Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
What Games do you think are Neotrad?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="pawsplay" data-source="post: 9318997" data-attributes="member: 15538"><p>If the party can either attack or not attack the bone naga ambassador, in what way are their actions constrained? The book gives you lots of options to use the material, but there is still no requirement that any particular thing happen. As I said before, if the party behavior is quite different than what the author expected, it's going to play differently, and not just because the PCs are willful. All those if-thens are contingencies to keep the party "on track" in terms of using the material in the module, but the existence of all those possibilities is just a tacit admission that you can't make the PCs do any particular thing. I think the mere existence of such guidance shows that the idea PCs will "stick to the module" out of some sense of etiquette is unrealistic, if not meaningless. At the end of the day, a module is just a collection of people, places, and potential events. </p><p></p><p>I'm very skeptical of the assertion that because published adventures often propose a mostly linear series of events, players are beholden to only do things that have been anticipated by the module writer. I know that I, as a GM, certainly don't invest a lot of energy preparing in such a way that I assume the players will fall in line. One reason I haven't done a lot in terms of publishing modules is that I don't necessarily care for the effort involved in turning a one-page writeup, front and back, into a thirty page adventure suitable for a stranger to run, accounting for and writing out all the contingencies I would deal with intuitively. That a published module has written out some helpful information, forks, and ideas, does not mean you, or the players, are beholden to a specific course of action. It certainly does not mean the GM is restricted to running what's in the module.</p><p></p><p>I can think of very few actual play experiences I've had that were run this way. Even in organized play experiences, like Adventurer's League, there were very few rules about completing particular sections of content. At one point, I was on a FB group specifically about running a particular hardback adventure series, and there were whole threads about how the PCs interacted with certain NPCs or defined their own goals. </p><p></p><p>To me, the idea of a bunch of players showing up and thinking they have to "stick to the module," whatever that means, it just makes me feel a little sad. What happened to them in the past, that the spirit of curiosity and adventure was beaten out of them? Anything will stick to the module. Your job is to be interesting.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pawsplay, post: 9318997, member: 15538"] If the party can either attack or not attack the bone naga ambassador, in what way are their actions constrained? The book gives you lots of options to use the material, but there is still no requirement that any particular thing happen. As I said before, if the party behavior is quite different than what the author expected, it's going to play differently, and not just because the PCs are willful. All those if-thens are contingencies to keep the party "on track" in terms of using the material in the module, but the existence of all those possibilities is just a tacit admission that you can't make the PCs do any particular thing. I think the mere existence of such guidance shows that the idea PCs will "stick to the module" out of some sense of etiquette is unrealistic, if not meaningless. At the end of the day, a module is just a collection of people, places, and potential events. I'm very skeptical of the assertion that because published adventures often propose a mostly linear series of events, players are beholden to only do things that have been anticipated by the module writer. I know that I, as a GM, certainly don't invest a lot of energy preparing in such a way that I assume the players will fall in line. One reason I haven't done a lot in terms of publishing modules is that I don't necessarily care for the effort involved in turning a one-page writeup, front and back, into a thirty page adventure suitable for a stranger to run, accounting for and writing out all the contingencies I would deal with intuitively. That a published module has written out some helpful information, forks, and ideas, does not mean you, or the players, are beholden to a specific course of action. It certainly does not mean the GM is restricted to running what's in the module. I can think of very few actual play experiences I've had that were run this way. Even in organized play experiences, like Adventurer's League, there were very few rules about completing particular sections of content. At one point, I was on a FB group specifically about running a particular hardback adventure series, and there were whole threads about how the PCs interacted with certain NPCs or defined their own goals. To me, the idea of a bunch of players showing up and thinking they have to "stick to the module," whatever that means, it just makes me feel a little sad. What happened to them in the past, that the spirit of curiosity and adventure was beaten out of them? Anything will stick to the module. Your job is to be interesting. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
What Games do you think are Neotrad?
Top