What you want in a module

[mmadsen]

I want hack n slash in a game! A good ol' dungeon crawl complete with deadly traps and riddles and magic items.

I wan't hack-n-slash too -- in exciting locales, against dastardly villains, in a scenario that makes sense.

 

[Lady Dragon]

The ultimate adventure IMO has never been properly done,The closest was the giant/drow series and the Dragonlance original series.but neither started at first level and Dragonlance was written for pre existing characters.

What I would like to see is a series of adventures that start at 1st level and goes up to 20+ that are closely tied together by plot.Unlike the series recently done by WoTC.

The charcter could start out in a small town and find out something sneaky is going on,etc. only to find out that they plot goes further.Each module would feature different terrains and would advance the plot one step further to a conclusion.

For example the 1st level characters find out that the goblin raids that are bother there village are actually sponsered by more powerful enimies and so on the final enemy would of course turn out to be a demon prince or something.

I don't have the time or the imagination to think of these plots myself so I rely on published adventures.

This could either be in a few big books or a lot of little ones.I've always wondered why publishers are so caught up with trilogy's.and it would of course need lots of dungeons to explore.

 

[Mistwell]

There are two things I would love to see more of:

1) "Thinking" modules. Good examples of this are the Jonathan M. Richards contributions to Dungeon magazine, including Gorgoland's Gauntlet and the four Challenge of the Champions adventures. In fact, it's about time we got a nice, thick, content-filled module from Jonathan M. Richards, chalk-full of tricks, traps, riddles, mysteries, and good role-playing opportunities (with a little combat thrown in for the fun of it). These kinds of adventures are not only a boon to those players with a non-power-game bent, but for DM's who want to introduce new players to the game (including bringing more women into the game, who empirically reacted better to the "Thinking" adventures than to the hack-n-slash ones, on an average basis).

2) A bunch of mini-encounters and fully detailed locations. How many times have I said to myself "Crap, the players are wanting to go to a temple, I need a generic evil temple, quick!" Or tavern, or magic shop, etc... Give me a ton of well thought-out, three-four page detailed locations filled with level-adjustable NPC's and I will be a happy man.

My two cents!

 

[FireLance]

Hi Mistwell,

I know you had been posting comments on the mini-encounter contest (up until recently, anyway). What did you think of the general quality of those submissions? Were they what you had in mind?

 

[Walter_J]

Any other opintions? Ideas? Suggestions?

 

[Wolfen Priest]

Someone had much earlier mentioned that most adventures follow all the same old tired cliche's, and assume way too much about a party; I couldn't agree more.

It seems like most adventure modules assume that simple gold, or "doing the right thing" is enough to motivate PCs to *follow the path* of the adventure. It gets so that players just go along with it, outwardly saying how lame it is and "why would I be doing this for a few hundred gold?"

There must be a way for an adventure module to put PCs in danger where their only option is the *adventure* in order to save their own hides (as psion put it so well). This is more adventurous and exciting (aka: new & fresh) than the same old re-hashed "save the townsfolk" crap. Most of the people I play with would sooner watch the townsfolk die, then loot the village.

Obviously, YMMV.

Perhaps more should be done to trick the players, or trap them so that escape becomes the mission.

 

[Mistwell]

Hi Mistwell,

I know you had been posting comments on the mini-encounter contest (up until recently, anyway). What did you think of the general quality of those submissions? Were they what you had in mind?

Yes, that is very close to what I was getting at. A modular book full of locations (independant of encounters and NPC's), level-adjustable NPC's (independant of locations and encounters) and short encounters (dependant on Locations and NPC's). As for the quality, some were great, some just okay, and some poor. I would, of course, expect a more consistently good product, if I were going to pay for it.

 

[Kalendraf]

There must be a way for an adventure module to put PCs in danger where their only option is the *adventure* in order to save their own hides (as psion put it so well)

Actually, I think the quote you're referring to is mine back on page 1 of this thread. The idea of motivating a party by making it more personal seems to be quite effective at doing this. There are other methods as well. One must be cautious so as not to overdo things, however, or else it can lead to raildroading which is at least as bad if not worse.

There are few published adventures that I've seen that handle this properly. Most tend toward either the "Save the Village" mentality or a "Do this quest to earn that reward" kind of motivational technique. And the few that differ from those styles tend to be rather heavy-handed in the way of pushing the characters into a situation (ie railroading) just to set up the introduction and allow the adventure to transpire as written.

A good DM can usually tailor existing material to avoid these issues, but in some cases, written adventures can be very difficult to properly modify in this manner. Module authors who make the adventure flexible enough to allow for multiple hooks greatly help the DM here.

 

[mmadsen]

Most tend toward either the "Save the Village" mentality or a "Do this quest to earn that reward" kind of motivational technique.

This can work if everyone buys into the "we are great heroes" idea, but it really falls down if the players behave "realistically". For instance, try to motivate a party of modern Americans in a horror campaign. "Zombies? I get in the car and scram!" Or even a group of adventurers who take their own mortality seriously. "We've already lost Regdar. This adventure is over."

 

[mmadsen]

"Thinking" modules.

I enjoy "thinking" adventures too, but it's hard to keep them from seeming contrived. Really contrived.

These kinds of adventures are not only a boon to those players with a non-power-game bent, but for DM's who want to introduce new players to the game (including bringing more women into the game, who empirically reacted better to the "Thinking" adventures than to the hack-n-slash ones, on an average basis).

Good point. Actually, it's a bit shocking just how differently the game plays when your players don't want to fight.

A bunch of mini-encounters and fully detailed locations.

Is the Book of Challenges going to deliver on this, or is it just traps? (At least the "challenges" should help with "thinking" adventures, right?)