Quote from: Celestial;952438I like to purchase/download one or two adventures of each RPG I own, just to get a better feel for the system and to see the publisher's vision of an adventure for their system and/or setting.

WOTC doesnt have a vision. At times they barely seem to know the system they themselves designed.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;952439I started playing in a Pathfinder group because I needed contact with other people.

The Pathfinder "adventure paths" are... horrible.  I mean, actively dull, boring, and predictable.  Crom.

Apparently theres one or two really good ones. That DM I mentioned before who cant improv as a DM well likes them. To me they felt... ok. Id have to really read through one to get a better impression. But Im not fond of 3e at all.

Quote from: HorusArisen;952452They make better reading material than adventures, I mined the first few and based a campaign idea on the Kingmaker one but I don't think I'd run one as is. I have the same problem with WotC's adventures it's all very, very scripted.

So far I am more or less liking the 5e modules. They are a bit linear. But also give a fair amount of freedom on how to approach the problems. Theres usually some "world in motion" stuff going on at some point and the DM needs to remember that some of that wont happen if the PCs do things sufficiently differently. Or sometimes even a little differently.

Quote from: Omega;952526Apparently theres one or two really good ones. That DM I mentioned before who cant improv as a DM well likes them. To me they felt... ok. Id have to really read through one to get a better impression. But Im not fond of 3e at all.

My current Paizo AP campaign mashes up two of them - Rise of the Runelords (first & best) and Shattered Star. This forces me not to think in linear terms of Book 1-2-3-4-5-6 and treat the material as a resource not a script. I add in my own material, add in modules, and leave out stuff too.

Quote from: Omega;952530So far I am more or less liking the 5e modules. They are a bit linear. But also give a fair amount of freedom on how to approach the problems. Theres usually some "world in motion" stuff going on at some point and the DM needs to remember that some of that wont happen if the PCs do things sufficiently differently. Or sometimes even a little differently.

We've only played Tyranny of Dragons and whilst the DM is decent the adventure is pretty much tripe. If I'd try ro run it I'd have spent longer rewriting it than gaming.

Do they stop throwing as much of the monster manual in as they can in the other ones?

Quote from: S'mon;952536My current Paizo AP campaign mashes up two of them - Rise of the Runelords (first & best) and Shattered Star. This forces me not to think in linear terms of Book 1-2-3-4-5-6 and treat the material as a resource not a script. I add in my own material, add in modules, and leave out stuff too.

Rise of the Runelords and Kingmaker were the two I liked best. I liked a lot of the ideas from the paths but like you I mostly mined them. I tend to find it handy to have some prebuilt NPC's and location maps. And in fairness some of the modules are good evening fillers for a longer campaign.

*wouldn't mind seeing Golarion as a 5e settingi

I agree that the 5E modules are a little linear, but that's key to Adventure League play since you theoretically can go to any store with your character and just jump into a game there. If the modules were too wide-open then players would be at a totally different place when going from store to store. Having said that, I'm not sure how often folks store-hop and the AL also has a whole slew of one-shot adventures which get run in the store most weeks.

I've played parts of most of the new hardbacks and all have some good and bad points. The Tyrrany of Dragons sequence ("Hoard of the Dragon Queen" and "Tiamant" books) were pretty well done. Ravenloft was well done if you like that sort of thing; some of my players love it but others hate the darkness of the setting. We're playing in the Storm Giant one now.

The Goodman Games product line "Fifth Edition Adventures" is good if you like one-shots, but they aren't AL official so you can't use those characters in official games later. :-(

Quote from: finarvyn;952570I agree that the 5E modules are a little linear, but that's key to Adventure League play since you theoretically can go to any store with your character and just jump into a game there. If the modules were too wide-open then players would be at a totally different place when going from store to store. Having said that, I'm not sure how often folks store-hop and the AL also has a whole slew of one-shot adventures which get run in the store most weeks.

I've played parts of most of the new hardbacks and all have some good and bad points. The Tyrrany of Dragons sequence ("Hoard of the Dragon Queen" and "Tiamant" books) were pretty well done. Ravenloft was well done if you like that sort of thing; some of my players love it but others hate the darkness of the setting. We're playing in the Storm Giant one now.

The Goodman Games product line "Fifth Edition Adventures" is good if you like one-shots, but they aren't AL official so you can't use those characters in official games later. :-(

I've no interest in the adventure league, one of our group is talking up Princes of the Apocalypse but if the linearity is a standard of these adventures I may need to have a word with him.

Quote from: HorusArisen;952568We've only played Tyranny of Dragons and whilst the DM is decent the adventure is pretty much tripe. If I'd try ro run it I'd have spent longer rewriting it than gaming.

Do they stop throwing as much of the monster manual in as they can in the other ones?

1: Ive run or played through Tyranny three times now and each ones gone differently in some way. I think on its own its an interesting module despite the typos. But I think some of the DM advice is not that great or could have been better thought out. A few too many forced set pieces for my liking. Some I tossed out without any loss to the adventure and others I just let the players lay to ruin.

2: I dont think Tyranny was too bad. Some of the monsters fit. Others were kinda... there... yeah. The rest from what little I've seen were much the same. Im prepping to run Out of the Abyss later at a players request so reading through slowly. "Alice in wonderland!" yeah riiiight.

Tyranny is a pretty good product considering they were basically rebooting the game after years in the wilderness, and kobold press wasn't even working with finalized rules. The quality of the adventures has improved fairly steadily since then, although of course the format of a 15 -level campaign is inherently constraining.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;952211And as far as being a referee, practice makes perfect.  I personally am tired of the notion that a referee has to be some brilliant savant.  My first ever D&D dungeon level was shit, but my friends put up with it.  After 44 years of practice, I'm pretty good at it.

Granted, this forum is mostly blessedly free of the "But being a GM is HARD!" shit, but damn, it's a pervasive attitude.

You're only pretty good at something after 44 years, yet you say it isn't hard to do? Well then, bless your heart.

Quote from: Madprofessor;952266Clarification:

Prepping for what the PCs will do in their adventures = railroading
Prepping the world for the PCs to interact with =/= railroading

Who determines which is the world versus what the players will do?

Quote from: Christopher Brady;952272That's way too vague.

For example, let's say the PC's are traveling down a road.  And down that road are a couple of Inns and a bandit toll.  And because your players (which I may be making a massive assumption here that they're your friends, but bear with) Have been stopping at each spot to have a tipple and a fight,   And so you make out several NPC's who are there to get beaten senseless.  And lo and behold at all three establishments that's what they do!  These events were effectively preplanned, but the Players did them anyway, thinking they started it (This happened in a game I ran, one of the players was playing a Viking type who thought the best way to know a place was to lay out the establishment's patrons), so is that a Railroad?

How about the Bandit Toll across the road, in which the players CAN decide to get involved, finding out that this was an out of work merc army looking to feed themselves.  So you detail out the Captain, a couple of Lieutenants and make up the soldiers and goons.  Then on a whim you decide to stat out the camp and the various members there.  And lo and behold, just as you predicted the Players get involved!  Railroad?

You shouldn't bring stuff up like this.  You'll make their head hurt.

Quote from: HorusArisen;952572I've no interest in the adventure league, one of our group is talking up Princes of the Apocalypse but if the linearity is a standard of these adventures I may need to have a word with him.

I can tell you that Into The Abyss has a section that's almost literally infinitely reusable, it's Chapter 2 or is it 3?  Where there's nothing but a series of small tables to determine where you are in the Underdark.  It also gives three encounters, but are unnecessary.  There's JUST enough there for the DM to expand or not on.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;952646I can tell you that Into The Abyss has a section that's almost literally infinitely reusable, it's Chapter 2 or is it 3?  Where there's nothing but a series of small tables to determine where you are in the Underdark.  It also gives three encounters, but are unnecessary.  There's JUST enough there for the DM to expand or not on.

After this thread I've decided to focus my game running energy and money on two other games but I'll mention this to the lads, I'm sure it'll be something they'll find handy and one was on about running the abyss game after mine.

Quote from: HorusArisen;952649After this thread I've decided to focus my game running energy and money on two other games but I'll mention this to the lads, I'm sure it'll be something they'll find handy and one was on about running the abyss game after mine.

Most of the adventures have some reusability, which is very important to me.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;952775Most of the adventures have some reusability, which is very important to me.

One of my favorite features of the early, 'classic' Traveller adventures is that each includes some thing - a starship, a base, a planet - which can be re-used, recycled, re-purposed, becoming part of the campaign.