I was reading this the other day
http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?designdiary_mmearls_8
It reminded me of how I tend to flesh out homebrew story arcs. Before I have things finalized, I speculate about a lot of "what ifs?", and then I decide on how I want things to go, more or less.
It would be nice, I think, to get some of the "pick and choose" delivery in Dungeon adventures.
Some adventures I don't use, or have a preconceived notion about not being a good fit. I'd get more value out of those, and consequently more value from the magazine, if they were presented in a more open ended manner.
Anyone else think this would be a useful format for them?
Would you like to see an experiment in delivering things in this format?
<snip>
Before I have things finalized, I speculate about a lot of "what ifs?", and then I decide on how I want things to go, more or less.It would be nice, I think, to get some of the "pick and choose" delivery in Dungeon adventures.
<snip>
Would you like to see an experiment in delivering things in this format?
I think it might be too much to ask the writer of an adventure to come up with a lot of material to support a variety of alternate paths, not to mention the extra page count that would be required to manage something like that. However, I do think that it's possible to assist with the "what if'ing" by providing a well considered and well constructed final "Concluding the Adventure".
When written well, the "Concluding the Adventure" section can be used to provide multiple recommendations for what to do if the PCs fail to capture/kill the major villain, or if they leave minions behind, as well as when they succeed. It can also be used to provide options that depend on the interactions and/or impact one or more PCs may have had on other important NPCs.
Thus, by covering more than just "what you can do once the party succeeds" the writer of the adventure provides the DM with a palette of different options to choose from.
-Jenni
Backdrops in Dungeon have always appealed to me because they are pretty much what Mike Mearls is talking about in the article. I like flexibility, but suggesting that Dungeon start using a flexible, open ended format for all adventures is going to alienate most of its core audience.
When written well, the "Concluding the Adventure" section can be used to provide multiple recommendations
I'm inclined to agree that this would be the most straightforward and least impactfule way to have this info in the Dungeon adventures. I also agree that the section is sometimes already used for this purpose.
I was thinking about it further, and came up with the idea that really what I want is for the material to not be wasted when something unexpected happens. I don't want a let down for me or the other people at the table when we're expecting something fun and exciting.
With that in mind, I think that if the sotry gets resolved quickly, and unexpectedly, but in a satisfying way in terms of the build up, resolution, denoument elements, that we're done with the material. No problems.
If the villain gets whacked in an unsatisfying, anti-climactic for everyone at the table way, I think the best way to account for it in terms of a written module format is to always have another NPC who has their own plan, that can become the major plan, and a surpise twist, when/if the PC's take out the original villain.
For example, someone in the Realms trying to get the magic bad sea relic for the kraken cult. He's the main bad guy, but if the PC's take him out, maybe a lieutenant steps up to the plate. His agenda is to get the same thing and steal it for the church of Umberlee. That was his intention all along. Maybe the PC's give him an opportunity, and maybe they don't. In either case, either option can lead to a big finale.
A lot of what you are talking about is in my view the GM's responsibility. As most adventures are written generic enough to fit into the average campaign world, it does at some point fall to the GM to make rational, and creative conclusions about what happens next as you did yourself in your example. If everything in the game were spelled out (an impossible feat to pull off in an magazine format even for a game as realatively simple as chess), there really wouldn't be much need for imagination and therefore not much need for table top gaming to begin with.
That said, "wasted material" can always be pulled for different adventures. Take a room out of one dungeon that the characters passed two adventures ago and plop it into your latest dungeon with all suitable upgrades. Use Warduke's stat block for your evil overking, or adapt "Salvage Operation" (a nautical adventure on a sinking ship, by Mike Mearls) into a Spelljammer, Underdark, or classical Greek setting.
GGG