Your Favorite Kind of Adventure

[Jon_Dahl]

I think any adventure where you're not sure what is going to happen next and you're dying to know what kind of surprise is around the corner is great. It doesn't matter if it's railroad or not as long there's a certain level of anticipation going on all the time. And if you get jaded and think that this is a one-way track, then the big surprise hits you.

This goes well with all of the listed types, but I think it's fantastic when DM is able to create a combat heavy adventure where anything happen and there are lots of bloody surprises in every session.

 

[steenan]

Most of adventures I run fall into two categories:

1. Strongly NPC-based. They are typically urban, but it's not a hard rule. Locations are just a background for interactions, anyway.
This kind of scenarios typically has a lot of talking and some fighting, often with one leading to another. And even if someone is a definite enemy, it's a person with goals, motivations and personality.

2. Travel-based. They are typically happening in wilderness. Characters, for some reason, are going from point A to point B. On the way, they face challenges, discover some interesting things and probably face some hard choices. Here, locations are much more important. Also, there is less NPCs, compared to animals, monsters and inanimate sources of problems (bad weather, mountains that need to be climbed etc.).

 

[The Shaman]

Investigation, Intrigue and Politics - everything I run turns into a spy caper at some point.

 

[meomwt]

Despite what some of them might say, everyone's given me thumbs up for the dungeon crawl we've just been playing (DCC28 Into The Wilds for anyone interested).

I've run other kinds of adventure (urban, wilderness, infiltration, etc,), but at the end of the day they just want to bash stuff and take loot.

The last campaign I ran stalled, despite me setting it in a variety of locales (and there not having been a true dungeon), but it seemed to stall during an assault to save a village from Ogre invaders. So this time I'm playing safe and everyone's having a blast.

That might stop when Red Hand of Doom starts, and their "base village" is first in line to be destroyed

 

[KidSnide]

<Situation develops> -->
<Party becomes involved> -->
<Party determines "true" situation and thier position> -->
<Party decisively acts to affect situation> -->
<Consequnces ensue providing new situation possibilties>

With the exception of an adventure that begins with: "<Party generates situation>", pretty much every adventure should have this structure. Even a hack-and-slash dungeon crawl should reveal something about the situation that allows the PCs to make an interesting decision about how to resolve the situation.

Most if not all adventures expect the party to act decisively to affect the situation.

I find a lot of published adventures omit the step <Party determines "true" situation and their position>. It is replaced with <Party is assigned a position in a clearly defined situation>. That greatly reduces the potential for investigation, party interplay, and consequential choice.

I agree - there are plenty of bad adventures out there. That having been said, I think it is OK for a good adventure to assume that the players will take a particular side in a conflict, provided that the adventure provides additional reveals about the situation and allows the PCs to make meaningful decisions about how they want to approach the situation.

For example, Red Hand of Doom isn't a bad adventure just because it assumes that the PCs will oppose the ravenous horde. There are multiple significant decisions for the PCs to make about who to ally with and what to sacrifice. Likewise, a good Ravenloft adventure can assume that the PCs' primary goal are to escape from Ravenloft, provided there are interesting decisions to be made about, for example, which evil to fight (you can't fight them all!) and how much the PCs are willing to risk themselves in order to "do good".

While I agree with that being a great adventure structure, you maybe should maybe not state that all adventures should run that way, as there are different thoughts on what is ideal.

I agree that there are lots of good variations on this structure, but I think it's correct to say that all good adventures must (1) reveal relevant interesting information over the course of the adventure and (2) allow the PCs to make meaningful interesting decisions about what to do. IMO, if you don't have those two elements, you're probably not looking at a good adventure.

-KS

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I voted me some Urban Intrigue and Investigation. I love a midnight chase across the rooftops. Or through the sewers.

 

[delericho]

Any or all of the above.

What I'm sick of seeing, though, are bland adventures. A dungeon that is just room-room-trap-room-monsters-room-treasure... An investigation that is clue-clue-clue-BBEG... A city that seems remarkably small for its size...

We've seen all these things. Most of us have a bank of adventures that already do all these things. And anyway, we can easily enough homebrew all these things. Give us something new!

Give us an adventure where what's really going on isn't what first appears to be what's going on. Give us dungeons with multiple paths through them, and a good chance of missing out lots of the "good stuff". Give us cities with a cast of thousands! Fill your adventure with wonder, and whimsy, and magic of all sorts!

All this is more important to me than where it's set. That's just dressing.

 

[JeffB]

Its too bad Paizo and WOTC cannot look at this poll and start producing rule systems and adventures accordingly instead of combat heavy rules, and combat heavy adventures.

And yes, I am completely aware that internet polls are not indicative of anything

 

[cbbakke]

I like adventures with moral dilemmas. Doing the "right thing" is far more fun to figure out when it is not black and white.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

I picked: Wilderness, dungeons, cities, and exploration. I guess I'm big on exploring different places and finding phat lewts in the process as a player. As a DM I like running all kinds of adventures. Interesting poll and it's cool to see what people say about their preferences.