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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 6264610" data-attributes="member: 3586">To some extent, yes. I touched on the issue just the other day when reviewing <a href="http://merricb.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/review-of-add-module-uk1-beyond-the-crystal-cave/" target="_blank">UK1 Beyond the Crystal Cave</a>, a module from 1983 (same year as Ravenloft - for which my retrospective will be following in the next week or two). D&D began as site-based, keyed encounters. All interaction between NPCs was handled by the DM, and often the adventure gave very little detail as to how this occurred. In the period of 1983-86, adventure-writing began to change, with people (most notably Tracy Hickman, but also the UK division of TSR) beginning to explore alternative ways of writing adventures. This led to more "railroaded" adventures, such as Dragonlance, and for a while the old site-based adventure was almost abandoned in favoured of linear, story-based plots.Motivation is tricky: in a lot of adventures, the PCs are hired (and this is stated up front). Ravenloft has the party receiving a plea for help and going to investigate. The Temple of Elemental Evil uses the motivation of "they're adventurers" and "they've heard of adventure opportunities around Hommlet"! Ultimately, the players have to want to be playing the adventure!As I recall, Ravenloft begins with the players answering a plea for aid, finding they can't leave, discovering the Count is behind it, and learning the way to defeat him from the Gypsies. Things flow from there.Temple begins with the players coming into Hommlet as new adventurers, having learnt that there is trouble in the neighbourhood. Clues in town lead them to the Moathouse, and from there more clues lead to the Temple proper, from which the greater threat comes. However, given that I called my retrospective on the Village, "<a href="http://www.rpggeek.com/thread/710161/some-assembly-required" target="_blank">Some Assembly Required</a>", I do think more detail could have been given to hook the players in!Cheers!</blockquote>

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