The Gaming Den

Specifically, what does a DM look for in an adventure that would actually make him want to use something pre-made as opposed to something made personally and thus tailored for the needs/style of the players?

My simple criteria for purchasing written modules:

1) How interesting does it seem? Any nice moments in it?

2) How long is it?

3) If it is long, are there opportunities to add some sidequests to freshen things up a bit?

4) Finally, what is the price and, taken all previous factors into account, is it worth the money?

Does the story interest me?

Does it seem fun to me? By this I mean do I imagine myself having a fun time using the scenes, plot points, characters?

Does the story make sense to me?

Is it logically consistent and well-planned?

Does is implicitly require, or exclude, certain classes or abilities?

How difficult would it be to insert into my current campaign? I am disappointed when I discover a cool module only to find out that the party is way out of synch with the intended level, or that it's heavily based on circumstances or locales that the party is nowhere near or involved with. Again, this isn't a can I adapt it? problem, it's a how much work will it be? problem.

A few questions that I consider:

Is the story interesting?

Does it fit into my campaign setting without too much revision?

Is it too railroady?

How long is it?

Would introducing it break the continuity of whatever else I'm doing with the campaign?

Are NPCs interesting for me personally to roleplay?

Are the combats interesting?

Can I insert this into a small area or does it require a lot of my world map space?

Is there variety in the dungeon among traps/monsters/events/etc?

Are there moments that make me want to see the players react to?

Does the plot have a logical progression with reasonable motivations behind it?

Going to necro this thread because I was going to ask this exact question but I'd like to expand the topic to include players and I'd also like to hear about specific adventures people remember, anecdotes, memories, characters, plot, whatever. I am interested in hearing about what sticks with people who aren't me/people I run for.

As a player, I like it when an adventure sets up a problem and then presents you with options on how to solve it. This sounds super basic, but in my experience so many adventures just fail on delivering something for the players to hold on to. It doesn't have to be super clear-cut or explicit, rumors or maybes are quite sufficient, but they need to be presented clearly enough to be recognized for what they are. A tiny hint hidden away in the dialogue line of a minor NPC at the very beginning of the adventure is not clever, it's a dick move. Because I absolutely hate it when the situation boils down to "read the GM's mind and try to parse all elements in exactly the same way as he (or the adventure's author) does to find a solution".

Ad for specific adventures, I have fond memories of Sunless Citadel. It eased everyone ( I was a newbie at that time) into the game and provided a lot of cornerstone D&D elements. I'm pretty sure my GM fiddled with the dungeon, but I remember having a good time exploring it and trying to identify the dragon clues. The two warring factions (kobolds, goblins) were great, we immediately tried to play them against each other while also negotiating a side deal with the kobolds. Killed almost everyone in the end, except for Meepo and his buddies. The end boss was, at least in my memory, only so-so, but I loved finding out that the evil tree had grown out of the wooden stake.

Another adventure that comes to mind is From Shore to Sea (Pathfinder), which I played in a game where everyone would GM in turns. I'm not that much of a Cthulhu fan, but this one I liked. The degenerate fishing village was cliché, but the lighthouse was amazing. The rising flood, rescuing the people and then those massive tentacles out of nowhere... that escalation came very unexpected and stuck with me, and it also was an all-around good encounter. The ruined island was also fun, a lot of cool details like the floating ruins where we had to hop around, or the naga's lair. To me, it was a good adventure with just the right mix of exploration and cthulhuesque/Azlanti elements, but purely for structural and site design reasons and not because any one of the NPCs was memorable.

Ironically (to me), some of the best NPCs I've encountered was in a CoC adventure, but I don't know the module's name... it was about an art gallery in London and selecting a winner out of four pictures (and four artists), with lots of cloak and dagger stuff going on. Of course, one of the pictures had the King in Yellow in it. All of us in the jury got handouts and private notes from some of the artists. I liked the NPCs because most of them had clear motives for their behavior and didn't act randomly just because. After the first murder, we had a lot of suspects to investigate and lively discussions ensued because there were strong leads in various directions. Most of the horror was pretty subtle, which I appreciated since, like I said, I'm not that much of a fan.

- Players and DM's enjoy the theme of the adventure

- Adventure presents unique challenges suited to the PC's abilities, not focused too much on one or leaving out others

- Adventure pacing moves along at a good pace, players and DM don't feel bored

- Sexy monster women

Sunless Citadel was the first pre-made adventure I ran and it went really well. The twig blights and the main evil druid with the fat frog didn't capture my player's attention (they were literally doing rock paper scissors in and out of game to see who would gank him while he was monologuing) but the two sided conflict with the kobolds/goblins and attempting to capture the dragon for themselves were a big hit.

How easy is it to break?
Related- How railroaded is this adventure?
What kind of game are my players going for? Heavy narrative or murder hobo?
What kind of adventure is this?
Is this something *I* would want to play as a PC?

Good adventures have souvenirs. Something you can take away or leave a mark. I potted some roots from the evil plant from sunless citadel, feeding it blood until I finally planted it at Rappan Athuk once I found a suitably evil location. I enjoyed the whistle from Sunless Citadel too that had a daily animate dead or something.

In no specific order

-Good theme/hook/something interesting that I know players ll be interested.

-Not a railroading mess, preferable if it has suggestions if players have ideas besides what it endorses.

-Something that is not mechanically broken or designed to be unfair.

Have yet to encounter any that really fit this criteria.

Basically that the thing you achieve at the end of it was made possible by doing the things you did during it. Either because you discovered it needed doing, or found a path to get to it, or found a tool required to perform the end job.

If you have options, the players need to be made aware of them, which means several big-ass clue-by-four to hit them in the face with. Not many options though, so they can keep track easily. Which, they will miss all of them, so just tell them.

And then, show them, don't tell them. There is not a story of mean bandits for the PCs to investigate by questioning victims, there are just mean bandits being mean to the PCs while being bandits.

The protagonists, the active party, is the PCs. To some extent, things are somewhat settled until the PCs do things. You don't need a time limit or bad guys doing huge things, just bad guys being consistently bad and also getting in the face of the party.


Which is all basically fulfilled by a location-based encounter set that provides some clear options about what to do therein, after an initial triggering encounter alerts the PCs to the need to act, maybe by chasing them up a tree.

For me the difference between a good and a memorable adventure are:

- Meaningful choices: choices that tells something about the personality of your characters, choices that might be difficult to make or that require deep thinking. If playing a different characters would have led me to making different choices (and not just for mechanical reasons), it's a sign that the adventure isn't a bland romp.

- Emotional aspect: Successfully evoking emotions is a mark of success in any work. Doing it without resorting to basic triggers will be more appreciated.

- Awesome scenes: From completely over-the-top action scenes to poignant death scene, awesome scenes often make adventures memorables.