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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5716866" data-attributes="member: 54877"><p>I think the problem is less about overall quality and more about where stylistic issues hit up against reality.</p><p> </p><p>Pazio does pretty good adventures--<strong>in the style that they do</strong>. It is moderate to heavy on background, mostly plotted, a few "event-based" nods to more complicated plotting, etc. I'm not particularly blown away by this, because if you like doing that, and are paying attention to what you are doing, those are by far the easiest adventures to do well. Not that people can't screw them up in execution, or pick such lousy plots that nothing would save it, but this is more craft than art.</p><p> </p><p>TSR and WotC try (sometimes) for a more varied set of things--and thus are more erratic. (A notable exception were many of the early 4E modules which tried to finesse this issue by not having a style--and thus were pretty much working with one hand tied behind their back throughout.)</p><p> </p><p>You want to write a good sandbox module, or many of its variant styles, you are up against a much tougher task. To a lesser extent, the same thing applies to a loosely plotted adventure driven primarily by NPC motivations--and thus fully supportive of throwing that plot out the window, the first time it gets in the way. You want to write a good module that teaches these styles? Even more difficult. This is why a lot of the decent modules along these lines aren't really modules at all. They are glorified setting source books, with thin, throw-away plots layered on. And of course people that prefer the Pazio style hate that.</p><p> </p><p>Doing these other modules <strong>well</strong> is still a lot of craft (maybe slightly less than the plotted ones). But it is a heck of a lot more art, too. There is a lot of room for misunderstanding. So I still say that "better modules" isn't the answer. Rather, "better teaching, support materials" is the answer, with a variety of modules as only part of that.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 5716866, member: 54877"] I think the problem is less about overall quality and more about where stylistic issues hit up against reality. Pazio does pretty good adventures--[B]in the style that they do[/B]. It is moderate to heavy on background, mostly plotted, a few "event-based" nods to more complicated plotting, etc. I'm not particularly blown away by this, because if you like doing that, and are paying attention to what you are doing, those are by far the easiest adventures to do well. Not that people can't screw them up in execution, or pick such lousy plots that nothing would save it, but this is more craft than art. TSR and WotC try (sometimes) for a more varied set of things--and thus are more erratic. (A notable exception were many of the early 4E modules which tried to finesse this issue by not having a style--and thus were pretty much working with one hand tied behind their back throughout.) You want to write a good sandbox module, or many of its variant styles, you are up against a much tougher task. To a lesser extent, the same thing applies to a loosely plotted adventure driven primarily by NPC motivations--and thus fully supportive of throwing that plot out the window, the first time it gets in the way. You want to write a good module that teaches these styles? Even more difficult. This is why a lot of the decent modules along these lines aren't really modules at all. They are glorified setting source books, with thin, throw-away plots layered on. And of course people that prefer the Pazio style hate that. Doing these other modules [B]well[/B] is still a lot of craft (maybe slightly less than the plotted ones). But it is a heck of a lot more art, too. There is a lot of room for misunderstanding. So I still say that "better modules" isn't the answer. Rather, "better teaching, support materials" is the answer, with a variety of modules as only part of that. [/QUOTE]
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