Creative Director
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All of the suggestions I've seen so far would work GREAT for a GM preparing his/her own game, either from scratch or preparing the game from a published adventure, whether the GM is running it as-is or is adjusting/adapting it significantly. The problem is that if you aren't condensing your notes from either something you made up or something that someone else detailed greatly... reading those notes are going to require MORE work to get into shape for your game than the current format.
This thread asks "why is the adventure format stuck in the past?" and I am increasingly thinking it's "stuck" there because over the past 4 decades... experimentation and exploration of formats have refined it to the one that works best for a published adventure. What works best for your own game notes is NOT a fully written out in published adventure format, but something more akin to the formats folks are suggesting here.
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Do people actually not read store bought APs in advance so they know is what it is going on before running them?
Most of the "complaints" seem to be of the "oh crap, I read that out loud" type. Which would be a non issue if you took any sort of preparation prior to running, and read ahead a few pages. Given the depth of character and plot involved with APs, there is so much more information you need to have a handle on versus "normal" module.
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I GM in Portuguese, so in the past i had to translate read-aloud text before hand. This never worked out too much, because of cultural differences i guess. Nowdays i try to read for me and retell everything with my own words and input from the actual situation. This got me thinking that i was not the gm-type that could use adventures as written, but reading this forum made me think that adventures modules only help, but don´t do all the work for the GM. The GM must have somework readying the adventure for himself.
Do people actually not read store bought APs in advance so they know is what it is going on before running them?
This seems unlikely for APs, but is somewhat common for Pathfinder Society Scenarios (because of no-shows, added tables, etc.).
And those are the things, as a GM, that I would take special note in my reading ahead.
I think the the publishers have enough to do without having to assume their readers are forgetful and incapable and doing absolutely everything for them. If you have the problem, you can make notes in the margins, or a cheat sheet, or anything that will help you along.
I'm aware of my short commings and plan appropriately for running games. That isn't the publishers problem. I honestly don't understand why people would expect that extra and often times, unnecessary information to be added just so they have less to do. For as many people who have problems with it, there are surely people who would have no use for it. Either because they can manage the information easily or are tweaking the purchased product to their own liking, rendering the extra work wasted.
The reality is, it works well, so they keep doing it. If we as consumers are incapable of managing our time and the information they provide and have "issues", it doesn't fall on them to do anything about it. They are already managing word/page count, graphics/maps, and quality writing. If you desire a page of notes about encounters. Read ahead and write it up yourself. You know yourself and what you are likely to miss or goof on. They have no clue what your short comings are and what aids you require. They gave you all the information needed. What more do you want from them?
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I want them to listen to feedback and continually try and improve (the way they are doing in this thread, by the sounds of the publishers who have chipped in). I expect them to have high standards (there are very, very few publishers of gaming material who don't meet this expectstion). I've listened to them tell me that like hearing feedback on their products about the things I like and the things I don't like and I believe they are being genuine about that.
"I find the following problems with modules..." doesn't mean I'm lazy, forgetful, incapable of doing work, nor even that I don't like them the way they are now. It means there are things I think can be improved. I don't have any expectation of always getting my way, but if I never tell them what I'm looking for, how can I expect publishers to guess what would make me like their products even more?
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All of the suggestions I've seen so far would work GREAT for a GM preparing his/her own game, either from scratch or preparing the game from a published adventure, whether the GM is running it as-is or is adjusting/adapting it significantly. The problem is that if you aren't condensing your notes from either something you made up or something that someone else detailed greatly... reading those notes are going to require MORE work to get into shape for your game than the current format.
This thread asks "why is the adventure format stuck in the past?" and I am increasingly thinking it's "stuck" there because over the past 4 decades... experimentation and exploration of formats have refined it to the one that works best for a published adventure. What works best for your own game notes is NOT a fully written out in published adventure format, but something more akin to the formats folks are suggesting here.
One thing that has changed is the advent of the internet, PDF only formats (without page count restrictions) and downloadable content.
Dungeon adventures used to have downloadable content .... and I always downloaded it.
Richard
Putting some downloadable notes on the Internet seems like something the community could easily do, but I'm not sure if Paizo would want summaries of all the rooms in their adventures posted on the Internet. Maybe if it were just room numbers, room names, and a list of Monster/Trap/Treasure without any plot or room descriptions it would be OK though. I haven't really checked out the forums for the various APs, but I'm guessing that they probably include a lot of details about the areas and encounters.
I doubt that hand me down notes from somebody who previously ran the adventure would help you remember the adventure content as well as taking your own notes, but if the DM preparing the notes also detailed any trouble points which were encountered during play that might be kind of helpful.
I also wasn't sure how many PCs had to stand on each other's shoulders to get out of the Beast, especially since some of the PCs were size Small. I decided that there were basically 3 "spots" in the Beast: Belly, Throat, and Mouth, and that a PC in the Belly and one in the Mouth could work to help the one in the Throat get to the Mouth. I think that's what was intended, but having the mechanics broken down in more detail might have been nice.
Technically, I think locations in modules and the like are closed content (and you could argue that a room's name is a location), though you might be able to get away with it if you simply referred to things like "Area B6" and didn't have the names.
Yeah, some guidance would probably be needed, and even then something produced by Paizo or in cooperation with them would probably be more useful since it could be more detailed.