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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 5580539" data-attributes="member: 151">So, we've been playing 4E for...huh, I guess 2 years, now?  Not heavily, mind you, but consistently.  Mostly using my own material, but often (as in years and editions past) grabbing from various published sources.But I've been noticing something since the arrival of 4E and I'm trying to figure out if it's just me, just the modules I've seen or if this is a real trend based on the change in direction of the game.  Understand I'm not looking for a discussion of how this is endemic to 4E or otherwise a mechanical issue...because that's not really what I'm describing here (and honestly, not a conversation I'm terribly interested in having).What AM I describing?  Simply this: modules for D&D Fourth Edition are DULL.  Terminally boring exercises in setting up encounters, often stitched together with what feel like obligatory skill challenges with no spice or interest.  Modules that feel more like someone took four D&D Encounters and then just made some excuses to bridge them together, bound them and then shipped it.  Which may have been the intent and there's certainly nothing wrong with that.  As one of my players often says: "Them orcs ain't gonna kill THEMSELVES."  I'm as partial to a throwdown as the next guy.But there seems virtually no sizzle to all the 4E modules I've seen other than that.  They lack STORY.  Look at Sunless Citadel or Forge of Fury: there have a build-up to getting there, towns with at least a hint of re-usability and then dungeons that have flavor.  There are zones in the dungeons, little sub-plots within (save Meepo?  Kill him.  Deal with the Roper? Avoid him?) and it feels like a PLACE.  And let's be clear, here...I think many of the 3E Adventure Path modules are not that good.  Standing Stone made me actively irritated and the module with Ashardalon was one my group actively hated (and thus we derailed it).  But even those had things HAPPEN.  You traveled to other planes, you tracked clues and pursued enemies and had showdowns.  Heck, Standing Stone at least attempted to manufacture a mystery (nonsensical as it was, IMHO).Whenever I look at a 4E module, they feel...I dunno, flavorless.  Exercises in tedium.  Fluff feels forced and then you just have a few quick encounters referenced in a mostly linear fashion, then a bunch of appendices that are just basically combat scenarios and little more than that.  What I'm trying to figure out is if I'm not giving them enough of a chance or if maybe I'm just not reading the right modules.  I long for modules that make me WANT to run them.  That feature actual traps, not just a quick skill check...that feature Skill Challenges that are more than just something I could have cobbled together myself in a couple of minutes on the fly.  I have yet to really feel like I've seen more than one module in 4E that actually has a story beyond "...and then they punched the monster.  The End."Help me out here, gang.  What am I missing?  Why am I feeling so dissatisfied?</blockquote>

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