(Sigh) Another railroad ... (WotVB)

[MrFilthyIke]

I find it strange that linear is so reviled. A module is like a skeleton, up to the DM to flesh out. If, as a DM, you can not think on your feat or guage what your players are like, should you be DMing that group? I like WotVB, I just wish there were more connectivity with the schema plot.

 

[reveal]

I haven't read to many "dungeon crawl" modules that aren't linear in nature, but they seem pretty popular. As has been stated before, it's up to the DM to flesh things out. If the DM wants the main bad guy to escape the PCs until the end of the module, so be it. If the DM wants the main bad guy to get caught by the PCs on their first attempt, so be it. There's nothing in the book that can't be tweaked to conform to the way a DM wants their campaign to be run.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Sure, the DM can tweak anything -- I do it all the time, and very seldom run a "stock" module, personally. The point is, why write it that way in the first place? Give players some options. Most dungeon crawls give the players exactly that -- they can open the door to the west, take the corridor to the east, or go down the stairs. They can fight or negotiate with the monsters. The choices are up to them. The dungeon structure puts limits on what they can do to keep things manageable for the DM, but a well-designed dungeon crawl has an inherent amount of free will built in -- take a look at, oh, Keep on the Borderlands, for example. There's a basic structure, but player choices give the adventure form. I'm saying that a strictly linear structure is inherently weak.

My gripe about this particular adventure is that it takes away player free will by preordaining a set of events, with set outcomes. Sure, the DM can interject, modify, etc -- but modification, IMHO, shouldn't be required in order to give your players options.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Hmm... Haven't read the module myself, but I have to say, I think I like my version of a

Spoiler

running battle on the lightning rail

better than the one described here.

 

[Arnwyn]

A module is like a skeleton, up to the DM to flesh out.

Says you.

For some people, when they spend money on a product, a "skeleton" doesn't quite cut it. A more than reasonable (and hardly "strange") expectation.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I don't know how you can have a non-linear

Spoiler

running battle

module. I've done them myself and it's a real pain. W/o reading the module though, I've found the best way to do it is to not encounter the BBEG but his rear-guard minions or individuals he has irritated. Depending on the plot, you can use this further reinforce or confuse the BBEGs motivations or lay down dead-end routes to fluff up the module.