What Makes A Module Fun?

[Glyfair]

There isn't one thing (or even a group of things) that makes a module "fun." It's like asking what makes food "taste good." Some people love candy, some can't stand it. There certainly are things that make things fun more often than not.

I think the most important thing, though, is having an adventure designed by a skilled writer (or group of writers) who keep it foremost in mind that the adventure should be fun. They know the things that tend to work, and have the experience to know how to use them in the most effective way.

The second most important thing is the DM combined with his relationship with his players. The best adventure in the world isn't fun when the DM can't run it properly. It also isn't fun when the DM has one idea of how a game should go, and the players have another (or even several others).

 

[Steverooo]

How long an answer do you want? I think I'll just point you to the "10 Gentle Suggestions for Crafting Better Adventures" article near the bottom of the "Adventures" Section of the Web site in my extremely short .sig. (This particular version is slanted towards Sci-Fi, but I believe the Fantasy version was published in Lejends magazine. Just translate "Technology" to "Magic", and ignore the alien race-names.)

So Quasqueton, what's the point of all your "What's your experience with (X Module)?" and "Is (Y Module) well designed?" threads? Are you looking for the magic formula to adventure game design? If so, there isn't one!

TWO of my 10 Suggestions have already been mentioned: Variety, and Memorable NPCs. The rest are left as an exercize for the interested.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Origionality, intersting encounters (not limited to battles!), interesting/fleshed out NPCs, ability to run with random and crazy PC actions without breaking, non-linearality, interesting locales, non-predictability while remaining consistant, a plot twist or two, gather information/knowledge/etc tables, some kind of goal/accopmlishment for successful completion, plays to my style of DMing.

There's probably lots more.

What I don't want are big dungeons, one-solution problems, events that make little to no sense to PCs, lots of abrasive NPCs, rules-breaking without context, bad pacing (long lulls of boredom, frustrating areas, etc), or plot holes.

 

[jgbrowning]

The people involved.

joe b.

 

[Maldin]

To agree with what many people have already said..

A good DM who's quick on his feet
Good players with creative imaginations

Nothing else matters. Any mod can be made fun. Some of our best gaming nights include:

A seat-of-the-pants session where I only had 6 sentences of DM notes to go from.
An incredibly complex ship-to-(8)ship Spelljammer battle that took all night.
A plot-heavy pre-made mod that is often referred to by others as "railroading" PCs in the worst way.
A plot-absent old school dungeon crawl.

Its the people.

Denis, aka "Maldin"
=====================================
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com
Loads of edition-independent Greyhawk goodness... maps, magic, mysteries, mechanics, and more!

 

[wmasters]

Ultimately I agree with pretty much everyone that a good DM and group of players is what makes it fun, but there's more to it than that. You can still have a module, for example, which isn't as fun as others even with a good DM.

For me, what makes a module fun is believable NPCs, and encounters that are either cool or well thought out. If characters, monsters or encounters are too two dimensional then it's a lot less fun for me to run, and requires more work for me to flesh out as a DM.

 

[Quasqueton]

A gaming experience is like a dining experience. The adventure module is like the meal, drink, and table setting – the host can cook and arrange it all himself (homemade adventure module) or have it all catered (published adventure module).

If the host is excellent, and the guests around the table are excellent, the event can be fun and successful even if the roast beef is poor, and the table setting is missing forks. In fact, the poor quality of the meal (adventure) might even be completely overlooked.

If the host is a bore, and one guest a violent drunk, another an impolite slob, and another a glutton who eats all the potatoes, the event can be unfun and unsuccessful even if the meal is excellent and the table setting complete. In fact, the good quality of the meal (adventure) might even be completely overlooked.

Such is how some folks remember good fun with even poorly designed adventures, and how some folks remember no fun with even well-designed adventures.

So Quasqueton, what's the point of all your "What's your experience with (X Module)?" and "Is (Y Module) well designed?" threads? Are you looking for the magic formula to adventure game design? If so, there isn't one!

My “point” with the “What’s your experience with X” threads is simply fun, nostalgic discussion. My “point” with the “Is X well designed” threads is to discuss the good and bad of adventure design.

In my early D&D gaming days, I had the same DM run our group first through The Palace of the Silver Princess and then through The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. That DM was bad. Very bad. In many ways. I do not have fun memories with either of those adventures. But, years later, I read those adventures. I found PotSP to be badly designed, but SSS to be very well designed. My bad (unfun) experiences with those adventures were strictly a result of the DM (even PotSP could have been fun with a good DM).

This is why I explain in my “design” threads that I’m not asking of the adventure was fun – the fun is too dependent on the DM and Players. Good design will support fun, and can make mediocre DMs and Players have a successful gaming experience, but bad design requires particularly good DMs and Players to overcome its flaws (or particularly lenient and forgiving DMs and Players to overlook its flaws).

Quasqueton

 

[BlackMoria]

My experience is that design is a miinor factor in fun but the capabilities of the DM are vital.

The absolutely best time I had playing was a module (the module name is unimportant). The absolutely worst playing experience I had was the same module run by a DM with a different group. So, the best time of my RPG experience and the very worst was the same module.

The DM and his presentation is key. I've seen good DMs take a poor design module and it make it fun and memorable. I've seen poor DMs take a good design module and make it so unenjoyable that people are looking at the door because it can't end soon enough.