What Do You Expect of Published Adventures?

[Parmandur]

This exact rationale is why I bought Princes of the Apocalypse. When I looked through it I didn't see an AP. What I saw was 15 or so useful-size standalone adventures, covering a nice wide range of levels, that I could extract and with minimal tweaking drop in wherever I wanted. Looked at that way it worked out to less than $5 Canadian per adventure; and I'll take that all day long.

And that's what I want - a bunch of adventures that can stand on their own. Let me worry about stringing them together (or not) and fitting them in with whatever else is going on; any game/campaign/setting I run is always going to be much bigger than a single AP.

That's the normal style for WotC the past few years.

 

[kenada]

For those of you who say "all I want are adventure sites," is that for Adventure Paths and campaign modules that cover levels 1-12 (or 20)? Like, you're really ok with 300-400 page books with no plot, story - just mostly unconnected encounters?

I don’t know. Having a campaign-length plot spelled out would clash with the type of campaign I tend to run anymore. What I should like to see is a fleshed out world and a bunch of NPCs and factions and tools for making them do interesting things to provide fodder for creating new stories.

 

[Bill Zebub]

The opposite of Walls of Text, however the authors want to interpret that.

 

[werecorpse]

2, 3 & 5 are pretty close.

 

[Bill Zebub]

For those of you who say "all I want are adventure sites," is that for Adventure Paths and campaign modules that cover levels 1-12 (or 20)? Like, you're really ok with 300-400 page books with no plot, story - just mostly unconnected encounters?

I missed this previously.

But....yes. I mean, sure, I'd also be happy to consider some plot arcs that weave the adventure sites together, but I can also improvise that part. All I really want is some minimal-prep components from which I can pick out the ones that work for me. That also gives me some sandbox-like flexibility. If I've got a plot outlined in my mind, and the players come up with some hypothesis that's not at all what I'm thinking of, and they are convinced they need to go investigate the cave complex/wizard's tower/sewers/suspicious ship/etc., I'm perfectly happy to pivot and run with that idea. But, man, would I love to have that adventure site prepared, so that all I have to do is insert my NPC or document or McGuffin or whatever.

Again, the key thing for me is that I don't want to have to read long paragraphs of flowery prose to grok it. I want maps and bullet-point notes (key features, occupants, their personalities and goals, treasure), organized in a consistent way, that let me adopt and adapt the content with minimal prep.

 

[Parmandur]

For those of you who say "all I want are adventure sites," is that for Adventure Paths and campaign modules that cover levels 1-12 (or 20)? Like, you're really ok with 300-400 page books with no plot, story - just mostly unconnected encounters?

I mean, yeah? More raw material is more better. A loose connective tissue thst can be used kr tossed is nice, but the raw material is important. It's like a cookbook, not a novel.

 

[Jackdaw McGraw]

My expectations have been ground low. I'd just like...

1) Underlings that aren't mindlessly devoted cultists. Sure, they can be cultists, but give them some logic and motivations that make sense (to them at least) and a blurb or two on ways to deal with them besides killing them.

2) A story that's not about the coming of an ancient evil that will devour or enslave the land.

3) NPC placeholders, where the text suggests you should try to use NPCs from the PC's backstories to fill major roles, and ways to set this up from the start of the campaign.

4) A spooky graveyard filled with something other than undead.

5) Dungeon text that outlines what happens when the PCs are loud and multiple areas are alerted to their presence.

6) Multiple scenarios where opponents flee when combat isn't going their way, and the chase/pursue mechanics to make it exciting.

7) A treatise on the difference between interrogation and torture as a means to extract plot-furthering info from NPCs, and how to handle these complicated scenes without the table descending into finger-pointing chaos. I'm kidding with this last point. Kind of.

 

[delericho]

It depends.

If it's a "campaign in a box", like the many Pathfinder Adventure Paths or WotC's recent hardcovers, I expect to be able to run it as-is as the basis of a full campaign with little or no modification. I have no interest in stripping it for parts to use elsewhere - it's either my next campaign or it's useless to me.

If it's a shorter adventure (what used to be called a module), then I want something that I can drop into my existing campaign. In this case it does need to be something I can easily modify and mutilate... and I'm happy to do that work. They key is that it needs to be interesting enough to justify that effort.

1st level adventures are a slight exception there, as those are going to the start of a new campaign. As such, I'm more likely to use them as that (without modification) and then build from there. So they're a bit closer to the "campaign in a box" in that they don't need to fit my existing world, but they do need to mostly work as-is.

 

[gamerprinter]

Here's what I think a published campaign adventure should have:
1) Motivation for the characters (and their players) to go on the adventure.
2) A story/plot/background that the GM can convey to the players - and the logical means of sharing that information naturally within the adventure.
3) Clear goals, which are more or less achievable (by sword, spell, or wits) by the character level range indicated by the adventure.
4) A unified theme building up to a satisfying climactic resolution
5) Consistency and logical story/world building.
6) A compelling villain, antagonist ("conflict" to use a literary term)

Of course you need maps, enemies, encounters, treasures, traps, etc. But without the things I mentioned above, you have an adventure site, not a campaign. There are additional items I prefer to see in my adventures, but I think without the above, you're not going to have a successful campaign without adding lots of additional work.

I agree that's what all adventures do require. It's how I create and publish adventures. Truthfully, I've purchased adventures only back in AD&D 1e days, sometime back then I started to homebrew. I did purchase a couple campaign setting boxed editions, but more for inspiration than actual use. So if there are published adventures that don't qualify according to your list above - I've never seen an adventure that didn't qualify. Not that they didn't exist, but as stated, I stopped buying adventures in the mid 1980's, and have never purchased an adventure since. I have published about 10 adventures between PF 1.0 and Starfinder, and double that amount in supplements and guidebooks. All 10 of the modules fit under your parameters. So you must be complaining about stuff I've never purchased, so I'm in the dark about all this.

 

[gamerprinter]

How do you suppose they could provide that, when they don't know the characters? If they provided a list of generic motivations, would you call them out for being generic motivations that you could come up with yourself that don't add value to the product.

The adventure should provide a reason for the motivation, but that doesn't guarantee each character's specific motivation may apply. However, through the adventure they are made aware of the need. The players will do what they want, but they aren't left in the dark as to why the quest needs to be done. That's all that's saying.