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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5511250" data-attributes="member: 22424">It might be interesting to compare the "Top 10" list here with the list done in Dungeon a few years back. I recall that back then, Ravenloft came second; I believe GDQ1-7 came top.In general, the 4e adventures I've seen have been quite poor. Although WotC seem to be good at creating a good encounter, just putting together a sequence of good encounters is not enough to make a good adventure. Too often, they've just been soulless railroads. (Yes, of course, IMO.)As for the Delve format - it's a tool, nothing more. There are times when it is the ideal tool for the job, and times when it is completely inappropriate. Unfortunately, WotC seemed to latch onto it as "the one true way" for adventure design, and use it for all encounters for all adventures.IMO, the Delve format is ideally suited for short, zero-prep adventures for the DM to run on the night. So, a single five-encounter lair for a night's gaming, that he can just pick up and run. Such an adventure definitely has a place: how often do we find ourselves needing a game for that night, with nothing prepared?But for larger adventures, and particularly for adventures where the denizens of the dungeon are likely to be fairly mobile (and where we can assume the DM has more time to prepare), the Delve format is probably counter-productive.If you will, the Delve is like the fast food of adventures: there's nothing wrong with fast food, but you wouldn't live on it.It's perhaps also worth noting that the Delve format can lead to poor adventure designs. If an encounter is just a few paragraphs, then if the PCs miss one, it's no big deal. However, if each encounter is 1-2 pages, then a missed encounter represents a much bigger percentage of the adventure that is 'wasted'. In order to maximise the utility of the product, the designers may therefore want to force groups to go through all the encounters - which probably means they've designed a railroad.</blockquote>

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