Hi all,
I find myself often wishing I could find more examples of great adventures that fall into a few categories like Exploration or Police Procedural's, etc. I was curious, what types of RPG adventures do you all wish there were more of?
Quote from: smiler127;1145679Hi all,
I find myself often wishing I could find more examples of great adventures that fall into a few categories like Exploration or Police Procedural's, etc. I was curious, what types of RPG adventures do you all wish there were more of?
-Playable- Mysteries. There are some decent examples out there, but I'd like more as its one of the things I never can put together on my own.
Agreed. Like police procedurals, I find that I have a hard time finding great examples of adventures designed around mysteries. I know the GUMSHOE system is based around this premise, but would love to see more actual adventures built with sleuthing in mind.
I'd like to see more "drop in set piece" kinds of modules. No big backstory. No big plot. No "adventure path," just useful sites that a DM can drop in and integrate into his campaign. Example might be things like:
- A necromancer's tower.
- A dragon's lair.
- An inn with NPCs and encounter tables.
- A bandit lair (keep/cave/camp)
- A supplement with a couple ship plans and crew details (e.g. merchant ship, pirate vessel), plus some seaborne encounters.
- Etc.
More Wench Encounter Tables, please.
Quote from: Philotomy Jurament;1145723I'd like to see more "drop in set piece" kinds of modules. No big backstory. No big plot. No "adventure path," just useful sites that a DM can drop in and integrate into his campaign. Example might be things like:
- A necromancer's tower.
- A dragon's lair.
- An inn with NPCs and encounter tables.
- A bandit lair (keep/cave/camp)
- A supplement with a couple ship plans and crew details (e.g. merchant ship, pirate vessel), plus some seaborne encounters.
- Etc.
Cool idea! Maybe a map or two, key personalities, a description of the setting and adventure hooks, etc.
More of what I call "Adventure Regions."
They're a bit like Philotomy Jurament suggested (i.e. not an adventure path), but with some local backstory and, while not 'plot' in the literary sense, having actual things going on that players can choose to involve themselves in (or not involve themselves in) would be ideal too (i.e. the baron to the north is planning an invasion of the territory for the coming spring; rumors suggest he's in negotiations with X for additional troops, is having weapons shipped in from Y and is paying a reward for acquiring Z for him).
Have a number of different 'dungeons' and perhaps a place of relative safety the PCs can rest and resupply at to create a region that's maybe a week's walk across (so 70-100 miles) so that a GM could center an entire campaign around PCs exploring and involving themselves in the area (and the ability to pull individual ruins and drop them elsewhere if they don't stick around in one place).
Not coincidentally, this is the approach I intend to follow in creating adventure supplements for my system (the only supplements I have planned actually... rules bloat is not my preferred approach).
Quote from: smiler127;1145679Hi all,
I find myself often wishing I could find more examples of great adventures that fall into a few categories like Exploration or Police Procedural's, etc. I was curious, what types of RPG adventures do you all wish there were more of?
I was hoping Agents of Edgewatch was going to be more Police Procedural and less Hobo Murders with Badges.
Quote from: Chris24601;1145733More of what I call "Adventure Regions."
They're a bit like Philotomy Jurament suggested (i.e. not an adventure path), but with some local backstory and, while not 'plot' in the literary sense, having actual things going on that players can choose to involve themselves in (or not involve themselves in) would be ideal too (i.e. the baron to the north is planning an invasion of the territory for the coming spring; rumors suggest he's in negotiations with X for additional troops, is having weapons shipped in from Y and is paying a reward for acquiring Z for him).
Have a number of different 'dungeons' and perhaps a place of relative safety the PCs can rest and resupply at to create a region that's maybe a week's walk across (so 70-100 miles) so that a GM could center an entire campaign around PCs exploring and involving themselves in the area (and the ability to pull individual ruins and drop them elsewhere if they don't stick around in one place).
Not coincidentally, this is the approach I intend to follow in creating adventure supplements for my system (the only supplements I have planned actually... rules bloat is not my preferred approach).
Yes. This is more or less how I write my own material to use. The closer published material is to that, the more likely I'll be able to use it.
Also, I like things that are definitely fantastical, but not merely bizarre for the sake of being bizarre. I like my fantastical things integrated into the mundane things around them, but not to the "magic as science" level where we need an explanation for every magical effect. As an example, I put a talking cat into an adventure. I didn't explain that he was a reincarnated person or a shape changer or someone under a curse. It didn't matter. He's just an NPC that happens to be a cat that is a little smarter than normal and can talk. Fantastical. Smart enough to know that most people would freak out about a talking cat, and thus careful who he talks to. But I also didn't go the other bizarre extreme where he's like all the other NPCs, hangs out at the tavern where everyone knows his name, has a relationship with half the village, etc. I want the fantastical in the game to retain its sense of mystery, and I want the people in the game to act as if the fantastical is strange to them.
Granted, it's a tightrope to walk, but from my perspective so much of published material doesn't even try.
Wheelchair-bound Dungeon Crawls.
With accessibility ramps and wide entrances (you bigots :p).
Quote from: Philotomy Jurament;1145723I'd like to see more "drop in set piece" kinds of modules. No big backstory. No big plot. No "adventure path," just useful sites that a DM can drop in and integrate into his campaign. Example might be things like:
- A necromancer's tower.
- A dragon's lair.
- An inn with NPCs and encounter tables.
- A bandit lair (keep/cave/camp)
- A supplement with a couple ship plans and crew details (e.g. merchant ship, pirate vessel), plus some seaborne encounters.
- Etc.
That's actually a good product idea. They could call them "Location Bundles" or something. Have them packed with random encounter tables, NPCs, and maybe some sample scenarios of stuff that might be going on in those locations, as Chris suggests, to help flesh out the area and provide ideas for stuff to do within them. It would serve more as a GM tool to help them come up with stuff and have some ready-made maps they could come back to and reuse occasionally.
Quote from: Chris24601;1145733More of what I call "Adventure Regions."
They're a bit like Philotomy Jurament suggested (i.e. not an adventure path), but with some local backstory and, while not 'plot' in the literary sense, having actual things going on that players can choose to involve themselves in (or not involve themselves in) would be ideal too (i.e. the baron to the north is planning an invasion of the territory for the coming spring; rumors suggest he's in negotiations with X for additional troops, is having weapons shipped in from Y and is paying a reward for acquiring Z for him).
Have a number of different 'dungeons' and perhaps a place of relative safety the PCs can rest and resupply at to create a region that's maybe a week's walk across (so 70-100 miles) so that a GM could center an entire campaign around PCs exploring and involving themselves in the area (and the ability to pull individual ruins and drop them elsewhere if they don't stick around in one place).
Not coincidentally, this is the approach I intend to follow in creating adventure supplements for my system (the only supplements I have planned actually... rules bloat is not my preferred approach).
Nice, I love the idea of micro-regions. I've made a bunch for my campaigns over the years with a kind of plug & play attitude. That way I can quickly insert them into any campaign I am running for my friends and with just a few tweaks, still make it feel like a unique experience.
On that note, I miss the days when modules were actually modular. Even if, for example, nominally set in the World of Greyhawk, there would be a brief note about how to drop it into your own campaign world.
More adventures like 'Shadows over Bogunhaffen'. Evocative urban adventures.
Exploration in interesting locations with a good adventure thrown in. Jungles, islands, swamps, etc. No hexcrawls per sel as they feel too random for my tastes.
Quote from: LiferGamer;1145706-Playable- Mysteries. There are some decent examples out there, but I'd like more as its one of the things I never can put together on my own.
Came here to post this, but what do you know I'll just say, This.
It feels like most pre-written adventures do have mysteries in them, but it's so rare to actually see THE adventure.
Quote from: LiferGamer;1145744On that note, I miss the days when modules were actually modular. Even if, for example, nominally set in the World of Greyhawk, there would be a brief note about how to drop it into your own campaign world.
We wished for that so much, we decided to just do it ourselves with our new
Tales of Lothmar (https://www.talesoflothmar.com) line.
I'd like to see exploration adventures like Dwellers of the Forbidden City.
That was the first module I played where we could wander around and get into trouble, but there was a specific plot that required interacting with factions.
Quote from: LiferGamer;1145706-Playable- Mysteries. There are some decent examples out there, but I'd like more as its one of the things I never can put together on my own.
Quote from: smiler127;1145717Agreed. Like police procedurals, I find that I have a hard time finding great examples of adventures designed around mysteries. I know the GUMSHOE system is based around this premise, but would love to see more actual adventures built with sleuthing in mind.
I have seen pretty decent pure mysteries from time to time, but I've found that good hybrid modules which are primarily mysteries, but not entirely, are even harder to find. Ones where there is combat or whatever mixed in smoothly for the "differences in kind" change of pace.
Quote from: Charon's Little Helper;1146570I have seen pretty decent pure mysteries from time to time, but I've found that good hybrid modules which are primarily mysteries, but not entirely, are even harder to find. Ones where there is combat or whatever mixed in smoothly for the "differences in kind" change of pace.
Robert Downey Junior style Sherlock Holmes as opposed to the real Sherlock Holmes stories.
Quote from: KingCheops;1146574Robert Downey Junior style Sherlock Holmes as opposed to the real Sherlock Holmes stories.
I was thinking more the Dresden novels (especially the earlier ones) where he first has to figure out who the villains are, and then has to stomp in their faces. But yes, that's the gist.
I'm a big fan of modules using differences in kind to spice things up, and a pure mystery's pacing is very difficult to get right without a bit of combat mixed in to spice things up.
Quote from: Philotomy Jurament;1145723I'd like to see more "drop in set piece" kinds of modules. No big backstory. No big plot. No "adventure path," just useful sites that a DM can drop in and integrate into his campaign. Example might be things like:
- A necromancer's tower.
- A dragon's lair.
- An inn with NPCs and encounter tables.
- A bandit lair (keep/cave/camp)
- A supplement with a couple ship plans and crew details (e.g. merchant ship, pirate vessel), plus some seaborne encounters.
- Etc.
I came in here to post something like this. You'd think there'd be more of these already. There are a few, but some are marred by being highly campaign specific when they need not have been, or just being bad.
And it's implied, but I'll add "with all necessary prep work done." A surprising number of published adventures of all kinds leave some prep to the GM. Which is okay if it's for something outside the walls of the adventure, but if every GM who uses it is going to need to work up a map, or an order of battle, or an NPC reference sheet, why not include that in the first place?
Quote from: smiler127;1145741Nice, I love the idea of micro-regions. I've made a bunch for my campaigns over the years with a kind of plug & play attitude. That way I can quickly insert them into any campaign I am running for my friends and with just a few tweaks, still make it feel like a unique experience.
The Raven's Purge (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/258595/Forbidden-Lands-Ravens-Purge?cPath=27806_31447) book for Forbidden Lands is pretty much exactly this. It's billed as a "campaign" because there is an overarching thing to give it a bit of structure. Really though it's 8 locations, they call them adventure sites. Each one has a legend, NPCs, monsters and other stuff for the PCs to get involved in. It wouldn't be too hard to just drop these with a little modification into another campaign.
Quote from: VisionStorm;1145739Wheelchair-bound Dungeon Crawls.
With accessibility ramps and wide entrances (you bigots :p).
I am thinking of creating an adventure where the monsters are all disabled, and the have designed their dungeon lair to be accessible to their flying, ballista-armed wheelchairs.
Also they have to abduct commoners and transform them into similar creatures as themselves because they areu able to reproduce, since they are all in same-sex relationships.
Quote from: Svenhelgrim;1146659I am thinking of creating an adventure where the monsters are all disabled, and the have designed their dungeon lair to be accessible to their flying, ballista-armed wheelchairs.
Also they have to abduct commoners and transform them into similar creatures as themselves because they areu able to reproduce, since they are all in same-sex relationships.
Fantasy Borg? Since if you won't come to their mindset, clearly you must be destroyed.
Going back to the mysteries angle on adventures, I've been on a The Shadow kick. I liked the comics, dig the '94 movie, and I've listened to many of the Radio plays previously*, but now I'm diving into the original pulps, and they're glorious. 'Razorfist' got me on the kick again recently (https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=LgU_TwMZgYA), and in his review he commented that Walter B. Gibson (aka Maxwell Grant) the author, would write a crime story where the villains were clever and successful, and then go back and insert the Shadow and his agents to thwart them.
It's a technique I'm going to play with - especially for mystery/hidden enemy type adventures. I already try to make sure the bad guys have a plan or at least a desired outcome, even if that is 'to be left alone', but I want to play with this more.
*The Phillip Marlowe/The Shadow/any mystery short like that I find useful to listen to as a DM... they have a tight focus, and an economy of action and plot, with interesting NPCs fleshed out perfectly for their role in the story... I find it useful to listen to a short one when I feel bogged down in prep. I've never used a plot one-for-one but they help me go back and work on my pacing.
I wish there were more replayable adventures. I mean adventures that continue to be fun when you play them again and again.
Quote from: Cave Bear;1146765I wish there were more replayable adventures. I mean adventures that continue to be fun when you play them again and again.
S1: Tomb of Horros is like that.
...except for the "fun" part. But the "Agains and again" part is definitely there...
...'cause we kept dying.