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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 9373582" data-attributes="member: 7006">Plots, story hooks, and NPCs with needs and desires to do things are the most important parts of an adventure being good, as far as I am concerned.  But this is because to me... the reason for playing any RPG is for the story.  The entire story that the characters experience.  So the more an adventure has story beats and has logical reasons for going from one story beat to another, or even story beats happening in the background that can hint at things going on in the world (should the players choose to take a look at them, but no big deal if they don't)... that all makes for more interesting events for the PCs to experience.I can build combat encounters with my eyes closed, so I don't need 4E Dungeon Mag "modules" that are just a set of three pre-built combat encounters put into various locations (but with barely any connecting thread as to why they get there, or why they just walk from once fight to the next).  But ask me to improvise a foreshadowing event that is going to pay off for the party after 20 further sessions down the line and have that foreshadow actually make sense?  Not likely.  But if I know going in that the story of the campaign will take the players to X location wherein person Y is being held captive and who might have the key to something important... I can hint at that 5 levels and 6 real-time months earlier so they keep that little nugget in the back of their mind.I could never imagine myself being handed something like Curse of Strahd that only had the maps, the NPCs, and the locations where monsters were to fight, and then being told "Sandbox!" "Let the players wander around!"  To me, that seems rather pointless.  Having a book like that without having anything describing what those NPCs and monsters were doing, what was important to them, how they all connected to one another and the locations they are in, or events that occur to one group that would inspire other groups to get involved or show up or having impact on other events months later-- let alone the entire storyline of needing to protect Ireena while getting Madam Eva's prophecy in order to go off searching for all the MacGuffins needed to eventually take down Strahd?  Take all of that out of the adventure?  Yikes.  So not useful as far as I'm concerned.In other words... we take out all that story and turn it essentially into a setting book?  No thank you. If I want a setting book, I'll buy a setting book.  If I want an adventure, I'd like there to BE an adventure-- where there are things we should do that need doing, events occurring around us that color our reasons for doing things, and most importantly... DRAMA.  I want drama!  To me, that's the whole reason for playing.  And an adventure or module that doesn't include drama (and no, "surviving being attacked" is not drama as far as I'm concerned) is not a worthwhile adventure in my book.</blockquote>

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