Re: 10 Best Classic D&D Adventures That D&D 2024 Should Bring Back

On Mon, 24 Feb 2025 10:31:35 +0100, Kyonshi <gmkeros@gmail.com> wrote:

On 1/10/2025 2:52 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Thu, 09 Jan 2025 12:36:23 -0500, Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net>
wrote:
 

The revised rules for Dungeons & Dragons have created a quasi-new edition of
the game, not quite 5th edition, yet decidedly not a complete restructuring
of the game. Still, with new rules come new adventures, and often, for
Wizards of the Coast, a look back at previous modules from earlier versions
of the TTRPG. Some of the best 5e adventures are lifted directly from 3.5 and
first edition, and there's no reason why this trend of restructuring old
modules will stop now.

 
 
I'd much rather they create NEW modules than go over the same ground
again. If there is a need for porting the older modules to new rules,
let third-party designers do that (like Goodman Games is doing with
the 'Original Adventures Reincarnated' series). But WotC would better
spend their time and resources on creating new material.

>
I don't think they want to do any adventures at all. I think they
finally realized that adventures are largely cost for them, and that the
true money is in the core rulebooks and a few splatbooks. It's very
noticeable they made way less supplements and adventure modules than in
any previous edition. Even the ones they made were mostly re-imagined
versions of classics, all nicely made up as huge honkers of books that
looked nice on shelves.

A lot of WOTC's more recent adventures are (or were, I haven't really
been keeping up) the episodic "Adventure League" stuff designed to get
groups into game-stores. The individual adventures themselves are
pretty poor (they're mostly designed as pick-me-up games and while the
entire season has a combined theme and campaign, they're pretty
shallow because its not expected that the same players will be back
week after week to play through the entire thing) but WOTC does (or
did; again, not keeping up anymore) release a lot of the darn things.

But like I said, the adventures weren't really meant to be sold. They
were used to get people into stores, either to play in an in-store
event, or find a group there. And once you were there, you'd of course
want to buy something, even if it was the sourcebook for the campaign
you were currently in.

I'd rather WotC created its own full-length, well-written modules...
but still better the Adventurers League fluff than rehashing old
adventures.

 
Frankly, I wouldn't mind a return to the 2E era where TSR was just
spewing out new material and hoping something sticks. A lot of it
wasn't very good (Sturgeon's Law strikes again!) but the sheer volume
meant that some of it was worth playing. Whether it's a flood of new
modules or just new campaign settings, it'd be a great departure from
the absolutely glacial release schedule WOTC has now.

>
I think what you need to be looking at is their online portal. They have
moved from doing their own stuff to getting fans to create stuff for
them and making a profit from that.

Oh, definitely WOTC is relying heavily on fans to do the heavy lifting
for them. And I've no problem with them allowing that. But A LOT of
that fan material is of really questionable quality and -worse-
exceptional brevity. Sure, a lot of TSR stuff was crappy too, but the
resources of the company churned out so much stuff that often the
settings could grow into their potential

     [And sometimes grow right out of it too... see Dragonlance,
      a series which TSR milked dry rather than give an honorable
      death ;-)]

Anything WOTC puts out also get an official stamp of approval, and
fans can then work off of that to create interesting new creations You
generally don't see fan-works iterating off their peers that way.