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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Balesir" data-source="post: 5512660" data-attributes="member: 27160">I think the question of adventure design has to start with a clear view on two things:1) Who is the adventure written to please - the DM, the players, or both?2) What is the main focus of attention during actual play expected to be?For the first of these, I would say that the content of the adventure should be aimed at the players, and the format should be aimed at the DM.  In this respect I somewhat disagree that area descriptions etc. should be artistic masterpieces - although it does depend on question (2) to some extent - because that will be detail the DM would like, not (in my experience) the players.  The concern over the format of the overall adventure structure, and its ease of understanding and use, however, I think is a critical one, and the people to please, here, are the DMs.For the group I run, the main focus of attention in play is the tactical/game challenge to be beaten.  From that perspective, the 'Delve format' for encounters works really well.  The full details of the "encounter mini-game" are all in one place and the encounters themselves are often interesting and fun (although I do think that Keep on the Shadowfell did encounter scope better than anything I have seen since - there is nothing wrong with spreading an encounter through several 'rooms' - and it sounds like this is something Pathfinder could learn from, too, if there are 'empty rooms' doing nothing).The main problem, as I see it, though, with the current WotC format, is at the level "above" the encounter.  The booklets or sections that are supposed to give the adventure overview and structure are frequently half taken up with art (often art that does not really give a good feel for the characters' perspective on the scenes, to boot) and, as others have noted, misses out important information because it is in the encounter notes (and vice versa - the encounter notes miss important details that were in the "overview").I think, therefore, that what is needed is a radical overhaul of the "overview" or "adventure structure" section.  Some ideas:- Flowcharts, maps (both physical and conceptual) and character profiles (with mapped relationships) for the key personalities involved.  A picture here really can be worth a thousand words.- Consider PDF/digital versions.  This is not just for the ease of distribution, but for the exploitable features of the medium.  Firstly, repeating information (even verbatim) can be helpful and there is no size limitation on a PDF.  Secondly, PDFs can handle layers, and maps with layers can be fantastically useful tools.  <a href="http://www.kelestia.com/index.php" target="_blank">Keléstia</a> have been doing this for their Hârn products for a while, now, and the resulting maps are stunning.  Imagine dungeon maps with layers for monster "start positions", secret passages and openings, lighting and trap areas of effect.  You can turn layers on and off to see the map with and without each layer, individually or collectively.  You can even add layers to block out sections of the map so that you can show players parts as the characters 'discover' them.- Have more and clearer policy/advice about adventure structure.  How should adventure "flowcharts" be designed to give players meaningful choices?  This goes right up to having the whole scenario resemble a "giant skill challenge", where each encounter has "success" and "fail" conditions that allow or disallow choices for future direction.  All this has to be combined in such a way as to retain the experience/level curve and gp resource expectations, but there are several "levers" available, here.  Mixing combats, traps, skill challenges and quests can allow for "easy routes" and "hard routes" that have the same xp value; add in holding back xp for encounters where the objective was failed (even if all the monsters were killed) and there is plenty of scope for added interest for the players, here.TLDR version - the 'Delve' encounter format works fine - but the adventure overview/structure area (both format and content) need work.  Lots of work.</blockquote>

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