D&D 5E What do you want in a published adventure? / Adventure design best practices?

[steeldragons]

However, if you have a stronghold of spellcasting cultists (er, pretty much my current scenario), then you have a compounded problem of recurring enemies with spells. Actually, innate spellcasting & spellcasting occur frequently enough in 5e for this to be an issue. And your page count increases significantly if you include multiple instances of monsters like...

Well, yes it would/does...and yes, 5e spellcasting.magical ability is ubiquitous...I guess, without giving it too much examination or thought, my initial response is "them's the breaks." That's what this edition of D&D does/uses. Ergo, there're going to be many more lines of spell/ability text. The "abridged" stat blocks are only going to be able to be so abridged. The rest is editing and layout.

I see you already took the Oni size suggestion. My next thing I noticed, from an editing standpoint, is if there is a "+0" to an ability/save, then save the space. Just don't list it the ability unless there's a bonus/penalty.

Then, I'd say, layout what you can, without making things too crowded, to save lines where you can. Just off the top of my head (granted, Enworld viewing is not the same as in print spacing) go use the next line until you've used at least two columns.

Oni: Large giant LE; AC 16; HP 110; Saves Str +4, Dex +3, Con +6, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha +5; #Att 2 glaive, Large +7 (10 ft), 2d10+4 slashing / Medium +7 (5 ft) 1d10+4 slashing; Spd 30, fly 30; Senses 14 (darkvision 60 ft); Lang common, giant; Special change shape, magic weapons, regeneration (10), Innate Spells (save DC 13)

At will: darkness, invisibility[ . . . . . ]1/day: charm person, sleep, gaseous form, cone of cold​

CR 7 (2,900 XP); Monster Manual 239.

Flame Mage: Medium humanoid any evil; AC 14 (with mage armor); HP 38; Spd 30; Senses 15; Lang common, ignan, jhatab’enar; Resist fire; Saves Dex +1, Con +1, Int +6, Wis +5; #Att 1 fire bolt +6 (120 ft), 2d10 fire; dagger +4 (5 ft), 3 (1d4+1) piercing; Special geased; Spells (save DC 14, attack +6)

cantrips control flames (EE), fire bolt, light, mage hand[. . . . ] 1st (4) burning hands, detect magic, mage armor
2nd (3) flaming sphere, scorching ray, suggestion [. . . . . . . .]3rd (3) dispel magic, fireball, haste
4th (1) wall of fire​

CR 6 (2,300 XP); p. #.

There. Just saved you 3 lines in those two descriptions alone. Oni x4, there's 4 lines saved, there, alone. From the number of cultists and special whatever-they-are-casters, probably could save several ten's of lines.

(Ignore the dots in brackets, I wasn't sure how to supply the spacing [somewhat] evenly on Enworld without going into html table rows and all that mess. But you get the gist.)

 

[Eltab]

For example, underneath Naerytar Castle is a frog shrine. Room 11, page 61. I was able to adapt the first paragraph into boxed text on the fly. But then room 12, the inner sanctum of Pharblex, the Bullywug Priest? I came to this impossibly dense and long description, none of it boxed, and froze for ten seconds while I tried to parse it. Then I said, "uh, this is another big, rectangular room... it contains a mud-covered chair and reading table, a box of candles, and a wooden chest." You'll notice that this is from the end of the first paragraph. (The rest of the paragraph is devoted to a useless account of where Pharblex goes, as if this is Oblivion and the players are going to find him asleep if they hit the Rest button outside the room.) Then I paused again, trying to scan for any other information, which I couldn't find, so I just trailed off. The adventure devotes nearly a third of this entire page to describing how the trap on the chest works, and no space whatsoever to giving a description that would entice the players, let them work out that there is something on the ceiling to be aware of, or in general save me any effort when running it. This whole chapter is a great example, to be honest; apart from one picture, the players and DM get given basically no interesting or useful descriptive text to make the castle memorable beyond a bunch of combat encounters. It could be a white box filled with cultists and Rezmir's furniture, and it'd have the same effect.

I REMEMBER THAT TRAP!
My Paladin egged the party Rogue* into checking out the treasure chest, nobody in the room noticed the attached trap mechanism, and I spent 1.5 IRL hours saving her from drowning. Because it was partly my fault she got zapped by it in the first place. (I went back later and collected the unbroken pots - they are still on my character sheet.)
BUT I DON'T REMEMBER ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT THE ROOM.
The trap left a lot to be desired, too. Our DM basically took over the character and ran it while she was under the influence of the trap. When I took over as DM a month later, I reviewed the trap's rules and realized that a half-page handout would have been better: "You've been zapped by a trap. You see and sense crazy stuff; your brain can't handle it. Read this boxed section while I go through everybody else's turn, and work out the big picture. When your next turn comes up, have your character try to complete those instructions as best you can. You don't have to be letter-perfect, just follow the main idea."

* to that point, she had not had a lot of success or fun at doing "Rogue stuff"; she was just a (rather fragile) attack roll in a crowd.

 

[Eltab]

Reacting to conversations above:

An overview map should come first, then zoom in with words and detailed maps for each interesting room.

I happen to like having the Monsters and their stats in an Appendix at the back. I make copies of stat blocks (or write notes) anyways so "flipping back and forth" isn't as much of a problem for me. I noticed working through the first half of Rise of Tiamat that many monsters (especially cannon fodder) don't need as many stats as are normally printed.

If you have an unusually-shaped room, some inexpensive art (like the pages and pages of visuals in Expedition to the Barrier Peaks) would be helpful. Maybe in another appendix so you can copy it and give the handout to the players. I've heard of the Hagia Sophia - it's in modern Istanbul, Turkey, formerly Constantinople, East Roman Empire, a church converted to a mosque - and I've seen exterior photos, but I don't know anything about its interior shape.

An adventure should have an expected plot progression; there may be side quests or loops along the way. Try to have any level-up points happen when you turn the page to a new chapter. HotDQ is good about that, at least.

A nifty thing to have is some sort of mechanism that can be cut-and-pasted to fit into a different story somewhere else. HotDQ has the chart for Cult groups sacking Greenest, and the lists of personalities and encounters during the caravan trip. Both of those can be moved: some other unwalled town being attacked by some other raiders, and the NPCs can show up anywhere in the world.

 

[shoak1]

Hm, I'm confused. Didn't Curse of Strahd do that with gentle nudging and a possible sequence by level? Or am I misremembering?

Or are you saying you want *more* clear guidance than what you just described?

The gentle nudging I see as appropriate for sandbox. At the other extreme of linear adventure would be a firm roadblock. In between are "steering mechanisms. I would like to see a half page side bar with those 2 higher levels of control.

 

[Quickleaf]

I see you already took the Oni size suggestion.

I thought you made a good suggestion. It doesn't really save space, but I think it reads more clearly.

My next thing I noticed, from an editing standpoint, is if there is a "+0" to an ability/save, then save the space. Just don't list it the ability unless there's a bonus/penalty.

In my own notation I've been using an = sign instead of +0. Because having the full Str/Dex/Con/Int/Wis/Cha spread is clear to the DM who is growing accustomed to reading these abridged stats. Break that up...and the reader scrambles around a bit "wait, Str should be before Dex, did I miss something?" At least, so goes my thinking.

There. Just saved you 3 lines in those two descriptions alone. Oni x4, there's 4 lines saved, there, alone. From the number of cultists and special whatever-they-are-casters, probably could save several ten's of lines.

Lol. Yes, I get what you're saying. Industry standard adventures seem to take a 2-3 column format...so what you're suggesting really wouldn't be possible in a published module unless the font size went *really* small.

To get into layout just a bit...

Here's some work-in-progress. 2-column formatting. Boxed text & abbreviated 1e-style stats.
Font size is 11 using Andada for main text, Scala Sans for stat blocks. Font size 14 Andada SC for area headings.
Document is US Letter with 0.5" margins left and right, 0.75" margins top and bottom (to allow for footer/header).

A bit more "white space" than some formats – and I probably will close that space between the 2 monster stat blocks and just let them be separated by a line – but (I think) it reads more clearly.

[SBLOCK=layout example]

[/SBLOCK]

 

[shoak1]

Remember, DMs who are comfortable with running sandbox/open world campaigns are not the target for most published adventures.....

Well the target audience is certainly not linear path DMs, because I can tell you that virtually all the modules published thus far are waaaaayyyyy to open for me to play out of the box.

For instance, I like PotA, but it is not easy to run. Unless you completely railroad the party along a proscribed path, then it's not a good adventure. But, if you run it open, then it's a good adventure (path) but the module organization is difficult and it requires a great deal of DM prep to run it well.

I'm sure you didn't mean any offence here, but "railroad" is to me a pejorative term that is dismissive of the idea that players may WANT a more in-depth and detailed preset balanced game to play and are more than willing to sacrifice their ability to roam as they please in exchange for that. Its why people play boardgames that have fixed boundaries, and why they don't elect some guy to make up what happens when they go to each place. D and D is part miniatures, part strategy, part roleplaying, depending on your playstyle and the edition. I think its perfectly acceptable for players who dont mind a DM largely controlling their destiny to play sandbox - but for those of us that do mind that, the term "railroad" might just as easily describe the DM making stuff up on the fly.

 

[Schmoe]

This is a great question. I'm currently running Keep on the Borderlands for some D&D newbies. It's been many years since I looked at the module, but now that I'm running it I see several places where it has not aged well For me, some of the most egregious things that are missing are, in no particular order:

• Boxed text. This is sooo important for a DM to give a concise description of what is visible to the characters without hunting through an area description to make sure I've covered everything. And I can't tell you how many times I accidentally gave away too much information to the players. I rarely read boxed text word for word, and I don't like boxed text that includes enemies or presupposes PC actions, but it's a useful script that I can follow to make sure I cover the important details without giving away too much. As several people have mentioned earlier, it can be helpful to make a quick note upfront of something transient in the boxed text. For example, if the boxed text assumes that the bonfire is raging, a quick note that says "Adjust this text if the bonfire is extinguished," is all you need.

• Well-organized room descriptions. I'd like the information in each room to be relatively well-organized. I don't think it needs to follow a strict format like some 3.5 adventures with Creature/Trap/Treasure sections, but the information should be logically presented. Start with the active occupants of a room. Describe hazards along with the area of the room in which they'll be encountered. Use paragraphs.

• Have multiple adventure threads. This mostly applies to a "setting"-type adventure, such as an open-ended dungeon. Having several interesting plots and sub-plots in motion really helps to give me ideas to keep the sessions feeling dynamic and interesting. I can work with a blank slate, but I'm really slow at it. Even if the adventure has one strong main sequence of events, sprinkle in some ideas for side-treks or other complicating scenarios. These can be presented as optional, and shouldn't be a distraction from running the adventure "cold", but they help a DM like me make the adventure my own.

On the topic of monster stats, I don't like having full stat blocks in the adventure text. The roster in the back is useful, and it would be even more useful if it came as a separate booklet or a separate sheet. I DO like having reduced stat blocks in the adventure text, though. These should be extremely brief and just serve as a reminder. If I need the full details I'll refer to one of several references (the roster or the MM), but I don't need a reference to play Orc #527 in a combat. An example would be something like:

"Sitting in a circle around the table are 3 orcs wearing studded leather and armed with hatchets (AC: 14, HP: 3,5,6, Attack: +1, 1d6+1)."

That's it, nothing too much. Seeing the stats is a quick marker that my eye catches when scanning the room description, letting me know that there is a creature I need to be aware of. I have the HP and can resolve a few attacks, and I can look up the rest as needed.

Finally, I like when adventures offer something new. This can be a new treasure, a new monster, new spells, anything really. It should enhance the adventure and strengthen its theme.

 

[robus]

I'm happy to have just a bolded reference to a monster in the adventure. I frequently move monsters to different locations when circumstances call for it. I.e. I decide that the monster wouldn't just hang out in the one spot and they've moved on to location X. So then having to hunt for the stat block somewhere else would be unhelpful.

Instead I'm slowly building up a compendium of abbreviated stat blocks from which I can gather the necessary subset for the evenings session. I guess I would love an abbreviated MM as a PDF that I could just pull from, but I also find that the act of transcribing the monster stats actually helps to drill their features into my brain .

 

[Quickleaf]

I'm going to update my initial post with some of the various things everyone has brought up so far.

But I want to take a moment to highlight the things that multiple people are saying – I think that convergence points toward "best design practice" for adventure-writing. At the least, these are things I'm noting down for a future hypothetical poll. Note that there are a lot of good ideas being shared; here I'm just looking at the overlap, when I notice a pattern of the same concepts being conveyed just with slightly different words.

....

Boxed text, direction-neutral & concise – (5) Lanefan, transtemporal, LordEntrails, Charles Rampant, Schmoe

Good useful comprehensive maps (before area descriptions) – (4) LordEntrails, ExploderWizard, vincegetorix, Eltab

What ifs & Monster plans/reactions – (3) Lanefan, transtemporal, ExploderWizard

1e style abbreviated monster stats in room descriptions – (3) Lanefan, steeldragons, Schmoe

Clearly connected encounters/plot progression for groups preferring linear narrative – (3) shoak1, LordEntrails, Eltab

Monsters/NPCs with motivations – (2) robus, ExploderWizard

Limited Backstory – (2) Lanefan, shoak1

Limited scope, self-contained (2) – LordEntrails, css

Monster stat appendix in the back (2) – Eltab, Schmoe

Something different/new (magic item, monster, NPC, trap, spell, etc) (2) – Lanefan, Schmoe

 

[robus]

An interesting exercise would be to rewrite chapter 1 of LMoP using the new style?