I find d20-strain (D&D, Pathfinder, Starfinder, etc.) published adventures contain too much info. And I mean that they could do with less and rely on core rules more. (This *too much* saw its apex in late 3e and 4e adventure design.) Do you agree? What other insights do you have?
— Chris S. Sims (@ChrisSSims) January 10, 2021
This is a philosophical design question. Can we do with less info, and should we? And to be clear, I’m including adventures I’ve written and developed in this question. But that’s a “conforming to house style” issue rather than a philosophical one. Older adventure design, and modern indie design, often does with less info, relying on the referee to add the details based on minimal info. And real play magic can and does happen in those gaps. Also, there's little space wasted on details that probably won't see play.
— Chris S. Sims (@ChrisSSims) January 10, 2021
But minimalism is even better in that you can present a situation and environment without assuming how the players and their characters will approach it. You create a few entry points, and the players decide which to use. And this approach leaves more room for little details. Having fewer designer-imposed assumptions leaves more space for emergent stories at the table.
— Chris S. Sims (@ChrisSSims) January 10, 2021
When I look at most Pathfinder adventures, I definitely feel that. With 5E adventures, it varies more. I think Tyranny of Dragons feels a lot more bare bones as an adventure. In Descent into Avernus, there is an odd thing where most of the Avernus encounters are defined only by their position on the plot – and so if you encounter them outside of the quest arc, there isn't enough information to run them well.
— Merric Blackman (@MerricB) January 10, 2021
It’s a far cry from Keep on the Borderlands, which really wants a DM to fill in details, and bring the intrigues of the Keep and the Caves to life.I am always curious what the ratio was of groups doing a mod like KotBorderlands… creating a cool story vs just murdering everything. My early groups just murdered and looted. We didn’t even consider that a story could be added, nor did the DM.
— Alphastream (@Alphastream) January 10, 2021
Keep has many, many problems as an introductory adventure, not least is the lack of quest seeds for the DM to make the Keep itself more interesting. There are some tiny, tiny gems in the keep descriptions, if I recall, but they’re easy to miss and not as easy to use.
— Chris S. Sims (@ChrisSSims) January 10, 2021
Can you give an example of what you mean by too much info? Details of things characters are unlikely to interact with, contingencies for various possible player choices, superfluous NPC background or personality info, reiterating existing rules, editorializing, and so on. This stuff has been an issue for a long time.
— Chris S. Sims (@ChrisSSims) January 10, 2021
They don’t contain enough info of the NECESSARY kind, by which I mostly mean two things:
– WHY NPCs/creatures are doing certain things
– Relevant history of characters/placesIOW, the things players always ask about, leaving DMs flatfooted as we flip pages to find answers. This is the poll result I was looking for. Fully agree with this.
— Alyssa Visscher (@alyssavisscher) January 10, 2021
It’s really a question of what the storyteller needs. A new one may really want & need lots of info while a more experienced one may throw out a lot & modify the adventure to their needs. I think more info is good because it’s harder for new people to add elements than skip some.Great answer!
— Chris S. Sims (@ChrisSSims) January 10, 2021