When you look for adventures (assuming you do) is your preference on Maps or the ideas in the adventure?

Me, I have always been a big Map guy. I would buy adventures purely so I could take the maps and come up with my own adventure around them. After a while, it became a game in itself.

So, you preference?

Bill

I like interesting adventures, but I love me some maps. I used to make my own maps just for fun, and a good map is the mark of a quality product to me.

Quote from: HinterWeltWhen you look for adventures (assuming you do) is your preference on Maps or the ideas in the adventure?



Bill

Ideas. Because if I find something interesting esp something that I don't need to modify much, it cuts down prep time for my games. Some maps are cool though, but on the whole really doesn't do anything for me.

Regards,
David R

I'm fitty-fitty, but here lately I've thought that a fun campaign might be this one:

• Prepare a map with interesting adventuring locations
• Detail a few encounters based around those locations
• Present the players with a partial copy of your map and some partial notes on the included locations
  
• Say to them, "Okay!  You have this map and this old journal.  You're all young adventurers seeking their own adventures and fortunes.  Where do you go first?"

I like both. I used to draw maps and imagine the society that would be shaped by that land. I would also get ideas about something and draw maps showing what that place or society would look like, so it's about even.

-clash

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!I'm fitty-fitty, but here lately I've thought that a fun campaign might be this one:

• Prepare a map with interesting adventuring locations
• Detail a few encounters based around those locations
• Present the players with a partial copy of your map and some partial notes on the included locations
  
• Say to them, "Okay!  You have this map and this old journal.  You're all young adventurers seeking their own adventures and fortunes.  Where do you go first?"

Great idea.

Quote from: SigmundGreat idea.

Pfft! It's Doc Rotwang! Of course it's great!

-clash

I love maps.  I totally relate to buying adventures just because the map was cool.

However, as I've dealt with gaming groups that didn't care one whit for the pretty maps, I've come to appreciate an outline plot for adventures.  I don't even care about stat blocks for NPCs.  Just the basic plot.

I'll generally create a map in my mind and enjoy its detail without forcing it on my players who don't care.

I find that a good illustration of an "adventurous event" has been enough for me.  Of course, most of my adventures are "on the fly" affairs.  At most I have an outline.  I don't like a "railroaded" adventure.  I pick some key encounters, a general plot, a starting point, an ending point.  Whatever happens in-between is as much a surprise to me as it is to the players!  

Quote from: flyingmicePfft! It's Doc Rotwang! Of course it's great!

-clash

Thanks, but it didn't come out of a vacuum.  It was inspired by one of these books -- it's how the adventure starts.  "Your grandfather left you his journal, and a map..."

It is a great idea, though.  Takes a lot of prep work, yeah, but I like the type of game that it suggests -- an open-ended one which pretty much gurantees surprises, by its very definition.  It's a very basic and overt mixture of prepared encounters and improvised ones.  You could even work it on a smaller scale -- use the map from Keep on the Borderlands, say.

Come to think...isn't this how a lot of Traveller campaigns started out?  "Look at this -- Ranroon, at hex 4014.  Says here it's stellar tech level, and it's a rich world...let's go sell that jadewood and those holoprograms there.  It's only a week away!"  Of course that its law level might've changed since last survey, or the Library Data doesn't mention the cultural taboo against holograms, or maybe it's run by Scientologists...

I never do maps for my adventures.  It just doesn't seem like something that's particularly important.  Maps of areas or of locations; surely anyone can adlib what a castle looks like inside?

Ideas. Any maps I prepared would almost certainly fail to capture the required amount of detail, so if there's one present in the scenario, I simply describe its features when necessary.

I suck at map making. I can fill a map with stuff but when I create one it ends up looking rediculous so I'm always on the lookout for a good map.

Quote from: Mr. Analyticalsurely anyone can adlib what a castle looks like inside?

For values of castle where castle equals Nottingham. Medieval architecture ain't that simple. Even the decorations were much more sophisticated than Hollywood wants you to think...

If my players were in some equivalent to Coucy, I'd try to be prepared. Improvisation has its limits, if you want to stay reasonably realistic.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!I'm fitty-fitty, but here lately I've thought that a fun campaign might be this one:

• Prepare a map with interesting adventuring locations
• Detail a few encounters based around those locations
• Present the players with a partial copy of your map and some partial notes on the included locations
  
• Say to them, "Okay!  You have this map and this old journal.  You're all young adventurers seeking their own adventures and fortunes.  Where do you go first?"

I'm my Idealized Campaign each player gets their own customized version of the above, so if players compare notes thay might put together a series of useful clues.  That's a lot of work, though.

Maps are really cool and help a lot, but ideas are even better. That's my take.