Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2182617" data-attributes="member: 172"> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Brevity - Okay, there are lots of great long adventures out there. But I am mega-adventured out, and often feel "trapped" if I start one and find out I don't like it (or I simply want to try something different.) That being the case, I am more in the market for shorter adventures. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Adaptability - Though it's not impossible, most likely I simply am NOT going to scrap my existing campaign assumptions (much less whole campaign) to use your adventure. That being the case, I need your adventure to be adaptable. That means such things as a variety of different hooks to get me involved, as well as clearly flagging and outlining power groups in your adventure and possibilites to replace them (Banewarrens set the standard here.) </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fault tolerant - This point caused more contention between me and adventure writers than any other issue, as I was merciless on this point. Why is simple. I've seen it too many times: if you create places that they adventure can run off the tracks, they will. Don't do things like create conflicts that have a significant chance of killing the adventure if they don't turn out the way you expect. Example 1: 1 PDF adventure I reviewed required the PCs to save an NPC from an attack in order for the adventure to go on. But run by the rules, if the PCs aren't fast, the NPC is likely to die. Example 2: One adventure required the PCs to solve a relatively obscure puzzle to get to the end of the adventure. A well loved adventure that I was roundly criticized for panning. And to be fair, it was a nice, moody adventure that had a lot going for it. But I consider what I call "plot bottlenecks" to be one of the cardinal sins of adventure writing. Bonus points here for handling many common cases, but providing troubleshooting notes for common trouble spots. Most often, these will address points come up during playtest. (You are playtesting, right?) </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Use the bleedin' rules - Fortunately, I don't see this much anymore. If you need to create a variant to realize what you want, fine. But say so, and don't just do it on the sly and assume a GM won't catch you. But don't circumvent or ignore existing rules. For example, one adventure totally ignored the existance of a climb skill in the characters and simply assumes a flat percentage chance that characters would fall off a narrow path, and ignored the possibility of search or disable device checks with a trap. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Good reusable, interesting, and correct components - Despite your best efforts, I really might not give a darn about your scenario, or it's simply not a match for my current games. But good maps, interesting and complete (and correctly statted) npcs, monsters, and magic items are probably the single biggest actual value point of an adventure. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Anticipate PC abilities; be logical, not lazy - This is a subtle point, but enough would-be adventure writers are guilty of it that it deserves mentioning. Don't just throw in a lazy clause like "no teleportation or scrying works on this plane" or "the walls are made of teleport proof rock." Anticipate what capabilities PCs might have, but don't simply snuff them out. Consider what countermeasures your villain would logically take against such efforts. Another approach is, if you see a place where divination magic, travel magic might be helpful, think of ways that they can reward the PCs for their efforts (to make them feel it is not for naught) but does not become an anti-climactic one-spell solution to the adventure. The easiest way to do the latter is to have the villain have some tricks up his sleeve...</li> </ul></blockquote>

Verification