WotC_Dave "Noonan" says a little on adventures

[TerraDave]

From his blog

D&D Adventures: You know who rocks? Greg Vaughan, that’s who.

One of my tasks for the morning is looking through his (big) contribution to a forthcoming adventure. At first glance, it looks terrific. And it’s no mean feat to write an adventure for a game system that doesn’t fully exist yet.

Overall, that sort of simultaneous design is a good thing. You learn things when you’re writing an adventure that inform the system design, and you learn things when you’re doing system design that you can apply in adventures. The trick is making sure everything is up-to-date and that changes one place are reflected elsewhere. So that’s what I’m up to today.

SNIP

More on Adventures: Here’s a little rant I wrote back in July about adventures. As with most good rants, it’s without nuance. It’s more about staking out territory in an argument than arriving at capital-T Truth. But I thought you’d get a kick out of it.

A D&D adventure is like a play. And you’re writing the adventure.
But you aren’t the playwright. That’s the DM. He’s better at it than you are, because you aren’t in his basement.
The director? Nope. The DM is that guy, too. Again, he’s better at it than you are, because he’s actually met his actors.
You know who you are? You’re a seamstress. You’re a set carpenter. And you’re a really good one. The director and the playwright are no damn good at set design. The dudes can’t even pound nails.
In fact, you have to be so good at sewing and carpentry that you’ve got the costumes and the sets ready to go before the acting company even needs them.
So let the playwrights write, let the directors direct, and let the actors act. Give them the costumes, sets, and props—the stuff they can’t do for themselves without bashing their thumbs—and they’ll put on a hell of a show.

The caveat: If you make adventures this way, be prepared to ignore all reviews—good and bad—that appear in the first month after release. Even with your deathless prose, your adventure is going to suffer on a readthrough compared to a tightly plotted adventure with activist, foreground NPCs. But you know what? Your adventure will play better. Accept the “reads bad, plays good” badge with pride.

Here are some things that you can do along the way that’ll help those dudes in the basement.
• Cool maps of cool places. Maps are something that takes time, talent, and tech to pull off, and we’re going to be better at it than the DMs out there are.
• Meepo. This little kobold from Sunless Citadel is probably the most memorable element from the entire Adventure Path. Why? He’s a lousy bad guy, doesn’t take part in a meaningful fight, and isn’t impressive in any sense of the word. But he’s interesting in a plot-ambivalent way, so DMs can put him to work for them—or not, as they choose. The more Meepos (interesting stuff that’s flexibly expandible, but untethered to big plot elements) you can seed throughout your adventures, the better.
• Figure out the environmental dynamics for the DM ahead of time. If the goblins sound the horn and alert the dungeon, then set up and clearly explain who runs where. If the caves are filling with water as the tide comes in, then give the guy a nice schedule of when each chamber submerges.
• Open the throttle a little and let players overachieve. Quit being such a *** miser with treasure, for starters. Put some extra loot behind a particularly scary monster, then defy the players to come get it

I couldn't agree more on his thinking on adventure design (get to work you carpenters). But who is Greg Vaughan?

His post also has some thinking on the Pats that I agree with, and some WoW stuff others might be interested in.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I couldn't agree more on his thinking on adventure design (get to work you carpenters). But who is Greg Vaughan?

Greg Vaughan has written several adventures for Dungeon magazine, I believe.

 

[I'm A Banana]

These ideas intrigue me, as a very successful spontaneous DM. I know the dangers of over-scripting, so I'm intrigued by the 'reads bad, plays good' doctrine.

 

[BV210]

But who is Greg Vaughan?

Tammeraut's Fate (Dungeon)
Twilight Tomb
Isitivn trilogy (Dungeon)
Drow of the Underdark
Anauroch
Slumbering Tsar Trilogy (Necromancer)
Torrents of Dread (Dungeon)
Prince of Demons - Savage Tide AP (Dungeon)
Kings of the Rift - Age of Worms AP (Dungeon)
forum sparring partner with Logue and Pett
loves to show off his photo with Gary Gygax at GENCON
runs a very entertaining game (that I'm sorry I can't participate in)
and finally, married extremely well and has cute kids

 

[Stormtalon]

I agree with the shout-out to ol' Meepo; he was sorta the inspiration behind one of the NPCs that some of my players "adopted," and Gubchuk the goblin was also in that design area that lies peripheral to the main plot. Those sort of hooks that DMs can tailor to their own liking without needlessly affecting the flow of the adventure are always fun to play with.

So, here's to all the hooks, potential sidekicks & throwaway NPCs that WoTC can toss our way! Let the conceptual Children of Meepo multiply and either annoy or charm countless more players!

(as an aside, did anyone else kill off the poor gnome that can be rescued in Sunless Citadel? Poor guy, he finally decided to make his way to freedom after the party rescued him, only to fall to his death climbing up the rope out of the chasm. They found his broken body as they finally made their way out. Now there's pathos!)

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I like the idea that the writers are the set designers, wardrobe people etc.

His post also has some thinking on the Pats that I agree with

Can't say I agree with his reasoning since I live in the Greater Boston area. I don't really care much about the NBA so if he feels one of the three has to lose, I'll choose them. And while most don't consider it a major sports championship, some of us cannot forget that we almost ended up with the MLS championship here this year as well.

 

[TerraDave]

Stormtalon: meepo has really become one of the great shared memories of 3rd ed. I am not exactly sure what that says...

Thornir: I posted that part of Noonan's blog on the NFL thread here. Stop on by: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=208588&page=4&pp=30

 

[JohnSnow]

Good ol' Meepo even made it into d20 Modern, so clearly the little guy's got traction!

Sometimes, the best bits are the ones that the designers never intend.

 

[Greg V]

Tammeraut's Fate (Dungeon)
Twilight Tomb
Isitivn trilogy (Dungeon)
Drow of the Underdark
Anauroch
Slumbering Tsar Trilogy (Necromancer)
Torrents of Dread (Dungeon)
Prince of Demons - Savage Tide AP (Dungeon)
Kings of the Rift - Age of Worms AP (Dungeon)
forum sparring partner with Logue and Pett
loves to show off his photo with Gary Gygax at GENCON
runs a very entertaining game (that I'm sorry I can't participate in)
and finally, married extremely well and has cute kids

Yeah! And I bowl a 280....

Okay, not really. But I did bowl a 160 once....

Sure , it was probably luck. Okay, I think I'm done here.