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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 6208740" data-attributes="member: 29398">Yes, and - er - yes.Some adventure modules "read" well - you check it out in the store, it looks like it'll rock, and you buy it and run it - but don't necessarily "play" well once your group gets started on it.  The reverse is true for others - they "read" like garbage but once you play them you realize they're pretty damn good.My criteria for a good adventure module: - minimal or no built-in backstory - I want to be able to wrap my own backstory around it with a minimum of effort - numerous different ways to approach and-or enter it and to move around once inside.  Too many dungeons don't have enough staircases between levels, for example; or only one entrance. - twists, turns, and unexpected developments - detachable hard-card maps (21st-century adventure publishers, are you listening?!?) - some attention to proof-reading and playtesting e.g. if there's an area 19 shown on the map is there an area 19 written up in the module? (Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, I'm looking at you)Bone Hill by Len Lakofka is one of the best out there.  There's numerous ways in, lots of different ways to go once inside, a nice assortment of different foes and things to find in there - I've played or run it something like 4 times now and it never gets old because it's so different every time!  This is a fine example of an adventure that plays better than it reads, as on initial reading it looks kinda like a whole lot of others.Rahasia by Tracy Hickman is another good one mostly for what can happen once inside.  It's got some backstory to it but it's malleable enough to still be useful.A2 Slaver's Stockade is an excellent module if you make one minor change: put a few more doors on each level to give some choice where to go.  It's very linear as written (hardly surprising for what is at heart a tournament module), but bust up the linearity and it's great!  It can work just fine as a stand-alone if you're not running the whole A-series.Lan-"and never judge any adventure by its cover"-efanThat's a good list, and things that I would like to see. Though I suspect that list isn't either a set of necessary conditions, nor a set of sufficient conditions. That is, you could have a good adventure that falls short on one or more of the above, and conversely you could have an adventure that does all of this, and yet still falls short.</blockquote>[/QUOTE]

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