I've really enjoyed reading your critiques of HitO and this module. What are some modules that you find near perfect, however you choose to define perfect?
That has a lot of the stuff that I look for as imperfections:
The factions should have goals, obstacles, and methods to surmount their obstacles
It should be easy to know what to say when players enter a room
Traps (and secret doors) should describe the mechanisms by which they work and how players might discover their presence
I should never have to cross reference another room while running a different room
In-line stat blocks are generally incomplete/bad. Either provide full inline blocks (explain special abilities, provide move speed and physical descriptions) or provide a printable appendix that does this (this is my preference)
Magic items need to be mechanically described (just like spells) and need some sort of description. A sword+1 is totally fine, but you need to *say what it looks like*.
Bespoke mechanics (like digging through the rubble in the dwarves mine) tend to be really bad; just use mechanics from the system you're building for.
Related, build for an actual system, ideally a popular one with a SRD like Osric or OSE. Systemless modules means everyone has to convert and that's dumb.
Triple check your map; make sure your room key matches.
Properly balance your treasure. Unbalanced treasure for one shots is fine; unbalanced treasure for long-term play is really annoying. Aim for ~3-4x more treasure than monster XP in the keyed encounters. Aim for ~1 magic item for every 10000 XP.
Don't give out random treasure and don't key random amounts of enemies. Rather than make the GM roll this during play, roll this yourself and then write down what you rolled and give that to the GM instead. "2 gems" is better than "1d4 gems". "A 100g opal and a 500g emerald" is better than "2 gems".
Shrine of the Small God by Ben Gibson is extremely close to my ideal.
Aberrant Reflections is on a totally different level of production value, even going as far as to have a booklet of visual aids for the players that I could hand out for the complex rooms.
Beware the Beekeeper (Echoes from Formalhaut 01) is only held back by it's sloppy inline monster stats (no move speed, special abilities are not described) and the map does not have a grid or scale.
Castle Xyntillan could use more backlinking (and better inline monster stats), and preamble (i'd love a few paragraphs about the Grayl and a rundown of the Malevol family dynamics) but is otherwise fantastic.
Arden Vul is probably the best in terms of content, with the only negatives being how much of a commitment it is to digest and how dense the room keys are.
I'm running this right now, and this was helpful for pointing out a few potholes to avoid during game time. Much obliged for the attention to detail and general thoughts. I doubt we'll see a 3rd revised version, but you never know...
I've really enjoyed reading your critiques of HitO and this module. What are some modules that you find near perfect, however you choose to define perfect?
Oh also! I posted an audit of a module here: https://rancourt.substack.com/p/audit-tower-silveraxe
That has a lot of the stuff that I look for as imperfections:
The factions should have goals, obstacles, and methods to surmount their obstacles
It should be easy to know what to say when players enter a room
Traps (and secret doors) should describe the mechanisms by which they work and how players might discover their presence
I should never have to cross reference another room while running a different room
In-line stat blocks are generally incomplete/bad. Either provide full inline blocks (explain special abilities, provide move speed and physical descriptions) or provide a printable appendix that does this (this is my preference)
Magic items need to be mechanically described (just like spells) and need some sort of description. A sword+1 is totally fine, but you need to *say what it looks like*.
Bespoke mechanics (like digging through the rubble in the dwarves mine) tend to be really bad; just use mechanics from the system you're building for.
Related, build for an actual system, ideally a popular one with a SRD like Osric or OSE. Systemless modules means everyone has to convert and that's dumb.
Triple check your map; make sure your room key matches.
Properly balance your treasure. Unbalanced treasure for one shots is fine; unbalanced treasure for long-term play is really annoying. Aim for ~3-4x more treasure than monster XP in the keyed encounters. Aim for ~1 magic item for every 10000 XP.
Don't give out random treasure and don't key random amounts of enemies. Rather than make the GM roll this during play, roll this yourself and then write down what you rolled and give that to the GM instead. "2 gems" is better than "1d4 gems". "A 100g opal and a 500g emerald" is better than "2 gems".
Hey Rupert! Glad you enjoyed :D
Shrine of the Small God by Ben Gibson is extremely close to my ideal.
Aberrant Reflections is on a totally different level of production value, even going as far as to have a booklet of visual aids for the players that I could hand out for the complex rooms.
Beware the Beekeeper (Echoes from Formalhaut 01) is only held back by it's sloppy inline monster stats (no move speed, special abilities are not described) and the map does not have a grid or scale.
Castle Xyntillan could use more backlinking (and better inline monster stats), and preamble (i'd love a few paragraphs about the Grayl and a rundown of the Malevol family dynamics) but is otherwise fantastic.
Arden Vul is probably the best in terms of content, with the only negatives being how much of a commitment it is to digest and how dense the room keys are.
Thanks for the thorough reply. I hadn't heard of the Gibson adventure.
Arden Vul is such a phenomenal feat of imagination. People knock it for its verbosity, but it fits the intricately detailed setting.
Thanks again for the recommendations.
I'm running this right now, and this was helpful for pointing out a few potholes to avoid during game time. Much obliged for the attention to detail and general thoughts. I doubt we'll see a 3rd revised version, but you never know...
Thanks! Hopefully y’all enjoy the game!