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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Burnside" data-source="post: 9446052" data-attributes="member: 6910340">I guess like anybody I have a broad spectrum of qualities I'm looking for, but a big one for me is "how much or how little do I need to change/fix this in order to make it work at the table?"I want to stress that of course a DM is always going to change stuff. The best adventures give you such a strong framework that you have the opportunity/feel inspired to build on it/personalize it. The worst ones have (imo) fundamental flaws that make them functionally unplayable as written so changing them becomes not an exercise in fun but rather doing basic design work and editing that the designers failed to do themselves.Examples:- with Curse of Strahd, as long as you keep "adventurers have to kill Strahd or they are trapped in Barovia forever and can never go home", you can change almost ANYTHING else and it will still work- with Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, you pretty much have to take all the components of the adventure, completely rearrange and restructure them from the way the adventure presents them in order to make it playable. Also, hope your players care about joining factions (spoiler: they don't, and if they do the adventure isn't great at it anyway) and want to run a tavern (spoiler: they don't, and if they do the adventure isn't great at it anyway)Other qualities I look for:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Hooks and themes to help make the adventure personal for my players and their characters - to help make the story about them</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Good site-based adventure opportunities with map-based exploration offering combat, exploration, and role-playing. Site-based, map-based adventures are what 5E does best imo</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Interesting/novel/evocative detail work on NPCs, locations, and adventures (WotC is often very good at this)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Does the big picture "plot" (often the plan, motives, and actions of the villain) make sense? WotC hasn't been great at this in recent years. Hint: keep it simple, let the players complicate it</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Players can make big, meaningful, high-stakes choices and have the info provided to them to understand the potential consequences of those choices (both Frostmaiden and Descent into Avernus fumble this badly as written, leaving the DM to fix it -which turns out to be easy to fix in Frostmaiden, much harder in Descent)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Good art and (please!) color maps. I run online a lot and it really helps to have full-color maps to put in front of my players. If the adventure doesn't have them, I know that's another layer of work & expenses on my part sourcing those.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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