sorta newb DM question - are the adventure supplement books worth buying?

[thegrumpyyoungman]

ive only been dm'ing now for about 2 years and 4e is really the only version i've played or dm'd for that matter. ever since i started, i built a world of my own with various plot points and what not, and all of the encounters and settings i've done are of my own design...albeit i've used some of the adventure articles in DDI for inspiration.

that being said, i've never really looked into the official WoTC adventure books. i'm intrigued by the maps they supply you with but i was wondering if the adventures themselves are worth buying? my players are all level 6 right now (we dont get to play but every 1-2 months as we are all married and have busy schedules) so they are still pretty early in the leveling process. would getting Keep on the Shadowfell be worth it for me? i know that the adventure is designed for player levels 1-3, but i can always modify the monsters.

so...any overall thoughts about the official dnd supplement books?

 

[Cormacolinde]

If you're ready to put quite a bit of time changing the monsters and adding in a lot of story around the module, they can be useful. As they are written though they are mainly hack-fests with the story mostly happening at the beginning and end of each module. What's more the encounters are definitely not up to par for the current state of the game.

I myself bought P3 to use in my homemade campaign, but I only used the last part and had to redo every encounter to give some challenge to my players. Even then it was a lot of fighting in a row for a group that's used to getting a lot of story, background and reasons for every fight they go through.

 

[thegrumpyyoungman]

If you're ready to put quite a bit of time changing the monsters and adding in a lot of story around the module, they can be useful. As they are written though they are mainly hack-fests with the story mostly happening at the beginning and end of each module. What's more the encounters are definitely not up to par for the current state of the game.

I myself bought P3 to use in my homemade campaign, but I only used the last part and had to redo every encounter to give some challenge to my players. Even then it was a lot of fighting in a row for a group that's used to getting a lot of story, background and reasons for every fight they go through.

hmmm...well thats one thing i dont like about the weekly DnD Encounters stuff...the battles are all just "here are some monsters, go fight them". theres nothing "extra" happening. no crazy moving platforms, no lava lake rushing towards them, no falling spike traps during the fight.

the DDI adventures tend to provide a little something extra in the encounters so i was hoping the published books would be similar...not so huh?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Well, the newer modules are also better. The ones that come with the various Essentials products definitely seem to be improvements. There ARE also 3rd party adventures out there. Courts of the Shadow Fey is a good one (though it is Paragon, you won't be running that for a while I guess).

Personally I've always been more of a do-it-yourself sort of DM. I've made up a bunch of fun adventures with cool encounters and I didn't find it to be super hard. Now and then I steal from one or another source and I did run one of the Dungeon adventures, with some modifications. I think now and then various adventures have come up with interesting stuff, but modules all tend to be location based, mostly built around combat encounters, and often lacking in interesting NPCs and other elements that I like to see.

My feeling with 4e is if you feel like there's something missing in a given scenario then amping it up is usually the way to go. Make it more dynamic, add some more interest to the NPCs, create some alternate goals for the PCs in a fight, make the terrain dynamic, add some kind of time pressure, etc. Also making some of your enemies more interesting that generic bad guys helps. H1 for instance did nothing with Kalarel, a wasted opportunity. Get the characters hunting after cool stuff or wrapped up in longer range goals too.

Anyway, you can get some good mileage out of the WotC HPE modules, IF you're willing to work at it I think. I guess the question is if you save enough time and energy to make it worthwhile.

 

[Kantru]

An Option if you want to "upgrade" the H1-3, P1-3, E1-3 Adventures

Myrhdraak on the WotC forums has created a conversion that pulls the 9 modules into a cohesive story arc. Very impressive, and high production values.

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[OnlineDM]

Keep on the Shadowfell is probably not what you're looking for, but you can check it out for free on the Wizards of the Coast site: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/h1.pdf

If you're looking for encounters with dynamic environments, I've heard good things about the Fourthcore adventures (though the difficulty level of those is quite high, so you might prefer toning it down, depending on your group).

And I'll humbly offer my own free adventure, Tallinn's Tower, which has puzzles and traps and dynamic environments (but it's just a short delve).

 

[delericho]

Honestly, the WotC adventures are remarkably poor. Unless you're really having problems putting together your own material, I would avoid.

It was really noticable when our DM shifted from homebrew adventures to using a pre-published module. His campaign had really shone, had a lot of enthusiasm and momentum... and then suddenly it just sucked.

 

[Matt James]

If you have a DDI subscription, my adventure from Dungeon #170 (Monument of the Ancients) is not a hack'n'slash delve.

 

[DragoonLance]

Honestly I would go back and pull another system's campaign if you want something with some RP meat on it. One of the nice things about 4e is that it's real easy to convert adventures for other games into a 4e game. I'm currently running Red Hand of Doom in 4e and the players are loving it so far. There is plenty of combat but still enough RP scenes for everyone to get a chance to get some time in the spotlight.

 

[Dedekind]

Sounds like you are more than willing to convert. Are you really just looking for cool encounter ideas or do you want full-blown adventures?

Cool encounter ideas are everywhere. H3 (Pyramid of Something) was a terrible adventure IMO but had a lot of interesting encounters that would be worth stealing. I'm running Revenge of the Giants right now and the production values hurt what would otherwise be an interesting plot with solid side adventures. (Basically, the delve format makes it impossible to understand what the plot is.)