What do you Want in a Module?

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Outdoor encounters. I'm really tired of dungeon crawls where PCs are expected to clear a 16-room dungeon (or only 12 rooms if you're lucky and aren't interested in exploring).

Reasonably, the monsters would congregate and just "eat" the PCs, at least after they've left the first day to get an extended rest.

I read almost all the Dark Sun adventures, and most had lots of outdoor encounters. Unfortunately, it's hard to have more than one encounter in a day. (Many of those adventures were also railroady, but you could drop the part where the PCs get captured by a sorcerer-king; simply replace him with a representative, and a "talking icon".)

 

[Ringlerun]

Encounters that make sense. No griffins in a 10x10 room on the 9th level of the dungeon.

I always liked the WEG Star Wars modules. Easy to read and understand. Handouts for the players. Not overly large. The pacing was always good with a nice mix of interaction, chases and combat. Easy to scale the encounters to the players power level. The hook was always very easy to implement. You are all part of the rebal alliance, now read the adventure scrip and off we go.

 

[kitsune9]

1. Interesting and "realistic" story (no villains who don't make sense doing what they are doing).
2. Encounters with more than one outcome.
3. A couple of red herrings
4. Scaling side bar
5. New magic items and monsters section
6. Adventure seeds and recommendations for further developing the module.
7. A "what to do next" section.
8. Random encounter tables.

 

[Raven Crowking]

IMHO, good modules present a situation rather than a plot, and allow the players to devise a plan to deal with it. This is not to say that NPCs cannot have plots and timelines; it is to say that the whole thing does not follow a storyline where the PCs must X at Y at time Z, and where the encounters must occur in a set manner and/or order.

For what it's worth, IMHO, a good adventure is not a story or a series of encounters. It is a setting or a situation that naturally spawns good stories and encounters. If the encounter must occur as the designer envisions it, well, it leaves the GM in a hard position. Does the GM constrain player action so as to perseve the encounters as written, or does the GM rewrite the encounters on the fly?

Some other points I agree with:

A good module has little to no railroading, with the possible exception of the "hook".

A good module has colorful NPCs with interesting personalities and Interesting dialogue suggestions.

A good module has opponents with resonable desires and motives... IE, outnumbered goblins don't pick fights with well armed adventurers. A pack of hyeneas with a fresh kill doesn't abandon the kill to chase after adventurers.

A good module is relatively free of spelling and grammer errors, has reasonably correct stat blocks for opponents, and is a pleasure to read.

A good module should never have the characters bystanders while major NPCs perform the real heroic actions, unless the characters, through their own inaction, have made it so. And, if this does happen, it should in no way be certain that the NPCs will not die horribly for their pains!

Ethical problems for me are fun, but not mandatory.

In a good module, the maps are clear, correctly labeled, and have no problems like unreachable rooms or missing stairways.

Player handouts, artwork (evocative over beautiful, FWIW, and useful over evocative), and counters (for some games) are extras. I can take them or leave them.

a good module should be modular. You should be able to use any module in any (relatively typical) campaign with minimal effort. You should be able to modify it quickly and easily. Finally, it should *not* leave a crater in your campaign world if things go horribly awry.

Extra points if it is easy to run at the table.

Encounters that make sense. No griffins in a 10x10 room on the 9th level of the dungeon.

1. Interesting and "realistic" story (no villains who don't make sense doing what they are doing).
2. Encounters with more than one outcome.

And, may I add, encounters with more than one way to start! I.e., no encounter where the troll must be standing at Location A, no matter what the players do, no matter how long they wait, no matter how they try to lure him out.

This alone is a strike against many, many recent modules! (IMHO, of course.)

3. A couple of red herrings
4. Scaling side bar

(for systems that require a scaling side bar, anyway. The flatter the power curve, the less you need a scaling side bar.

5. New magic items and monsters section
6. Adventure seeds and recommendations for further developing the module.
7. A "what to do next" section.
8. Random encounter tables.

RC

 

[Momeeche]

Thanks for responding.

 

[aco175]

I would like to see modules with most or all of these ideas, I think that would be great. I'm just not sure I would want to pay for all this and only use it once or twice.

Somthing I would like to pay for would include a level's worth of adventure, or a few levels that have several areas of exploration. I'm not a fan of a single dungeon with 100 rooms, although the right setup it could be fun if you could play several groups at once.

Something I would find good has a few short areas of encounters that each can be played in a single night. Each area can be tied to the whole plot, or even a red herring that takes them fron it, like if the whole module involved searching the 4 temples of the archons for parts of a puzzle that opens X portal than a hidden temple that the party can explore but not part of the ones they are looking for.

I also like when modules are more generic or stock setting. This is just me, but I most likely would not buy a module where spaceships come down in my fantasy setting, or even places where the rules change too far from the normal. A module where the whole thing is in an upside-down volcanoe with zero gravity. I once played in a convention where the whole party was shrunk to the size of grapes and battles ants and bees. It was ok for a session, but would not be fun to me for a few months of gaming.

 

[pemerton]

IMHO, good modules present a situation rather than a plot, and allow the players to devise a plan to deal with it.

Agreed with this, very strongly.

And, may I add, encounters with more than one way to start!

This is not so important to me - sometimes a compelling situation with multiple ways through it and out of it might depend upon presupposing a particular way into it. If that way won't work for my group, I'm happy to improvise, but I'd like the adventure writer to give me a clear idea of how they see the situation arising.

Good examples of what I have in mind here are the Penumbra dd20 modules, which present strong, open-ended situations with particular defined starting points that help contribute to that strength.

 

[Zhaleskra]

I like it a bit more like an Outline, or as some games have called it a "matrix".
Here's some stuff that's going on/Here's a place where stuff is happening
These are the people doing the stuff with xyz motivation
Those people act in way qrs
Here are the facts
Good Resolution
Bad Resolution
????
PROFIT!

 

[Wiseblood]

I read something in another thread. A DM Screen. I understand not evryone uses one. I do. I's an extended length piece of cardstock with adventure themed pictures on one side and adventure relevant information on the other. Such as special rules NPC's and if there is space for it the map. I understand if that last one is probably a no-go but the NPC's would be a nice change.

Last but not least. A reasonable pricetag.

 

[LostSoul]

1. Meaningful choices for the players to make.
2. Flavour that reinforces those choices.

Whether this means a good map with believable and challenging encounters, fleshed-out NPCs that offer up moral dilemmas, or simply a bevy of interesting and believable locations for the players to explore, this is, I believe, the very root of what makes a good module.

Everything else should build on those two starting principles.