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 ).

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 line.