Why Are Recent D&D Adventures So Mid?

One of the reasons Dungeons & Dragons became so popular over the years was because of their amazing adventures. D&D adventures are nearly as popular as the game itself. WoTC continues to release new adventures for D&D, but so many recent adventures have been average at best. Why is this the case, and why does WoTC seemingly purposely release adventures of this quality?
Join Stephen, Mark, and Baron de Ropp from ‪@DungeonMasterpiece‬ as we discuss this topic in detail!
About Roll For Combat:
Hosted by Stephen Glicker and Mark Seifter, Roll For Combat delivers news and commentary from a business point of view. We host a weekly live show every Wednesday at 3:00 pm EDT and host a wide variety of guests from the gaming industry. We talk about role-playing games, movies, TV, video games, and more.
🐉 The Ultimate Elemental Monster Book for Your Pathfinder 2e or 5th Edition Game is coming! Battlezoo Bestiary: Elemental Storm has over 150 new award-winning monsters, detailed rules on creating gear from monster parts, dynamic new Monster Hunting rules, and so much more! Sign up today to receive the exclusive Kraken Dice Locket & Animated Monster Tokens!
►kickstarter.rollforcombat.com/
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
⚔️ Battlezoo Store For Your Pathfinder and 5E games: battlezoo.com/
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
👹 Play legendary monsters in your 5E and Pathfinder games throughout all of 2024! Check out the Year of Legends today! ►battlezoo.com/products/battle...
🦜️ Explore the Indigo Isles! New Dragons! New Ancestries/Races! New towns, NPCs, faith systems and much more! ►battlezoo.com/products/world-...
🐓 The Battlezoo Bestiary: Strange and Unusual Pathfinder PDF is out now! ►battlezoo.com/products/preord...
🏴‍☠️️ Download a FREE First Chapter of the Jewel of the Indigo Isles adventure today for both Pathfinder 2e and 5e! ► battlezoo.com/products/jewel-...
🐲 Play a Dragon PC, explore the Indigo Isles, create gear from monster parts, and more at: battlezoo.com/products/battle...
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
🤖 Facebook: / rollforcombat
📡 Discord: discord.rollforcombat.com
🐦 Twitter: / rollforcombat
⚔️ Battlezoo Store: battlezoo.com/
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
#dnd #dungeonsanddragons #wotc #hasbro

[@joerussell1732]

"All the stuff for that room should be on that page..." 4e adventures did this. You'd have your general overview in the beginning, but then each room would be pretty much self contained on a 2 page spread, including monster stat blocks...

[@badmojo0777]

i see too many people wanting to buy a CAMPAIGN adventure with a story and complaining that its a railroad?? uuh thats how prewritten stories work

[@willmena96]

A railroad is like you're playing with a script, so players don't have a choice. If you play the same campaign with 3 different groups, they'll all have the same results if it's a railroad. Now, if we're talking about a linear adventure, that's a different thing. You may have an ultimate goal, but the book gives you options: sometimes you can side with some NPCs or the others; maybe you have multiple paths to reach a certain location, so the one you take may give you different encounters, etc. You may play the same linear campaign with different people and they'll probably get different results.

[@RyanZibell]

I grew up with the first generation of Choose Your Own Adventure novels, so I'll make it my analogy. On page 3, you have to choose whether you want the main character to go to the creek with their best friend, or stay home and read their book. If you stay home, all that changes is an extra page of explaining that your friend comes to your house and drags you to the creek. Both choices follow to the same result. On page 100, you have to choose whether you offer the Witch a corn husk doll, a 5 dollar bill, or a joke. Each of these choices lead to outcomes unlike the others. All of this exists as a novel, which is by definition prewritten. The first example is a rail road. The second isn't

[@simonfernandes6809]

Masks of Nyarlothotep for Call of Cthulhu begs to differ.

[@sleepinggiant4062]

That's not a railroad. Railroading is when the DM forces you to solve challenges one way and doesn't allow brainstorming. It can happen in a sandbox style game.

[@irvenman]

My favorite adventure layout is the way Powered by the Apocalypse adventures are written, specifically how Monster of the Week and Avatar Legends RPG adventures are written.

[@Thanatos--]

1:42:18 Is the quick answer.

[@hermesalexandria]

Thank you! I wish someone timestamped allt their vids!

[@1970joedub]

Thank you

[@itzybitzyspyder]

Baron just chugging moonshine out of a jar...

[@gedece]

That was the error, you don't write a lot for framework adventures. You keep track of NPCs, write a few bullet points for some locations and then some secrets and clues, and you use the framework and your few notes to improvise the whole thing.

[@urbanassassin26]

Yeah I feel like Baron is saying he wants a framework but really he just wants as much detail as Stephen, just with better layout and with a shorter adventure. Steven likes long form. Story-based adventures and Baron likes short form small adventures but really in terms of structure and detail they are talking about the same thing.

[@AvenueStudios]

Love Baron as the referee 😆 So sorry for your losses and hardships Stephen! Thank you for continuing to bring us entertainment and wisdom amidst hard times❤

[@junderlandgames1186]

1:15:00 this is how Ben Milton of questing beast does his adventure the waking of willowby hall and the PF2e Beginner box does it. It’s really nice

[@HeraldofHelios]

I would love to see you guys start an award ceremony. I did one for Australian KZbinrs (Australian Webstream Awards) in 2013 and it sucked years out of my life due to all the work and stress. But you guys are machines with work ethic and automation know how

[@tslfrontman]

Self-determined Ranked Choice. If you've never won/worked on an award winner before, you may win multiple awards in 1 year, Rookie-of-the-year style. "Established Winner" organizations (that have won any awards previously) are only eligible to win 1 award per-year, selected from their own Ranked Choice if they would have won multiple.

[@bobbycrosby9765]

An adventure being for kids or not is a pretty broad question. It can be a matter of "adult" subject matter. Or complexity of read-aloud descriptions. Or puzzle difficulty. Or whether or not concepts/metaphors that require a certain level of development to understand. Plot complexity. And so on. I DM for my family and if its a prebuilt module I pretty much always rewrite the read-aloud text and simplify any puzzles.

[@drowningin]

Adult and for kids has been narrowed down to cuss words, violence, and sexual content. As someone who has been looking for mature RPGs I’m always recommended games for those 3 things instead of adult characters behaving like adults

[@jerichojeudy]

Mark, what Barron describes, having a minimap on each spread, already exists! :) I’ll find a reference.

[@crankysmurf]

3.5E and 4E adventures had mini-maps of the relevant sections on the pages.

[@JacksonOwex]

What are we calling "recent"? D&D books as a whole have be "mid"(at BEST) for a few YEARS now!

[@azzaelulbrinter]

Just for your intel, you can't copy word by word official 5e products and publish them on DM's Guild. One of the rules is that you can't either for example convert an old dnd adventure and just update it for 5e, you have to give a new context to it. One example they provide is:,¿ you can't publish "tomb of horrors 5e", but you can publish "return to the tomb of horrors"

[@nowayjosedaniel]

Baron as guest? Hell yea!

[@mirrikybird]

I picked up the first part of the Gatewalkers adventure path, I'm only 5 pages in and holy shit this is incredible. The inside cover page starts with an SCP article. Paizo blows everything from 5e out of the water.

[@junderlandgames1186]

1:50:00 I would buy the hell out of something like this. Baron fixed 5e adventures

[@billedmunds80]

With several hundred submissions to the Ennies each year, how can the five judges possibly give adequate attention to assess each one?

[@jerichojeudy]

I agree with Baron, more structured campaigns should be laid out like the OSR adventures: in an extremely actionable way at the table.

[@dub3773]

Everyone always says that Lost Mines of Phandelver is the best 5e module, but I just finished running it and wasn't really a fan.

[@grandarchon6969]

The best 5e module is in Tales from the Yawning Portal. It's the conversion of Sunless Citadel from 3rd to 5th. The second best is Forge of Fury.

[@Nastara]

I like framework adventures. I would rather take short portions of various adventures and tie them together with my players backstories. They're very proactive and absolute hate railroads. Lucky for them, so do I! Here's how my PF2e campaign is going as an example: -Start with Beginner Box. 3 characters make pirates/ex-pirates because of Otari being a port town and lots of NPCs in the town being ex-pirates. -One character is a Pathfinder and so his initiation quest in Beginner Box. -The kobolds at the end have a treasure map. I turn it into a pirate map. -After Beginner Box, a Pathfinder sailing ship crashes on the coast near Otari. I run Bandits of Immenwood so the Pathfinder player can interact with his faction. -I have the Otari thieves guild give one the pirates a quest to find out more about the treasure map and give them a lead in Absalom. This is a homebrew based on Absalom gang lore. -The treasure map hunt takes them back to Otari, where pirates tied to two players come in. I have these pirates do one of Tamily's side quests too giving some dimension to the conflict. -They win the treasure map race and find the dungeon. I run Sundered Waves one-shot as the dungeon and change the character to tie to a player's backstory. -After, they have enough money from the dungeon to get a ship, but want to get revenge on the Dragon in the Beginner Box (they had to run away). -After getting revenge on the dragon decide to head to the Shackles for treasure and glory. -I look at Skulls and Shackles, hate that it's a rail road, and would rather have them make their own way to the Shackles starting from Otari. I keep the lore and villains in my head for later. -Since one of the players is a Pathfinder NPCs give the party two leads for adventures in two different cities: The Shattered Shield and The Prince of Augustana Society Adventures from 1e. I read them over but don't prep anything in case they don't make it there. -My random weather table gets stuck in a martial port town on the Golden Road and they decide to participate in an adventure. I used lore and NPCs revolving around the Sun Orchid Elixir. -After the tournament arc they fight deamons and manage to find sun orchids as well as the well-hidden locations they grow in, so when they get to the Shackles they can smuggle ingredients and potential create their own Sun Orchid Elixir. -The Shattered Shield and The Prince of Augustana happen in the background during this, resulting in bad endings for both quests. They also lose their navigator and hunt down an enemy pirate to get him back. There's more. I can go on and on, but it's been absolutely awesome to use pre-made one shot scenarios, with my own ideas, and player backstories. Prep has been cut down significantly for me, but my eyes don't glaze over like it would running a railroad.

[@quillogist2875]

We have run into problems with pathfinder 2 adventures too. There are odd problems with continuity in some of them and complete change of tone.

[@deebea6364]

LEAKED - Next years project : THE YEAR OF _ _ _ _ _ _ _ SHOPPING EPISODES!!!! (Battle out food fights in quintessential locations, you can BE the Tavern!)

[@paulw41]

Drop is not taking into account when he talks about maps and text on the same page that a lot of people play VTT and want VTT friendly maps. It a good part of the reason I’ll get some WotC adventures. Fixing text is easy, getting a good map is better.

[@RottenRogerDM]

Dragonance did not introduce the villain to the what second to last chapter. Planescape was a travel montage where the pcs chase the mcguffin.

[@RottenRogerDM]

Excellent point on Venca. Important information is buried in text or a few pages or chapters later in most of WOTC products. Example Storm King does not mention relics are needed to Chapter 4 where you are already at the Giant's Temple. Shattered. Parts of Chapter 5 (first new material) should have been mentioned when you are in Chapter 2. How many books are there where the only reason the PCS know who the main villain is due the player reading the ad copy.

[@TheOGGMsAdventures]

Hey steve G. RE Why I do not show my face on the youtube. I have a few reasons. 1: I do not want to dox myself or my family for many reasons 2: My skin is very dry due to the meds I am on so I often have blemishes on my face and no one wants to see that. I am trying to up my digital avatar/PNGtuber game

[@quillogist2875]

There is a lot of chatter about how there is too much detail in the dnd adventures that is not needed. It is hard to find the sweet spot. People have trouble with some adventures that iI don't have.

[@badmojo0777]

we need more campaigns in the Curse of Strahd model.. its widely loved by almost EVERYONE ?

[@crankysmurf]

Well, that's because it's based on the classic Ravenloft, which has been reprinted in every edition...

[@badmojo0777]

@@crankysmurf based on yes, but the sandbox design works well.

[@Abelmars11]

just a question are you guys doing anything for the re master?

[@RollForCombat]

Yes, we expect to cover each class in detail!

[@jerichojeudy]

Stephen, you don’t need that many words is the thing.

[@hermesalexandria]

Mark is so opinioned on the Awards scene, its so out of character. He's supposed the be the straight guy! :)

[@DocEonChannel]

Why are all official 5e adventures bad? * They're written like group projects in school - different authors that haven't communicated with each other. At least they read as if that were the case. * They don't have strong hooks to involve players, just tentative suggestions. They seem deathly afraid of not allowing whatever concepts the players have imagined for their characters. * There's always detailed room descriptions of every single location, regardless of whether anything is likely to happen there. It's just paddding the page count. * Encounter design has fallen off a cliff. In 4e we had the kind of encounters on a spread that Barron is asking for. In 5e we get "there's 5 orcs in this room."

[@grandarchon6969]

I think they wish they were mid... I'd call most of the recent adventures rushed, incomplete, hack job, cash grabs. They have poor layout, poor writing, art which is cartoony, and not evocative, missing rules, etc...

[@tracyburnham604]

Because they’re written by freelancers and edited by execs?

[@badmojo0777]

only the first ocuple were outsourced fomr Kobold Press to the best of my knowledge.but feel free to correct me if you know of any any other exceptions

[@thalamus861]

​@@badmojo0777HotDQ was Kobold Press, OotA was I believe Green Ronin. Candlekeep and the Radiant Citadel were sourced to a mix of writers (not a specific company). I believe witchlight got the same treatment

[@MyCampaignRules]

You were being generous by saying "mid".

[@ThePrimateKing]

The adventures will be fine to transfer. Official 5e monsters are so boring, they are just sacks of HP and an attack. They use the same 10 monsters in every adventure.

[@ennuideblase7888]

All I have to say is... WAAAAREwolves

[@dungeonmaster16]

around 3/4 in on why wotc adventures feel disconnected, timing wise this aint no different from pathfinder 2e adventures too with one ppl talking about is outlaws of alkenstar primarily book 2. i liked running that adventure but good god book 2 needed changes with plots dont feel connected and fights hard. apparently thats an issue with scott d young the one who writes it and hearing this is happening again for skykings tomb with him got a full book to write for too.

[@badmojo0777]

i have NO desire to play a campaign where the ending has already been written.. THA TMENAs no decision th eparty makes matters...

[@hirundo_rustica]

wow the fact that there's multiple comments using the "woke" dog whistle and as the reason why wotc writes bad adventures... yikes. Paizo is way more inclusive and diverse than wotc and their lore/adventures are better written and more loved by the community.Not despite their diversity but because of it and how free they are to be creative as a smaller company.

[@AnonAdderlan]

How come every response to 'woke' involves the phrases 'dog whistle' and 'yikes'?. Do y'all just use the same AI to generate them?

[@hirundo_rustica]

​​@@AnonAdderlan Yikes is slang a lot of younger people use to describe something negatively. It's common as a phrase. And woke is a dog whistle. So it makes sense you see "woke" next to "dog whistle" a lot (if you don't think it is, try to define "woke", and you might see why people call it that). However, you essentially calling me a bot and dehumanising me like that makes me believe that you will not engage in a good faith discussion about why "woke" is a term that shouldn't be used in media criticism, since it basically scapegoats minorities instead of being an actual criticism.

[@Len0Grady]

OSR Bros? Is that a thing now? Sounds very gatekeepish.

[@nowayjosedaniel]

The hobby could use a lot more gatekeeping, if we're being honest.

[@iantaran2843]

Why is OSR bros "gatekeepish" ? Since when is familiarity and being a fan of the thing you love become something negative?

[@iantaran2843]

Creativity and passion has been replaced with greed and agendas.

[@JediNiyte]

They're not mid. They're actively bad.

[@bmardiney]

Pretty easy answer here: D&D has been co-opted by woke cultists. To the point where one of the original creators wrote a long, brutal denouncement of the entire company. They aren’t just bad writers, they are evil people.

[@Nastara]

You need to leave the Gamer Gate era behind. The executives at Hasbro and WotC doesn't give a shit about "woke" stuff. They just pander to the LGBT+ to make money and don't give a shit about progressive causes. They're not evil because they are woke. They are bad because they only care about the dollar.

[@nonyabusiness890]

It’s simple, WotC is extremely woke and wokeness is where creativity goes to die..

[@Nastara]

Enough of this culture war nonsense. WotC executives don't give a shit about LGBT or woke. They just care about money. They pander to their audience. That's why 5.5e is boring and uninspiring. Not because they're "woke".