09-10-2026, 02:38 PM
There are three big things that I feel like I 'need' detailed to run a module: risks, rewards, and connections.
I need to know what's trying to thwart the players before play starts for the classic "don't throw rock after seeing scissors" reasons. I don't even really need to know exact monster statblocks and things, but a general power level is pretty necessary. Also, once play starts I'm going to lean pretty generous on enabling player schemes, so hard restrictions are useful--things like "this area can not be scried or teleported into" or "this character is unbribable".
Rewards are important because that's what the players are playing for, probably. Deciding on exact GP values of individual treasures is both boring and requires you to keep in your head the values of other treasures nearby for pacing, which makes it annoying to do at the table.
Connections are because they're, in my mind, what makes a module better than improv--they're what lets a module be more than the sum of its parts. How do the individual rooms/etc foreshadow each other, give the players information they can use elsewhere, point to a larger picture of what's going on, and just generally reference each other? That's the type of thing that comes out way stronger if it's handled as an editing pass after the whole module is written than as a thing you pull out of your ass in the moment.
Beyond that, I also really appreciate immediate sensory impressions of things and motivational character details I can use to help direct long-term play. Immediate sensory impressions are what I'll be describing to my players when they encounter a piece of the module, so framing keys that way makes my life way easier than just telling me big-picture information. Motivations give me guidance on how to run characters if they stick around and continue influencing play after their initial encounter, and without it offered it's very easy for NPCs to become pretty samey in practice.
I really don't mind coming up with details like ceiling height, since that's pretty easy to just oracle-out with a die roll if it becomes relevant to play.
I need to know what's trying to thwart the players before play starts for the classic "don't throw rock after seeing scissors" reasons. I don't even really need to know exact monster statblocks and things, but a general power level is pretty necessary. Also, once play starts I'm going to lean pretty generous on enabling player schemes, so hard restrictions are useful--things like "this area can not be scried or teleported into" or "this character is unbribable".
Rewards are important because that's what the players are playing for, probably. Deciding on exact GP values of individual treasures is both boring and requires you to keep in your head the values of other treasures nearby for pacing, which makes it annoying to do at the table.
Connections are because they're, in my mind, what makes a module better than improv--they're what lets a module be more than the sum of its parts. How do the individual rooms/etc foreshadow each other, give the players information they can use elsewhere, point to a larger picture of what's going on, and just generally reference each other? That's the type of thing that comes out way stronger if it's handled as an editing pass after the whole module is written than as a thing you pull out of your ass in the moment.
Beyond that, I also really appreciate immediate sensory impressions of things and motivational character details I can use to help direct long-term play. Immediate sensory impressions are what I'll be describing to my players when they encounter a piece of the module, so framing keys that way makes my life way easier than just telling me big-picture information. Motivations give me guidance on how to run characters if they stick around and continue influencing play after their initial encounter, and without it offered it's very easy for NPCs to become pretty samey in practice.
I really don't mind coming up with details like ceiling height, since that's pretty easy to just oracle-out with a die roll if it becomes relevant to play.