Must You Tell Your Players What Adventure You Are Running?

[cbwjm]

I think for a sandbox like campaign where you've sprinkled various short adventures that there is no need to mention what the adventure is, ideally they should find out in game if they have a chance to find out about Raven's ruin but even then they don't necessarily need to know it is a specific module. After all, if you're homebrewing most adventures there isn't much you'd mention first about them.

 

[overgeeked]

Unless you want your players to roll up the most anti-vampire hunting party of vampire-hunters that ever hunted a vampire, you should probably not tell them that they are going to be playing Curse of Strahd. A friend of mine is running that adventure path and literally everyone at the table is rolling up the next Van Helsing.

Yep. That's the downside of using modules. There's a seemingly large cohort of gamers who will go out of their way to use that to their advantage. Either by building characters specifically to beat that module, or simply reading the thing to find out where all the cool stuff and secrets are. Gamers optimizing the fun out of the game.

 

[R_J_K75]

No. If the players trust the DM to run a fun and exciting game, I don't think there's a need to. From an in-game standpoint there characters more than likely wouldn't know anything about the upcoming adventure. So, I don't really ever tell the players what I'm planning to run. I more often than not start the first adventure with a general premise and outline and let the campaign build organically from there. Based on that then the players aren't disappointed when the uber characters they created can't steamroll over everything.

 

[greymist]

Definitely not obligated.

I rarely throw out adventure names, rather I ask if they are interested in the specific theme. This is mainly because of my habit of messing about the published material and I wouldn't want the players to believe they are playing an out of the box version.

 

[dbm]

From an in-game standpoint there characters more than likely wouldn't know anything about the upcoming adventure.

That’s an interesting wrinkle - if I was running a sandbox campaign where the PCs were hunting up rumours of different ruins or treasures to search out then their characters might well do research and rumour gathering. In that case I would definitely give them IC clues about what the adventure entailed, and maybe let them know the module name OOC if that was a shorthand to help them pick what their characters would want to follow up on.

In such a scenario there is no problem PCs picking the adventure they feel most capable of attempting.

 

[R_J_K75]

if I was running a sandbox campaign where the PCs were hunting up rumours of different ruins or treasures to search out then their characters might well do research and rumour gathering.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I do at the beginning, as the campaign progress and they gain notoriety NPCs are more likely to seek them out.

In such a scenario there is no problem PCs picking the adventure they feel most capable of attempting.

I can't remember the last time I ran a published adventure. I think it may have been "Rats of Waterddep" off DMs Guild. I basically just told them I was running a campaign in Waterdeep. Whether it's a homebrew campaign, or a pre-made adventure (which are few and far between) at session 0 we agree on a theme/premise but that's about it. Either way, I leave it up to the characters to create their back stories and why they have decided adventure together. Nowadays though as our game is more casual than in depth narrative, it usually ends up being "You know each other and decided to hang out and adventure together". That's enough for us.

 

[pemerton]

I quite often use or adapt published stuff in my RPGing. I don't normally tell my players about it. Whether or not they make the inference and work it out is up to them.

Sometimes, though, it's obvious - eg if I'm reading from a published module, or show them a photocopy of a map, or whatever. Or if something is easily recognisable to old hands, like the Keep on the Borderlands or the Moathouse from T1.

 

[Muso]

I am used to inform my players during session zero and I am used to give a brief description of the style of the adventure (i.e. Ravenloft = gothic horror, Descent into Avernus = Mad Max in Hell, etc.). I prefer to have informed players and this helps also during character creation.

 

[payn]

Unless you want your players to roll up the most anti-vampire hunting party of vampire-hunters that ever hunted a vampire, you should probably not tell them that they are going to be playing Curse of Strahd. A friend of mine is running that adventure path and literally everyone at the table is rolling up the next Van Helsing.

I’ll take it all day everyday over guy who ends up playing a Druid with a shark companion in a desert campaign.

 

[Starfox]

I like to make characters invested in the setting and adventure, which is hard if I don't know what the game will be about. I extend the same courtesy to my players.