I liked those as well, in fact two of the guys in my group also loved these and are begging me to convert and run them. I don't have the time to convert them, but I'd run them if I could find them. Does anyone know if these have been converted?
I statted a couple of scenes as a break between other mythological worlds in a high-level plane-hopping adventure; if you post your email address I'll be happy to send a copy.
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[All time worst, by far: Dungeonland and Land Beyond the Magic Mirror. Gary Gygax's interpretation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland cast most of the clever creatures of the Carrollverse as lethal, unthinking killers. The Cheshire Cat? He's a blinking smilodon who tries to kill you. The Dormouse, Hatter, and March Hare try to trick you into drinking poisonous tea, and if you don't, they try to kill you. Humpty Dumpty summons all the king's horses and all the king's men (illusory rhinos and frost giants, actually), and they try to kill you. But, hey, if you ever wanted detailed rules for striking a hedgehog with a flamingo, this is the module for you.
Mike
Hear, Hear... Worst adventures by far. *stomach turns just thinking about them*
I may get some grief for this choice but: H4
It's the epitome of the worst possible way to make a planar module. City of thousands of lichs - check. Goofy artwork - check. Beer swilling, chain smoking, obese solar with a texan accent who lives in the celestial fortress pronounced like Alamo - check.
Ugg. *shudder*
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yeah, judge's guild was very hit or miss for sure.
i'm not a big fan of the "uk" series of 1e modules.
i'm glad this thread exists, though, as i skipped 2e (other than the core books) buying wise, and pretty much stopped buying prefab TSR modules after 87 or so, so now that i'm in "buy o.g. stuff" mode, the suggestions and warnings here are like mini-reviews that may help me keep from buying trash...
Hmm, interesting. The comment about the epic scope of the Dragonlance modules sparked an idea. Xak Tsaroth, with a bit of tweaking, would make a great location for a future adventure for my party (only one of them have ever read the Dragonlance novels, but wasn't playing D&D when the modules first came out).
How funny that a thread talking about poor modules can still give idea sparks. :)
Companion to the Worst D&D Books Thread:
Adams Wrath: Starts out with the party dying (encouraging the DM to cheet to make it happen) and then they wake up having been 'saved' by Viktor Mordheim. They then have to make a deal with him (automatic evil act) to be railroaded into the plot.
Yeah, they're "saved" by becoming flesh golems, aren't they!?
I had this shrinkwrapped for years and finally opened it up in hopes of finding material on Lamordia. I had hopes I could run the module. Uh, not as is...!
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I may get some grief for this choice but: H4
It's the epitome of the worst possible way to make a planar module. City of thousands of lichs - check. Goofy artwork - check. Beer swilling, chain smoking, obese solar with a texan accent who lives in the celestial fortress pronounced like Alamo - check.
Ugg. *shudder*
Was that the one that had "100 type 1 demons followed by 100 type 2 demons" and the goal was to kill Orcus?
If so, I agree that it was garbage.
wasn't that one of the bloodstone modules released for use with the 1e battlesystem?
"Space Lairs" for Spelljammer is a book of 14 independent mini-adventures. The very first one is "The Good Ship Gump"...
The whole adventure takes place on the _back_ of a colossus named Gump who "has been drifting in space ever since he unwisely kicked off from the planetoid where he was living to catch a pet spaceworm, which ran away."
"Luckily for Gump (who isn't very bright), he hadn't been too careful about taking baths for awhile , and several plants had taken root in the dirt on his back. That meant at least he had something to eat. Thanks to the same plants refreshening his air supply, he also hasn't had any trouble breathing."
There is actually a "map" of Gump's back (1 square= 1.5 feet) which shows his nasty-a$$ back with moss, small plants and trees all over it (along with the "Trapezius Hills" and "Spinal Trench"). Also shown are his overly large ears...
You can thank a Nicky Rea and/or Wes Nicholson for this turd!
Kobold Press
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A lot of the 90's was massive hit or miss. I ran my campaigns almost exclusively from adventures in Dungeon Adventures magazine, which seemed to never fail me.
I worked at TSR in the early 90s, and yeah, you could pretty much tell that something was wrong. Which is why I left.
However, I was working at in the magazine department during my time there, so I did my bit to make the adventures make sense. Guess it worked, though much of the credit goes to editor Barbara Young.
A lot of the 90's was massive hit or miss. I ran my campaigns almost exclusively from adventures in Dungeon Adventures magazine, which seemed to never fail me.I worked at TSR in the early 90s, and yeah, you could pretty much tell that something was wrong. Which is why I left.
However, I was working at in the magazine department during my time there, so I did my bit to make the adventures make sense. Guess it worked, though much of the credit goes to editor Barbara Young.
Whatever happened to Barbara Young? She actually tended to put out some really good advice in her editorials.
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The Castle of the Silver Princess was a tough one. There was no logical reason for all those different monsters to be throughout the castle.
I liked Castle Amber, although it was bizarre, and loved the Lost City. I did a whole campaign on that one.
black arrow, red shield was pretty awesome, as well (as long as we're talking BECMI)
(or was that black shield red arrow? it's been a while...)
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Nothing compares with the Three That Shall Not Be Named: Puppets, Gargoyle, and Child's Play. Players made into dolls? Check. Wingless gargoyles? Check. Bad parody of 80s horror movies? Check.
It's possible I've mis-summarized them, I can't bare to pull out my copies to verify their plots.
Gargoyle! Hands down.
I actually ran it in a campaign, in large part for the sheer madness of it.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Yes, it certainly is. I don't mind the premise of the module, and as a matter of fact, it's supposed to play an important role in my current campaign... but if my players ever get to a high enough level to play the scenario, I can guarantee that it will have been altered drastically... No more opening sequence, that's for sure! And the railroading in that module was some of the worst I have ever seen.I never played any of the bad Greyhawk modules, though the opening sequence of Vecna lives! is certainly among the worst possible ones.
Nail hit squarely on head. I was very excited when I saw they were doing a Vecna module way back when, but the execution of the "hi there, everybody dies, now the adventure moves on" intro was just the worst part of a hardcore railroad adventure that never sniffed the air of coolness that I hoped for from it.
Alas...
Does anyone know of a 3.5 adaptation of Keep on the Borderlands?
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Some of this is probably connected to the nostalgia factor. We've run Keep a few times and never cared for it. OTOH, most of us want to redo Bane of Llewellyn and Ghost tower of Inverness, as we liked them way back when. Different strokes and all that...I agree with the nostalgia factor. While Bane of Llewellyn seemed like a good adventure when I read it, both times I DM'd for it it didn't play very well (maybe not my DM style? not sure here). Ghost Tower of Inverness was a blast for me as DM (I ran this one 2 or 3 times), but I don't think my players appreciated the lethalness - those old tournament adventures could be nasty sometimes! I remember half the group getting wiped in the last room of the tower, and that was an evil way to die wasn't it?
I've run "To Find a King" and "Bane of Llewellyn" a couple times and always had a good time with them. They also have fun set-pieces that can be dropped into a campaign as sidetreks or microadventures, so they are handy for sourcing even if you don't run them as is.
"Ghost Tower of Inverness" was the first module I bought with my own money - I just loved the name and the cover art. I thought the adventure was great as a kid and ran it then. Reading it later, it seemed... well, it seemed like a tournament module. Actually, though, I ran a very fun revision of it many years later in a 2nd Ed. campaign, in which it was the magical fortress of an ancient lich of Netheril, and the soul gem was the lich's phylactery. It actually made sense then as a super-lethal dungeon railroad dungeon of bizarro traps and elemental and magical monsters. It was brutal but the party made it through and it turned out to be a very memorable adventure.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Howl from the North: TSR followed up a workmanlike "Five Shall be One" by the company's best freelancer (Carl Sargent) with a piece of crap by its worst on-staff designer (Dale "Slade" Henson). That man's name on the cover of a TSR product is like a Mr. Yuck sticker on a can of poison.Heh... I take it we shouldn't expect to see Mr. Henson's name on Pathfinder or GameMastery products in the near future? Is he even still active in RPG design? Poor dude... ;-)
I agree with you where Sargent is concerned. I know that opinion on his work is divided in the Greyhawk fan community, but I think he is/was one of the best (if not the best) RPG product designers out there. The stuff he generated for Greyhawk in the early '90s was, IMO, awesome (and a godsend, too, coming out a few years after the release of Castle Greyhawk and the Three That Shall Not Be Named to breathe new vitality into a dying setting). It's a shame he seems to have mysteriously dropped off the face of the earth... I would so love to see him write for Paizo!
I agree. I loved Marklands and Iuz the Evil and shamelessly ripped off stuff from them for my home campaign even though I wasn't running GH at the time. NPCs, spells, items, locations... just all kinds of good.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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I have a love/hate relationship with Chateau D'Amberville (X2?).
On the one hand, from a player's perspective, woot, free powers in every room! It's like the mirror image of the Tomb of Horrors, with something giving you a plus to saves or an extra ability point lurking around every corner.
From a DM's perspective, oh hell no. My least favorite plotline ever, 'Find the powerful NPC (Stephen D'Amberville?), who is billions of times cooler than you, and 20 or so levels higher than you, and watch him finish the adventure for you.'
But it will never be as bad as any adventure based on a novel. Whether it be Avatar Trilogy or Dragons of Seasonal Time-of-Day-Referent, any adventure where you walk around and watch stuff happen, and the boxed text tells you that you can't kill X or stop Y from happening *no matter what,* annoys the crap out of me. That's not an adventure, that's a travelogue of *somebody elses vacation.*
Novel 'adventures' are as to real adventures as slideshows are to action packed blockbusters.
I actually like a lot of the DL modules, in part because a lot of them feature things that happen off-stage in the books (like basically all of DL3, 4, 6, and I don't recall which of the later ones), also because there is a lot of detail and places where you can go off-thread (though many, of course, just keep pushing you back to the plot), but also there are a lot of neat set-pieces. I've lifted bits and pieces of DL modules through the years and woven them into other places.
But... to play through the modules just to re-enact the plot of the War of the Lance? Yeah, I don't think I'd be interested. Sort of like playing a video game based on a movie, eh? With some rewriting to enable a parallel plot at the same time things are going down in the War of the Lance, that could be fun, but I understand the reservations about them.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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wasn't that one of the bloodstone modules released for use with the 1e battlesystem?I may get some grief for this choice but: H4
It's the epitome of the worst possible way to make a planar module. City of thousands of lichs - check. Goofy artwork - check. Beer swilling, chain smoking, obese solar with a texan accent who lives in the celestial fortress pronounced like Alamo - check.
Ugg. *shudder*
Was that the one that had "100 type 1 demons followed by 100 type 2 demons" and the goal was to kill Orcus?
If so, I agree that it was garbage.
H1 Bloodstone Pass and H3 Bloodstone Wars were the ones set up for Battlesystem. I ran through the series once. Using Battlesystem. Ouch. Actually, it was fun, but I wouldn't want to do it again.
H4 Throne of Bloodstone had some entertaining parts, but also some awful parts. The aforementioned battle is against 100 type III demons, actually, led by a type VI, and you pretty much appear right in the middle of them. I ran the adventure, and the PCs did successfully hack their way through the seething mass of demons. However, in the next cave over there are ANOTHER 100 TYPE III DEMONS. Neither the players nor I had the heart or the stomach for another mega-fight, so they just somehow sneaked on by that encounter.
By the way, did you know that you could meet a demilich in H4 AS A WANDERING MONSTER?
And the best flavor text of all time: "You see a large horned monster. It charges you!" The monster in question? A tarrasque, just hanging out in a big chamber in Orcus' castle. You'll note I say a tarrasque, since this is actually the SECOND tarrasque you can fight in this series - there is also one in H2 Mines of Bloodstone.
Ah, memories...
Heh. Thanks for resurrecting the thread.
My favorite worst official adventures are (in no particular order):
Palace of the silver princess (as stupid as dungeons can get)
Castle Greyhawk and all the other joke crap on Greyhawk mentioned already, be it the Alice in Wonderland stuff or The Three That Shall Not Be Named.
Bloodstone series, especially the abyss part in H4. (100th level player characters, anyone?)
The Doomgrinder Module from the late 90ies GH series of modules - How lame can an explanation for a doomsday-predicting device be? I was deeply disappointed after reading this.
CM 4 Earthshaker! - A giant steam robot? Are you serious?
Cool adventures I still like today are
Castle Amber - has something of a ghost train, and can get really interesting if you use some of the later additional stuff.
The War of the Desert Nomads Series (X4,X5,X10) - nice mini-campaign, even if it needs some work.
Just some things that I could think of at the moment.
Stefan
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I may get some grief for this choice but: H4
It's the epitome of the worst possible way to make a planar module. City of thousands of lichs - check. Goofy artwork - check. Beer swilling, chain smoking, obese solar with a texan accent who lives in the celestial fortress pronounced like Alamo - check.
Ugg. *shudder*
Man I love that module (that is my favorite set of modules ever). The chain smoking solar is supposed to be Gary Gygax I believe.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Heh. Thanks for resurrecting the thread.
My favorite worst official adventures are (in no particular order):
Palace of the silver princess (as stupid as dungeons can get)
I ran a modified version of this, based on a PDF of the original (I have a paper copy of the revised one, but the original had all kinds of super-weird monsters), but up-leveled for characters around 12th level and infested with mutated pseudonatural horrors, kaorti, and other freaks from the nearby Gates of Firestorm Peak. Which made all the weirdness in the dungeon make sense. Sort of... :)
Castle Greyhawk and all the other joke crap on Greyhawk mentioned already, be it the Alice in Wonderland stuff or The Three That Shall Not Be Named.
Bloodstone series, especially the abyss part in H4. (100th level player characters, anyone?)
The thing is, if you use the scaling in the adventure to bust out Fyarinar (IIRC) the abyssal dragon for 76+ level characters, he has 800 hit points. In 1st Edition, where dragons do breath damage equal to their full hit points! In other words, it really didn't matter if you WERE 100th level, because the dragon's attack is supposed to be pretty much an auto-surprise (flies in invisibly and breathes) - 800 points of fire breath. You're either immune to fire or you die, regardless of whether you save. If you had contingency with fire shield (cold) you were probably fine - save for none. Otherwise you were in deep doo doo.
Nice design. It's made of fun!
BTW, I kind of liked the two Wonderland modules. Weird but fun. Well, fun to read. I think I only ever ran a short piece of one of them in a real game.
The Doomgrinder Module from the late 90ies GH series of modules - How lame can an explanation for a doomsday-predicting device be? I was deeply disappointed after reading this.
CM 4 Earthshaker! - A giant steam robot? Are you serious?
I own that one! Why? Ummm.... next question...
(One fun nugget: If you destroy the robot, for the next year your dominion got to treat it as an extra mineral resource.)
Cool adventures I still like today are
Castle Amber - has something of a ghost train, and can get really interesting if you use some of the later additional stuff.
The War of the Desert Nomads Series (X4,X5,X10) - nice mini-campaign, even if it needs some work.
Just some things that I could think of at the moment.
Stefan
I put some of my favorite adventures on my Paizo page. Reading them back now, a lot of those old dungeons were pretty messed up, but they sure seemed cool when I read them. Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth comes to mind - WTF is up with this completely random bizarro-world of different monsters in every cave? But in 1982, that ROCKED!
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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And the best flavor text of all time: "You see a large horned monster. It charges you!" The monster in question? A tarrasque
Yep, I've brought up that gem o' text more than once myself, as the low point in module boxed text.
Another "high point" in H4 is the use of Tiamat as a "monster in a box".
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And the best flavor text of all time: "You see a large horned monster. It charges you!" The monster in question? A tarrasque
And if you do something wrong in a later room, you get sent back to redo the Tarrasque encounter!
We used a Wand of Force (even the big T can't get through a Wall of Force) and our Illusionist killed it. Took him a half-dozen spells, but it finally blew a save and died. (I don't remember the exact tactic, it involved Project an Image, Phantasmal Killer and a bunch of Chromatic Orbs...)
Then we had to do it again because of the stupid 'do-over' room.
Worst D&D Modules ?
From my experience, as a DM and a player : All of them.
In my opinion good modules are written by Dungeon Masters, not read from books or magazines.
Tell me more about the later additional stuff...Castle Amber - has something of a ghost train, and can get really interesting if you use some of the later additional stuff.
Stefan
I assume he means the Clark Ashton Smith "Averoigne" stuff. I could be wrong, though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averoigne
out of curiousity, what about the modules in books and magazines written by DMs?
What i mean is that i think a DM should write his own modules by himself. That's part of the job.
As a DM i wouldn't dare running a game for my players from a magazine or a book.And as a player i am not interested by a DM who can't write his own adventures.
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out of curiousity, what about the modules in books and magazines written by DMs?What i mean is that i think a DM should write his own modules by himself. That's part of the job.
As a DM i wouldn't dare running a game for my players from a magazine or a book.
And as a player i am not interested by a DM who can't write his own adventures.
A DM should write their own adventures, but sometimes things like jobs, relationships, life, etc do get in the way. Generally I don't run pre-made modules, I did when I was a teenager (some 20 years ago) but most mods would require tremendous work for me to use these days that it usually isn't worth - maybe as a idea seed or loose framework but thats about it.
I also think that reading and running some of the classics helped me in creating a mood and style which both my players and I currently enjoy. I would have to say that modules can also work as a nice tool (bait) to get someone who normally wouldn't DM a game to get behind the screen as a one off ref.
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And as a player i am not interested by a DM who can't write his own adventures.
That's good, because as a DM, I'm not interested in players who want to tell me what my "job" is.
Perhaps your attitude would be better received on the messageboards of a company that does not make base their product around adventure modules.
And as a player i am not interested by a DM who can't write his own adventures.That's good, because as a DM, I'm not interested in players who want to tell me what my "job" is.
Perhaps your attitude would be better received on the messageboards of a company that does not make base their product around adventure modules.
Wow. How is this in any way appropriate given the tone and context of his opinion? This thread has been pretty much avoiding the company wars; please keep it that way.
That's good, because as a DM, I'm not interested in players who want to tell me what my "job" is.
Perhaps your attitude would be better received on the messageboards of a company that does not make base their product around adventure modules.
No need to be rude, Evilvolus.
I don't pretedn to tell anyone, player or DM, how to play or run a game.I am merely expressing my opinion, my preference.
That's my right, isn't it ?
On the other hand, i don't think your atttitude, telling me to go on another forum is appropriate.
Tell me more about the later additional stuff...Castle Amber - has something of a ghost train, and can get really interesting if you use some of the later additional stuff.
Stefan
The Principalities of Glantri Gazetteer for the Known World (published c. 1987), and even the Glantri and Castle Amber boxed sets published for Mystara/AD&D from the mid-nineties. From those, you could get much more out of the personalities of the Ambrevilles.
A healthy dose of reading CAS stories helps as well, even if the original stories are of course written as stories, not as adventure plots.Stefan
If needed to be added, i would like to mention that i happen to think that Paizo adventures, whether from the good old times of Dungeon or the more recent ones from Pathfinder are in general very well written, imaginative, original and refreshing.
My post was in no way a critic of ready made adventures.
If it was taken this way, my apologies to Paizo staff that i deeply respect. As well as designers in general for their work and dedication.
I just expressed my preference for adventures conceived by the DM himself, according to the campaign setting.
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That's good, because as a DM, I'm not interested in players who want to tell me what my "job" is.
Perhaps your attitude would be better received on the messageboards of a company that does not make base their product around adventure modules.No need to be rude, Evilvolus.
I don't pretedn to tell anyone, player or DM, how to play or run a game.
I am merely expressing my opinion, my preference.
That's my right, isn't it ?On the other hand, i don't think your atttitude, telling me to go on another forum is appropriate.
That is most certainly your right, and i respect it. and i was honestly just curious, not trying to incite anything. I happen to have a friend, also my DM, who feels the same way. we've had this same discussion on a number of occasions.
as an added question, have you ever read a published module, then tried to fit elements into your own adventures? along the lines of "that's a neat encounter", or "hmm, this room layout works well"? It's something I find myself doing occasionally, and sometimes can't avoid. like the writer who thinks he comes up with something new, but it's something he's read and forgotten about.
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No need to be rude, Evilvolus.
I don't pretedn to tell anyone, player or DM, how to play or run a game.
I am merely expressing my opinion, my preference.
That's my right, isn't it ?On the other hand, i don't think your atttitude, telling me to go on another forum is appropriate.
Perhaps I misunderstood the attitude you took. But the phrasing "I wouldn't dare" seems like a pretty clear tone that you look down on the way I run my games.
Coming to the boards of a company that makes modules, and taking a patronizing tone towards those people that PLAY modules seems entirely inappropriate to me.
I did not intend to tell you to leave the boards, I simply intended to suggest that the specific attitude you used in your post felt inappropriate in this context.
Perhaps I misunderstood the attitude you took. But the phrasing "I wouldn't dare" seems like a pretty clear tone that you look down on the way I run my games.Coming to the boards of a company that makes modules, and taking a patronizing tone towards those people that PLAY modules seems entirely inappropriate to me.
I did not intend to tell you to leave the boards, I simply intended to suggest that the specific attitude you used in your post felt inappropriate in this context.
Perhaps next time, you should read the entire convo and edit what you write before posting. If you had, you would have seen he was merely stating his opinion and preference and could have avoided posting something that reads far less appropriate than anything seldriss posted.
There's already enough rudeness floating on gamesites as it is.
Perhaps I misunderstood the attitude you took. But the phrasing "I wouldn't dare" seems like a pretty clear tone that you look down on the way I run my games.
I wouldn't dare run a premade adventure to my players means that i consider my job (my duty) as a DM to conceive myself adventures for them in my campaign setting. I devote a lot of time into my campaign setting, my adventures, and assisting my players in their characters creation, development and out of adventure spare time.
I don't pretend to give any lesson to anybody. This was not a judgement on other DMs.Coming to the boards of a company that makes modules, and taking a patronizing tone towards those people that PLAY modules seems entirely inappropriate to me.
I wasn't patronizing. I was giving my own opinion and preference.
I did not intend to tell you to leave the boards, I simply intended to suggest that the specific attitude you used in your post felt inappropriate in this context.
I think and hope that it wasn't.
Maybe you should chill out and try not to take things personally.|
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Perhaps next time, you should read the entire convo and edit what you write before posting. If you had, you would have seen he was merely stating his opinion and preference and could have avoided posting something that reads far less appropriate than anything seldriss posted.
I did read the conversation. He said that all modules are the worst modules, and when questioned about it, he stated that he would never dare run a module, nor would he be willing to play a game with a DM running a module. I found that to be a patronizing attitude, apparently you did not. But simply because something is an opinion doesn't mean it can't also be rude.
I have run and played with a number of DMs who write their own material. One was absolutely brilliant. One was pretty good. Two produce material that is worse than even the worst drek cited above.
EDIT: And my own material floats only slightly above the worst of the two other bad DMs. On the other hand, my players seem to be quite enjoying both my Age of Worms game and my Rise of the Runelords game.
There's already enough rudeness floating on gamesites as it is.
Fair enough.
as an added question, have you ever read a published module, then tried to fit elements into your own adventures? along the lines of "that's a neat encounter", or "hmm, this room layout works well"? It's something I find myself doing occasionally, and sometimes can't avoid. like the writer who thinks he comes up with something new, but it's something he's read and forgotten about.
Oh, i didn't say i didn't buy some.
I don't buy many of them, for sure, but i still buy some, sometimes.And i must say that i happen to buy more since the Pathfinder series :)
I don't run them, but i honestly must confess that i often take some inspiration from them, whether it's a situation, a creature, a non player character, a map or something else.
The pathfinder goblins and the devious harpies from a Dungeon magazine come to my mind.
It would be very pretentious and dishonest from me to pretend i don't get inspiration from others.
I read books and magazines, i watch movies. Obviously i get some influences.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Worst D&D Modules ?
From my experience, as a DM and a player : All of them.
In my opinion good modules are written by Dungeon Masters, not read from books or magazines.
My post was in no way critical of ready-made adventures.
...
I just expressed my preference for adventures conceived by the DM himself, according to the campaign setting.
Seldriss, apology accepted.
Any designer is working under a handicap: he can't see the party for whom he's building the adventure. Maybe the party is only three characters, or doesn't have any rogues or arcane casters, or is being played by novices who've never encountered a bugbear before, or who absolutely love puzzle-traps.
He can't know, as so he writes an adventure with some standard assumptions and trusts to each DM the responsibility to adjust and accomodate the written material for his or her own group.
If a DM is just "reading" the adventure from a book or magazine, she's not doing her job. If that's been your experience, then I can well imagine you'd have a negative opinion about "all of them," which of course would include Pathfinder products.
But a designer is working with an advantage, as well: he can take much longer designing encounters, building NPC's, and play-testing adventures than most individual DM's. Artists can prepare visuals: NPC's, rooms, monsters, which are beyond the art skills of most DM's. Developers and editors can check for errors so that the DM can concentrate on her players and the storyline, instead of mechanical balance issues or mistyped stats.
Some modules do this better than others. A good module pulls its share of the weight, leaving the DM to only pull her own. Some need more work than that. Some are just bad. This thread is to discuss the ones where the proposed storylines, or encounters, or editorial quality, are so bad they're funny.
Saying that they're all that bad doesn't advance the discussion. Saying that they all require the DM to do her part, in adjusting the adventures to fit the needs of her table, goes without saying.
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as an added question, have you ever read a published module, then tried to fit elements into your own adventures? along the lines of "that's a neat encounter", or "hmm, this room layout works well"? It's something I find myself doing occasionally, and sometimes can't avoid. like the writer who thinks he comes up with something new, but it's something he's read and forgotten about.Oh, i didn't say i didn't buy some.
I don't buy many of them, for sure, but i still buy some, sometimes.
And i must say that i happen to buy more since the Pathfinder series :)
I don't run them, but i honestly must confess that i often take some inspiration from them, whether it's a situation, a creature, a non player character, a map or something else.
The pathfinder goblins and the devious harpies from a Dungeon magazine come to my mind.
It would be very pretentious and dishonest from me to pretend i don't get inspiration from others.
I read books and magazines, i watch movies. Obviously i get some influences.
Thanks for answering my curiosities. :)