If you're buying a published adventure, do you prefer adventures where everything is detailed meticulously, with all the stats, and even speeches by NPCs written out for you to read out?
Or do you prefer adventures that are more broad overviews of what happens, and leaves it up to you to add details?
I like fairly detailed maps, and all NPCs & monsters statted in at least one system, at least a one-line stat summary. I don't like the really bloated presentation of Paizo where some random bugbear gets a multi-paragraph backstory. But a couple lines for major NPCs is good.
I appreciate short boxed text, no longer than one paragraph. No multi-para speeches please.
I very much appreciate content generation tools such as encounter tables.
In general something like Stonehell or Dyson's Delve is easiest to run & use, but a bit more detail than Dyson's Delve is ok.
For me, I like a broad overview with the details I'll need to run the game. I don't like to be spoon-fed per se. I'm happy to pad stuff out and put my own slant on things where I see fit.
That said, I've been frustrated by a couple of Symbaroum adventures recently, that have been good but have left a few little illogical gaps that I've had to fudge - That, I'm not too keen on.
I'd prefer no 'text boxes' to be honest (but would like some details so I know what I'm talking about). I prefer to give my own slant on the environments too. Sometimes text boxes take me out of thre game (as a player) especially when they are just 'mechanically' read.
I would like a map with the important places marked out, but it wouldn't have to be too detailed pe se. As for NPC stats, I'd like those if they will be important to the adventure. But for the 'average bod' I'm happy with a 2 line description with a name - no stats needed as I'll just use generics if a PC happens to dismember one...
WFRP 1e 'Shadows Over Bogunhaffen' is a good model for me. Enough meat, but it does'nt hold your hand at the same time.
Overview
Overview
Quote from: jeff37923;995110Overview
I should have said that. So, yeah overview for me as well.
Overview, with a few important details concisely presented. No boxed text, at least not for the usual read-aloud purpose.
Erf, I hate how this is an all or nothing proposition.
I prefer more overview, but I also like a decent amount of detail.
But if I really had to choose, I'd say.... Overview.
I like lots of specific detail that is usable in-game. I love having things like stats, gear, treasure, and the like written out ahead of time. Speeches I typically prefer to improvise, especially since NPCs in my game never seem to be able to do anything uninterrupted anyway.
That said, I don't really buy adventures, but write my own like this whenever possible.
Overview with the details needed to run the adventure. I don't need scripted speeches for the NPCs, but basic stats etc should be included.
I don't like boxed text much (just because I find reading out loud will generally throw the flow of play off), so no on the speeches generally. On detail versus overview, I'm really fine with either as long as they are done well. I get benefit from both approaches. The more detailed ones I would tend to use to get an idea of how an adventure might play out step by step. Those I tend to read more for inspiration and will canalize the parts a lot (I find over many years, I get a lot of utility out of these kinds of adventures). But simpler overviews that are easy to pull into a session and play quickly definitely have a lot of function for. Again, I am pretty open with either approach, and think the best situation is for there to be a wide range of types of content for me to choose from as a gamer. I think the most important thing to me is that whoever is making it have a clear vision of what they are trying to do and how they see the book being used. I would also say, if the thing is going to be detailed, I think it really has to be good. I'm not going to read through 90 pages or more of text unless it is interesting to me. If it is interesting, I'll happily sit and read it between sessions.
If there's an NPC with important information, I'd like maybe some bullet points such as you might write on note cards to expand upon for a speech or debate. I don't need a script, though. And an indication as to what information he will volunteer and what needs to be dragged out of him, depending on his relationship to the PCs.
Maps of locations should be detailed or they're not useful.
Stats for NPCs generally don't help me. Just list a rank or level of authority and whether they have any special abilities or skills and I can work up what that means in the game I'm using.
As for the adventure itself, I prefer an overview of whatever the scenario is and what is going on in the different places on the map. I don't want a flowchart.
Doom and I were just arguing about this in regards to Out of the Abyss in another thread.
I prefer the Overview with vivid, imaginative details, good maps and fun-to-play NPCs. Also designed with adventure seeds that can be fleshed out for further play. Reading Slumbering Ursine Dunes right now and it hits the sweet spot for me, it is excellent.
Boxed text, because if I'm buying an adventure, I'm probably planning to use it in a PbP game:). So I want to copy and paste your text, and save myself the typing of the descriptions.
If I don't get that, it's likely that I might as well make it up myself, so I don't need to buy it;).
If I want an "overview" I'll write one myself. (And that's exactly what I usually do.) If I'm forking over money for something, it should be a bit more detailed.
It would be nice to have every detail spell out, but it doesn't work. Because once your throw a group of players at a plot, it'll end up off the rails. All those hyper-specific scenes that were prepped in great detail become a waste of time and paper.
But overviews are useless, too. What I want is a situation, that spells out, in a reasonable amount of detail, how things start, the major players, their motivations, their plans, their relationships, and the locations where this will likely go down; and lots of tools like stats and tables and handouts and maps that make it easier for me run.
For a Call of Cthulhu scenario or any sort of mystery where getting the clue right is important, it should be fairly detailed. For other sort of fantasy, an overview can work, though I am always happy to have details that can set my twisted little imagination moving in directions it shouldn't go.
Quote from: Pat;995216It would be nice to have every detail spell out, but it doesn't work. Because once your throw a group of players at a plot, it'll end up off the rails. All those hyper-specific scenes that were prepped in great detail become a waste of time and paper.
True, but you can describe the locations we're likely to visit, the key NPCs and their entourage, such things:).
QuoteWhat I want is a situation, that spells out, in a reasonable amount of detail, how things start, the major players, their motivations, their plans, their relationships, and the locations where this will likely go down
That's what I want, too! I just don't want to have to check details on Portuguese regal/nobility clothes when the players are meeting the king of Non-Iberia;).
Overview, with enough detail to be useful, but not so much that it's a chore to consume/prep (and that I have to change a bunch of stuff to fit my game and my tastes).
I never ran anything purchased except "The Keep on the Borderland" and that was long ago, but I think it was detailed. I have bought adventures, read them, deconstructed them and mined them for ideas. Since I usually found only detailed ideas useful, I guess detailed is the answer.
If I buy a module, I want the grunt work done. NPC descriptions and such, stats, etc.
Ideas are the most common thing in the world. Even if you can't come up with your own, there's no shortage of things to rip off. It's taking that idea and doing something with it that takes work and that's what adventures modules are for.
Quote from: Pat;995216It would be nice to have every detail spell out, but it doesn't work. Because once your throw a group of players at a plot, it'll end up off the rails. All those hyper-specific scenes that were prepped in great detail become a waste of time and paper.
But overviews are useless, too. What I want is a situation, that spells out, in a reasonable amount of detail, how things start, the major players, their motivations, their plans, their relationships, and the locations where this will likely go down; and lots of tools like stats and tables and handouts and maps that make it easier for me run.
That sounds right. A vague "overview of adventure - you do the work" is no more use than any media inspiration. But tight scene by scene plotting is bad too. What works is a bottom up approach where I get the base details and the actual plot/story develops in play, not pre-plotted. Sort of like a lego or mechano set.
Quote from: RPGPundit;995086If you're buying a published adventure, do you prefer adventures where everything is detailed meticulously, with all the stats, and even speeches by NPCs written out for you to read out?
Or do you prefer adventures that are more broad overviews of what happens, and leaves it up to you to add details?
I used to prefer the former, now definitley the latter.
I can use a broad overview better and can adapt it easier to my current campaign. If I use a detailed scenario, I tend to use the ideas and not follow the detail anyway.
Quote from: Pat;995216It would be nice to have every detail spell out, but it doesn't work. Because once your throw a group of players at a plot, it'll end up off the rails. All those hyper-specific scenes that were prepped in great detail become a waste of time and paper.
But overviews are useless, too. What I want is a situation, that spells out, in a reasonable amount of detail, how things start, the major players, their motivations, their plans, their relationships, and the locations where this will likely go down; and lots of tools like stats and tables and handouts and maps that make it easier for me run.
Yea, this is where I'm at. I play sandbox games, so ultimately, the situation is what matters, how or even if, the players engage with the situation is up to them, so I don't need details of how the NPCs will react to specific PC actions, way more useful would be the information that will help me run things in any scenario.
Note that situation CAN include some initial scene setting text, but it needs to be short.
Maps should be detailed so that when things go sideways, I know other places the NPC villain might bolt, or other entities might become involved.
Frank
As to detailed stats and such, if I am running the system the adventure is designed for, that may be of great use (I especially loved the earlier RuneQuest adventures where each monster was individual). Even if I am running a different system, the mechanical detail may help me in statting out the NPC for my system. I find "generic" stats not very inspiring, I don't think I ever used the stats in Flying Buffalo's City Books and I find Judges Guild's "generic" stats frustrating to use.
The person running this website is a racist who publicly advocates genocidal practices.
I am deleting my content.
I recommend you do the same.
I personally lean a lot more toward "overview". Detailed can be good, IF it's detailed in the right way; huge sections of boxed text you're supposed to read out loud to players is definitely not the right way.
Quote from: RPGPundit;996555I personally lean a lot more toward "overview". Detailed can be good, IF it's detailed in the right way; huge sections of boxed text you're supposed to read out loud to players is definitely not the right way.
Boxes for reading to players feels very forced to me... I only used them when I started in the hobby and didn't really have the confidence for making my own descriptions up on the fly. Good for poeple starting out or summat'.
Quote from: RPGPundit;995086If you're buying a published adventure, do you prefer adventures where everything is detailed meticulously, with all the stats, and even speeches by NPCs written out for you to read out?
Or do you prefer adventures that are more broad overviews of what happens, and leaves it up to you to add details?
I want details about the rooms and things lying around. I can fill in NPC personalities and stats (stats are trivial in my home system). But I
like having nice "read this to the players" sections, as for whatever reason, that's where my creativity tends to lag. But I can do personalities and sometimes weird random accents. It would be nice if the "political ecology" of dungeons was laid out in a manner conducive to players meddling in it. (A hates B. B hates C. D is confused. And everyone is afraid of E.)
Quote from: RPGPundit;996555I personally lean a lot more toward "overview". Detailed can be good, IF it's detailed in the right way; huge sections of boxed text you're supposed to read out loud to players is definitely not the right way.
I like boxed sections of room description. I'll sometimes tweak it. But while I can do people/monsters, room descriptions just don't happen.
I don't like boxed sections of people/actions/talking. LOL Go figure.
It doesn't help that usually the dialogue is awful. So many game designers secretly wish they were novelists, and they're usually horrible at it.
touche; something close to 100 % of all narrative writing in roleplaying games us just the most unbelievable shite.
To answer your thread-leading question, I prefer very granular details for settings, but basically no guidance about adventures. A module/dungeon/whatever should document what is where, including only details that are meaningful in play, and then shut up and get out of the way.
Detailed monsters, equipment, characters and places
Summarized plots and dialogues.
But since I always write my own stories, it is more the way I do it than what I am looking for in published adventure books :)
Overview with a sprinkling of details on things that are really "important". As a GM I can decide if it's necessary to discard or keep. But I respect a designer's attempt to emphasize something about their work.