Pre-Made Adventures

[kkortekaas]

Morning Folks,
I'm planning on finally starting up Cormyr: Tearing of the Weave on Friday, but I've got a slight problem...I'm scared I'm going to screw it up big time. See, normally when I create an adventure, I'm intimately familiar with it and can adlib to my hearts content, with CTotW I can't do that as much.

Can anyone suggest tips or suggestions in not only running CTotW but running premade store bought in general.

Much appreciated.

[Hazkali]

As I've never run a pre-made adventure before, I don't have much advice other than don't make the same mistake that this guy does (http://www.feartheboot.com/comic/default.aspx?c=39).

:smallbiggrin:

[AslanCross]

I'm a beginner DM, and up to now I've only run adventures I've made myself. I'm planning on running Hell's Heart (it's part of the current issue of Dungeon on the Wizards website) this Christmas break. I have to admit I'm a bit worried as the structure is very different from my simple, linear storylines, but I'm pretty excited about it. I'd suggest reading the whole thing and drinking in every detail. Know what the point of the adventure is. Try to figure out what will screw it up, and how your players would possibly interact with the adventure.

Though honestly, I don't think thinking about it too much will really help. One can only second-guess the players so much, after all.

[Mr. Friendly]

Well, I just hope for you that Cormyr is better than every other module that WotC has released for the last 2 years and does not include massive typos, incorrect stats, wrong maps and the host of other problems that their modules seem to perpetually suffer.

[F.L.]

At the last minute, replace CTotW with the Tomb of Horrors? Should get you out of the DM'ing task for a long while...

[Jimbob]

I use premade stuff now and again, and what I do, is read it 2 or 3 times so you know all the important bits, but dont run it the T, players will do some thing different that the adventure has not expected and things will change, so just take a few notes on twists you could do put on it. And at the end fo the day you are DM and if you dont like some thing in the book, change it, players wont know.

[kkortekaas]

That was pretty much my strategy, read it over and over again until I know it as well as possible and then attempt to adlib within the boundaries presented. It just seems like it's much more linear then I'm used too.

[Jimbob]

Well I think it comes down to what type of DM you are. The type that sticks strickly to a story or adventure or the other allowing the payers to do what they like. Im the last, love letting players come up with ideas for there characters and then I go away and come up with some thing. A pre written adventure is always a good starting point for this.

[Lord Tataraus]

First off, I hate pre-made adventures. I broke down and finally got Expedition to Castle Ravenloft after some urging and it went decently well, but I still don't like running them. At first it seems like a pre-made will be a lot easier to run because you don't need the preparation, however, I spent more time preparing the one session version of that than anything I've ever done. Then while play, I realized that the room descriptions of the castle assumed the players were entering from a certain door, and never the door they were actually going through. The descriptions at that point got more and more confusing and the players had no idea what to do because it was in a style they were not familiar with at all; everything was in riddles. So, my suggestion is, as others have said, read through it enough to become very intimate with the adventure and pay attention to what point of view the block text is written so you can quickly change it if needed. Also, add more clues then the adventure gives unless you're players are really good at that sort of thing or its just not that kind of adventure (highly unlikely).

[RTGoodman]

Yeah, I agree with the other posters - make sure you've read the adventure a few times, especially the sections your going to be playing through in your next gaming session.

Also, just because it's written in the adventure doesn't mean that it's going to work that way, and you have to be prepared for players screwing up your well-made plans. For instance, in running Red Hand of Doom (the first time I tried running it before it fell apart) the players were investigating Vraath Keep (a small keep in the middle of a forest), and decided that they didn't want to walk through the front gate (as the adventure assumes); instead, they pulled out the rope, grappling hook, and maxed out Use Rope skills and climbed up the back walls
catching the manticore by surprise, summoning a celestial bison and some other stuff in the doorway of the stable, and sneak attacking the hobgoblins that ran out into the middle of the keep to find the source of the commotion. The only trouble they had was with the minotaur (who climbed to the wall and charged the rogue off of the wall) and when they finally met up with Wyrmlord Koth, who had prepared for them with invisibility, mage armor, and a readied blindness/deafness.)

[kkortekaas]

Murphs Law dictates that my players will find a way to screw with the pre-made adventure. It's in their nature.

[deadseashoals]

Then while play, I realized that the room descriptions of the castle assumed the players were entering from a certain door, and never the door they were actually going through.

I just wanted to say, that's terrible. I've been told by an editor at Paizo that pointing out specifics in room/character descriptions is a big no-no, as these things might change depending on the things that the players do. Elementary mistake by WotC, yet again.

When I ran Eyes of the Lich Queen, I saw errors in pretty much every stat block. It was sickening. If your rules-fu is up to par, take a glance over the stat blocks before you go. Other than that... premade adventures seem to assume that the players will approach the encounters in certain ways, and don't really attempt to deal with any other solutions. For example, a certain person might be blocking the door, and the module will assume that the players will try to kill him to pass. If you can get around this, it will probably be more fun for your players - I realized this too late.

[de-trick]

prepare for the unexpected never ran cormyr but was in it. But my Dm's great, almost a god. From making a city that has no rival to 0- epic level campaigns

[CASTLEMIKE]

Review the material so you are familiar with it, particularly the monsters and their basic capabilities, tweak the things you don't like, this is really great for groups that have a general idea of what normally happens in the source book adventure. Swap out Kobold Sorcerers for Blues. Instead of a Kobold Sorcerer use a Green (Really a Blue) but it will keep the players guessing.

Have a screen of some sort if you don't normally use one. Roll the dice randomly, occassionally have all the PCs roll the dice randomly, occassionally ask them to clarify their marching order. Remember you aren't really trying to kill the PCs normally so fudge "some" of those instant kill rolls on either side.

Most of the PCs don't really need their sheets for a lot of encounters they know their PC capabilities in game. Consider making some notes on a few index cards (sometimes a flow chart helps a little, particularly if the PCs need to go to point B to get magic item B for encounter C, D or E down the road to defeat monster X to get his magic item to take care of the BBEG at the end). I find post it stickies or tabs (with a reminder note) on the source book page helpful. Unless you are great at winging things having a few side track index cards or small side trek adventures are really handy if the PCs end up going off slightly off course, there are plenty of free ones at Wizards in the download section:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b

There is some other nice free stuff in the old editions at Wizard's like volo's Guide to Cormyr:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads