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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5439345" data-attributes="member: 4937">A full wish list might be..1) A variaty of challenges, including several which can be dealt with in several ways.  This includes things such as: diplomatic challenges, skill challenges, evasion challenges, chases, detective work/clue gathering, puzzle solving, and combat challenges with a tactical component.  The skill of the player should be tested and be decisive in determining the outcome.  It also includes things like ensuring that different types of characters will have moments to shine, that the types of creatures are reasonably diverse, and that the terrains and tactical situations vary - some favoring melee, others missile, others high AC, and others high mobility, etc.2) Strict adherence to the 'three clue rule'.  Successfully advancing the story should not depend on finding a single clue, or solving a problem in a single way, or cooperating with a single clue.3) Limited railroading, or if railroading, then smart railroading.  The module shouldn't make too many assumptions about likely PC behavior.  That means that the story should go on if the PC's take courses of action that are unexpected, and if there is a predictable fork in the road the writer needs to mention it and give tips on how to handle it.  Railroads should be invisible to the players and should only be used to safely deliver them back onto the stage.  Even more annoying than making assumptions about PC behavior is making illogical assumptions about PC behavior and failing to see why the behavior is completely illogical.4) NPC's should have clear motivations and backstories.  The actions the NPC's have taken hitherto should be reasonable and believable given the NPC's goals.  The plot shouldn't depend on the utter stupidity of the bad guy, and should survive inspection by "If I were an evil overlord."  Major NPCs should not be static waiting around in room X with no escape plan, and have resources to proactively counter the PC's should they learn of the PC's efforts to thwart them. 5) There should be a really good map.6) There should be short but effective descriptions of keyed locations, suitable for reading.  It doesn't matter if the DM prefers to paraphrase, the basic text should be there and shouldn't need to be reworked extensively.7) It should be generic enough fantasy to adapt to a different setting without too much hassle.  When it doubt, tropes should be pulled from real world mythology, antiquity, and folk lore.  Slightly unexpected twists on the character ascribed to monsters or somewhat novel cultures or settings are interesting.  Completely rewriting expectations to suit your particular tastes or departing too much from convention tends to make your module useful only to a very narrow few.  Keep in mind that not everyone is going to appreciate that your red dragon is an erudite scholar that sits on a oversized futon smoking a bong pipe instead of a greedy incarnation of a natural disaster, or that your orc warband is a parody of KISS, or that your vampire is sparkly and meant to be a party ally.  More than one such invention per module is probably too much.  In particular, gags, satire, wackiness, and the like should be kept to a minimum, and 'funny' encounters should be capable of being played straight at the DM's option.  If you can actually write funny, make sure it enhances the setting rather than detracting from it.  But really, even 3 or 4 points on that list successfully met would make the module a classic.</blockquote>

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