| Kaladin_Stormblessed |
Not totally sure if this is the most apt place for this thread, but it's my best guess.
As someone wanting to counteract negativity about, well, sometimes it seems like all the coolest, most imaginative parts of adventures, apart from obviously reviewing the books, what is the best way to give helpful input?
And that had me thinking, in general, what information is useful? Things players liked, things the GM liked, things the players or GM thought were a flop? Hard encounters vs easy encounters? Decisions made within the bounds of the AP? Parts that had to be improvised?
What would ideal product feedback for adventures look like?
| Dancing Wind |
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When I get feedback on material I have written, one of the most important bits is "this was confusing". So, if you can say "this bit worked well, but that bit was confusing" you've helped the writer.
One thing I often give feedback about on adventures is the organizing of the material for the GM. Feedback about the process of playing through the adventure is often very helpful.
Its much more helpful to know who the Big Bad is early on so I can help players recognize clues and subtle hints. Would it have helped you to know something sooner? Would it have been a better surprise for your players if something had been presented later?
What was an unexpected pleasure for your players? What didn't make sense to them as characters? Did something fit or not fit into what you expect from this setting?
James Jacobs
Creative Director
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All feedback is useful, good or bad, but whether you give that feedback in a review (still the most helpful method, be it a review here on Paizo.com, elsewhere, on Youtube, whatever), comments here or on reddit or elsewhere, or in person at a convention, the most IMPORTANT thing to do is to present your feedback without being antagonistic or mean-spirited.
We do value negative feedback, since knowing when we make mistakes is important, but if you're mean about it, those comments can do more damage than help.
Some good tips to help with feedback for anyone, not just to Paizo:
1) If you didn't like something, be specific about it and offer a suggestion on how the failed element could have been changed so that you would enjoy it (including "just don't do this" as a potential change).
2) Be respectful of other reviewers' opinions and don't get in arguments about which one is right. Don't be insulting to people, since the most helpful advice on the planet gets ignored if the reader is insulted by what you're saying.
3) Try to let the person know what you enjoyed as well; it's important to know where something didn't work and needed to be fixed, but just as important to know what worked so that can keep being done in the future. Plus, hearing "good job" really helps, emotionally, to accept and work on the places that need to be done better in the future.
4) For adventures in particular... let us know if they were fun to read, and if they inspired you to play the game, or if there was content in there you enjoyed even though you might not play the adventure. A lot of folks want to wait until after they play an adventure to review it, which doesn't really help us nearly as much because of the time delay between us creating an adventure, publishing it,and then a potential reviewer playing it. The sooner feedback is given, the sooner we can apply it going forward, but also, the more helpful that feedback (particularly if it's a review) can help other folks decide if they're interested in that product—for good or for ill.
5) We often try new things in adventures in the form of layout, information presentation, and the like—beyond whether the adventure was fun to read, had interesting characters, seemed balanced, etc., let us know if new ways of presenting that information helped, or if you have ideas on how information might be presented better!
TL; DR: Reviews are the ideal way to provide feedback on adventures, especially if they're "pre-play" reviews from a GM who just read the adventure.
James Jacobs
Creative Director
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As reminder, was it also useful to review old adventures even if they were like 5-10 years ago?
Not nearly as useful as reviewing current and new adventures. It's nice to get the feedback, but so much has changed in the past decade that it's likely that what we were doing in adventures that long ago has already evolved into something new.
It's still good to get feedback on them, for sure, but just not as immediately helpful to Paizo, which was the original question posted by this thread. So if you have time to write only 1 review, pick something new if you want to be "most helpful to Paizo."