adventure that I've liked; this is sad, but to be honest I've disliked most 3E adventures, as well! I'm all for robbing from individual modules for good pieces and parts, but nothing can as yet make a canned adventure better than what a DM can custom-tailor for his own group at the table. If your players want to cut their way through every challenge, you can make it happen, or if they are more interested in lots of character and plot development, you can make it happen, or more likely if your group is a mix of both and needs a little of each like a spoonful of good vegetable soup, then the attentive DM can use the rules from the DMG and DMG2 and make it happen.


That said, if you find any 4E adventures written by Kevin Kulp, steal as liberally as you can from them to add to your own, because the man is a ing RPG genius at most systems he's ever written for.

 

[vagabundo]

The new DDI adventure series, called the chaos scar, would suit your style. It is a valley around a meteorite crator and with short mini-dungeons fleshing out the setting. The two (??) I have read seemed very good - I really liked the bullywug encounters.

And they could easily be swiped from that setting into any standard fantasy setting.

 

[bh2]

I would recommend checking out the Living Forgotten Realms RPGA modules. They are short, 4-hour adventures. There are some problem modules in there, but over the last year the quality has gotten pretty good.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Hi Gort. Welcome to the "4E published adventures don't impress me" support group.

Do you have a DDI sub? If you do and have the monster builder your adventure worries are over.

I recently started running a 4E campaign. My intro material was the 2E module: Return to the Keep on the Borderlands. It took a few hours to convert everything to my taste but that made at least 8 or so full length sessions of material right there.

What is your biggest hurdle as far as prep goes? Is it adventure hooks/ideas or statting out everything?

 

[vagabundo]

As EW mentioned above I do think converting to 4e is a breeze with the monster builder (I don't think it supports NPC creation with classes just yet though).

I've been thinking of running Savage tide for my PC's, pretty sure converting it would be easy enough.

 

[Blackbrrd]

"WAR OF THE BURNING SKY
It's not a dungeon crawl..."

More info here: EN World D&D / RPG News: The world's premier fan community for Dungeons & Dragons news and more!

You get access to it if you subscribe to enworld which costs a whopping 3$ a month.

I haven't tried it myself, but it looks very interesting.

It takes me 20-30 minutes planning for each combat encounter I am going to run, or 60-90 minutes of (combat) encounter planning a session. If you just want a plain fight with nothing special, it shouldn't take longer than 10 minutes per encounter. Then you have the story planning to do in addition.