D&D 5E Is every Official Adventure Going to be about Saving the World?

[Henrix]

Well, yes. Does that mean that the third party guys won't be able to make a good adventure path, though?

Absolutely not, but it means that the decision to make a long APs about saving the world yet another time lies entirely in the hands of the wizards, not the farmers*.


I think the ticket is to make shorter adventure arcs, say a few levels each, and leaving space and time that can be filled with other stuff in between.
Those shorter arcs could be combined into larger stories involving the same villains**.


But, again, what they, we, need is a Dungeon magazine. I have no doubt they could find more than competent farmers to handle it.
With some good editors they might possibly get folks to send in an adventure or two.


They could also take a page from Savage Worlds Plot Point campaigns instead of following the static AP format. A couple of them are world saving (50 Fathoms, Necessary Evil), but far from all.



* It's called magocracy for a reason. (The DMG, p.89.)

** You could easily combine, say a couple of adventures with giants, loosely held together, leading down to a long underdark expedition and ending in a trek to an abyssal place.
Not saving the world, but if it ain't epic I don't know what is.
Or you could have the dead carcass of a god floating around in nothingness while the spiritual remainder plots a return. Epic, but not saving or damning the multiverse.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Absolutely not, but it means that the decision to make a long APs about saving the world yet another time lies entirely in the hands of the wizards, not the farmers*.


I think the ticket is to make shorter adventure arcs, say a few levels each, and leaving space and time that can be filled with other stuff in between.
Those shorter arcs could be combined into larger stories involving the same villains**.


But, again, what they, we, need is a Dungeon magazine. I have no doubt they could find more than competent farmers to handle it.
With some good editors they might possibly get folks to send in an adventure or two.


They could also take a page from Savage Worlds Plot Point campaigns instead of following the static AP format. A couple of them are world saving (50 Fathoms, Necessary Evil), but far from all.



* It's called magocracy for a reason. (The DMG, p.89.)

** You could easily combine, say a couple of adventures with giants, loosely held together, leading down to a long underdark expedition and ending in a trek to an abyssal place.
Not saving the world, but if it ain't epic I don't know what is.
Or you could have the dead carcass of a god floating around in nothingness while the spiritual remainder plots a return. Epic, but not saving or damning the multiverse.

Sounds good to me.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Maybe the problem with "save the world" plots - apart from overuse - is the lack of a real narrative question. OF COURSE the PCs want to save the world. It's where their stuff is.

Maybe they should do a path where the players have to decide whether the world deserves saving or not.

 

[delericho]

Yeah, but it is called an adventure "path" for a reason.

Yep. An Adventure Path is pretty much an entire canned campaign, with an inbuilt story with beginning-middle-end. They are what they are.

Of course, that means there is (or should be) room for other types of published adventures, such as the more classic site-based adventure, the single-session side-quest type adventure, or materials from which to build a sandbox. As you say in another post, hopefully the 5e OGL will see that popping up much more often (and, of course, earlier edition adventures can be converted).

But Dungeon magazine is sorely missed right about now.

 

[Zaran]

Yep. An Adventure Path is pretty much an entire canned campaign, with an inbuilt story with beginning-middle-end. They are what they are.

Of course, that means there is (or should be) room for other types of published adventures, such as the more classic site-based adventure, the single-session side-quest type adventure, or materials from which to build a sandbox. As you say in another post, hopefully the 5e OGL will see that popping up much more often (and, of course, earlier edition adventures can be converted).

But Dungeon magazine is sorely missed right about now.

I think someone needs to tell WotC that Adventure Paths are cool but they can't be the only adventure style they do.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I think someone needs to tell WotC that Adventure Paths are cool but they can't be the only adventure style they do.

Umm. Actually it CAN be the only adventure style WOTC does. So long as there are provisions for other companies to do other kinds of 5E adventures this is just fine. Dungeon magazine, even in electronic format would be a most welcome and awesome supplement to third party adventures. Sometimes you just want a quick side trek that you can use to fill an evening that isn't connected to anything huge or overly long, such as an AP. Dungeon was great for these kinds of tidbits.

 

[jrowland]

Year One: Save the World!
Year Two: Save Two Worlds!
Year Three: Save the Universe!
Year Four: Save the Multiverse!
Year Five: Save 30% when you pre-order D&D 6th Edition!
Year Six: Save the World!
etc.




*Any resemblance to snark or negativity in this post is an illusion brought on by poor font choice interacting with monitor refresh rate and backlighting. If you encounter snark or negativity, please ignore and consider rebooting your electronic device. If the problem persists, buy a new device.*

 

[the Jester]

Put me down as another "sick of saving the world plots" DM.

My epic 4e game, culminating over the next couple of months, is about saving a goddess, stopping the return of... something... that was once a god (ahem Dead Gods) and conquering the world.

My epic 3e game was about ending the Great War of Ethics between Law and Chaos and kicking the pcs' epic enemies' asses.

My epic 2e game was about stopping clockwork horrors and a Drow lich with an orichalcum arm artifact from overrunning the lands the pcs dwelt in.

My earlier epic 2e game was about saving the world, and the pcs failed, and thus came my new campaign setting.

My epic 1e game was about running a kingdom, fighting off enemy armies and slaying dragons and high level villains.

In all cases, that wasn't my plan, so much as it is what the pcs engaged with most strongly. In only one case was the world truly at stake. All the rest of the games have been just as much fun.

 

[Teflon Billy]

Why would you want your heroes doing anything LESS than saving the world? An RPG where you run a bakery would get rather boring.

There is plenty of identified source material where the protagonists don't engage in endless world-saving. The notion that that's all there can be shows a massive lack of imagination and awareness of what the game can do.

People focus on Frodo, but forget Conan and Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser,

 

[GSHamster]

There is plenty of identified source material where the protagonists don't engage in endless world-saving. The notion that that's all there can be shows a massive lack of imagination and awareness of what the game can do.

People focus on Frodo, but forget Conan and Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser,

But maybe that's the point. The story we (collectively) remember, the story we collectively care about, was the "save the world" story.

The other stories are nice and all, but it's pretty clear that we don't care as much about them. And perhaps we don't care as much about them because the stakes were lower.

You seem to believe that the fact these stories exist is proof that WotC could do a different take on Adventures. But I would argue that the fact that these stories are significantly less popular, are "forgotten", is also proof that WotC is right to avoid them.