Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 chonen Jun 17, 2009 17:11:26	In the downloads section of this website there are free downloads for adventures/modules. Have any of you tried them out? Any one in particular you would recommend? I am a new GM and I am wanting to get my feet wet with both GMing and using the Modern system. My groups tend to have hugely epic D&D campaigns that take many many months to get through and sometimes we never even fully finish them. So I was wanting to try a different theme with some shorter/smaller in scope games. Also I was hoping that looking at a modules would help me frame my own creations. I am currently writing a story but my notes are kind of jumbled and it would be helpful to see a model of how to chart this stuff out. -Chance ^_^
#2 TheRealOrion Jun 17, 2009 22:32:24	Well, plundering existing modules is a great place to harvest things for your own game, like villains, maps, or stats for various other things. What I'd suggest is that you come up with the basic idea for your own game first, and then look through the modules to find useful villains, interest plot twists, and other ideas. Integrating your concept with what the module provides will probably give you a rich diversity of things to play with. As for how to map out a game, what I tend to do is set a bunch of characters and other factors in motion, define a physical space (some in minute detail, where combat will occur, and some a little more fuzzy), and then just let people act as they will. If you know what your NPCs want, you make decisions on their behalf, rather than trying to execute a specific narrative path. Pushing PCs through a narrative is how a lot of modules are written, but it's not the best way, in my opinion. You don't just want players to star in your adventure. You want them to live out their fantasies of being Big Damn Heroes, which means that they have to make their own decisions. It's a difficult balance, though, when you present a situation and they just can't think of what the hell to do next, because that's when you have to start laying hints, given them an "out" without taking away their ability to define their own narratives. You kind of have to just get a feel for it as you go.