Modules: Made to Read vs Made to Run?

[Micah Sweet]

So this thread is "express your personal preference, and then denigrate those who disagree with you." Got it.

So saying outright that what other people want isn't objectively better than what you want is denigrating now?

 

[Micah Sweet]

More thoughts on "great writing":

I can't remember why I started reading a review of a book about gardening...I have no interest in gardening...but for some reason I did, and it was a great review. Loved reading it. I didn't recognize the reviewer's name, but I looked her up and started reading her books. The first one wasn't a topic I was interested in, but I read it anyway, loved it, and it became a topic I was interested in. (It was a biography of St. Exupery.)

I've yet to read an RPG supplement that I would give to a non-gamer and suggest they read it just for pleasure.

I can think of literally dozens.

 

[mamba]

I have nothing against bullet-pointed modules in and of themselves... I just don't think they are the bees knees and head and shoulders above other methods for distributing adventure information compared to how a lot of other people feel. Especially when it seems that some of the people who love those types of modules are the ones who say they love them because they require "little to no prep"... which to me, as I've said, is not a feature by any stretch.

being easy to prep definitely is a feature. Even the walls of text are not explicitly trying to make that difficult for a reason

 

[Lanefan]

The only reason players would be buying modules is to cheat. So if WotC et al are catering to players with their module design, this would be yet another example of what’s good for the business being bad for the game.

Corner case exception: the player who is thinking of becoming a DM and buys a module to see how the sauce is made.

That, and many times a player in one campaign is the DM of another; which can (believe me!) sometimes make it a headache trying to find a module none of them have run and-or played before.

 

[mamba]

I've yet to read an RPG supplement that I would give to a non-gamer and suggest they read it just for pleasure.

once you find it, I doubt it also doubles as a good supplement

 

[overgeeked]

Corner case exception: the player who is thinking of becoming a DM and buys a module to see how the sauce is made.

Of course. To me that's a referee buying a module. Even if they're in training.

That, and many times a player in one campaign is the DM of another; which can (believe me!) sometimes make it a headache trying to find a module none of them have run and-or played before.

Yeah. That's also one of the other big reasons I don't generally use modules.

 

[Reynard]

I've yet to read an RPG supplement that I would give to a non-gamer and suggest they read it just for pleasure.

I have read a few that I would recommend to non gamer fiction writer friends as examples of world building.