DangerousPuhson
My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
Bringing this back from the dead because I think it's a worthwhile topic. The common mistakes I see are not so much "mistakes" as they are "poor practice", because they are definitely done deliberately. I'm talking' about such faux-pas as:
1) Sensory information that leaves the bounds of an area (i.e. sounds you can hear from another room, light you can see at the end of a hall, etc.) is usually only ever listed within the area itself, rather than in the areas in which it can be experienced. This kind of stuff is best captured on the map, if possible IMHO. The party is going to want to hear the growling behind the door *before* they open it, not after.
2) Outright omission of any boxed text whatsoever. The only adventures that can manage this are ones that have painfully obvious and/or tropey environments and situations that we can all imagine easily. There are so many times I see a weirdly-shaped room on a map, or device with a laundry list of features, or a monster described only in terms of abilities, and all I can think is "just tell me what I need to pass along to the players!" I'm tired of deciphering the author's vision just so that I can translate it all to my players - just tell me what you want them to know!
3) No mention of notable exits in the room descriptions. If you do have read-aloud, FFS include the room's exits in it! You know what I almost always have to immediately do after I read a paragraph of read-aloud? Look at the stupid map, figure out the stupid exit situation, and then put that into my own words because the author didn't, even though the players are always going to need to know that stuff (the most common follow-up question I get from my players after I describe a room through read-aloud is always "so are there any doors here, or what?")
4) Omitting enemies on the map. Probably the most useful piece of information to be captured on a map (to facilitate reactions, order of battle, movement, flanking routes, readying the DM for what's coming next, etc.), and it almost never is. All you have to do is add one more little icon to your map - it's not hard, you're already doing it for all the doors and statues and whatnot. Bonus points if the icons are differentiated. Personally, I make different map icons for different types of enemies: one for hostile enemies that will react to nearby trouble, one for hostile enemies that will only stay in one position, and finally one for non-hostile NPCs or neutral creatures (yet always with potential to become hostile).
5) Random tables for things that don't need randomization. First, you ought to believe that the majority of DMs are at least semi-competent and can pick an option from a table without the need to roll for it (assuming all table entries are of equal quality and relevance). I mean, why leave it up to chance when a curated, properly-applicable encounter will be much more satisfying? Second, randomization is really only needed only in two situations: if there is an expected repetition of the adventure (so the experience is different each time), or for random encounters when venturing "in the void of open terrain" (because you've got no initial beads to work with) - beyond that, I find that a "pick the option that suits best" table is way more useful than relying on yet more dice.
1) Sensory information that leaves the bounds of an area (i.e. sounds you can hear from another room, light you can see at the end of a hall, etc.) is usually only ever listed within the area itself, rather than in the areas in which it can be experienced. This kind of stuff is best captured on the map, if possible IMHO. The party is going to want to hear the growling behind the door *before* they open it, not after.
2) Outright omission of any boxed text whatsoever. The only adventures that can manage this are ones that have painfully obvious and/or tropey environments and situations that we can all imagine easily. There are so many times I see a weirdly-shaped room on a map, or device with a laundry list of features, or a monster described only in terms of abilities, and all I can think is "just tell me what I need to pass along to the players!" I'm tired of deciphering the author's vision just so that I can translate it all to my players - just tell me what you want them to know!
3) No mention of notable exits in the room descriptions. If you do have read-aloud, FFS include the room's exits in it! You know what I almost always have to immediately do after I read a paragraph of read-aloud? Look at the stupid map, figure out the stupid exit situation, and then put that into my own words because the author didn't, even though the players are always going to need to know that stuff (the most common follow-up question I get from my players after I describe a room through read-aloud is always "so are there any doors here, or what?")
4) Omitting enemies on the map. Probably the most useful piece of information to be captured on a map (to facilitate reactions, order of battle, movement, flanking routes, readying the DM for what's coming next, etc.), and it almost never is. All you have to do is add one more little icon to your map - it's not hard, you're already doing it for all the doors and statues and whatnot. Bonus points if the icons are differentiated. Personally, I make different map icons for different types of enemies: one for hostile enemies that will react to nearby trouble, one for hostile enemies that will only stay in one position, and finally one for non-hostile NPCs or neutral creatures (yet always with potential to become hostile).
5) Random tables for things that don't need randomization. First, you ought to believe that the majority of DMs are at least semi-competent and can pick an option from a table without the need to roll for it (assuming all table entries are of equal quality and relevance). I mean, why leave it up to chance when a curated, properly-applicable encounter will be much more satisfying? Second, randomization is really only needed only in two situations: if there is an expected repetition of the adventure (so the experience is different each time), or for random encounters when venturing "in the void of open terrain" (because you've got no initial beads to work with) - beyond that, I find that a "pick the option that suits best" table is way more useful than relying on yet more dice.
