What turns you off in a purchased adventure?
- Thread starter Derulbaskul
- Start date
ForceUser
Explorer
Here is what I dislike about published adventures:
1. The need to read it before running it.
2. The need to reference it while running it.
3. The need to alter it to fit my homebrew.
I DM much more smoothly when I'm not stopping every ten minutes to read what my NPCs are supposed to be on about, or what the monsters are specifically going to do in combat, or what the adventure backstory is because I've forgotten important parts, or what comes next, according to the book.
Thus, I write my own adventures, and they tend to consist of scribbled notes that keep a couple of important ideas in my head, a map if necessary, monster stats on index cards so I won't have to flip open books, and a lot of making-it-up-as-I-go-along (scenery, NPC reactions to PC actions, monster tactics, and so on). My players don't have any complaints.
1. The need to read it before running it.
2. The need to reference it while running it.
3. The need to alter it to fit my homebrew.
I DM much more smoothly when I'm not stopping every ten minutes to read what my NPCs are supposed to be on about, or what the monsters are specifically going to do in combat, or what the adventure backstory is because I've forgotten important parts, or what comes next, according to the book.
Thus, I write my own adventures, and they tend to consist of scribbled notes that keep a couple of important ideas in my head, a map if necessary, monster stats on index cards so I won't have to flip open books, and a lot of making-it-up-as-I-go-along (scenery, NPC reactions to PC actions, monster tactics, and so on). My players don't have any complaints.
Arnwyn
First Post
Great answers. Many that were posted above are my pet peeves, and I'm going to post them here anyways for completeness' sake:
1. Bad maps, and maps with no grids. Automatic no-sale if present.
2. Real world names.
3. Time travel.
4. Novel tie-in.
5. Puns.
6. Real-world pop culture references. I despise this to the extreme (if Black Sails Over Freeport does badly, I surely hope it's because of this and not because of the "modules don't sell" mantra).
7. Extreme railroading. I've discovered a little bit of railroading isn't bad at all (and my players actually like to be railroaded!)
8. Witnessed events that are assumed the PCs can't alter.
9. Witnessed events that, despite being random, assume a specific outcome.
10. Plot that is so dependant on things (places, events, NPCs) that make it near impossible to import into a different game world, but only if the adventure has been billed as "generic" and "can be put in any game world".
11. Long stat blocks (and any stat block for an SRD monster).
12. Lack of details. Details are what I'm paying you for, buddy.
13. Hidden important information.
(Thanks to Derulbaskul, trancejeremy, Iuz, Psion, and Brandigan for reminding me of some of my major pet peeves.)
1. Bad maps, and maps with no grids. Automatic no-sale if present.
2. Real world names.
3. Time travel.
4. Novel tie-in.
5. Puns.
6. Real-world pop culture references. I despise this to the extreme (if Black Sails Over Freeport does badly, I surely hope it's because of this and not because of the "modules don't sell" mantra).
7. Extreme railroading. I've discovered a little bit of railroading isn't bad at all (and my players actually like to be railroaded!)
8. Witnessed events that are assumed the PCs can't alter.
9. Witnessed events that, despite being random, assume a specific outcome.
10. Plot that is so dependant on things (places, events, NPCs) that make it near impossible to import into a different game world, but only if the adventure has been billed as "generic" and "can be put in any game world".
11. Long stat blocks (and any stat block for an SRD monster).
12. Lack of details. Details are what I'm paying you for, buddy.
13. Hidden important information.
(Thanks to Derulbaskul, trancejeremy, Iuz, Psion, and Brandigan for reminding me of some of my major pet peeves.)
Gothmog
First Post
If a module has any one of these, I won't consider it:
1. Railroading- give me a situation, locations, and NPC's but don't expect a linear course of events to occur. I'm smart enough to be able to follow the situation and come up with NPC reactions to events based upon their agendas. Expecting a certain course to be followed it just bad gaming to me.
2. Non-existant plot- Simply saying "the BBEG is trying to do X- go stop him", or "go get item A, from place B, and screw it into location C, while avoiding/stopping BBEG D" aren't plots, they are simple situations. I want a story with some meat to it, which means NPC backgrounds, motivations, and complex interactions and agendas.
3. Dungeon crawl- While these were fun back in the day for short periods, they are really tedious now. Again, these seem like the height of DM laziness- simply running room-by-room through a dungeon complex, slaying the inhabitants, taking their stuff, and reaping XP is DEADLY DULL. Thats not to say I don't use ruins or places for the PCs to explore, but I use them as more achaeological interests, or as a place where the PCs can acquire info about ancient mysteries or problems.
4. Stupid fantasy names. Like elves named Eladorian Moonshadow, or dwarves name Moradinson Axebreaker. I MUCH prefer archaic real-world names to drivel like this. Most RPG authors don't take the time to create believable names based on different cultural linguistics, so most humans in the world end up with at best 2 or 3 monolithic cultures with similar naming practices, and the non-humans (elves, dwarves, orcs) ALL share the same racial culture. Blah. The best money I ever spent on an RPG purchase was the Everyone Everywhere List, which is a random name generator using real-world names from 40 different cultures, modern and ancient.
5. Bad guys who do stuff because "we're EEEEVIL!" Come on, nobody thinks they are evil- they have motivations and reasons for doing what they are doing. Maybe love, thirst for power, insanity, a sense of duty, etc- but they have a goal which they think it is acceptable to perform "evil" actions to attain.
6. Time travel- ditto, for reasons cited above.
7. Novel tie-ins
1. Railroading- give me a situation, locations, and NPC's but don't expect a linear course of events to occur. I'm smart enough to be able to follow the situation and come up with NPC reactions to events based upon their agendas. Expecting a certain course to be followed it just bad gaming to me.
2. Non-existant plot- Simply saying "the BBEG is trying to do X- go stop him", or "go get item A, from place B, and screw it into location C, while avoiding/stopping BBEG D" aren't plots, they are simple situations. I want a story with some meat to it, which means NPC backgrounds, motivations, and complex interactions and agendas.
3. Dungeon crawl- While these were fun back in the day for short periods, they are really tedious now. Again, these seem like the height of DM laziness- simply running room-by-room through a dungeon complex, slaying the inhabitants, taking their stuff, and reaping XP is DEADLY DULL. Thats not to say I don't use ruins or places for the PCs to explore, but I use them as more achaeological interests, or as a place where the PCs can acquire info about ancient mysteries or problems.
4. Stupid fantasy names. Like elves named Eladorian Moonshadow, or dwarves name Moradinson Axebreaker. I MUCH prefer archaic real-world names to drivel like this. Most RPG authors don't take the time to create believable names based on different cultural linguistics, so most humans in the world end up with at best 2 or 3 monolithic cultures with similar naming practices, and the non-humans (elves, dwarves, orcs) ALL share the same racial culture. Blah. The best money I ever spent on an RPG purchase was the Everyone Everywhere List, which is a random name generator using real-world names from 40 different cultures, modern and ancient.
5. Bad guys who do stuff because "we're EEEEVIL!" Come on, nobody thinks they are evil- they have motivations and reasons for doing what they are doing. Maybe love, thirst for power, insanity, a sense of duty, etc- but they have a goal which they think it is acceptable to perform "evil" actions to attain.
6. Time travel- ditto, for reasons cited above.
7. Novel tie-ins
DragonLancer
Hero
Gothmog said:
Excuse me, but arn't those are typical elven and dwarven names, so whats wrong with them? Elves and dwarves shouldn't have human sounding names.
What do you consider appropriate for them?
Turanil
First Post
Derulbaskul said:
What I really hate, and I have seen in some lately Dungeon Magazine adventures, is when every creature and its brother populate a particular dungeon. In just one short module you find (cooperating together perfectly well): fiendish rats, skulks, a werebaboons, hobgoblins, lemures, halflings, goblins, a half-troll/half-dragon, Raggamoffyns, dark creepers, shadow cloacks, dark stalker, dread guard, monstrous spider, mimic, ogre, fire beetle, beholder, and what not.
I HATE that. "Just roll a d6 dice to see which monster book to use, then a d100 to determine the page."
Gothmog
First Post
DragonLancer said:
Yes, they are typical, but they are also extremely silly. The problem is, they ARE human-sounding names. Moonshadow? Axebreaker? If the elves and dwarves were going to go through the trouble of having different sounding first names that don't translate into human tongues, then why do their last names? They are those silly multi-word compound names that have been beaten to death. The first names I threw out weren't so bad, perhaps a little cliche, but workable. Gnomes and halflings also suffer mightily from this problem with names like Gnamril Nimblefingers (gnome), or Borgo Fiddlefaddle (halfling).
A better sounding elven name might be Fanari Iactalius (this was a PC in a campaign I ran where elves had a decadent Roman-like empire falling into decline). Or perhaps a dwarf named Bjorn Grondahl. Those names evoke something of the culture, while also sounding different enough to not be mistaken easily for human names.
RangerWickett
Legend
Man, I want to publish an adventure now. Especially because I'm having a heck of a time getting all my players together to game.
jmucchiello
Hero
Could you elaborate on this? Most people complain when adventures have so much background that you can't rip it out and apply the story to your party. I've always considered adventures with 2-3 weak hooks better than an adventure with a strong hook because the ones with the strong hook usually fall apart if you try to use a different hook. Thus the adventure is useless your party can be snared by the given hook.Psion said:
Now if that dwarf was instead a human viking 
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