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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 8859047" data-attributes="member: 6801845">I feel like a movie reviewer here, but I disagree with almost everything.  The guy has a decent overall point, that modules don't do a very good job of teaching how to DM in his preferred style.  Which, I get.  Writing modules for public consumption is difficult and tend to be linear.  I agree.  However, I think it also misses the whole purpose of modules.  Modules are designed for people that don't want to, or don't have the inclination to run home brew sandbox type campaigns.So what does he talk about?  That LMoP (Lost Mine of Phandalver) is terrible at teaching people how to run home campaigns.  In his mind, the initial goblin encounter could have been simplified with three bullet points that there are dead horses, goblins use cover and run away.  That this "should be enough for any DM".  I looked at the actual text and it's a page or so and most of it is just walking through the DM on suggestions for introducing motivation for the players and how to set the scene.  It also talks about how to run stealth, what to do if the PCs are defeated (don't TPK) and so on.  It's not very long.  But his bullet points?  Even as an experienced DM I'm not sure what to do with that.  Do the goblins attack?  Are they just watching? How the heck a brand new DM would know what to do is beyond me.Following this, Cragmaw Cavern could have been reduced from 8 pages to a single page spread.  His version would have no mention of the trail to the hideout, what the goblins know, descriptions of the cave, how to read or use a map, no suggestions on how to use descriptions to set the environment.  Also no guidance on how to run any of this, which is a good chunk of the text.  The motivations and what NPCs know?  All gone.  Because all you need is a map with a list of monsters, right?Rant about page order enforcing linearity.  Umm, last time I checked books have pages.  His version of course wouldn't include any "unnecessary" details.  Like any information at all other than who's where.  What are the goblins doing?  What do they know?  Bah!  Too many pages!  The one suggestion he has that I agree with and have suggested elsewhere is that as a starter module there should be links to some actual play videos, at least here and there.  On the other hand search for "Lost Mine of Phandalver Stream" and there are plenty of examples if people learn better that way.A glossary of who's who, what are the organization's goals might have been nice because that's pretty much where I start when I DM.  But if you don't need or want that, it should also be something you can skip.  Because he uses that as a jumping off point of the players going completely going off the rails and assisting Yeemik in taking over the goblins in the area.  Really?  Cool idea, bro.  In a home game.  There's no way to include sections all of that while simultaneously having short and concise.  If you want to go that off the rails, you're running a home campaign.  Modules simply can't cover all of that.I think one of the main goals of the DMG should be how to run a home campaign.  Modules are written for an entirely different reason, they're designed to be easy to pick up and run.  Yes, they're going to be more linear. Modules can't, nor should they try to be, a "How to run a home campaign".  They can be "How to run a module" which I think LMoP is okay at.  How to run a sandbox home campaign is the province of the DMG.</blockquote>

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