What do you look for in Adventure Modules

[gtwucla]

I've spent the better part of the last two years writing adventures for my game Fire Burns Low, before I released it. As I wrote them (am writing more of them) I also collected other adventure modules (I'd read plenty before that too). Now I started this project about fifteen years ago, a couple years before D&D 5e released when Pathfinder and 3.5e were all the rage as alternatives to 4e "jumping the shark."

I was introduced to D&D at that time by someone that preferred the former rather than the latter, so I cut my teeth on the ol' Dungeon Magazine for 3.5e and man was that thing full of sweeping adventures packed full of information. In fact, the first adventure I ever played was a year long Age of Worms Campaign. As it turns out my GM was in large part the reason why I fell in love with TTRPGs because of how much he modified the story and game, so as I read more RPG books, I like many started to build my own thing and get friends to play it. As i made and playtested adventures with other GMs, I noticed adventures in other games make set ups and random tables more central to their modules. I concede, that might just be because I became exposed to more and more adventures rather than it changing in real time, but anyway I noticed there was a clear difference in design philosophy from designing around plot or dilemma, and setups with random tables. I see the value in this, I just prefer a design I also enjoy reading with a beginning, middle, and end. That's not to say that I want an end that is railroaded to conclusion, just a coherent reason for things happening and a possibility of an arc resolving. I know newer adventures modules don't necessarily do that, it's just more reliant on players having a hand in that construction.

All this to say, I've distilled the adventure design philosophies down. I know there's many shades of grey in between. But generally, what do you look for in an Adventure Module? Do you want something dense the likes of Age of Worms or the Great Pendragon Campaign, something you can read and run, or something more open with random tables? Do you appreciate both ends of the spectrum?

 

[aco175]

@gtwucla first, welcome to the boards, I know you will get much great advice and likely a few memes to help you.

Second, you will also get a lot of conflicting advice from everyone wanting something different. I seem to recall a few polls and other threads about the same thing.

I do not mind a big campaign book if that is what we want to play and the players agree to work through it. Just as likely though the players and myself will get to the point that it feels like a slog or things are forced at some point and it becomes a 'railroad' to force the ending. I find my group likes to have a shorter series of linked adventures I call arcs. This might be level 1-5 Lost Mines box followed by another problem that takes the PCs to level 8 or 9. I can tie things back to the earlier series but it could be in another place not tied in. I keep adding published and homemade stuff a couple levels at a time to keep things fresh until the point where we end the campaign.

I also like to keep background and introduction short. If I buy a module I plan to place it in my existing campaign and find that too much background about somebody else's campaign or world is something I skip or need to modify so being long does not help and I find that my players do not care much for, or interact with, this while playing.

I like shorter sections to the adventure that can be played in chunks and make for good stopping points. This might not always be feasible with groups playing at different speeds and amount of time being played. A 5-room dungeon is more my style for a night of playing. Even a longer dungeon that has levels and groups of rooms that provide sections and themes for each that can be broken up into chucks would work.

Box text. I do not mind it, but others here do not like it. Some like bullet points of information that the DM can use and work into conversation. I find this ok for interacting with NPCs, but room descriptions I still like box text.

Statblocks. I like to have them in with the room descriptions and not placed at the end in an appendix, or worse telling me to go find it in another book and just list a book and page. Abbreviated stats maybe, but as monsters get more powerful, I like the whole thing. There was the 4e book of encounters that had short adventures for each level and on each of the 2-page spread it listed the whole encounter with no flipping back and forth. It had the description and other text, a small picture of the map showing which section you are in, and the monster statblocks. I think this should be the standard.

 

[Fenris-77]

I want gameable material. Stuff that matters at the table and in-play. Sometimes that needs history and context, but many writers delver page upon page of history and background that will never matter at the table. That's not always bad if they are great writers, but it's mostly wasted paper. This same idea also applies to adventure elements like rooms and NPCs. I want details that will help me describe and run them at the table, I don't need to know about the NPC childhood, or details of the room that don't really help me run it in play.

 

[delericho]

Do you want something dense the likes of Age of Worms or the Great Pendragon Campaign, something you can read and run, or something more open with random tables? Do you appreciate both ends of the spectrum?

The short answer is "yes".

Yes, I'm in the market (at least in theory) for the big "campaign in a box" adventures. Yes, I'm also in the market for the smaller "location to drop in" adventures. What I'm not interested in is crossing the streams - if I buy a "campaign in a box" I'm not interested in how well you can rip bits out to use by themselves; and if it's a standalone adventure, I'm not interested in links to a bunch of other adventures.

I'm also not terribly interested in replay value of adventures. I now have enough material that even if I spend all the rest of my life playing D&D I'll still never get through it all. So running something twice either won't happen or will be vanishingly rare.

(As an aside, the tarot reading gimmick from "Ravenloft" is quite clever. The one from "Curse of Strahd", despite being functionally identical, falls flat for me. The problem being the length of the adventure - in the first case, it's expected to pay off in hours; in the second it could be months. It's a nice idea, but should have refreshed at regular points in the campaign.)

The other major thing that I want to see in adventures is meaningful choices - there should be multiple routes through, and they should amount to more than "which of these three things should we do first?". Alas, that was something the last few Pathfinder paths I read were quite bad for - there was a superficial choice that ended up making very little real difference in outcome.

 

[Tigris]

I want gameable material. Stuff that matters at the table and in-play. Sometimes that needs history and context, but many writers delver page upon page of history and background that will never matter at the table. That's not always bad if they are great writers, but it's mostly wasted paper. This same idea also applies to adventure elements like rooms and NPCs. I want details that will help me describe and run them at the table, I don't need to know about the NPC childhood, or details of the room that don't really help me run it in play.

This!

Thats why I like https://www.drivethrurpg.com/de/product/158948/monster-vault-threats-to-the-nentir-vale-4e its a monster book but with exactly the info you need to also use it as a broad campaign setting book for the nentir vale.


Or https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/121978/dungeon-master-s-kit-4e which has exactly all the info needed to run rooms/encounters.

 

[payn]

All this to say, I've distilled the adventure design philosophies down. I know there's many shades of grey in between. But generally, what do you look for in an Adventure Module? Do you want something dense the likes of Age of Worms or the Great Pendragon Campaign, something you can read and run, or something more open with random tables? Do you appreciate both ends of the spectrum?

I really loved the PF1 era of APs by Paizo. I felt like it was a good collection of lore, adventure set up, NPCs, maps, cool new features, etc.. I know for some folks there was way too much readin for them, but I enjoyed it a lot and it helped me be a better GM. That is not to say some of the complaints above are not without merit. Some writers would waste pages telling a story that doesnt matter to the particular adventure at hand. If the PCs cant learn and use it in a reasonable timeframe, its probably not worth listing in the adventure section of the module.

Thats said, I also really enjoy Traveller and The Pirates of Drinax sandbox offers a little of both worlds. It has numerous adventures you can tie into the particular spot in space that provide plot hooks. However, also mechanics on everything you will encounter during combat, exploration, and socializing. Both a GM tool kit and a lore delivery system in a collection of resources.

So, in some situations I like both, but if the module is just a series of tables and maps to randomly generate a dungeon, then forget about it.

 

[gtwucla]

@gtwucla first, welcome to the boards, I know you will get much great advice and likely a few memes to help you.

Second, you will also get a lot of conflicting advice from everyone wanting something different. I seem to recall a few polls and other threads about the same thing.

I do not mind a big campaign book if that is what we want to play and the players agree to work through it. Just as likely though the players and myself will get to the point that it feels like a slog or things are forced at some point and it becomes a 'railroad' to force the ending. I find my group likes to have a shorter series of linked adventures I call arcs. This might be level 1-5 Lost Mines box followed by another problem that takes the PCs to level 8 or 9. I can tie things back to the earlier series but it could be in another place not tied in. I keep adding published and homemade stuff a couple levels at a time to keep things fresh until the point where we end the campaign.

I also like to keep background and introduction short. If I buy a module I plan to place it in my existing campaign and find that too much background about somebody else's campaign or world is something I skip or need to modify so being long does not help and I find that my players do not care much for, or interact with, this while playing.

I like shorter sections to the adventure that can be played in chunks and make for good stopping points. This might not always be feasible with groups playing at different speeds and amount of time being played. A 5-room dungeon is more my style for a night of playing. Even a longer dungeon that has levels and groups of rooms that provide sections and themes for each that can be broken up into chucks would work.

Box text. I do not mind it, but others here do not like it. Some like bullet points of information that the DM can use and work into conversation. I find this ok for interacting with NPCs, but room descriptions I still like box text.

Statblocks. I like to have them in with the room descriptions and not placed at the end in an appendix, or worse telling me to go find it in another book and just list a book and page. Abbreviated stats maybe, but as monsters get more powerful, I like the whole thing. There was the 4e book of encounters that had short adventures for each level and on each of the 2-page spread it listed the whole encounter with no flipping back and forth. It had the description and other text, a small picture of the map showing which section you are in, and the monster statblocks. I think this should be the standard.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply and thanks for the welcome. Maybe it's just a little confirmation bias, but after having written so many there comes a moment where I stopped and just thought, holy naughty word it's been awhile since I've shown this to anyone. Not good writing in a vacuum. I thought I'd start talking to people that get to actually play and GM, since it's been so damn long since I've had the opportunity!

 

[aramis erak]

All this to say, I've distilled the adventure design philosophies down. I know there's many shades of grey in between. But generally, what do you look for in an Adventure Module? Do you want something dense the likes of Age of Worms or the Great Pendragon Campaign, something you can read and run, or something more open with random tables? Do you appreciate both ends of the spectrum?

I look for several key things...
1) about 10% to 25% of page count is reusable material (IOW, a subsetting supplement and/or bestiary expansion)... the longer the module, the less is needed as a percentage... but still longer needs more pages.
2) branching plot points - I can write a railroad easily, so I look for prep for more than I'm likely to actually use, but based upon probable branching points
3) Maps in the PDFs are in vector formats, not rasters... so I can blow them up for table use.
4) Maps available in printer-friendly versions.
5) color keying on maps checked against colorblindness simulators for usability by the colorblind. (I'm not - but I have players who are.)
6) No use of AI in any capacity past spellchecking and grammar checking.

 

[sevenbastard]

First and most importantly: not a Railroad.

Second: built for play, I dont need a ton of useless lore, backstreet, or trivia.

Three: varied encounters. It needs more than just combat. Puzzles or social or heist or exploration. Also the combat should have some variety. Seven encounters with a group of orcs with the same stats gets old.

Four: no forced morality. I hate adventures where the assumption is players will be "good" or follow the authors morality. Im not saying i want to be evil, but it should force a lesson down my throat or only be winnable if I play my character as a selfless paragon of virtue.

Five: Easy to read, clear maps, organized efficiently.

 

[Piperken]

I perused your itch to see what you've released thus far; it feels you already have an established design format and style, that I think is more than capable!

While I've not published anything in this space, I have past experience with work accepted and published by magazines and a small independent press.

While it's helpful to see what readers may want, in that one sliver ttrpgs share is they're a product to be used... I've found it's better to allow personal style and form develop from project to project from the place of the writing you do, when engaged with the ideas in mind.

What shape that comes too, that addresses some of these other concerns, comes after.