D&D 5E Next generation adventure design

[Blackbrrd]

After reading the http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?347752-Ghosts-of-Dragonspear-Castle-what-did-you-think thread I started thinking about how adventures are designed. I am primarily thinking of open-ended adventures where much is left to the players and their decisions.

There were two comments that resonated really well with me, and is something I hope get incorporated better:

... A good summary will describe the major NPCs and plot points enough for a DM that likes to improvise to be able to do so. If the ensuring details are modularized and labeled well enough then each DM can use as little or as much as he wants. ...

.... A good adventure, be it a dungeon, wilderness or an epic quest to save humanity, is a living breathing thing with many interchangeable parts in it, and the DM need to understand the consequences of the PCs actions in order to run it properly. ...

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If we look at the comments, the gist of it is that it should be easy to get a birds eye view of the adventure, and to modify it to suit you, and let the adventure live, and possible for the players to alter the course of the adventure. For me, the issue with the most 4e adventures is that important motivations and story related information is incorporated within set-piece combat encounters. These set-piece encounters are often have pretty long descriptions that describe a situation that to me is only one of a multitude of possible interactions with the NPC/monsters in question.

Now, I was going to go on with a rant of how one of the adventures I am going to run, Reavers of Harkenworld. But I gave it a quick re-read and came to the conclusion that it's actually very well structured. You basically only have to read the 9 first pages to get a: detailed proposed outline of the plot, a list with sites of interest and short, useful descriptions, and a list of NPC's with motivations. It also mentions alternate/extra actions the PC's can take to succeed with the adventure goals. It really reminds me a lot of Red Hand of Doom. The adventure does have 54 pages of mostly encounters, but also some maps, which is a bit verbose (for the number of encounters), but really it's quite well done. It's something I hope won't be a problem with 5e.

I wonder what you think are important in pre-made adventures for D&D.

 

[Mistwell]

I really want more sandbox-type adventures, and fewer railroad-type adventures.

If they could make a "Masks of Nyarlathotep" versatile, non-linear type adventure path for D&D, it would be awesome.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

I think the design team would be well served by a long look at Savage Worlds plot point campaigns in general, and 50 Fathoms in specific. It's a fantastic model for sandbox campaigns with an epic scope.

 

[Jester David]

A mix of adventures is needed.
We need some dungeon crawls, some wilderness exploration, so me mystery, some sandbox, some politics, and more. Each adventure should be different.

 

[LucasC]

A mix of adventures is needed.
We need some dungeon crawls, some wilderness exploration, so me mystery, some sandbox, some politics, and more. Each adventure should be different.

Agreed. A nice variety is exactly what I like to have in my pocket.

 

[Texicles]

Aside from a selection of styles of module, as others have said...

...You basically only have to read the 9 first pages to get a: detailed proposed outline of the plot, a list with sites of interest and short, useful descriptions, and a list of NPC's with motivations...

^this is something I like. I enjoy reading as much as the next guy, and I'm all for reading through an upcoming session's worth of material, but when I grab a module for the first time, I want to have the essence of the plot distilled down into a few words, timelines, bulleted lists and flow charts.

 

[Jester David]

Agreed. A nice variety is exactly what I like to have in my pocket.

In the world were I'm in charge WotC has two concurrent and very different APs, one published and one in Dungeon. The physical one likely has more setpiece fights as it can have poster maps.
Plus occasional one-shot adventures and mini-campaigns. And maybe a mega adventure every couple years.

I'd like to see a really to see a good megadventure within the first six months of launch. Something cool and new and not a remake or Return to _____. An attempt for a modern classic.

 

[Quickleaf]

I have been following the One Page Dungeon contests ( http://www.onepagedungeon.info/ ) and I think they are a fine example of how to organize an adventure; even a complex long adventure should be able to be distiller down to a one or two page summary/flowchart. Something like a more visual table of contents.

As a DM I want to be able to grasp the adventure's major events, locations, NPCs, and turning point decisions at a glance. Then when I need more detail I can turn to the appropriate section. The idea of having a detailed table of contents or an index may be foreign for an adventure, but it's exactly the sort of tool I need in play.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I must say i like the way WoTC designed their latest adventures Murder in Baldur's Gate and Legacy of the Crystal Shard. They're more open in their concept, and have a lot going for them giving players lots of agency.

 

[delericho]

A mix of adventures is needed.
We need some dungeon crawls, some wilderness exploration, so me mystery, some sandbox, some politics, and more. Each adventure should be different.

Yep.

In the world were I'm in charge WotC has two concurrent and very different APs, one published and one in Dungeon. The physical one likely has more setpiece fights as it can have poster maps.
Plus occasional one-shot adventures and mini-campaigns. And maybe a mega adventure every couple years.

I'd like to see a really to see a good megadventure within the first six months of launch. Something cool and new and not a remake or Return to _____. An attempt for a modern classic.

In the world where I'm in charge, WotC would barely print any adventures at all, and certainly not Adventure Paths (or, indeed, any sequels at all). Once, or perhaps twice, a year they would produce a mega-adventure of some sort, generally accompanied with a 'gimmick' of some description that means it effectively has to be in print - several poster maps, or extensive handouts, or miniatures, or something. The key idea being that the print adventure should basically be A Big Deal.

The reason for not publishing printed sequels (or APs) is that you're then really only selling to a subset of the people who bought the previous volume in the series, which means an ever-diminishing number of sales. Given that adventures don't seem to sell too well in the first place*, you don't really want to be getting into that.

* The exception, of course, being subscription-based products, such as the printed Dungeon, Paizo's Adventure Paths, or the DDI...

In addition to the printed adventures, though, I would look to expand eDungeon back up to the format it had prior to going electronic - three adventures each and every month, one each for low-, medium-, and high-levels, one of which is an Adventure Path installment, one of which may be setting-specific, and one standalone. Of course, having several adventures a month means they can afford to be quite experimental with one of these each month, allowing for a greater variety of styles.

They could also experiment with one-shot issues such as the "Maure Castle" issue where Dungeon only included a single mega-adventure... but they should do such experiments sparingly - the three adventures format seems to work best for general use.