Jump to content

What kind of fantasy adventures do you prefer?


Christopher R Taylor

The Fantasy Adventure Poll  

37 members have voted

  1. 1. What kind of fantasy adventures would you like to see published

    • Basic Dungeon Crawls
    • Mysteries and Puzzle Solving
    • Epic sweeping multi-part campaign storylines
    • Romance driven adventures
    • Politically driven adventures
    • War stories (conquer the land, besiege the castle, etc)
    • Gothic/Vampire/Werewolf etc themed adventures
    • Time traveling or anachronistic adventures
    • Humorous and silly adventures
    • Long journeys and treks
    • City adventures
    • Exotic locations (deep sea, outer space, other dimensions, etc)
    • Knights of yore-chivalry-King Arthur type adventures
    • Heavily treasure-laden adventures
    • High magic, supernatural adventures
    • Low magic, Gritty adventures
    • Sandbox open areas


Recommended Posts

I like small scale, local adventures that occur on a human level with a fairly naturalistic streak. The French "Fantastique" where the supernatural is rare, invasive, and menacing to ordinary reality is more my style. Or pulps, where magic is found far more in ancient artifacts, places of power, mystic beasts, dreams that pierce the veil, and lengthy-obscure-rococo rituals than it is in sorcerers (who are almost always NPCs). In truth, events unfolding in a single shire, or in a city and its surrounding countryside, is a good scale for me. Traveling to a shire in a remote corner of the kingdom would be "world spanning," for my tastes. I also like tales that leverage politics, mysteries, local customs, and are driven by characters who are a part of their community. The goings on in that community and the events that impact them. It doesn't have to be big to be awesome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Modular adventures that have several optional encounters that can be used to pace the main story (if one is even included) out to GM preference. I prefer a building block of a Home Base, basic Rogues Gallery, basic Bestiary, basic Rewards "catalog" and a few Locations that can be used to layer on the other aspects to GM taste.

 

For instance, the characters all start out in the town of Blueberry, which has no relation to the actual berry. It is a bastardization of the town's original name. There are basic services in the town, but don't expect to swing down to the Stop 'n' Smith for a masterwork sword. There is even a shop called Arcania's House of Wonders, where one might find a strange (but ultimately low-powered) magical artifact.

 

Blueberry and the local environs are currently being plagued by Kastos, the (self-styled) Baron of Banditry, and his crew. There have been sightings of a Wyvern, Goblins and even some feral dogs that have been hunting farm animals and (rumor has it) even a local drunk. Some folks have whispered that there are strange robed figures haunting some old ruins. The rumors range from and ancient cult to evil spirits that have been disturbed from their ancient rest. Those will serve as the base Bestiary and Rogues Gallery.

 

Blueberry is one Location. You can add things like Bandit Camp, Abandoned Farm, Ancient Ruins, etc.  It is best to duplicate purpose things so that, in addition to Ancient Ruins you might have the Old Watch Tower or the Standing Stones to place either the Bandits or the Cloaked Figures at. 

 

If you need a main plot, look no further than either the Bandits, the Wyvern, or the Cloaked Figures. Any one of those could form the basic "confront dangerous enemies" quest. You can even use at least two of those in a "race to find Relic x" type of a quest. I prefer to let the story build around those layered elements. It lets the players organically interact with the setting and it allows the GM to tailor the adventure to the players expressed interests.

 

Sorry I have to difficult and break the mold. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My vision of a sandbox adventure is a big area with lots of details and places to adventure, with a background story adventure that the GM can use or ignore and lots of small adventure arcs and stories for suggestions on running games in the area.  A spot with PC resources like a place to heal up, repair, sell, etc, but close enough to wilderness its wide open.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My vision of a sandbox adventure is a big area with lots of details and places to adventure, with a background story adventure that the GM can use or ignore and lots of small adventure arcs and stories for suggestions on running games in the area.  A spot with PC resources like a place to heal up, repair, sell, etc, but close enough to wilderness its wide open.

 

Yes and no for me.  "lots of details" can be a deal breaker depending on the types of details.    If they are written in a way they can be easily ignored without impacting other information, then yes.  If they are details tightly woven in the setting then no. 

 

I have a lot of settings that are unusable because they require actual "study" by all the prospective players before they can be used.   Tuala Morn and Narosia are examples.   Fantastic well built game worlds.  I love them and enjoy just reading through them.  But in order for the players to create characters that would actually fit in those worlds, they all have to read and understand the book and setting.    With the extremely limited time available to all my regular RPG friends that isn't going to happen, especially just to "try out" a new game setting.  

 

Once again back to the "generic fantasy setting" concept.   D&D, Pathfinder and 13th Age generally share the same generic world.  Anyone can simply create a character using one of the Standard Generic Classes from one of the Standard Generic Races using the Standard Generic Equipment and play.  When you come down to it, even 13th Age's Icons are just renaming the Standard Generic Two Dimensional Deities.   A sprinkling of renamed items doesn't make them not-generic.  

 

D&D 5th's Players Handbook includes all the end items needed to actually play, today, now, without creating much of anything.  And yet manages to include almost no real details of the actual world setting.  Allowing new players to easily understand while simultaneously allowing the GM full freedom to make the world his own AND still managing to include fully pre-packaged adventures/campaigns for the people that have zero time to build them.    

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

City adventures are still doing really well, I suspect there is a market out there.  Probably ideal to have "drop in" more generic stuff you can put in any city rather than requiring a specific setting, I'm not sure people are super eager for yet another city product.

 

Its my opinion that almost everything put out should have adventures in it, especially settings.  Everyone can use adventures and adventure ideas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Probably ideal to have "drop in" more generic stuff you can put in any city rather than requiring a specific setting, I'm not sure people are super eager for yet another city product.

 

Its my opinion that almost everything put out should have adventures in it, especially settings.  Everyone can use adventures and adventure ideas.

 

This. I know when I was first starting as a GM looking for stand alone cities was useful (anyone remember the "Free City of Haven" or "Sanctuary"?). However it didn't take very long to start pulling them apart and using the bits (sometimes with the serial number filed off, sometimes not) in my own cities. More than one version of "The Vulgar Unicorn" or "Bloody Sams" has appeared in my games.

 

In fact maybe a product with various iconics that can be dropped almost anywhere with a few plot devices and varations on a theme. The archetypical Inn in the Nobles Quarter with backgrounds on the staff.  Throw in some varied plots (who is spying on / sleeping with who and why) and you have an instant campaign generator.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...