OK, so long time gone, back now playing beginner box. Love the adventure format, very informative, easy to follow and understand. Granted its the beginner box so it's likely over simplified, but I recall adventure of old that were often a wall of text that had to be read, highlighted and reread multiple times before game time.
So, I'm asking, how are recent adventures compared to the layout and clarity of the beginner box?
Chief Technical Officer
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OK, so long time gone, back now playing beginner box. Love the adventure format, very informative, easy to follow and understand. Granted its the beginner box so it's likely over simplified, but I recall adventure of old that were often a wall of text that had to be read, highlighted and reread multiple times before game time.
So, I'm asking, how are recent adventures compared to the layout and clarity of the beginner box?
Try downloading the free PDF of We Be Goblins! and tell us what you think! (Note that it's designed for the full Pathfinder RPG, and would require adjustments to run with the Beginner Box....)
Well... that adventure is a great example of a text wall, but thank you for pointing it out as I will definitely use it. Not saying that's bad, or I am I guess, but I don't mean its THAT bad.
But its clearly not something I can grab when I get the "hey lets play D&D, got an adventure you can run?" 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 play...
I had a bunch of old adventures from when I last subscribed, I grabbed Revenge of the Kobold King to take a look. That one is a tad better at "grab and go", but neither of them are like the power of Black Fang's Dungeon. THAT layout is perfect.
On top of that, the monsters are stat blocked right in the adventure. I thought there was a legal reason for this back then, hopefully that is gone now. No need to go grab another book and look them up, no need to flip to the back, and definitely none of that horrid Wizard's format where you read then flip to page x to do the encounter then flip back to read and then flip to...
Black Fang's Dungeon is a gem. Yes, I realize you also do a lot of "basic" this is x and that is y due to the nature of the adventure, but it by its self is what I was hoping the new module format was now like.
I also grabbed The Deadly Mine, and again... a perfect layout and format. It's the kind of adventure I could literally run without ever having read.
I believe one of the issues is that the 'wall of text' adventures are more fun to read then the more meticulously laid out ones like the beginner box. This actually came up in a previous thread where people asked for more adventures in the format of the begginner box. The issue mentioned was that a good many people buy APs and modules just to read them, like a book or short story. But that the style of the begginer box where everything is so laid out for you is something of a boring read.
As an example, I recently ran a modified version of the council of thieves. I changed so much in it I was barely using the second half of the Adventure Path, but I still enjoyed reading through them. They kind of flowed easily. I am now running Slumbering Tsar by frog god games. It is laid out in a much more modular fashion, with alot of things just presented to you as you ought to present them to the players. And while I love the adventure, and it is laid out in such a way that it very much fascilitates running it more easily (alot less prep time then the first half of council of thieves was) it is painful to read through. I have gone over the first 3 parts of it a couple times to familiarize myself with it and I really had to force myself to do so for the good of my game. I really didnt WANT to read it.
I can see this. I clearly don't use it the same way, but I can see your point.
Oddly enough, good or bad, I've never read an adventure "as" a story. Not saying I don't story-i-tize it for my players, but I've never sat down and tried to read it as one myself.
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I can see this. I clearly don't use it the same way, but I can see your point.
Oddly enough, good or bad, I've never read an adventure "as" a story. Not saying I don't story-i-tize it for my players, but I've never sat down and tried to read it as one myself.
I must have a hundred or more 3.x / Pathfinder adventures (not even counting the ones in Dungeon), far more than I could ever hope to run even if I stopped buying them. The ones that are a good read get read. The ones that aren't just sit on the shelf.
I don't read them as a "story" however - I imagine myself running them, and think "That would be an awesome scene" or "That would never work for my group, I'd have to modify it".
I don't read them as a "story" however - I imagine myself running them, and think "That would be an awesome scene" or "That would never work for my group, I'd have to modify it".
Right, same thing here. I don't mean to imply I don't read them, but like amethal said, I read them for usability sake, and probably like 99% of everyone here, I love a good back story and what not, but as a father of 3, running multiple groups and working full time, I often get home and between dinner and prep, have 15 minutes.
So I'm not saying I want modules to be linear without story, but having a layout that can be run with a quick glance and a few spot checks while the players are rolling dice is a huge bonus!
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I would prefer adventures to stay a 'wall of text', as they tend to bring better stoies and more memorable encounters to the table then quickplay adventures - at least without spending the time to create a story around them (the quickplay adventures that is).
That said - they may be written for 3.5, but you should take a look at the first few gamemastery adventures found here